Images(4)

Sampler by Jannet Nimmo

Date1812

Artist/Maker Jannet Nimmo

OriginScotland

MediumSilk and silk chenille on a worsted ground of 46 x 45 threads per inch with linen tape and beads (identification of fibers by microscope)

DimensionsUnframed: OW: 21 5/8" x OH: 14 3/8" Framed: OW: 24 5/8" x OH: 17 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1989-365,A

DescriptionThis is a framed rectangular needlework sampler worked in shades of brown, green, gold, yellow, blue, orange, beige, and red on a natural-color worsted ground. The sampler has selvages at the top and bottom and a 1/8" rolled hem at its sides. A 3/4" linen tape is stitched to all four sides of the sampler. At the top of the sampler are swags with flowers flanking an encircled verse which reads, "Disease and pain invade our health/ and find an easy prey/ And Oft when least expected, wealth/ Takes Wings and flies away/ The gourds from which we look for fruit/ Produce us only pain, / A worm unseen attacks the root/ And all our hopes are vain/."

Below the verse on left side is the name "Jannet Nimmo" encircled in silk chenille threads with a floral garland on top. Below the verse on the right side is the inscription "Her Work 1812," also encircled in silk chenille threads with a floral garland on top. The lower portion of the sampler consists of a brick three-story house, with four chimneys and a hip roof. The house's roof is blue, likely representing slate. The house has a central door with a door knocker, door knob, and narrow strip of windows at the top. The house features five columns of windows, four with three windows each and the central one with two windows. The house is flanked by flowering vines, trees worked in chenille silk, three birds, a long-eared rabbit, a basket of flowers and/or fruit, and two peacocks (one with its tail feathers open and one closed). The eye of one of the peacocks is a bead. A fence with a gate stands in front of the house and a walkway leads to the house's steps. All this rests on a three-colored layer of grass. The sampler is enclosed on all four sides in a floral border.

Stitches; back, button hole, chain, couched, cross, double cross, outline, satin, surface satin, and tent
Label TextThis sampler was made by Jannet Nimmo in 1812. Although Jannet did not inscribe her sampler with information about where she made her sampler, it is clear from the motifs on the needlework that she created it in Scotland. Her sampler is part of a larger group of Scottish samplers that all feature the same house, birds, and swags. The girls who worked these samplers were likely taught to stitch by the same teacher.
Inscribed"Disease and pain invade our health/ and find an easy prey/ And Oft when least expected, wealth/ Takes Wings and flies away/ The gourds from which we look for fruit/ Produce us only pain,/ A worm unseen attacks the root/ And all our hopes are vain/."
MFDBHWADM2
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceThis sampler was purchased by Mr. Robinson from a home on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Mr. Robinson believed the sampler was a Norfolk area piece. He located a Jannet Nimmo (born November 13, 1797) who was the eldest child of William Nimmo and Fanny Taylor Nimmo. She married Henry J. Henley February 2, 1826. They had five children-- James Edward, Mary Jane, Frances, Margaret, and Robert Henly. She died December 6, 1874. This Jannet was descended from Gersham Nimmo, surveyor and gentleman of Princess Anne County, Virginia.
Further research has indicated that this sampler is closely related to a group of samplers worked in Scotland, and thus, was probably made there.