Silk Needlework Picture

Description:

Silk Needlework Picture, attributed to Sarah White, under the instruction of Abby Wright, South Hadley, Massachusetts, c. 1805, silk, silver, and gold metallic threads on a silk ground with a watercolor painted paper face, depicting Liberty holding a pole topped with a Liberty cap, standing beside a large cornucopia filled with fruit, in a landscape with trees in the background and a large rock in the foreground, (imperfections),16 1/4 x 13 1/2 in., unframed.

Provenance: A Massachusetts historical society.

Literature: This needlework picture is illustrated and discussed in Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, by Betty Ring, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993, p. 161. In the text Ring attributes the needle work to Sarah White and states: "Sarah's border is almost identical to the borders on two other Liberty embroideries attributed to Abby Wright's school (ANTIQUES, Sept. 1986, 488-9)." She goes on to say "Sarah White (1789-1855) was the daughter of South Hadley farmer and innkeeper Joseph White (1754-1829),and Sally Yeomans (1759-1840). Abby Wright was intimately acquainted with this family and in 1804 a number of her students boarded with them. In 1814, Sarah married Andrew Henry (c. 1788-1821),and in 1828, Dr. William F. Sellon (c. 1786-1842)."
Estimate $3,000-5,000

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