This sampler features two block alphabets of 26 letters, with numbers to 8. Below the alphabets is the inscription:
“Sally Precinda Chaffee 1849
11 years of Age”
This sampler was not done on fabric but on perforated paper, a light weight card that first became available in the 1820s and was commonly used for bookmarks and mottos. The sampler is stitched with cotton and wool embroidery thread on perforated paper with a count of 15/in. The stitches used are cross and tent.
Sally Precinda Chaffee was born on September 6, 1838, to Samuel and Ursula Selenda James Chaffee in Berkshire, Franklin county, Vermont. She died unmarried on August 30, 1857, in Berkshire, Vermont.
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