This amazing, unprecedented English sampler illustrates so many unique and bold elements of design, stitched in a balanced way inside a four-sided strawberry border. In all my decades of study I’ve never seen an antique sampler with quite this much bizarre personality.

At the top is a two-storied red house flanked on either side by handsomely dressed couples posed beneath leafy bowers. Below the house, Adam and Eve stand alongside the Tree of Life with “boxer” figures, popular two centuries prior, and oversized gaudy peacocks. Thickly stemmed flowering plants reminiscent of stitched works found on seventeenth-century slips are stitched below Adam and Eve.

The climax of this sampler is the two extraordinary mythical creatures facing off in the lower register of the piece: a winged blue dragon and a muscular lion rampant.

Stitches used are primarily cross stitch over two threads of linen with some embellishments, including double running stitch, eyelets, and counted satin. The attribution is done in cross stitch over one thread one thread of linen.

The original 1838 sampler measures 13″ x 20″, as will the reproduction if it is stitched on 40 count linen.

The project is recommended for intermediate level needle workers.