About Norfolk Samplers
The classic Norfolk sampler is easily recognized by three characteristic design motifs: a stepped lozenge cartouche, a luxuriant floral border, usually including a sunflower, red and white roses and rosebuds, and a horizontal band of linked octagons enclosing floral or faunal motifs, most often confronting deer climbing a tree-topped mound, with the center octagon frequently framing the inscription. In this classic form, seen from about 1760 well into the 19th Century, these three elements come together in harmonious and subtly varied compositions.
Concurrently and stretching back into the early 1700s we find Norfolk samplers displaying these motifs individually along with other characteristic Norfolk designs such as the striated pine and grassy mounds, winding heart bands, an oft-repeated verse, a unique “ship” symbol, guls, cornucopia and dropped acorn bands.
A notable aspect of Norfolk needlework is the remarkable number of elegant darning samplers produced. Influenced no doubt by the predominance of the region’s textile industry with its reliance on systems of home-based weaving, these works incorporate the naturalistic arrangement of mixed flowers that we associate with Norfolk sampler design with dainty darning squares. In other samplers, darning squares and techniques of surface darning can be found within landscape and floral compositions
The patterns and motifs of Norfolk samplers are inventions evolving from centuries-long traditions of Norwich as an international textile manufacturing and marketing center and the strategic geographic location of the county of Norfolk. Surrounded by ocean on three sides, Norfolk’s history was shaped by the crosscurrents of seafaring trade and migration and their attendant design influences. The characteristic motifs of the classic Norfolk sampler can be found separately beginning as early as the 1720s. It is the encounter with these traditional and recognizable motifs within compositional variations that constitute the charm of Norfolk sampler study.
As more Norfolk samplers are identified we are discovering a greater variety of distinctive groupings. The ever-expanding availability of resources for genealogical research and opportunities for sharing the investigations of textile historians, independant scholars, and local history specialists may soon lead to the rediscovery of schools, teachers, and discernable patterns of transmission of family and local design traditions. We plan to use this website as a forum for sharing our ongoing research and we welcome the contributions of others.
