American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts

Provenance:

Sotheby's, Sale 7010, June 17-18, 1997, lot 330,

A Pennsylvania collection.

Note:

Mary Lord's needlework is one of only nine known examples of an early and distinctive group of Adam and Eve themed samplers worked under the tutelage of an unknown Boston teacher. The earliest sampler from this group bears the date 1724 and Mary Lord's bears the latest of 1754. Sarah Lord, Mary's sister, also worked an Adam and Eve needlework which is dated "1753".

A daughter of Robert and Katharine Haley Lord of Boston, Mary, married Winthrop Sargent in December of 1765. It is known that Robert Lord, worked in the shop of Boston merchant and furniture maker Nathaniel Holmes (1703-1774). A Queen Anne walnut

clothes press, circa 1740, and signed " Robert Lord", was sold at Christie's, September, 20, 2017, lot 108.

Literature:

For a discussion and related examples, see Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850 (1993) Vol. I, pgs. 36-43.