Elizabeth W. Bower Mary Tidball’s School Sampler Washington County, PA dated 1834 This important sampler is one of two known from the Tidball school with the early date of 1834. Its bold design and large format are characteristics that endured for the next 20 years helping us indentify later examples from this graphic interesting group of samplers. Mary Tidball’s school was located next to the Presbyterian Church at Bethel Park, in the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh. Inscribed: Elizabeth W. Bower daughter of John and Mary Bower wrought this/ Sampler in the year 1834 Mary Tidball The 2007 exhibition, Made in Pennsylvania: A Folk Art Tradition at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, documented well the samplers made at the school of Mary Tidball, between 1834 and 1854. Writing in the book of the same title, Harley N. Trice, informs us that, due to the quality and quantity of surviving works, the Mary Tidball School is the best known western Pennsylvania needlework school. Samplers made at this school, only 14 of which are known, are large, highly-stylized, and sometimes brightly colored; some contain the names of the students’ parents and/or instructor, Mary Tidball. Betty Ring, in Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Embroideries 1650-1850 vol. II (Knopf, 1993), characterizes the samplers made at the Tidball School as including, big, bold flowers and exotic trees, stating that this striking group of large samplers was worked in Washington County during the final years of the schoolgirl needlework era. Silk on linen; 19” x 19” framed. $3,200 STEPHEN & CAROL HUBER (860) 388-6809 Hubers@AntiqueSamplers.com View Other Samplers