A very fine needlework sampler, Rebecca and Eleanor Keiser, Mrs. Hoff's School, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 1830

executed on a linen ground in a variety of green, blue, white and gold silk and chenille threads with a folk art rendition of the figure of Liberty offering sustenance to the American eagle.  Liberty, whose face is painted paper, looms above a brick house and pine tree; the sampler at center inscribed with the name of the schoolmistress, Mrs. Hoff.

Rebecca and Eleanor Keiser's sampler is part of a group known as The Towering Ladies of Lebanon. According to Betty Ring, the compositions of these samplers were most likely derived from prints. Of the six known examples, nearly all have painted faces.

For further information, see Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery, Vol. II, Knopf, New York, 1993, pp. 429 - 433.

A closely-related example was sold at Sotheby's in the Theodore H. Kapnek Collection of American Samplers, January 31, 1981, Sale 4531Y, Lot 35.