Eliza Bell Cox 1832 - Hands Across the Sea Samplers - Cross Stitch Chart

From Hands Across The Sea Samplers

Eliza’s sampler has a delightful free flowing border of entwined damask roses, heartsease, campanulas and tiger lilies in full bloom. This beautiful border has been executed in cross stitch over 2 threads. Her sampler depicts a sweet verse and an exotic bird perched on a leafy bough eyeing a pretty butterfly which rests dangerously close by. There is another documented sampler, Elizabeth Elliott 1835, that bears a striking likeness and it is likely that Eliza and Elizabeth attended the same school, Radcliffe House.

There are two versions of the verse ‘Forget Me Not’. We have found Eliza’s version recorded in the Rural Repository a ‘semi-monthly entertaining and amusing journal’ which comprised of ‘original and popular tales, essays, biography, traveller, miscellaneous, summary, poetry etc.’ The verse is unattributed.

Eliza stitched her sampler using a palette of 39 colours. There has only been a slight mellowing of colour over time and Eliza’s flowers, particularly the heartsease dance merrily around the sampler.

In Victorian England, the pansy flower was used for secret courting. Any display of love or passion was severely frowned upon and in order to communicate to potential romantic partners the pansy was employed. It was placed in what was called a tussie mussie which was a bunch of herbs wrapped in a doily with some flowers in the middle. The pansy flower was used to convey messages not easily expressed in Victorian England such as I’m feeling amorous towards you, I am thinking of you or I have thoughts of you or I’m missing you, but always it was about one person thinking of another. The pansy flower symbolizes the love or admiration of one person for another. Traditional meanings of flower colours hold true for pansies, red and violet mean passion whilst yellow means having a bright disposition or happiness.The wild pansy, viola tricolour, has many different names including: ‘Heartsease’, ‘Heart’s Delight’, ‘Tickle-my-fancy’ ‘Love-in-idleness’, ‘Love-lies-bleeding’; and in Welsh ‘Caru’n Ofer’ (Love in vain).

The sampler is stitched in cross stitch over 2 threads, with the verse, the bird’s eye and butterfly’s legs stitched over 1 thread. There are a handful of straight stitches that form the stamens on the pansies. Eliza’s sampler has been rated as suitable for a confident beginner.

Eliza Bell Cox has been brought to you in collaboration with J.Lee Halpin who has lovingly stitched the model. At the very core of Hands Across the Sea Samplers is a team of needleworkers who are passionate about antique samplers and being able to share those samplers with you.

Charted for AVAS Silks or DMC. The design area is 307 stitches (w) x 433 stitches (h).
**Unless otherwise stated all fabric is sold in 1/2 yard increments. If you need a longer length, just order multiple units at checkout.
e.g. If you want 2 yards just select "4" in the quantity box.