Berlin wool work sampler; made in England, 1825-75

The sampler consists of a rectangular strip of white canvas partly embroidered with coloured wools to form decorative blocks and bands, some only partly worked to show the building up of the pattern. The main stitch used is cross stitch, sometimes in shaded effects; there are also some blocks of laid and couched work. Starting at the spindle, the examples are: a shaded chevron pattern in yellow with shades of blue and red; foliage sprays worked in white and in aquamarine; notched bell-like shapes linked by crosses, in black, white and browns on a red ground; linked square lozenges in red and brown and green and brown; slanting blocks in green and reddish brown with scattered motifs; meshed square lozenges in black filled in with blue and white and pink and white; stylised leaf stems with a flower, in autumnal shades and black; linked opposing crescents in red; a composite quatrefoil motif in reds and green tipped with grey and white on a yellow ground; a shaded sphere with rectilinear shapes in autumnal shades and black; 'strings' of small linked blocks in yellow and red, green, mauve or deep turquoise, resembling jewels; scale-like motifs of laid and couched yarn in shaded colours to give a Florentine stitch effect; abstract indented shapes in shades of red with yellow bars between; linked curving shapes in black; patterned chevron bands in red, green and black and salmon, mauve and black; a border with a lace-like effect in two contrasting thicknesses of black yarn; scattered leaf-like shapes in yellow with reds, greens or blues on a russet coloured ground; bands of paired triangles in aquamarine and white; aquamarine yarn couched in white; linked green and yellow lozenges with a cross fleury in alternating red and grey between them; yellow yarn couched in bright pink; patchwork-like blocks of bright pink or white speckled in pale blue and edged in brown; stylised flowers in red and pink with green foliage; linked geometric motifs with laid stitches in white and shades of blue couched with yellow; and scattered motifs in notched lozenge shapes in yellow with shades of blue, green and red on a red ground.

The sampler is mounted on a wooden spindle at one end so that it can be easily rolled up, and bound at the other end with pale blue silk ribbon; a length of matching ribbon is attached to form tying strings.

Berlin wool work was characterised by its use of bright colours, simple stitches and soft yarns, worked on loosely woven canvas. The patterns and wools were principally imported from the city of Berlin in Germany, from the early 1800s; many of the patterns were published there by one firm, that of Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich.

Berlin wools were easier to handle than some of the more traditional yarns had been, and the embroiderer would need to know how to work only a few different stitches. Samplers originated as a reference showing how to work the different stitches, and although this was less obvious by the Victorian period, some of the blocks and bands on this sampler have been only partly filled in, to show how to use contrasting colours and shapes to build up quite complex patterns. This type of embroidery was something of a craze in early Victorian Britain, and canvas embroidery of a broadly similar type is still popular today.

T.98-1954