Object Description
Pair of Sister Samplers, circa 1810, stitched by Priscella and H Trokes. PRISCILLA TROKES SAMPLER: This sampler is worked in silk threads on a linen ground, mainly in cross stitch. Meandering strawberry border. Colours green, light brown, dark brown, silver, black and blue. Inscriptions read, ‘ADAM AND EVE BY TASTING THIS.’, ‘HAVE CAUS’D OUR EXILE TO All BLISS’. Verse reads, ‘And When the Woman Saw that the tree Was Good for Food. and that it was Pleasant to the eyes. and a tree To be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit. Thereof and did eat. and Gave also unto her husband With her and he did eat.’. Signed and dated, ‘PRISCELLA TROKES’S WORK AGED 9 YEARs’. A wonderful patterned band at the bottom of the sampler. A good set of motifs, including Adam & Eve standing either side of the tree of life with a snake coiled around its trunk, birds, angels, flowers, fruit baskets, fir trees, trees, a crown, dogs and potted flowering plants.
H TROKES SAMPLER: This sampler is worked in silk threads on a linen ground, mainly in cross stitch. Meandering strawberry border. Colours green, light brown, dark brown, silver, gold, pink, red and blue. Verse reads, ‘Go to the Plough or Team Go Hedge or Ditch, some honest Calling use no matter which, Be Porter Postman take the labring Oar, Employments keep the Bailiffs from the Door. Though thou be mean they frugal Industry, Depend upon it shall rewarded be.’. Signed and dated, ‘H 18010 Trokes’. Motifs, including flowers, fir trees, dogs, stags, a bird in a tree and potted flowering plants.
Both samplers are framed in a modern, silvered wooden, frames with glass. Mounting: The samplers are fixed to linen. Frames backed with card and sealed with tape. Dimensions given are for the larger, Priscella sampler. The ‘H’ sampler is the same width, but is 1.5ins shorter in height.. Dimensions exclude the frame and slip.