Embroidered sampler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Samplers from Friesland, in the northwest of the Netherlands, are characterized chiefly by many alphabets and a tree of life motif. This sampler also features pierced and crowned hearts and windmills, motifs typical of samplers from the Netherlands. The sampler includes stitched initials "T", "H", and "HK" flanking hearts. It is possible the sampler maker embroidered the letters to commemorate a sibling’s marriage. If this is the case, "T" would be the initial of the sibling’s first name and "HK" the initials of the spouse’s full name. The year 1670, stitched below "T hearts H," is either the year in which the maker completed her work or the year her sibling got married.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art