Needlework Family Record Sampler

Description:

Needlework Family Record Sampler, "Wrought by Clarissa Hastings Aged 13 1833," Waitsfield, Vermont, silk threads on a linen ground depicting a temple with columns and checkerboard floor enclosing the vital statistics of Garingter Hastings (b. 1779),Hannah Olcott (b. 1784),who were married March 7, 1801, and their thirteen children, flanked by pious verses, with "Miss Susan McAuley Instructres" stitched above the temple, large flower blossoms stitched in the upper corners, and weeping willow trees in the bottom corners, all enclosed in a sawtooth border, 17 1/4 x 17 3/4 in., in a later bird's-eye maple veneer frame.

Exhibitions: The First Effort of My Infant Hand: Early Vermont Samplers, The Bennington Museum, June 1997-November 1997.

Note: According to previous research and genealogy listed on the back of the sampler, this Waitsfield, Vermont, sampler exhibits two distinctive elements of the Waitsfield style samplers: the flowing vines which twine around the columns, and the weeping willows flanking the temple; the use of green and black threads was preferred by this school. Clarissa's instructress, Susan McAuley, is listed in the History of Waitsfield as a teacher in Waitsfield.

Clarissa Webb Hastings was born July 20, 1820, in Swanzey, New Hampshire. She moved with her family to Waitsfield in 1822, where she stitched the sampler. Her father bought a portion of a mill, and also kept a tavern there for many years. On January 8, 1848 she married Seymour L. Graves of Johnson, Vermont; she died in October of 1860.
Estimate $1,200-1,500

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