Description:

While Elizabeth didn't use a great many different stitches she created a bright, beautiful and large sampler. The colourful scheme is fairly typical of samplers from Yorkshire. Scholars have surmised the use of predominantly wool in Yorkshire pieces is a carryover from Scottish samplermaking traditions simply because of the geographic proximity. Having said all that, we can say that Elizabeth’s sampler design is far from traditional.

Along the top is an alphabet that, while done in cross stitch, is in an ornate and delightful font. An undulating carnation dividing band separates the split format of her verses, with a bowl of fruit in the middle. Beneath this is a lovely band of tulips and her family initials, perhaps another carryover from Scotland. In a sampler in which motifs are practically on top of each other, the gap between the verses and the tulip band is noteworthy.

The design of the rest of the sampler can only be described as cacophonous; despite the mirror image motifs there is an element of clutter from the way the motifs overlap and intersect. An elaborate free-form bouquet sits just beneath a row of familial initials (SL, EL, RL, IL, SL), flanked by cherubs, birds and a variety of floral motifs. The overcrowding impacts the design and prevents a true mirrored-image style. Elizabeth has a stylized Adam & Eve, two manned ships, swans and peacocks anchoring the base of the piece. Many of the motifs are of Dutch origin, including the complex heart motifs adjacent to the ships and the ships themselves. The overcrowding is nowhere more apparent than in the final set of verses and her signature. Elizabeth had to place freeform dividing lines in two places to separate the text. The border around the sampler is a square and geometric variation of a strawberry. This sampler is just a joy to look at!

Size (W x H): 21 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

Stitches: Cross, cross-over-one, satin, long-short, eyelet

Media: Wool on linen

Genealogy:

Stephen Lawn and Ellen Smith of Rievaulx, Yorkshire, married 22 September 1794. The couple registered their four children in Helmsley, Yorkshire: Robert (1795), Stephen (1799), Elizabeth/Betty (1802) and Hannah (1806-1807).

Elizabeth married William Burton in 1830. The 1851 England census records the family in Helmsley: William (48, cordwainer), Job (16, cordwainer apprentice) and Sarah (9). A cordwainer is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather, as compared to the term cobbler, who also made shoes but only using old leather recovered from discarded or repaired shoes.

Elizabeth and William were still living in Helmsley for the 1881 census, after which all trace disappears. We presume their death prior to the 1891 census.

Verse:

Left side:
I am the resurection saith the lord,
Eternal life s the fruit of my eternal words
Whoever firmly does in me believe,
The grave shall not confine, no hell receive:
Nor only this, but those that will rely
On what I teach, shall never, never die

Right side:
You, whose fond wishes do to heave asPire
Who make those blest abodes your sole desires
If you are wise and hope that bliss to gain.
Use well you time, live not an hour in vain
Let not the morrow your vain thoughts emPloy
But thint this day the last you shall enjoy.

Bottom far-left
There are no gains, Without PainS
Then helP hands For I have no lands

Bottom left-center
Elizabeth Lawn
Age 15
1818

Bottom right-center
This work in hand my fried may have
When I am dead and in my grave

Bottom far-right
My task of
Duty now is over.