There was a time, not too long ago, when at school one not only learned to count and to read and to write the letters of the alphabet, but also to stitch them onto fabric in bright red thread. Most samplers in our collection show that girls, usually, started by stitching the alphabet in cross stitch on wire cloth – a type of coarsely woven cloth with easily visible gaps between threads – at age 9-10. After that, they moved on to learn the most common hand-sewing stitches and then finally darning.

This sampler is unusual compared to the other ones in our collection in that it combines all three stages of sewing education in one work. In the top part it has different kinds of stitches that are used in embroidery and in hand sewing like running stitch, back stitch, half cross stitch, and cross stitch. Underneath the stitches are two cross-stitched alphabets – one with block letters and one in cursive – one set of numbers where the first half is in block and the second in cursive, and a decorative design. This comparatively easy stitch was a good way to teach girls the fine motor skills as well as some designs they would later use to mark household linens and clothing. Finally, the sampler features eight squares containing different darning samples with increasingly intricate techniques.

As the sampler is neither signed nor dated, which others often were, a lot of unanswered questions remain. In addition to “Who made it and when?” there is the question of why it is so different in structure than other, comparable, samplers we know. Was it made at a particular school? Or was it made by a teacher as part of their training?

It shows that there is still a lot to learn about samplers and, through them, about education, specifically girls’ education in Luxembourg.

Text | CC BY-NC | Edurne Kugeler

Read more about our sampler collection here → Samplers: embroidered archives