Sampler

Maker Sophia J. Hamilton

Period1832

MediumPlied silk thread on linen

Dimensions20.13 × 19.5 in. (51.1 × 49.5 cm)

SignedThe sampler is signed and dated "Sophia J. Hamilton Aged 13 years / June 30 1832."

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask, 1946

Object number2084.34

DescriptionA large square sampler on natural gauzy linen using plied silk thread in dark green, olive green, medium green, light green, pale brown, tan, pale blue, and off white. The sampler's stitches include cross, tent, satin, and slanted Gobelein. A two-stanza verse embroidered in the upper half of the sampler reads "ON RELIGION / Hail: gentle Piety's unmingled Joy, / Whose fulness [sic] satisfied but ne'er can cloy, / Spread thy soft Wings o'er my devoted Breast, / And settle there an everlasting Guest. / Religion prompts us to a future state, / The last appeal from Fortune and from Fate: / where God's all righteous ways will be delcar'd, / The bad meet Punishment the good Reward. / Sophia J. Hamilton Aged 13 years / June 30th 1832." Each line of the verse is flanked by a cross-stitched horizontal spacer band, while "June 30th" and "1832" are underlined separately by horizontal tent-stitched lines. Above the verse's title is a four-stringed lyre, slightly askew, topped with a tiny leafy sprig. On either side of the verse are large floral and foliate sprays rising from cornucopia baskets. The leaves are varied and strongly worked. Below the verse and inscription is a large and luxuriant floral arrangement. Flowers appear to include roses, peonies and snowdrops, with tenuous floral and foliate vines flanking the central floral arrangement. Encircling the entire sampler is a bold stylized leafy border.
Curatorial RemarksSophia Hamilton was thirteen years old when she completed her strongly, if not gracefully, worked sampler. A good percentage of Sophia's design appears to be freeform, although there are some inked lines visible along portions of the leaves contained in the upper vine motifs. She may not have entirely completed her needlework piece. Two large leaves at the bottom of the sampler are in outline form only, and were never finished with fill stitches. Of particular note is the precise and restrained stylized leaf border, a decided contrast to the rest of Sophia's lively needlework style. It is virtually identical to the border on a sampler by Sophia Brognard from Burlington County completed in 1824 (see accession number 2012.14.6). For her sampler's verse, Sophia Hamilton selected two stanzas from the poem "On Religion," which appeared in print as early as 1719 in a book entitled Miscellanies in Verse and Prose (London: E. Curll, 1719). The Sophia Hamilton sampler was sold as lot 598 in an auction held on 8 and 9 February 1917 at the American Art Association in New York. It was one of five items from a "New Jersey Collector," and was most likely purchased at the auction by needlework collector Julia Hartshorne Trask. The distinctive border, plus its provenance, suggest a possible New Jersey origin for the sampler. Sophia's unknown instructor may have been connected with or influenced by the Eliza Rue School in Pennington, New Jersey. Sophia's sampler employs several closely related design elements to samplers known to have been made by students who attended the Rue School. These include the use of a large basket and leafy vines. One Rue example worked by Leah Ann Alsop in 1828 also incorporated an identical border of tiny paired leaves. Images of these samplers, along with an extensive history of the Rue School, can be found in A Sampling of Hunterdon County Needlework: The Motifs, The Makers & Their Stories by Dan and Marty Campanelli (Flemington, NJ: Hunterdon County Historical Society, 2013) 96 - 107.NotesThe thirteen year old girl who worked this elaborate sampler could be Sophia Hamilton of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey. She was born in New York on 17 December 1818 of an English father and an Irish mother. By 1880, Sophia had settled in Bridgeton, where at sixty-one years of age she was a boarder in the house of Mary S. Fithian. In June of 1890, she was stricken with an attack of apoplexy which caused the left side of her body to be partially paralyzed. A single woman, Sophia Hamilton passed away on 6 March 1891. Her funeral took place at St. Mary's Catholic Church, but the remains were interred in the cemetery at the Old Broad Street Presbyterian Church. An obituary that appeared on 10 March in the Bridgeton Evening News stated that "Miss Hamilton had greatly endeared herself to many during her residence in Bridgeton, where she spent the evening of her life, by her culture and rare kindness of heart, and those who miss her are many."

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