Mary Balch School, Providence, Rhode Island, Needlework Sampler

Description:

Mary Balch School, Providence, Rhode Island, Needlework Sampler, "MARY TALBOTS WORK PROVIDENCE SEPTEMBER 1796," the sampler stitched with silk threads on a linen ground, depicting birds perched atop a broken arch and columns, with cherubs and hearts over the verse "Patience will wipe away the streaming tear/And hope will paint the palid cheek of fear/Content will always happiness supply/And virtue calls a blessing from on high," and a scene centered with a house with an ornate fence surrounded by figures of ladies and gentlemen, animals, and birds perched on trees, flanked by two urns issuing flowering vines highlighted against a black ground, over the lower register stitched with strawberries also set off by a black ground, all above Mary's stitched signature line, 16 1/2 x 14 in., in a later frame; accompanied by a typed family story titled The Story of BIG HOUSE and its Families (as told by a sampler whose age predates the age of the actual house).

Provenance: By family descent of the maker, Mary Talbot.

Literature: The sampler is illustrated in Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee, exhibition catalog, curated and written by Betty Ring, published by the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1983, p. 167.

Exhibitions: Ye Olde Samplers of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Historical Society, 1920; and the traveling exhibition Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee, the Rhode Island Historical Society, November 1, 1983--January 31, 1984; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 24, 1884--May 20, 1984; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, July 20, 1984--September 23, 1984, with exhibition labels and documents.

Note: The sampler was stitched by Mary Talbot when she was about nine years old. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in January of 1787, one of four children born to Benjamin Allen Talbot (1743-1805) and Hannah (Brink) Talbot (1746-1830). Benjamin owned a dry goods business and real estate, through which he achieved prominence in Providence society. The family lived above the store on Broad Street in Providence, and they sent their daughter across the bridge to attend Mary Balch's school, where she perfected her needlework skills. On October 22, 1812, Mary married John Pitman (1785-1864),also of Providence. John was a Brown University graduate and practiced law. The couple settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and the following November, Mary gave birth to the first of their nine children. They later moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in 1820, moved back to Providence, where within a year John became a U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island, and in 1824 President James Munroe appointed him to fill a vacant judgeship in the U.S. District Court, in the District of Rhode Island. He later served in the U.S. Senate from 1825 until he died in 1864, a year after Mary.
Estimate $30,000-50,000

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