Rare Leah Young needlework sampler, Leah Young (c. 1831-7) Peters Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, dated 1847

Wool and linen on linen

Inscribed recto, wool thread: Leah Young daughter of Joseph and Mariah C / Young wrought this sampler in the year 1847 / When we devote our youth to God / Tis Pleasing in his eyes / A flour that is offered in the bud/ Is no vain sacrafice. Mary Tidball / RV

W.B. Mallard, Westfield, New York
Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Cambridge, Maryland
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "Important Frakturs Embroidered Pictures Theorem Paintings And Other American Folk Art From The Collection Of Edgar William And Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II," May 8-9, 1974, lot 52

"The Pennsylvania German: His Arts and Handicrafts," William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1968
"Pennsylvania Folk Art," Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974

Allentown Art Museum. Pennsylvania Folk Art. Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown Art Museum, 1974, p. 70
Ring, Betty. Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850, vol 2, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, p. 464
"Stitch and Learn Samplers," Good Housekeeping (March 1990), 150
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 301, fig. 261

Some darkening of linen, stain around name "Tidball"
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.

Leah Young's bold and exuberant sampler represents a remarkable group that appears to have been unpublished and unknown to sampler collectors until this piece was illustrated as lot 52 in the catalog of the second part of the 1974 sale of folk art from the Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch Collection.¹ These three sales consisted of an almost incomprehensible treasure trove of schoolgirl art and many other appealing forms that were then unrecognized and their origins unexplored. Reviewing the catalogs is a reminder of how much was discovered about these objects during the last quarter of the twentieth century.² Certainly Leah's sampler was the catalyst leading to the recognition of the latest major group of traditional American samplers, for at least ten samplers are now known to bear the name or initials of schoolmistress Mary Tidball.³

During the 1830s, the sampler-making era was definitely ending as educational reformers sought more academic education for women, and relatively few important groups of embroideries arose in that decade. However, it has been previously recognized that Pennsylvania schools appear to have produced the latest meritorious groups of samplers.⁴ What inspired Tidball remains unknown, but from 1836 until 1852 she provided her students with robust dynamic designs and yarns of brilliant colors, and the results are infinitely more appealing than the monotonous Berlin work then in vogue. As with most ingenious women of earlier years, the unanswerable question arises-who taught Mary Tidball?⁵ -B.R.

¹ Sotheby Parke-Bernet dispersed the collection in three segments: sale 3595 (1/74): sale 3637 (5/74); and sale 3692 (11/74). The three sales consisted of 583 lots.

² At that time, needlework from Abby Wright's school in South Hadley, Mass., had not been identified, nor were mourning embroideries and print-work memorials from Mary Balch's school in Providence, work on silk from patterns drawn by Samuel or Godfrey Folwell, typical samplers from Fitzwilliam, N.H., or a typical silk embroidery from the Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem, Pa.

³ In recent years, Lawrence L. Lacquement and his wife, Lee, have diligently pursued the history of Mary Tidball and her school, and their in-depth study of this schoolmistress and the sampler makers will soon be published.

⁴ Ring, Girlhood Embroidery, vol. 2, pp. 450-65.

⁵ In 1993 discovery of a related sampler of 1838 naming "Mary McCosh" led to speculation that Mary McCosh may have become Mrs. Mary Tidball This was soon disproven by the appearance of pieces dated 1836 with Mary Tidball's name. Evidently McCosh, a former Tidball student, had commenced teaching. For the McCosh sampler and another Tidball example, see Huber and Huber, Sampler Engagement Calendar 1992, fig. 38, and Calendar 1993,fig. 40, respectively.