Rarely do we find samplers from the same family let alone made by the same person. Lucinda Beck worked these two samplers, stitched five years apart, and fortunately they have remained together. The first was worked in 1831, and is inscribed in large letters, "L BECK 1831." Worked solely in cross stitches, primitive alphabets and decorative bands fill the composition. Across the bottom she stitched a flat house worked solidly in an ochre-colored silk. Above the house are the initials MLG, likely those of her teacher. They are flanked by butterflies and symmetrically by ships depicted on tiny patches of water. This is a fine accomplishment for a very young girl.
The second sampler, worked in 1836 when she was ten years old, is again naïve in nature. Across the top is a similar border of geometric spade-shaped buds stemming from a single line vine. Lucinda worked only one band of lettering, and only to the letter I, although she did double up on most of the letters. Her inscription forms the other three lines of lettering, and amusingly she misspells sampler as "sambler". Three linear houses create the imagery for this piece. All quite simplified, the largest, centered, rises up through Miss Beck's inscription with a striped bird perched atop. The other two are identical with a bird perched on each of the chimneys.
Lucinda Beck was born June 3, 1826 to Benjamin and Elizabeth (Ries) Beck; and she was baptized at the Trinity Lutheran Church of Stone Arabia, Montgomery County, New York. In 1846 she married James H. Hager of Ephrata, New York and they had three children. Lucinda died in 1895.
Worked in silk and linen on linen, the samplers are in good condition with minor overall darkening to the linen. They have each been conservation mounted and are in molded and painted frames.
