Object Description
Scottish sampler dated 1812 by Sarah Pugh. Worked in silk on linen ground, in a variety of stitches. Meandering strawberry border. Colours greens, red, cream, black, silver, browns and yellow. Inscription reads, ‘Virtue alone needs no Defence / The surest guard is innocence’. Signed and dated, ‘Sarah Pugh Aged 12 Years 1812’. A good set of motifs, some finely detailed, including a house, fence and gate, a second building, a sky full of clouds (?), potted flowering plants, fruit baskets, trees, blossoming trees, birds and butterflies. Framed in an old, burr maple frame with gilt slip, airgap, and glass. The sampler is tacked to its original wood stretcher frame. The maple frame is backed with composition board and sealed with tape. Probably Scottish – sourced from a private residence in Perthshire, Scotland, where it had been housed for a very long time.. Dimensions exclude the frame and slip.