Artist/Maker Clarissa Ward (1795-1878)

Sampler

1803

Place madeNew York, United States, North America

Linen, silk

Framed: 19 1/2 in. × 18 in. (49.5 × 45.7 cm)

Gift of Pamela Daly Vose Estate

2003.85.2

Clarissa Ward (1795-1878) was the second eldest of Jonathan and Sarah Brown Ward's thirteen children. Born in the rural village of Eastchester, today a neighborhood in the northeastern Bronx, Clarissa and her sister Harriot (2003.85.1) probably worked their samplers at a girls' school in nearby New Rochelle or Manhattan. Neither Clarissa nor Harriot ever married. Clarissa's verse is from John Bunyan's "A Book for Boys and Girls," published in London in 1701.

DescriptionRectangular linen sampler worked in various colors of silk floss; alphabets and verse worked in cross and eyelet stitches, framing tree flanked by baskets of flowers; side borders with meandering floral vine; upper and lower borders arcaded with alternating bird and floral motifs.

Markingsstitched: "Clarissa Ward Was born Oct 6th 1795" stitched: "A comely sight indeed it is to see/ a world of blossoms on an apple tree/ Yet far more comely would this tree appear if all its dainty blooms young apples were" stitched: "But how much more might one upon it see/ if all would hang there till they ripe should be/ But most of all in beauty it would abound If every one should then be duty bound" stitched: "Clarissa Wards Work March 28th 1803"

ClassificationsTEXTILES