Sampler

Maker Mary Clayton

Period1840

MediumPlied cotton thread and plied silk thread on coarse natural linen

Dimensions8.63 × 9.75 in. (21.9 × 24.8 cm)

SignedThe work is signed "Mary Clayton" and dated "1840."

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineGift of J. Halsey S. Reid, 1944

Object number1900

DescriptionA small square sampler worked on coarse natural linen, with the selvedge edge visible along the right while the top, left, and bottom edges have been left raw. Virtually all the embroidery is done in tightly plied cotton thread in olive green, pale brown, and tan. A small portion of one of the leaves in the floral basket motif were stitched in cream white plied silk thread. All embroidery is worked in cross stitch. The upper half of the sampler includes five rows of alphabet. A half-inch upper case alphabet runs from A to K on the first line, L to X on the second line, and W to Z on the third line. Immediately following Z is a numeral run from 1 to 9 and 0. A half-inch lower case alphabet is worked on the fourth line, running from a through u. On the fifth line, letters V through Z appear, although worked as upper case letters. The year "1840" follows Z. Two bands of single-row cross stitch separate the upper from the lower case alphabets. On the lower half of the sampler, six distinct and separate design motifs are worked. In the center, an eight-pointed star in contrasting colors of olive green and light brown hovers above a small bird. On the left is worked a large floral basket with two handles. A small animal, possibly a cat, appears on the far left. To the right, a stylized flower spray arches above a double-handled urn. A small green bird perches on a floating branch above the floral spray. A narrow row of alternating green cross stitches separate the motif grouping from the name signature "Mary Clayton" worked at the bottom right of the linen panel. A line of single cross stitching runs along all four edges.

Curatorial RemarksMonmouth County native Mary Clayton worked this small and charming sampler when she was nine years old. Judging from the frayed and unfinished edges of the sampler and the cross stitched banding, the linen panel was not hemmed or mounted prior to embroidery. Nonetheless, Mary acquitted herself well and was able to achieve nicely worked stitches. As a young girl's practice sampler, it is not unusual for the embroidery threads to be of plied cotton rather than of more expensive silk. There is, however, among the cotton threads of the floral basket, three short rows worked in gleaming cream white silk thread.NotesThis small sampler once bore an inscription on the reverse of its backing, now removed, that read, "This Mary Clayton was J. Halsey S. Reid's 2nd cousin on his mother's side. Same names as his mother, Mrs. A. Ely Reid (Mary Clayton)." Halsey Reid (1868 - 1951) spent much of his adult life as a farmer near Cranbury, Middlesex County. Like many family recollections, this one requires some interpretation. Halsey Reid's mother was indeed Mary Clayton (1839 - 1915), a daughter of Ellison Clayton (1809 - 1876) and Lydia Lefferson (1815 - 1882) of Manalapan, Monmouth County. She married Aaron Ely Reid (1842 - 1931), also a farmer from Manalapan. Ellison Clayton's oldest sibling was Jonathan I. Clayton (1797 - 1861), whose wife was named Sarah A. (b. 1805). They had a daughter named Mary E. Clayton, who was born in 1831 and who died unmarried at the age of twenty-four on 30 April 1854. A second cousin is a child of one parent's first cousin. It seems more likely that the Mary Clayton, sampler maker, was a first cousin to the donor's mother. She would have been nine years old in 1840 when she worked her name, alphabets, numbers, and a few decorative motifs on linen. It would be completely plausible to pass on young Mary's sampler to her namesake relative. Also, the writer of the inscription, perhaps not familiar with the strict definitions of family relationships, may have mistakenly believed that the Mary who died in 1854 would have been a second cousin to Halsey Reid as she was a first cousin to his mother.

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