Margaret Carney, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1796
 In Philadelphia throughout the 17th and 18th Century and even into the first part of the 19th Century we find a prominent blending of English and European cultures. While New England was developing in distinctly regional directions, Philadelphia tended to stay "English" in customs, manners, dress, and ornamental art well into the 19th Century. This is because Philadelphia's ties to England were very strong. William Penn, after all was English, and his "Holy Experiment" promised tolerance for all whom would settle there. It attracted many of his countrymen to leave their homeland and put down roots in this "City of Brotherly Love" in the hopes of a attaining a peaceful and prosperous existence. This marking sampler, worked by Margaret Carney in 1796 contains a very sophisticated, deeply arcaded Indian Pink border that was very prominently used on band-pattern samplers from earlier in the century, but not on such a grand scale. The elements of Margaret's sampler consist of three alphabets, a numerical progression, and a verse. She also began a Strawberry border at the bottom but found she did not have room to finish it. Margaret seemed to lack the foresight to plan ahead as she ran into spacing problems in several other areas of the sampler. That, however, only lends to the charming naivete` of the piece as we remember it was worked by a young girl. She also tells us: "MARGARET CARNEY HER SAMPLER WORKED IN THE YEAR 1796." The verse reads: When I am dead and laid in grave and all my bones are rotten
This work in hand my friends may have least I should be forgotten Preliminary genealogical research shows that Margaret was born about 1785 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Phillip Carney and his wife Mary which means she would have been eleven years old when she completed this work. She married James Taylor of Maurice River, New Jersey, on May 30, 1806 in the Old Swedes Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marking samplers generally were a first effort at samplermaking and as such were relatively simple. Most often they were not meant to be framed but were kept in the sewing basket to be referred to when "marking" household linens. They also helped the samplermaker learn the alphabet. This needlework is larger than most marking samplers we see. The stitching is precise and shows a variety of stitches. The sampler is in excellent condition, mounted on an acid free board and presented in a period black walnut frame.
Size (sight) is 16" x 17"
$4250.00
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