Clemence Bourgeois 1850

"Made by Clemence Bourgeois with the Religious Women of the Holy Family". This was "written" by the little student with a needle in the bottom section of her pretty sampler. Unfortunately she did not note her age and the year of manufacture.

Love and life have an effect on the sampler. Everything blooms, is ripe for the harvest, shows life: trees and rose bushes, fruit baskets, pairs of birds nourish themselves from goblets with hearts, flowers adorn the elaborate alphabet and a nibbling squirrel forms the focal point.

Are the brick houses the school buildings?

The Roman Catholic Church has taken on a very important part of girls' education in its European monasteries long before monarchs or countries agitated for girls‘ education. That's why motifs with Christian symbolic content are found on a number of samplers created in this context:

the monstrance represents the body of Christ,the Star of Bethlehem represents the birth of Christ.

Clemence used very vivid wool colors, which were visibly matted on the back side. Incidence of light and moth feeding have been impairing the sampler over the course of more than 150 years. That's why I'm happy that I was able to count the front at least.

Crosses: 324 x 271
Size: 46 x 38,5 cm
Stitches: Cross stitch

I found similar squirrel motifs from the Biedermeier period in these books.