Edward 1874

Considering there were thousands of orphans in the orphan houses of George Mueller over the years that had needlework instruction and had to make a sampler in their final year, you come to a huge number of so-called Bristol Orphanage samplers.

Many of these samplers look "good", "industrious" and very "neat". Only in very few you immediately feel the character, the childlike creativity, the joy and even the fun in this work.

"Edward 1874" is one of those samplers! It is exceptionally finely worked and only 36.5 cm high and 28 cm wide.

In the upper half, we see 19 alphabets in beautiful scripts and six sequences of numbers. In the bottom half, we notice an unusual variety of corner motifs and borders. Often only a rapport is stitched, so that many beautiful and different borders can be gathered. Then work turned out well and varied!

In the bottom third, different animals, crowns, names, numbers, objects of the child's interest, houses and boats meet! Gorgeous! At the same time, the strong connection to their own country and God (three ostrich feathers in a crown: coat of arms of the Prince of Wales; the initials "VR": Victoria Regina, Queen Victoria; royal coat of arms with lion and unicorn: United Kingdom; Bible) is conveyed to the admirer.

Many young girls from these homes were domestic employees in bourgeois houses of England after leaving the orphanage.

This sampler (inventory number TM 20180) is one of three Bristol samplers from the St. Gallen Textile Museum, Switzerland. It formerly belonged to the major textile collection of John Jacoby, purchased by the museum in 1955.