From 1950, and featuring a verse by Patience Strong, this sampler commemorates the birth of Princess Anne.
I've also seen verse by Patience Strong featured on a wedding sampler for Elizabeth and Phillip, and a birth sampler of similar design for Prince Charles. I know that the Charles one was a transfer, so no doubt this one was too - embroiderer's choice of evenweave fabric and final thread colours, level of skill depending on the embroiderer.
Who was Patience Strong? According to Wikipedia, Winifred Emma May (4 June 1907 – 28 August 1990) was a poet from the United Kingdom, best known for her work under the pen name Patience Strong. Her poems were usually short, simple and imbued with sentimentality, the beauty of nature and inner strength.
Hmmm, 'imbued with sentimentality' is being rather polite, really. She's got the rhyme thing happening...
Isn't it nice that Clarence House gets a run, instead of Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace?!!
I've never seen a birth sampler for Andrew or Edward, in this style or any other. Or wedding samplers for either, come to that. Although I'm guessing that checking the popular British cross stitch magazines at those date would have been likely to have had some kind of charted design. (Topic for future research - unless you have the mags and could look them up and tell me...).
There is a picture of another version of this sampler here, from the end of this blog entry here.
And another version of this sampler:
And another:
If you know any more about this design - where it was published/available from etc and so forth - please do leave a comment.
I have this one in my collection stitched in the same colours. I think it is unusual and I've never found one for the birth of Charles. I also have an embroidery sampler transfer for the 1947 wedding of Elizabeth and Phillip with a poem by Patience Strong.
ReplyDeletePatience Strong greeting cards were very popular when I worked in the stationery dept. of a large dept. store in the 80's.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI own the blog linked to in this entry. I found your site fascinating. Patience Strong was regularly published in women's magazines - I'm thinking "Woman and Home" - and I could imagine the Princess Anne sampler being an offer in one of those.
I have a coronation/abdication sampler which looks to be from a similar source.
@Sylvia (Linens & Royals): I've seen a Charles birth sampler similar to this Anne one, but only a transfer, and I think I've seen the Patience Strong Elizabeth and Philip one. I'll look to see if I have photos to share in a future blog entry.
ReplyDelete@shandy: thanks for your comment. Glad you found the site interesting. Thanks for the further info.