Description:
Note: This sampler is believed to have been stitched by Sarah Baker who was born April 24, 1650, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Thomas (1608-1684) and Elizabeth Baker. Sarah married Sebas Jackson on April 16, 1671. Sebas was born in 1642 at sea to Edward and Frances Jackson on their way to America from England. Sebas' father amassed a substantial fortune as a nail maker, and over some time became the largest landowner in Newton, Massachusetts. He gave his son Sebas 150 acres in Newton and built him a house. Sebas and Sarah had six children and when Sebas died at the age of 48 in 1690, Sarah remained in the homestead with five of her six children. Sarah died in 1726. Over the years the homestead remained in the family until it was donated to the City of Newton and is now the home of the Newton History Museum.
Literature: A similar sampler is portrayed in Betty Ring's book Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers, Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993, Vol. 1, p. 29. The sampler was stitched by Mary Hollingsworth (1652-1694) of Salem, Massachusetts. Ring writes that Mary "was the only child of a wealthy Salem merchant, and she is said to have studied with 'Madame Piedmonte...a celebrated instructress of that day in Boston.'" Because of the similarities between these samplers it is possible that Sarah Baker studied with the same schoolmistress.
Estimate $6,000-8,000
Toning, light stains, some fading of silk threads.