Virginia or West Tennessee needlework sampler, silk on linen, stitched by Elizabeth M.A.R. Booker in 1824. Exceptionally wide floral border with prominent roses among other flowers, enclosing a red brick three story house surrounded by trees and fence, beneath a verse: "The Rose through beauteous/ It's glorious vernal pride ador(n) / Let her who choose beware" . Note: the verse is excerpted from a poem in The Lady's Preceptor, a Compilation of Observations, Essays and Poetical Effusions, designed to direct the Female Mind," a popular textbook at Female Academies in the early 19th century; the blank space on the sampler below the 3rd verse suggests it may have been intended for the final line of the heavily edited poem, "... the biting sharpness of its thorn". Signature below house, with date of April the 20th, 1824. Housed under glass in a later molded bronze painted frame. Sight: 16 1/5"H x 15"W. Frame - 17 3/4" H x 16"W. 

Elizabeth Mary Ann R. Booker was born 1811 in Prince George County, Virginia, to Edmund Booker (1787-1852) and Elizabeth Robert Foster (1788-1870). In the 1820 census, the family was still in Prince George County, Virginia, but by the 1830 census, they had moved to Tipton County, Tennessee, and that is where Elizabeth married Granville Deadrick Searcy in 1832. Granville Searcy was born in Nashville in 1809 and at the age of 16, attended West Point Military Academy. He achieved the rank of Colonel before returning to Tennessee, settling ultimately in West Tennessee. There he became a prominent lawyer, landowner and slave holder. By 1850 the couple resided in the 6th ward of Memphis and had three children. Elizabeth Booker Searcy died in 1861 in Memphis and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery.

PROVENANCE: Private Southern Collection. 

The sampler is in overall very good condition with some fading and toning but no significant losses to thread or ground. The framing materials are mid to late 20th century. Not examined out of frame.