Kirtling Sampler

Embroidery sampler/Border sampler. Reeder Cole, Jane, Kirtling. A repeating honeysuckle border pattern surrounds the main body of the sampler. Narrow repeating geometric and floral border patterns divide the sampler into horizontal sections and form a panel at the bottom containing the inscription 'Jane Reeder Cole/Kirtling School/1852'. At the top there is an alphabet and numerals 1-14. Beneath is another alphabet and various detached motifs arranged around two inscriptions ' Fear God and keep his commandments for/this is the whole duty of man Eccles. 12Ch' and' favour is deceitful/and beauty is vain/but a woman that/feareth the LORD/she shall be prais'd'. Woollen border embroidered with coloured silk and cotton threads in cross-stitch. A double blue line selvedge runs along the sides; both top and bottom are hemmed. Length 41 cm, width 33.5 cm, 1852. English.Embroidery sampler/Border sampler. Reeder Cole, Jane, Kirtling. A repeating honeysuckle border pattern surrounds the main body of the sampler. Narrow repeating geometric and floral border patterns divide the sampler into horizontal sections and form a panel at the bottom containing the inscription 'Jane Reeder Cole/Kirtling School/1852'. At the top there is an alphabet and numerals 1-14. Beneath is another alphabet and various detached motifs arranged around two inscriptions ' Fear God and keep his commandments for/this is the whole duty of man Eccles. 12Ch' and' favour is deceitful/and beauty is vain/but a woman that/feareth the LORD/she shall be prais'd'. Woollen border embroidered with coloured silk and cotton threads in cross-stitch. A double blue line selvedge runs along the sides; both top and bottom are hemmed. Length 41 cm, width 33.5 cm, 1852. English.

© The Fitzwilliam Museum

This border sampler was worked at Kirtling School in 1852 by Jane Reeder Cole. It measures 40.7 cm x 31.7 cm (16 x 12½ in) and is worked in silk and cotton threads in cross-stitch and satin-stitch on woollen fabric. The sampler was given to the Fitzwilliam Museum by Miss Sarah Cole in 1943.

Information about Jane Reeder Cole, her family, and Kirtling School can be seen on the Fitzwilliam’s website in Stories behind the Stitches: Schoolgirl Samplers of the 18th and 19th Century. Please visit http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/samplers/schoolgirl/reeder-cole/index.html

The sampler is not on display, but may be viewed by appointment. Please contact the Honorary Keeper of Textiles or the Keeper of Applied Arts, giving the sampler’s accession number, T.7-1943.