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Needlework Sampler with Solomon's Temple
1846
Margaret Jane Leadbitter
England: Sandoe
Wool on Linen
framed: 35 x 33 3/4 in.; sight: 26 3/4 x 25 1/2 in.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James DeMond in honor of Gertrude and John D. Lombard
80.49.1

Needlework sampler stitched over two threads on bleached 28-count linen in cross stitch. Outer border is a stylized green vine with red heart-shaped flowers inside two rows of tan cross-stitch. Along the sides and bottom are several flowering plant motifs in green, red, pink, cream and yellow. At the top corners are stylized stars in yellow with red and green. Along the sides and bottom are birds, a peacock and a deer. At top center, cross-stitched in black is "South View of Solomons Temple." Below this is a large building with a wall in green, red, pink, yellow and cream. A verse is cross-stitched below in black, "Guard me O God from every Sin. / Let heart and tongue and life be clean. / Though with ten thousand snares beset. / I never would my Lord forget." Below the bottom row of flowering plants is a signature cross-stitched in black, "Margaret Jane Leadbitter worked this at Mrs. Corb / etts school Sandoe in the year of our Lord 1846." The frame has grain painting in imitation of veneer and is backed with English newspaper dated 1850.


In the 1700s and 1800s, girls were taught to sew as preparation for their future lives as homemakers. Girls whose parents could afford it sent their daughters to schools where they could study languages, music or fancy needlework skills. Samplers such as this one testified to both a young student's stitching ability and her knowledge of Biblical history. Families and makers framed and displayed samplers as eveidence of the girls' accomplishment. For further information, see Blog post, January 3, 2012 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2012/01/solomons-temple-samplers.html