After exceptional prices were achieved for two Quaker Samplers in 2006 at Tennants in North Yorkshire, a collection of five Quaker Samplers and Ephemera from a collector in the South of England is to be sold at the auction house on 8th March 2008 and great interest is anticipated. 

These framed samplers all relate to the Pumphrey and Westcombe families of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.  Dated from 1783 and approximately 1831, they feature Quaker motifs and sampler formats.  The Samplers were worked by girls aged between 7 and 11 from these families who attended Quaker schools including Ackworth School, Pontefract, West Yorkshire and Milverton School in Somerset.  They are expected to sell for between £150 and £1,200 at auction. 

Amongst the ephemera is a daguerrotype of the Pumphrey family in a leather case; a hand written letter from Charles Westcombe dated 1926 to S. Westcombe of Alcester, Warwickshire; a small leather bound and gilt tooled scrap book initialled CW 1860 filled with watercolours, verse and scraps; one volume of ‘Charlbury of our Childhood’ by Caroline Pumphrey and photocopied notes and photograph of Isabel Eddington relating to the Pumphreys.  There is also a Quaker Pinball dated 1829 which is knitted in cream and brown silk in the form of a flattened circular pin cushion estimated to sell for £200-£300.

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

In the same sale was another Quaker sampler from the same vendor, which sold for £4,000 (part lot).  This sampler, dated 1799, was worked in brown silk cross stitch with initials ‘MP’, ‘MC to AM’ and also featured characteristic Quaker medallions and plant motifs. It measured 25cm by 24cm.

Sarah White, Textiles Specialist at Tennants, says “Quaker samplers are important social documents. They provide a revealing insight into the education and lives of the girls who attended Quaker 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 these samplers were purchased with private funds to avoid their dispersal and to return them to Ackworth School.”

All these samplers, including those sold in 2006 and those which are to sell in 2008, are mentioned or illustrated in a book entitled ‘Quaker School Girl Samplers from Ackworth’ written by Carol Humphrey of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge and published in December 2006.

For security reasons, the samplers are no longer on open display at Ackworth School, but are kept off site under lock and key. In their place volunteers are stitching replica samplers so that current scholars and visitors to Ackworth can still enjoy a reminder of the school’s important traditions.

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