Tue Dec 4, 2018 08:58 PM

Morning Modelbuch (12/5/2018)

Maybe it was a response to growing up with 1980’s Country decor and an overdose of prairie blue, salmon pink, candlewicked hangings and stuffed geese with bows on their necks, but I used to think I hated samplers. Turns out I just don’t care for band samplers with Bible verses worked in pastels to charts. I actually really like the whimsy of spot samplers worked as the fit hit the embroiderer as they tried out a stitch or added something they saw and loved. This early German one in the Victoria and Albert caught my eye. Especially the figures. They have it dated 1500-1550. http://m.vam.ac.uk/collections/item/O69791/sampler-unknown/

Some of the spot motifs are obviously original, but others bear likenesses to those in the modelbucher, including these from Dominique de Sera’s 1531 _Ce livre est plaisant et utile_ Link is to Columbia University’s copy of volume 4 of _Livres a? dentelles & dessins d’ornements : reproduits & publie?s par Amand-Durand sous la direction de Emmanuel Bocher_. The 5 volume set is high quality heliogravure images (intaglio on copper plates that were some of the earliest types of photographic images) of 3 different modelbuch published in the 1880’s. Volume 4 and 5 are Sera. Volumes 2 and 3 are Ostaus’ https://books.google.com/books?id=fQtFAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false