Embroidered Sampler 1735

Curator: I’m immediately drawn to the repetitive, almost architectural quality of the embroidered flora. The patterns build and reflect each other; the entire work appears to aspire toward a controlled visual harmony. Editor: Indeed. This is an Embroidered Sampler crafted by Mary Pearce in 1735. You can find it here at the Met. These samplers served as demonstrations of skill and repositories of patterns, morals and piety, so vital to a young girl’s upbringing in 18th century England. Curator: Repositories is quite right. Consider how the top section displays alphabets and numerals. It’s as if the artist were arranging a vocabulary—of symbols, motifs, even the tools of literacy—necessary to articulate a certain vision of womanhood. Editor: Precisely. Girls were educated to perform ornamental needlework and samplers helped cement a young woman's social standing. The craft, in its careful execution, was a display of a woman's capacity for industry and discipline, very sought-after attributes in the marriage market. Curator: See the symmetrical placement of those curious creatures, both avian and terrestrial, interspersed amongst the stylized botanical elements. Each element occupies its discrete space. The eye delights in discerning relationships within those geometries. Editor: Yet that order doesn't preclude expressions of personality. "Mary Pearce is my Name and with my Needle I Wrought the same, this was done in the Year of Our Lord 1735 in the 12 year of my Age," she stitched, a firm assertion of individuality embedded within prescribed forms. Curator: Even in such seemingly simple, repetitive techniques as cross-stitch or running stitch, notice the careful variations in thread count that animate the surface with a delicate vibrancy. Editor: Absolutely, these samplers have considerable value beyond their mere technique, we see how needlework in particular became a rare means for women to creatively inscribe themselves into the historical record. Curator: An incisive point. My gaze now finds the slightly irregular alignment of that lower tier of flowering plants. There’s a subtle asymmetry at play, allowing us to question if it implies, maybe unintentionally, a crack in the rigid expectation this girl's craft tried to achieve. Editor: A fitting contemplation, prompting us to acknowledge needlework as more than decoration, as tangible expressions of self within societal constructs.