Sampler

Period1827

MediumPlied silk thread on natural linen

DimensionsSight: 16.38 × 16.88 in. (41.6 × 42.9 cm)

SignedThe sampler includes the signature, "Emma Louisa Castner Age 10 years / Asbury Warren County New Jersey / July 12th 1827."

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineGift of the Estate of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1945

Object number2049

DescriptionA square sampler on open weave natural linen, worked in plied silk thread in dark green, medium green, dark blue, medium brown, light brown, and off white. At the top of the sampler is worked an attractive diamond chain border entirely in surface satin stitch. Below are several alphabets, including a large one-inch upper case alphabet, the letters worked in cross and Algerian eyelet stitch alternatively, from A to W, with an extra "I" as a spacer at the end of the second line. Following is a one-inch upper case italic alphabet on two lines, from A to Z. The third alphabet is worked in half-inch upper case cross stitch, from A to V on the first line and W to Z on the second. After Z run numerals 1 through 10, and the start of a final half-inch lower case alphabet, from a to i, then k through z on the final line, with the letter j omitted. Following the lower case alphabet is the first of two inscriptions, reading "July 2nd 1827." Below the alphabet rows runs a diagonal wave border. The lower third of the sampler includes a verse and inscription worked in the center, reading "Count that day lost whose low descending sun / View by thy hand no worthy action done / Emma Louisa Castner Age 10 years / Asbury Warren County New Jersey / July 12th 1827." A small checkerboard band is worked between the verse and signature line. To the left of the inscription is worked a small house, with three tiny windows and a fanlight above the center door. What appear to be trees or vines climb up the house's sides and across the roofline. To the right of the inscription is worked a large floral basket with two large handles. Above the floral basket is a singular diamond shaped element worked in queenstitch. Below the inscription is a pair of perching birds atop a floral spray, flanked by two small singular floral elements. Along the bottom of the sampler are small floral elements within a row of triangles. A partial diamond and lozenge border is worked on both the left and right sides of the sampler. Along the outer edges of the linen panel is a narrow pulled thread border.
Curatorial RemarksTen-year-old Emma Louisa Castner chose a charming and pithy verse to work into her sampler. "Count that day" has sometimes been attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but seems to have first appeared in print in a Boston publication of 1803. The value of time and the importance of avoiding idleness occur often as themes in the verses of young girls' samplers. Emma Louisa included the town she lived in on her sampler. Asbury, originally known as Halls Mill, was renamed in 1797, after Francis Asbury, the first American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He dedicated the first Methodist church building in the area in 1796. Asbury was a prosperous and vibrant little community, with much of the town's success resulting from the many milling businesses along the Muscontectong River. Grist mills, saw mills, and woolen mills supported the area's residents. An early description of the town mentioned a school opening in the area as early as 1810. Whether young Emma Louisa attended this school, or learned her needlework skills from another source, is not known.NotesThe Castner family was a large one in northwestern New Jersey. Asbury is a community located in Franklin Township, Warren County. Research efforts to identify an appropriate Emma Louisa Castner have so far not been successful. The Rev. Jacob Randolph Castner (1763 - 1848) and his wife Sarah (1795 - 1868) of Washington, had a daughter named Louisa whose dates are not known. Rev. Castner served as minister of the Mansfield Woodhouse Presbyterian Church in Washington from 1818 to his death. Aaron Hazen (1772 - 1839) and his wife Elizabeth Vought (1780 - 1848) of Stillwater, Sussex County, named one of their daughters Emma Louisa Castner Hazen (b. 20 December 1825). Those are the only clues that may one day lead to the identification of the ten year old girl who worked this sampler in 1827.

Collections