Our knowledge of the history of samplers goes back to the Mamluk embroideries from as early as the 14th century, examples of which have been recovered from burial grounds in Egypt and are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection in London. Very few of these samplers have survived and the motifs used on them are the lozenge and ‘S’ and ‘X’ shapes of the late medieval period. In Europe, a piece of cloth for use as a sampler was recorded in the 1502 Privy Purse expenses of Queen Elizabeth of York ‘ …for an elne of lynnyn cloth for a sampler for the Quene.’ An inventory of Joan the Mad, Queen of Spain in 1509 lists fifty samplers worked in silk and gold thread and Edward VI’s inventory of 1552 records a ‘sampler or set of patterns worked on Normandy canvas with green and black silks.’

As pattern books at this time were extremely rare, the first known example, Schonsperger’s ‘Ein Neu Modelbuch’ being printed in Augsburg in 1523, needlewomen recorded patterns and motifs by stitching them as ‘examplers for a woman to work by’, hence the name ‘sampler’. The earliest surviving European examples are a German spot sampler and an English spot sampler worked by Jane Bostocke in 1598, both in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Flowers, herbs, fruits and small animals were the sources of inspiration for the embroiderer and to this day, gardening and embroidery are closely associated.

By 1630, patterns were being stitched on loom widths of linen, with a much narrower width whose selvedges made up the top and bottom edges of the sampler and showed more ordered arrangements of rows of repeating border patterns, these being known as band samplers. The earliest dated band sampler in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection was worked by Mildred Mayow in 1633. Motifs on both spot samplers and band samplers were suitable for the decoration of clothing, accessories or household linen and were usually worked in brightly coloured silks, gold and silver thread, whitework, cutwork or needle lace or a combination of any of these. Double-running stitch, also known as blackwork, Spanish stitch (as Katharine of Aragon was at one time thought to have introduced it into England) or Holbein stitch (as depicted in Holbein’s portraits of Tudor personalities) was used as a monochromatic embellishment of fine linen garments. The origins of blackwork, found not only worked in black but in all colours on samplers, are clearly Moorish, with curvilinear vine tendril and strapwork motifs. Larger blackwork designs used on garments were often filled in with jewels, spangles and pearls.

One of the strangest motifs to appear on samplers is that given the name ‘boxer’ by 19th century collectors. The small figures of men have their arms raised, but it is generally thought now that they are offering flowers to a lady and not putting up their arms to defend themselves!

Samplers were not displayed, but were kept rolled up and by this time, were being used as teaching aids in the instruction of young girls learning needlework and were usually signed and dated. The motifs were either counted out or drawn out in black ink, or their outlines were pricked out and pounced with powder. The designs were handed down through the generations. Later they became a well-established part of the school curriculum and were often highly accomplished. Alphabets were used, which served in the marking of linens but after 1650 religious and moral inscriptions were introduced and the motifs and patterns became of secondary importance.