Hannah Potts Sampler w/American Flag, 1833

Item Details

A fascinating American Needlework Sampler by Hannah Potts, aged 10, and dated 1833. The sampler includes 2 buildings, one appears to be a church (the red building) and the other a school  house or town hall with a flag pole flying the American Flag. Hannah stitched “Executed by Hannah Potts of Peru in the 10^th year of her age October 3th 1833. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to determine WHICH “Peru” she meant: there are Perus in Massachusetts, Vermont, New  York, Pennsylvania, Ohio  and Indiana (along with a number of others in states that were still frontier in 1833). The Perus in the Northeast are all relatively small communities and it is doubtful that they had such grandiose buildings as are pictured on this sampler. My guess, therefore, is that Hannah was from Peru Ohio or Peru Indiana, but I have not been able to find any genealogical information to support this idea.

In addition to the 2 buildings, the flag pole with the flag (the red and the blue on the flag are hand-colored in), her signature block, and several alphabets, the sampler has an interesting, and very different, border of blue and white flowers and dark green leaves on a meandering vine. There are also some “stick” trees between the buildings. Sight size for the sampler is 13 ¾” x 20 ½” and it is framed archivally in an appropriate wooden frame that measuring 15 ½” x 22 ¼”.

The sampler is in very fine condition: there are no rips, tears or holes and the stitching is completel. A couple of minor, faint stains, but nothing that detracts from this piece.