Sampler

Title

Blackwork Sampler No. 2

Object name

Sampler

Maker

Pansy Irish

Date made

1974

Place made

Boulder City, Nevada

Description

Blackwork sampler consisting of 100 different patterns, worked by Pansy Irish in Boulder City, Nevada in 1974.

Content description

Blackwork sampler stitched in black cotton threads on a bleached Linda (cotton) ground, worked by Pansy Irish in Boulder City, Nevada in 1974. The sampler includes 100 squares of different patterns, with eight rows of seven squares at the top and middle, eight rows of four squares across the middle, and a rectangle of six rows of two squares in the very centre of the piece. The geometric and geometricised floral patterns are worked in double running stitches. Patterns include honeycomb, variation on diamond eyelet, variation on rounded eyelet, open zigzag, interlocking 'I's, open lace, and octagonal square. Many of the designs are borrowed from late 16th and early 17th-century blackwork designs.

The Royal School of Needlework also has in its collection another blackwork sampler worked by Pansy Irish, worked in London the year before (COL.1997.5/RSN 573).