Sarah Martin, Ormskirk, England, 1830
Price: $1100, Sampler size: 10¼" x 8"

Sarah Martin worked this charming little sampler when she was 11 years old in 1830. Born in 1819 to Thomas and Margaret Martin, Sarah lived in Ormskirk, as she noted on her sampler. Ormskirk, an Old Norse word for "Church," is a small market town north of Liverpool in West Lancashire, England.

Miss Martin practiced her alphabets in green, as with all of her lettering, dividing each line with decorative bands in a complimentary red color. The bottom half of her sampler is a noteworthy verse entitled "Inscription on a Sundial." The verse was written by Nathaniel Cotton (1705-1788) and published in 1791. It was used on the sundial at Thornby Church in 1816 in Northamptonshire. Charmingly, Sarah did not plan the spacing too well and had to squeeze in quite a few letters at the end of three lines.

Worked in silk on linen this sampler remains in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black and gold painted frame.