A Quaker sampler dated 1791 sold at Tennants on Saturday, 25th March 2006 for £8,500. The name of ‘Ackworth School’, the girl who stitched it, ‘S Moon’, and date are worked in polychrome silk cross-stitch amongst densely placed traditional Quaker medallions, bird, plant and geometric motifs. Various initials and numerals stud available spaces in the design. Research into its history has found that the sampler was worked by Sarah Moone who attended the Friends’ (sometimes called Quaker) School at Ackworth from 1789 - 1793. Unframed, it measures 32.5cm by 31.5cm in size and despite having some small moth holes, the sampler is an example of very fine work.

A pair of samplers including another Quaker sampler from the same vendor were sold for £4,000. The Quaker sampler dated 1799 is worked in brown silk cross stitch with initials ‘MP’, ‘MC to AM’ and also features characteristic Quaker medallions and plant motifs. (25cm by 24cm). The other is a 19th century National Schools alphabet sampler by Rachel Denton (24cm by 25cm).

Quaker samplers are important social documents. They provide a revealing insight into the education and lives of the girls who attended Ackworth School in previous centuries and, as such, need to be studied as a group and understood in their context. It was for this reason that the samplers were purchased with private funds to avoid their dispersal and to return them to Ackworth School. The newly purchased samplers will be incorporated into a book on Ackworth School Samplers which is currently being written by Carol Humphrey of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge. This book will be launched at a special Symposium to be held at Ackworth School in December 2006. Recently, the sale of an Ackworth School Engagement Diary and sampler pattern book have raised almost £10,000 which will be used to conserve other samplers belonging to the school. For security reasons, the samplers are no longer on open display in the school, but are kept off site under lock and key. In their place volunteers are stitching replica samplers so that current scholars and visitors at Ackworth can still enjoy a reminder of the school’s important traditions.

Besides textiles, costumes and accessories, the sale also included dolls and teddy bears. A Steiff mohair teddy bear with a moving head and limbs, which despite having no button in his ear and being in need of repair and re-stuffing, sold for £1,300.

For more information on Quaker Samplers contact
Jacqueline Holdsworth at jaqueline@holdsworth3311.freeserve.co.uk

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