Mary Wallace 1847
Loughriescouse, Ireland Antique Sampler Reproduction
Linen: 45 count Thai Ice Tea or 38 ct Irish Coffee by Legacy Linen
Threads: 100/3 silks with 45 ct or DMC or NPI with 38 ct conversion to NPI and DMC provided
Stitch Count: 191 wide x 182 high
Model Finished Size on 45 ct: 8.49 w x 8.09 inches high
On 38 ct: 10.05 w x 9.58 inches high
Original: 15.25 inches wide x 15.75 inches high over two threads, silk and wool on 26 ct linen
Stitches Used: cross stitch over two threads, cross stitch over one thread
Provenance: This sampler was obtained from the M. Finkel and Daughter antique collectors who describe this sampler in their catalog as follows: “Documented Irish samplers are rare, … and this one offers strong visual appeal with excellent color
and composition. A fine, large alphabet, little house, pots of flowers, verse, little heart and crowns are all framed with a border of strawberries on a stylized vine.”
The antique sampler is signed Mary Wallace, Loughriescouse, June 1847. Loughriescouse is a village east of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and research points to Mary Wallace, born 1838, daughter of Robert Wallace. She was nine when she stitched her sampler.
The large capital alphabet on the sampler can be found on other Irish samplers of the Quaker influence. Quaker schools existed in Ireland since the late 1700s in Mountmellick, Clonmel, and Suir Island, Tipperary, Ireland amongst other places.
