This is one of 8 samplers that I’m listing for sale on eBay at about the same time.

I’m not brave enough to try to detach this piece from its cardboard backing. And I have no idea whether getting it off might help remove some of the brown staining.

I certainly hope it can be tidied up, because it has a good verse.

Some of the characters in the top two lines are somewhat worn – there’s basically an upper-case alphabet, but there are two hard-to-decipher characters before the A, another one after the M at the end of the top row, and another one before the N at the beginning of the second row. It’s possible that there’s an M and an N at the end of the first row and another M and N at the beginning of the second row.

The third row in a lower-case j-less alphabet with its first few and last couple of letters worn. The z of that alphabet starts the line below, which also has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 x Betsey Walcott

Next row – her sampler made august 1786.

Next – Born June sixteenth 1777 (it’s probably her who’s on the FindaGrave website as Elizabeth Walcott Canfield, born 1877 in Connecticut).

Then the verse:

"And must this body die

This mortal frame decay

And must these active limbs of / mine [seen one line above]

Lie mouldring in the clay

When this you see remember me."

Condition – glued down; a number of the characters in the top half are worn including a couple that are pretty much entirely gone; small hole between the legs of the second “m” in “remember”; heavy staining/soil.

Size approx. 8 1/2 in. wide by 7 5/8 in. high.  

Thanks for bidding!