An 18th century English sampler

The linen ground worked in silk thread in a variety of stitches by Hannah Wittum in 1773, with two leopards, or perhaps dalmatians, flanking a flowering stem between urns of flowers above the embroiderer’s names. In the upper rows, between two renderings of the alphabet, are stitched the cardinal numbers to twenty followed by the date ‘1773’, and the following verse…

‘God Prosper Them that gave me This / And Crown them with a Heavenly Bliss’

‘Wittum’ was one of several variants of the surname ‘Witham’, and was found most commonly in Essex and Lincolnshire (and spread thence to Maine, Massachusetts, and other states of the north-eastern U.S.A.)

The textile 36.6cm (14⅜”) high and 26.1cm (10¼”) wide.

Framed size 43.2cm (17”) high and 36.5cm (14⅜”) wide.

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