Embroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of Arms

Embroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of Arms

Sarah Starr

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unusual sampler, which seems to date from the 1770s, proves that well-to-do families in areas less cosmopolitan than Boston also fell under the spell of heraldry. There were three Sarah Starrs of Middletown, Connecticut, who could have been this sampler's maker: Sarah Starr Ruggles Potter (b. 1760), Sarah Starr Bailey (b. 1763), or Sarah Starr Lathrop (b. 1759). Many members of the extended Starr family resided in Middletown during the eighteenth century; some of the men worked as merchants, perhaps indicated by the scales in the central crest, while others were in shipping.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Embroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of ArmsEmbroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of ArmsEmbroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of ArmsEmbroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of ArmsEmbroidered Sampler: Starr Coat of Arms

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.