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Sampler

1824
Embroidered by Margaret Small (Scottish, 1809–1838)
Margaret Small was the daughter of David Small—a lawyer in Dundee, Angus (now Dundee City)—and Janet Black. She embroidered her parents’ initials along the sampler’s edge, along with the initials of her younger brother David (born 1811) and extended family members. This sampler’s central verse was common for those made during the first half of the nineteenth century; it frequently appears in evangelical books and religious magazines as well as on the sampler nearby by Isabella Douglass. Margaret flanked the symmetrical Georgian home at the bottom with two potted tulips, a flower that had been cultivated in England since the sixteenth century.

Object Details

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