(Description taken from Betty Ring's auction catalogue January 2012 at Sotheby's)
LOT 546
NEEDLEWORK FAMILY RECORD, MARY A. BRADFORD, PROBABLY
PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS, DATED 1833
Worked in silk and paint on linen with ink on paper. Signed, Wrought by Mary. A Bradford Aged 11, AD 1833.
Height 17 in. by width 17 1/2 in.
PROVENANCE
Richard and Virginia Wood, Baltimore, Maryland, August 19, 1966
EXHIBITED
American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection of Betty Ring at the Museum of
American Folk Art (p. 14, fig. 22)
CATALOGUE NOTE
The Harlow, Bradford, and Churchill samplers belong to an important group worked at an unknown school in Plymouth
between 1815 and 1845. Typical is an octagonal format and a scene that combines embroidery and paint upon the linen
ground. The Harlow sampler and other early pieces include ligatures and a bold alphabet that suggest Quaker influence.
Mary Ann Bradford, a daughter of William Bradford and Elsey Sylvester, was a direct descendant of the Pilgrim governor
William Bradford. She married William Holmes on October 8, 1844. Her family record includes a memorial to three-year-old
William Bradford, Jr . and written on the plinth is the same epitaph found on Burial Hill in Plymouth: Bost not
thyself of tomorrow / For thou knowest not / What a day may bring forth.
ESTIMATE with 25% buyers premium $3,750 - $6,250
Sold
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