Jane Humphreys' Framed Needlework Sampler Dated 1790, Pennsylvania

Likely Philadelphia or Chester County, worked in multi-color silk thread on linen, with five alphanumeric rows above a flower row and verse, maker's name and date stitched above a line of pine trees and with a bottom row of strawberries, conservation mounted and presented in a molded mahogany veneer frame.

Research accompanying lot suggests that the maker may be the same Jane Humphreys (1759 -1838), whose parents were Joshua and Sarah (Williams) Humphreys. The Humphreys family was a prominent family in Philadelphia and Chester County, and some samplers made by family members have been documented by noted scholars in the field. A white-work 1771 sampler by a Jane Humphreys is included in Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe's 1921 seminal work American Samplers.

Sight size 17 x 16.5 in.; Frame size 21.25 x 20.75

Private Collection, Wilmington, North Carolina

Purchased in October 2010 from M. Finkel & Daughter and accompanied with photocopy of sales receipt and a genealogical research file provided at time of purchase.

Some areas of thread looseness to linen ground; not examined out-of-frame.