Lilias Blair McPhail
Landscape with Boating Scene
1827
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Lilias Blair McPhail
Landscape with Boating Scene
1827
Physical Qualities
Linen ground, silk embroidery threads, 17 x 23 1/8 in. (43.2 x 58.8 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Francis White, from the Collection of Mrs. Miles White, Jr.
Object Number
1973.76.352
Although needlework was considered as important in the South as in the North, far fewer Southern samplers and pictorial embroideries have survived, probably due in large part to the plundering and destruction of Southern homes during the Civil War. However, within the past two decades, many Virginia samplers have been documented, and at least 13 groups that show the influence of a single teacher or school have been identified. Lilias McPhail’s sampler is a rare example from Norfolk. Lilias’ younger sister, Sarah Hatton McPhail, worked an almost identical boating scene with the same instructive verse, “The daughter who loves her house will take a lively interest in all its concerns and be solicitous to promote the happiness of the little circle of which she forms a part.”
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1973; Nancy Brewster (Mrs. Frances White) by inheritance; Virginia Purviance Bonsal (Mrs. Miles White, Jr.).
A Proper and Polite Education: Girlhood Embroidery of the American South
Lessons Learned: American Schoolgirl Embroidery
Textiles American Needlework
Kimberly A. Smith, ''The First Effort of an Infant Hand'; An Introduction to Virginia Schoolgirl Embroideries, 1742-1850,' Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Vol. XVI, No. 2 (November 1990), pp. 31-101. This sampler is mentioned on p. 77 along with two others like it under group IX, also see p. 93 in which one of inscriptions on the piece is given.
Kimberly Smith Ivey, 'In the Neatest Manner: The Making of the Virginia Sampler Tradition, Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1997, illus. p. 2, fig. 1.
Mary Jaene Edmonds, Samplers and Samplermakers: An American Schoolgirl Art 1700-1850, New York: Rizzoli/Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991, pp. 142-145. (Other Virginia samplers)
Betty Ring, American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection of Betty Ring, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987, pp. 50-51. (Other southern samplers)
Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, Vol. II, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, pp. 534-541. (Other southern samplers) *
For evaluation see Sotheby's, Feb. 2, 1991, lot 1271. No similar samplers have come up for sale, but this Sotheby's example has landscape and alphabet as does BMA sampler. Sampler is one of only three known of its type. Originally appraised by Charles Rogers, March 1974, at $425.
Betty Ring, American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection of Betty Ring, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987, pp. 50-51. (Other southern samplers)
Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, Vol. II, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, pp. 534-541. (Other southern samplers) *
For evaluation see Sotheby's, Feb. 2, 1991, lot 1271. No similar samplers have come up for sale, but this Sotheby's example has landscape and alphabet as does BMA sampler. Sampler is one of only three known of its type. Originally appraised by Charles Rogers, March 1974, at $425.
Inscribed: Embroidered across top of sampler within picture area in blue thread: 'The daughter who loves her house will take a lively interest in all its concerns and be solicit-/ous to promote the happiness of the little circle of which she forms a part.' [Note: first 's' in 'happiness' formed like an 'f']/ In natural thread: 'Truth is the brightest ornament of youth.'; Embroidered across bottom of sampler within picture area in black thread: 'Wrought by Lilias Blair McPhail in the 10th year of her age. Norfolk Va.'
