Rare Needlework Sampler, Hannah Steelman (b. 1824), Squankum, New Jersey, Dated 1834

Worked with silk, twisted silk threads and crinkled silk floss on linen in queen, satin, outline, interlocking and slanted Gobelin, and cross-stitches. Inscribed: Tis religion that can give/Sweetest pleasures while we live/Tis religion must supply/Solid comforts when we die/IsGsH/sDsRI/SIBSLS/Hannah Steelman Her Work Made/In the 11th year of Her Age/Wrought in Squankum October 1834.Appears to retain the original veneered frame. Some darkening of linen. 16 1/2  by 17 inches. (24 threads to the inch).

Adams House Antiques, Tustin, California, May, 1980

Darkening and with staining.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Exhibited and Literature: LACMA, pp. 128, 129, fig. 61

Alongside a profusion of Quaker motifs, Hannah Steelman has inscribed an aphorism epitomizing the beliefs embraced by the Society of Friends. Her verse and signature have been stitched within a rectangular cartouche of Quaker flowers on angled stems, quite a change from the austere vine-and- leaf motif characteristic of early Quaker embroidery. The cornucopia, or curved vase design, appeared as early as 1802 on a sampler worked by Sarah Bye, at the Fallsington Boarding School, Bucks County, Pennsylvania,¹ as well as on a New Jersey sampler worked by Martha Hooton, 1827.² Framed on three sides by a splendid queen-stitched strawberry border, the needleworked picture across the bottom is not typical of Quaker work. Little brown-stitched slippers may be observed just below each hemline of the fashionably garbed ladies. Two top-hatted gentlemen are posed beneath the stylized pine trees. The brick-styled house features an impressive green doorway and lavishly appointed windows, with as many as twenty-four panes, trimmed by thin satin-stitched shutters. Such a display of elegance hints at some wealth. There was, indeed, an air of prosperity around Squankum Township at this time, which allowed for a higher standard of living than might be expected in a Quaker society. In 1830, at the head of the Squan River, a prized substance called marl was discovered whose trade resulted in the prosperity of many southern New Jersey landowners-of whom it was once said, the more land they owned the poorer they were.³ Settled primarily by Germans around 1758, Squankum was conveniently situated near little Squankum Creek in Gloucester County, on the Old Cape Road, which once cut through Cross Keys on a direct line to Cape May and the mouth of the Delaware. In the early years of the nineteenth century, Squankum was a village of two taverns and thirty-five houses, three stores, two blacksmith shops, and a thriving glass-house.⁴ Unquestionably, a Quaker schoolmistress prepared lessons for the young village girls attending her modest Squankum schoolroom, although many well-situated Squankum parents would have found it more fitting to send their daughters to Philadelphia boarding schools. It was this schoolteacher who selected, from the approved Quaker patterns, those motifs that appear on samplers such as the one worked by Hannah Steelman. Although Hannah Steelman has not been located, research reveals numerous Quaker families with her surname living at the time near Egg Harbor in what is now Atlantic County. Squankum has been known as Williamstown since 1842.⁵ 

 

1. The Bye sampler is in a private collection; see Schiffer, Historical Needlework of Pennsylvania, 51. 

2. Krueger, Gallery of American Samplers, 69. Martha Hooton's sampler (formerly in the Kapnek collection) was incorrectly identified as Canadian in Jean S. Remy, "A Collection of Rare Samplers," The Delineator (September 1903): 301. This article was brought to my attention by Carole Austin, to whom I am indebted. 

3. Franklin Ellis, History of Monmouth County, New Jersey (Cottonport, NJ: Shrewsbury Historical Society, NJ, 1974),648. Marl is a rich, earthy deposit of clay and calcium carbonate; it was much in demand by farmers trying to survive by working the flat lime-deficient soil of which most of southeastern New Jersey is composed. 

4. Henry Charlton Beck, More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey (reprint, New Brunswick, NJ, 1963),37,41,43,44. 

5. Much to my dismay, I found there were two towns named Squankum in nineteenth-century New Jersey. Squankum Township, situated in Monmouth County, has vanished, with only an ancient Quaker burying ground left to verify its existence, and that shadowed all around by elevated turnpikes. The other Squankum, in Gloucester County, which concerns Hannah Steelman, was renamed Williamstown in 1842 when the mix-up of mail prompted the change. See Beck, More Forgotten Towns, 41, 45.