Sampler

In February 1853, when Sally Cann was ten years old, she made this embroidery sampler. Today her work is one of the earliest known examples of a New Zealand-made sampler.

A fashionable sampler
Samplers show off a beginner's skill at sewing. They include many different types of stitches. Most samplers include letters and numerals, and often the name of the sewer and the date the sampler was made.

When Sally Cann made her sampler she chose popular stitches like herringbone, chain, and cross-stitch. She included letters, such as the religious verse: 'Remember now thy Creator in the day of thy youth'.

Creating her own style
Sally also stitched ducks in ponds with zigzag borders around them. A strawberry border surrounds the entire sampler.

The awkwardness of her sewing suggests that she might have designed the sampler as she made it, rather than working from a pattern. Letters are not uniform sizes, the sewing is not balanced on each side, and February is not spelt correctly. Sally continued to sew and improve her technique, and Te Papa has another of her embroideries, completed in 1855.