MASSACHUSETTS ATTRIBUTED PICTORIAL NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER, silk on linen, top half with four alphabet and numeral rows segmented by horizontal bands of decorative stitching, lower half signed with a verse "Almena Sherman is my name / With my needle I wrote the same / Leave this for my friends to have / When I am dead and in my grave" opposing another four-row verse of "My golden hours will soon be ore / When I can go to school no more / I would not endure the pain / Of having spent my time in vain", all above a picket fence-lined street scene featuring people and animals walking in front of a three-story building flanked by another building, trees, and a bird, all encompassed by a scrolling flowering-vine border. Housed under glass in a modern veneer frame. Circa 1825. 23 3/4" x 16 3/4" sight, 27 1/4" x 20 1/4" OA.
Very good overall condition with light fading and fugitive color to some thread, pink thread with probable spots of later-added dye or pigment, a hole in lower left-hand corner, frame with minor wear. Not examined out of frame.
Provenance: From the collection of Nick Routson, Phoenix, AZ.M. Finkel & Daughter, 2005 (retains dealer label).
Catalogue Note: Probably identified as Almena (Almina/Elmina) Sherman, who was born on March 12, 1812 in North Adams, Berkshire Co., MA to parents Solomon Sherman (1779-1819) and Sarah "Sally" Chadwick (Shadwick) (1787-1858). In 1836, she married William Weir (1798-1880) of Washington Co., New York, and they had six children. Almena died in 1865 and is buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Cambridge, NY.

Very good overall condition with light fading and fugitive color to some thread, pink thread with probable spots of later-added dye or pigment, a hole in lower left-hand corner, frame with minor wear. Not examined out of frame.