Needlework Sampler "Judith Cogswell"

Needlework Sampler "Judith Cogswell," probably Canterbury, New Hampshire, c. 1789, worked in silk threads on a linen ground, with six alphanumeric lines interrupted by flowering vines, and the maker's name and inscription "her sampler wrought in the fourteenth year of her age AD 1789," all above the classic Canterbury "bird and basket" design with peacocks and trees, (toned, text faded), 19 1/2 x 17 in., framed. Provenance: From the Estate of Judith Cogswell Fiske Gross (1923-2015). Judith was the only child of Winthrop Edwards Fiske (1868-1963) and Mabel Cilley Fiske (1878-1972) of Exeter, New Hampshire. Many of the items in her estate were inherited from her mother, who lived her entire life at 15 Elliot Street in Exeter. Mabel's father Bradbury Longfellow Cilley (1838-1899) was the well-known professor of classical languages at Phillips Exeter Academy. Both of Judith's parents were descended from many of the first settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts, including at least seventeen of the men listed on the "Newbury Lower Green" monument: Aquila Chase, Robert Adams, Giles Badger, John Bayley, Thomas Brown, John Cheney, Nathaniel Clark, Tristram Coffin, William Gerrish, John Edmund Greenleaf, Thomas Hale, Abel Huse, John Emery, John Kelly, Richard Knight, Percival Lowell, Henry Lunt, William Marston, John Osgood, Richard Pettengill, Henry Short, and Thomas Whittier. Literature: For three stylistically similar examples and a discussion of the "Bird and Basket Sampl Read more…