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Sampler 1974-256
Sampler by Louisa Amelia Dykers
Sampler 1974-256

Sampler by Louisa Amelia Dykers

DateOctober 20, 1819 (dated)
Artist/Maker Louisa Amelia Dykers
OriginAmerica
MediumSilk embroidery threads on a linen ground of 32 x 26 threads per inch (fiber identification by microscope)
DimensionsOH: 19 1/4" x OW: 20 5/8"
Credit LineBequest of Grace Hartshorn Westerfield
Object number1974-256
DescriptionThis is a nearly square sampler worked in faded shades of blue, brown, green, yellow, rust, and gray silk embroidery threads on a natural color linen ground. It has a hem at the top and bottom. The top line of the sampler shows an uppercase, cursive alphabet of letters A through S. A through H are in a faded, light brown and I through S are stitched in blue thread. The second line continues this capitalized alphabet, letters T through Z in green thread. The second half of the line has capital letters A through I, with A in green, B and C in gray, and D through I in yellow. The third line has J through N in the same yellow thread, then O through X in faded gray. The next line has Y, Z, and numerals 1 through 7 in gray, 8 through 10, A, B, C, and part of D in blue thread, and the rest of D, E, and F in faded yellow. The next line has G through Q in faded yellow, half of R in the faded yellow and the rest in faded gray, and S through V in the same faded gray. On the right side is a small tree in green thread. The next line has W in the faded gray, X through Z in blue thread, and an inscription that reads, "Would you the bloom of youth should last/Tis virtue that must bind it fast" in a rust-colored thread. On the right side is a yellow and green fleur de lis. The next five lines have an inscription, all in blue thread. It reads, "Seek Virtue's path. and when you find the way/Persue with firmness. and disdain to stray/To certain bliss each step of virtue tends/while what begins in vice in misery ends/Ah. youth beware how you from virtue stray." To the right of the inscription is a scene of a bird on a tree, with two smaller birds and smaller flowers around it. The last three lines of the sampler read, in a rust-colored thread, "vice is soon gain'd. but not soon sent away/Learning is preferable to riches. and virtue to both/Louisa Amelia Dykers October 20. 1819." To the right of this inscription is a heart, two small dogs, crown, diamond, and potted plant.

Stitches: cross over two, eyelet, satin
Label TextLouisa Amelia Dykers completed her alphabet and verse sampler on October 20th, 1819, indicated by the signature line that appears at the bottom of her work. Religious and moral verses, as seen on Louisa's sampler, were an integral part of many nineteenth-century samplers.
Inscribed"Would you the bloom of youth should last/Tis virtue that must bind it fast/Seek Virtue's path. and when you find the way/Persue with firmness. and disdain to stray./To certain bliss each step of virtue tends/while what begins in vice in misery ends/Ah. youth beware how you from virtue stray/vice is soon gaind. but not soon sent away/Learning is preferable to riches. and virtue to both/Louisa Amelia Dykers October 20.1819"
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceOther than donor, no provenance is known.

History of Sampler Maker:

The maker of this sampler could be one of two "Louisa Dykers" whose records survive. The first is Louisa Dykers, born in approximately 1812 in Pennsylvania. By 1860, she was living in Terra Haute, Indiana. Her middle name is not known, so it is possible that she was a different individual with the same first and last names. The other possible individual is Louisa Amelia Dykers, born on November 24th, 1811, in St. Eustatius, Dutch West Indies. She died in Roslyn, New York, on February 2nd, 1896. She immigrated to New York in 1823, after the sampler would have been made. While this individual has the exact name of the sampler maker and would have been an appropriate age of seven or eight when she made her sampler, it is likely not this Louisa, as her sampler would probably have been made in Dutch or closer to Dutch needlework styles instead of appearing as American as this one does. She is probably not from a missionary family stationed in the Dutch West Indies, as her family had been in St. Eustatius for generations.