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拍品专文
A rare example of Southern needlework, this charming sampler depicting George Washington crossing the ‘Deleware’ was worked by Caroline Hite (1822-1883). Born at Bell Grove plantation in Frederick County, Virginia, Hite was the granddaughter of President James Madison’s sister Nelly Conway Madison (1760-1802) who married Isaac Hite (1756-1836) in 1783. Caroline's father, James Madison Hite (1793-1860) sat with his mother for the itinerant artist Charles Peale Polke in 1799; this portrait, along with that of his father, remain at Bell Grove. Caroline married Major Alexander Baker of neighboring Clark County, Virginia in 1839. There the couple remained and had ten children with all but four living to adulthood (www.findagrave.com).
Prior to her marriage, Caroline was enrolled at the Georgetown Female Seminary in 1838. Operated by Lydia Scudder English (1802-1866), the finishing school was considered to be one of the most fashionable for young ladies of the day. Located at the northeast corner of Washington (30th) and Gay Streets, the seminary, instructed as many as 130 young ladies from some of the country’s most powerful families. In 1859 Miss English turned the school over to a Miss Harrover; the building was confiscated by the Union Army and turned into a hospital shortly after the Civil War’s outbreak (The Dolly Madison Digital Edition accessed online; for more on the Georgetown Female Seminary, see Grace Dunlop Ecker, A Portrait of Old George Town (Richmond, Virginia, 1951), np.). While her sampler, dated 1841, was completed after her graduation, it is most certain that Caroline's needlework skills were refined under Miss English’s instruction.
The composition of the present lot is based on the engraving Washington (Crossing the Delaware!) published by Humphrey Phelps, New York, in August of 1833 (fig. 1). Another needlework based on the same engraving was stitched by Julia Imhoff and bears a note on the reverse indicating that at least six samplers based on the same print source were produced in Somerset, Pennsylvania (Early Arts in the Genesee Valley: Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries (Genesee Valley, New York), p. 106; Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch and Betty Ring, "Homage to Washington in Needlework and Prints," The Magazine Antiques (February 1981), p. 419, pl. XV).
Prior to her marriage, Caroline was enrolled at the Georgetown Female Seminary in 1838. Operated by Lydia Scudder English (1802-1866), the finishing school was considered to be one of the most fashionable for young ladies of the day. Located at the northeast corner of Washington (30th) and Gay Streets, the seminary, instructed as many as 130 young ladies from some of the country’s most powerful families. In 1859 Miss English turned the school over to a Miss Harrover; the building was confiscated by the Union Army and turned into a hospital shortly after the Civil War’s outbreak (The Dolly Madison Digital Edition accessed online; for more on the Georgetown Female Seminary, see Grace Dunlop Ecker, A Portrait of Old George Town (Richmond, Virginia, 1951), np.). While her sampler, dated 1841, was completed after her graduation, it is most certain that Caroline's needlework skills were refined under Miss English’s instruction.
The composition of the present lot is based on the engraving Washington (Crossing the Delaware!) published by Humphrey Phelps, New York, in August of 1833 (fig. 1). Another needlework based on the same engraving was stitched by Julia Imhoff and bears a note on the reverse indicating that at least six samplers based on the same print source were produced in Somerset, Pennsylvania (Early Arts in the Genesee Valley: Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries (Genesee Valley, New York), p. 106; Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch and Betty Ring, "Homage to Washington in Needlework and Prints," The Magazine Antiques (February 1981), p. 419, pl. XV).