BK HS 1842

With the phrase "If you want to present and count my new sampler, you’re welcome!" Inge Buggenthin from Hollenstedt, Northern Germany showed me her "Becke (Hars or Harms)". I could not resist. Thank you so much, Mrs. Buggenthin!

Here is her little "rosette treasury" from the Vierlanden of 1842, well cared for more than 160 years (there is no loss of floss), complete, graphically clearly structured, and conventionally stitched with dark brown silk on 40ct linen – with mostly unknown variations of rosettes, arranged in rows, with a touch of red in a border. Rosettes are a favourite motif of the Vierlanden culture, not only in samplers, but they can also be found on façades of buildings and on pieces of furniture, they are decorative elements on garments, home textiles and pew cushions.

The rosette – the circle – is regarded as a universal symbol of entirety, infinity, perfection and is still in use in the wedding ring, in the bridal wreath and in the funeral wreath.

There are very few samplers from the Vierlanden area after 1850. The great tradition comes to an end. Just 50 years later, documentalists record the obvious decline of the independent Vierlanden culture – either in drawings and photographs or in the collection of objects. A veritable shopping boom of international museums started by the end of the 19th century.

Crosses: 257 x 287
Size: 36,5 x 40,5 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch

Sketches by Hermann Haase, Vierlande painter and documentalist (cf., Olaf Matthes: Hermann Haase, Maler und Dokumentar der Vierlande, edition wartenau, Hamburg 2011)