Needlework from the Nutt Collection
The collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s, New York on 23 January. The computer pioneer and his wife assembled a wealth of Americana in celebration of their country’s history, including some important pieces of needlework.
Noteworthy are a number of needlework samplers. Girls were taught embroidery from an early age, both in school and at home. By creating samplers, they demonstrated their skill, virtue and diligence – the makeup of an ideal young lady. Initially, samplers were teaching tools, with girls learning the alphabet from the embroidery of letters and arithmetic from the stitching of multiplication tables.
Lot 247, Needlework Sampler, Mary Ann Godfrey, Probably Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. Dated 1817, worked in gauze linen with silk stitches and French knots, with painted paper face. 17 3/4 in x 16 1/2 in, 45.1 cm x 41.2 cm. Est. $20,000-30,000.
In lot 193, a Charles II silk and canvas needlework sampler, an embroidered alphabet runs over two rows towards the top, ending with a mirrored Z. Like the other two samplers pictured here, it carries a stitched date, 1681, and the name of the maker: ‘JAN HUIT IS MY NA/ME AND WITH MY/HANDS I MADE THE/SAME’. Floral decorative borders and patterns make up the rest of the sampler, with the exception of five human figures: two girls in exaggerated full skirts and three small people in profile, interspersed between outsized flowering plants.
The pictorial tendency became more pronounced with time, as can be seen from lot 247, a needlework sampler worked in gauze linen with silk stitches and French knots, dated 1817. This piece by Mary Ann Godfrey from New Hampshire shows a woman standing in the shadow of a tree, tending two minute sheep. The approach is painterly, with a main image framed by a vegetal scroll. Across the sky, a pious verse outlining the suitable pursuits of a young maid has been embroidered.
Lot 248, Needlework Sampler, Keturah J. Carter, Ann H. Thorn School, Smithfield, Ohio. Dated 1830, worked in silk stitches on a linen ground, signed Keturah J. Carter, Aged 12 Smithfield, Ohio, 1830.12 1/2 in x 20 in., 31.8 cm x 50.8 cm. Est. $20,000-30,000.
A third sampler, dated 1830, carries a verse more religiously solemn in tone, but interestingly, also a family record. The sampler is the work of Keturah J. Carter aged 12, Ann H. Thorn School, Smithfield, Ohio, and the names of six other family members also appear among potted plants and birds. This information testifies to the distinctly personal nature of these samplers, as well as their identity as historical documents from their very inception. This is reflected in lot 194, a canvaswork picture with a red house, from circa 1760. A family notation that has been kept with the picture claims it to have been worked in Providence, Rhode Island and come from the Cooke and Baker families of Rehobeth, Massachusetts. Genealogical information, tracing a John Baker coming from England to Massachusetts during the Great Migration of the 1630s and 1640s, and then onto Rhode Island, will accompany the lot.
See all lots from the Nutt Collection auction at Sotheby’s here.
Lot 194, Canvaswork Picture With A Red House, Cooke And Baker Families, Rhode Island. Circa 1760, worked in wool and metallic threads on linen. 8 1/2 in x 6 7/8 in., 21.6 cm x 17.5 cm. Est. $20,000-30,000.
Lot 193, Charles II Silk and Canvas Needlework Sampler, Jan Huit, England. Dated 1681, embroidered Jan Huit Is My Na/Me And With My / Hands I Made The / Same; with borders and figures, within a faux tortoiseshell frame. 26 in. x 8 1/4 in., 66 cm x 21 cm. Est. $20,000-30,000.
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