1839

Sampler

Scottish, 1826 - 1896

Samplers were typically made at school or, for an elite few, with a governess at home, and this example was likely made in a classroom. It was embroidered by Robina Suttie, daughter of Thomas Suttie, a prosperous blacksmith in Greenock. The sampler is nearly identical to another known sampler made in 1839 by Greenock schoolgirl Janet Scott. The home in the center may represent Garvel House, the late-eighteenth-century home of Bailie Gammell, founder of Greenock Bank. The verse on the left often appears in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century schoolbooks on moral instruction, and the quote on the right is Proverbs 15:3 from the Bible.