The marking sampler was the first necessary step in any young girl's education in the needle arts. This view was professed by educators such as George Fisher, who included "Instructions for marking on linen" in his book, The Instructor or American Young Man's Best Companion, Improved, in 1812: Marking is indispensibly necessary and useful for the training up of the younger sort of the female kind to the needle, it being introductory to all the various and sundry sorts of needle-work pertaining to that sex: Therefore I have set down the alphabet in capitals, or great letters and small, likewise the figures, that girls or young women, by frequent practice, may soon attain to perfection in marking on linen. Between the ages of five and nine a girl might work two such marking samplers while attending a dame school. Regarded as an exercise in "plain work" or practical stitchery, such samplers were not intended for display and might well remain unsigned and undated like this example. Though worked in a limited number of colors, this marking sampler still exhibits considerable variety achieved through the manipulation and arrangement of simple stitches.