A "Sampling" of History on Thanksgiving...

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws lake house....(featured here and here in other posts)...My place setting was done by one of the little ones and since there were two Emily's in attendance our name cards were a little more specific...I loved the sweetness and simplicity!

I have been meaning to feature the wonderful collection of antique "samplers" that my mother-in-law has collected and displays on one of the walls of her dining room.

Somehow sharing a Thanksgiving meal among these lovely displays of history just seems so appropriate....

Antique samplers were predominantly stitched by young girls in private schools, in the 200 year period between 1650-1850.

 An antique "sampler" refers to early needlework accomplishments stitched, or wrought by young students in schools with silk thread on a linen background.

 The first attempt at making a sampler by a young girl, or far less frequently a young boy, was usually a very simple sampler with only alphabets, numbers, name, date, and sometimes a small amount of decorative stitching. These are commonly referred to as marking samplers.

As the students became more capable, the complexity of the sampler usually increased accordingly. Some are masterpieces sporting a wide variety of difficult stitches and subtle color changes intricately and graphically executed to create a needlework sampler that was framed, proudly displayed and cherished as they still are today in my in-laws dining room...

Collections of samplers such as these are highly sought after and cherished by knowledgeable antique needlework collectors and are very valuable and rare if they are detailed and in good condition.

I enjoy looking at them and thinking about the yound girls similiar in age to my children spending their free time working on these vs. texting and playing on their computers. What a different world we live in!