Bourbon County, Kentucky House Sampler attributed to Martha "Patsy" Hook, c. 1815. Silk on linen sampler featuring a strawberry border enclosing three alphabets, a basket of flowers, and a verse surrounded by bird and flowering vine motif, reading, "Teach me to feel another's woe/ To hide the fault I see/ That mercy I to others show/That mercy show to me." (Verse by Alexander Pope, from "The Universal Prayer."). Below the verse is a brick Federal style house and gate, with the names of her parents Thomas and Sarah Hook, and brother Samuel, stitched to the sides. The sampler incorporates a variety of stitches, especially in the alphabet and under the basket of flowers. Housed under glass in a wide flame grain mahogany veneered frame. Sight: 16" H x 17 1/2" W. Frame: 21 1/2" H x 23" W. A packet of genealogical information is available to the winning bidder. Note: Patsy Hook's sampler appears to be unfinished. Her name is absent, as are the names of her seven other brothers and sisters. Thomas and Sarah "Sally" Long Hook were both born in Maryland, but had moved to Bourbon County by 1793, and Sarah gave birth to Martha "Patsy" Hook in 1800. Patsy married Elijah Breeding on Sept. 6, 1824 in Nicholas County, KY, and they had 3 children. By 1829 the couple had moved to Missouri along with her parents, becoming early pioneers of that state. Elijah Breeding died there in 1830, leaving Patsy a young widow. She married James Sims in 1833, but died less than a year later in 1834. The sampler has descended in her family with the oral attribution to her as the stitcher.

Thread color has faded, and there is a 3/4" line of ground repair adjacent to the 4th verse line. The upper portion of the f's in the verse appear to be missing, but this may be the way they were stitched. Not examined out of frame. Frame may not be original.