I love sewing and I am busy making a hand sewn patchwork quilt using hundreds of different Liberty designs. It certainly keeps me busy on these cold winter evenings. It is in fact the second quilt I have made and hopefully this one will be just as beautiful as the first! 

Here at Sheffield Auction Gallery, we have an antique and designer textile section in our quarterly antiques and fine art auctions and we often sell antique patchwork quilts in these sales. The history of patchwork dates back over 5,000 years and can be found in cultures across the world. The first evidence of quilting layers of textile fabric together was in China as robes and patchwork quilts. We sell a vast range of quilts mainly from the 18th and 19th century and I always admire them and the work involved in creating them.

Another popular needlework item in the sales are samplers. Samplers date back to the 15^th Century and were used as a way of practicing the needlework necessary to decorate items such as clothing, tapestries, fire screens and bed linens in the home. 

A needlework sampler is essentially a piece of embroidery or cross stitch that demonstrates the person’s needlework skill. The name sampler is derived from the Latin word exemplum which means example. They often include the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes a poem or religious verse. Seen today as folk art, samplers are always unique and personal to the maker. They are often dated and include the name of person giving a fascinating snapshot of a young person’s life in a bygone era. Early examples always fetch a premium at auction and as a general rule a sampler can fetch from £50 to as much as a few thousand pounds at auction. 

The earliest known sampler is held in the Victoria and Albert museum in London and dates from 1598. It is worked by a girl called Jane Bosticke and shows flowers, animals and the alphabet in a variety of stitches showing her skill in needlecraft.

If you also have an interest in needlecraft not hesitate to contact us if you would like some assistance in starting a collection of antique textiles.