“I Write the Needles Praise”: A Century of Sampler Making, 1630s-1730s

1 June 2023

Following last year’s successful exhibition, ‘“I Write the Needles Praise”: A Century of Sampler Making, 1630s-1730s’, Witney Antiques is pleased to announce further information about this year’s annual exhibition and accompanying publication. ‘“Choice and Precious Work”: Treasures from the Schoolroom’, our largest exhibition yet, will be split into two parts. The first half will take place at Witney Antiques’ Oxfordshire gallery in October and November of this year and the second half will take place in Autumn 2024. The 2023 and 2024 exhibitions will centre on early modern schoolgirl stitching beyond samplers. 

This year’s exhibition will take place from Monday, 16 October 2023 to Saturday, 18 November 2023. Accompanying the exhibition will be a catalogue. This will be followed by a major book with extensive essays and full colour illustrations. The book, a comprehensive examination of schoolgirl embroidery undertaken between approximately 1650 and 1750, is due to be released in September 2024.              

Embroidered panel, first quarter of the eighteenth century, Elizabeth Hall suiteAmong the highlights of the ‘“Choice and Precious Work”: Treasures from the Schoolroom’ exhibitions will be a suite of needlework produced by a seventeenth-century London Quaker, Elizabeth Hall, and a century of her Quaker descendants. Having remained in the family since 1683, Hall’s suite, which includes but is not limited to a workbox, pincushions, valentines, baby linens, and needlecases, is the most complete set of needlework known to have come out of early modern England since those made by Martha Edlin and Hannah Downes. Research undertaken on the Hall suite and other Quaker needlework will upend previously held beliefs about Quaker girlhood. The exhibitions will also feature embroidered and cut paper work caskets and cabinets, embroidered and rolled paper work mirror frames, a variety of beadwork, and accessories such as purses, pin cushions, and embroidered nutmegs.

Rebecca Scott and Isabella Rosner, June 2023