This is a fine rarity: a delicately worked little American sampler that is listed in the highly important 1921 publication entitled American Samplers, by Bolton and Coe. The sampler was then in the collection of Mrs. Thomas A. Lawton who was acknowledged by Betty Ring to be one of the foremost collectors of American samplers in the early 20th century. Many of her samplers were exhibited in 1913 at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
It was made by Sally G. Lovejoy, who states on it that she was born on March 10 of 1801. Sally's ancestors had lived in America for seven generations and their founding father was John Lovejoy who emigrated from England and was one of the first settlers of Andover, Massachusetts. According to the History of the Town of Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire by Livermore and Putnam (1888), Sally's father, Henry Lovejoy was born in Andover in 1753 and served in the Revolutionary War in campaigns in Vermont and Rhode Island. Henry married Elizabeth Cummings and they settled in Wilton, a small town approximately 20 miles southwest of Manchester. Sally's sampler includes alphabets and a moralistic verse which is typical of the period; it exhorts us to forget our mirth on earth when compared to the delights of heaven.
Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition with one area of minor weakness to the linen. It has been conservation mounted and is in a gold leaf frame.
