Fresh from the estate of a very advanced collector. One of two exceptional samplers I am listing tonight.
The Quakers were the first group to believe that female education should equal that of males, and that children of all classes and races should be educated. To this end, in the early years of the nineteenth century, they formed the first schools for non-elite girls in New York Citythe Female Association Schools. These schools became the seed from which New York Citys public school system grew.
This example is an extremely rare sampler made in 1820 by a fifteen-year-old girl named Martha Dunlavey who attended the second Female Association School.
*** For Deborah Cauldwell / Worked by Martha Dunlavey, Aged 15 / Female Association school No 2, 1820 / New York
This exact sampler was previously in the Theodore H. Kapnek Collection, and is pictured on page 55 in the book "A Gallery of American Samplers, The Theodore K. Kapnek Collection." (A hardback edition of the book is included with this auction.) This sampler is referred to as figure "77" in the collection.
This description is from the book:
"Martha Dunlavey, New York, New York, 1820... Stitch: Cross. Colors: red, pink, lavender, yellow, yellow-green, black, viridium, chrome green. Silk on fine gauze, 7 3/4" high x 7 7/8" wide."
Further described in the "notes" section at the rear of the book:
"The Female Association School No. 2 was located on Henry Street in New York..."
Verse reads:
PRAYER / Oh! While I breathe this vital air, May I for endless life prepare / Til at the close when going hence, My soul may drink of joy immense
For a very similar 1815 example from the same school, see Sotheby's January 2012 sale: Important American Schoolgirl Embroideries: The Landmark Collection of Betty Ring. (The 1815 example brought $17,500.)
For a another very similar example, see the 1820 New York African Free School Sampler by Rosena Disery, (now in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.)
Wonderfully wrought, with two wreaths, one enclosing "PEACE" and the other "AMITY", and various flowers and plants, including two vases with lavender flowers.
An exceptional work, certainly worthy of further research.
Condition: Exceptional. Fabric is sound, with no holes, thinning, loss of ground, or repairs. No color run. Archivally mounted to linen with tiny edge stitches, as shown.
Provenance: from the collection of Theodore H. Kapnek. Later to collector Marsha Carson, to present owner.
Guaranteed to be antique circa-1820, and not a reproduction.
This sampler is part of the important group of samplers described in Betty Ring's book (Vol ll,page 318) as The New York Female Association School group. In his book on the New York Free School Society, author William Bourne traces the Society "to a number of Quaker women....members of the Society of Friends who were engaged in charity and education for the poor" children of New York City. Betty Ring notes that "the first school(school #1) under the direction of the Female Association opened for boys and girls...but the enrollment later was limited to girls". The second school "commenced classses in the Henry St. schoolhouse on Feb.18,1812". William Bourne also adds that "The (Female) Association having for some time occupied in school #2...the Henry St. building". He goes on to say on page 683 that "the building was 2 stories high with a basement; with the Female Association (School #2) occupying the first floor". The Female Association Schools were acknowledged to be a model for the African Free Schools, and it is generally accepted that their samplers served as models for some of the African Free School samplers as well.