This is a sweet keepsake stitched by a young girl to mark her visit to the pretty seaside resort and spa of Cabourg on the Normandy coast. The sampler dates from 1887, it is not impossible she might have met Marcel Proust there ....
The embroidery features a large bird and an amusing little steamboat evocative of the sea. Hortense proudly signed her full name in large pretty letters and repeated her initials to fill in a void at the top.
The original sampler (last picture) was stitched on 25ct fabric and measures 17 x 10 ¼ inch (43 x 26 cm). It was worked in a single light peach color, a little unusual for the time, you could however stitch the sampler in any color you wish, as is the case in the reproduction sampler.
Hortense can’t have been very old when she completed the sampler, which would account for several errors made in her stitching, such as missing letter E but doubling letter F, or spelling the word "Souvenir" with a D instead of a V.
Some stitchers consider those errors charming and like to reproduce every single stitch of the original sampler, while other stitchers will prefer to put them straight. It’s entirely up to you.
Reproduction sampler was stitched in a combination of two variegated silk colors, to add interesting variation to the stitched parts.
Stitch Count: 214w x 128h
Linen: Newcastle 40 Count, Colour: Platinum
Thread: DMC or Silk Thread of your choice - 2 colours.
