Very Naive 19th Century New England Alphabet Sampler with Zig Zag on (Equally Expressive) Homespun carved wooden stick with the name William Henry

with the name William Henry Rivers (or similar

the majority backed with cloth and dotted with pinpricks from having been used

watercolor and ink bright and crisp and bold

Wear to the box and lightly used

interplay of positive and negative/light and dark

Very Naive 19th Century New England Alphabet Sampler with Zig Zag on (Equally Expressive) Homespun carved wooden stick with the name William HenrySo many different sorts of samplers to love, for different reasons. As far as alphabet samplers go (simple ones like this are also called marking samplers), I see a lot of lovely early examples around New England, with precisely embroidered, densely packed letters marching along perfectly straight lines, and I do very much admire them. But much less often do I come across an example as naive, and so, as expressive, as this one. And I think small ones