A LATE VICTORIAN BRISTOL ORPHANAGE NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER

A LATE VICTORIAN BRISTOL ORPHANAGE NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER

C.1880-90

worked in typical red cotton cross-stitch on a linen ground, with alphabets and numerals, in various fonts, with leaf scroll patterns, crowns and the Bible, in a later glazed ebonised frame

35 x 32.2

Provenance

Upper Slaughter Manor, The Collection of Micheál and Elizabeth Feller.

Literature

The Feller Needlework Collection: 2, p.81 for a discussion of this sampler.

Catalogue Note

George Muller was born in Prussia in 1805 and he travelled to England in 1830, working in Teignmouth as a minister. He subsequently moved to Bristol and was concerned by the number of children begging in the streets, so in 1836 he opened his fist orphanage on Wilson Street. Demand was great and five more large orphan houses were built at Ashley Down on the edge of Bristol.