Phebe Esther Copp's Sampler

Three block alphabets of 26 letters and numbers to 13; simple geometric crossbands separate these rows. Below verse, centered tree flanked by rose bushes and two framed texts. In verse, words colored alternately with name and date worked in black; in two framed texts, all lettering worked in black. Width of sampler full fabric width, selvedge to selvedge. Border of geometric strawberry-vine and cross-stitched zig-zag, with single rows of cross-stitch on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, Algerian eye, long-armed cross, petit point, rice. THREAD COUNT: warp 28, weft 30/in.

"Let the f[s]weet work of prayer and praif[s]e employ my
Youngef[s]t breath Thuf[s] im prepared for longer dayf[s] or
Fit for earlier death Phebe Ef[s]ther Copp aged 8 1822

Better it is to be
of an humble Spirit
with the lowly
than to divide the
Spoil with the proud

This work I did
To let you See
What care my
Parents took of me"

Phebe Esther was born on November 9, 1813, to Samuel and Phoebe Haight Theall Copp in Stonington, Connecticut. The design of this sampler, made in 1822, when Phebe Esther was eight years old, is obviously based on a similar sampler made fifty-seven years earlier by her great-aunt Esther Copp. Phebe never married and died on February 3, 1837, in New York City. See Esther Copp's sampler.

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