CECIL CO., MARYLAND ATTRIBUTED PICTORIAL NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER, silk on linen, four alphabet and numeral rows segmented by horizontal bands of decorative stitching, center with a five-line verse from Cato: a Tragedy by English politician and writer Joseph Addison (1672-1719) within a scrolling vine frame and flanked by two trees topped by perched birds, lower third with pictorial motifs on a green lawn, featuring a central bouquet of flowers in a blue handled vase, surrounded by birds in flight, two baskets of flowers, and two trees with perched birds, three sides with inner sawtooth border and an outer scrolling vine border, lower edge signed "Mary Wallace.s Work Done In The Year 1802". Housed under glass in a 19th century veneer frame. Dated 1802. 15 3/8" x 16" sight, 17" x 17 1/2" OA.
Literature: For Maryland samplers with flowers in blue handled vases, see Allen - A Maryland Sampling: Girlhood Embroidery, 1738-1860, p. 88, fig. 6-18, by Louisa Emma Parrott, Talbot Co., also with flying birds; and p. 137, fig. 9-6, by Margaret Ogle, Frederick Co., dated 1791.
Catalogue Note: Identified as Mary Wallace who was born on September 17, 1789 probably in Cecil Co., MD to parents Dr. George Wallace (1752-1796) and Elizabeth Jennette Black (1763-1817). It appears the family had ties to Newark, New Castle Co., Delaware, as that is where her father and mother are buried. After Dr. Wallace's death, her mother remarried on August 31, 1799 to Dr. John Groome (1766-1830) in Cecil Co., MD. Mary finished this sampler a few years after this new union, likely stitching it in Cecil Co., rather than in New Castle Co., DE. Mary married Thomas Ward Veazey (1774-1842) on September 24, 1812, becoming his third wife.
The Veazeys were a prominent family of the Eastern Shore of Maryland with the initial immigrant ancestor, John Veazey, who settled on two tracts of land in Cecil Co. in the late 17th century. Gov. Thomas Ward Veazey was a farmer and had a career in politics. Beginning in 1808, he was a presidential elector for James Madison and, then, a representative for Cecil Co. in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1811 to 1812. He served in the War of 1812 as a Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 49th Regiment of the Maryland Militia. Veazey returned to his farm for a time after the war, before being chosen as a member of the Governor's Council in 1833. Shortly after in 1835, the Whigs nominated Veazey as their candidate for governor, which he won the majority of ballots and was sworn into office in 1836 for a term. As a result, Mary became the First Lady of Maryland from 1836 to 1839.
A year after the Governor's death, there were four deaths in the Veazey family during the span of six weeks in 1844. This included Mary Wallace Veazey's daughter/step-daughter, Mary L. Veazey, and her niece, Sarah Veazey Lusby, both dying on the same day, March 7, 1844. An article in the Alexandria Gazette on April 4, 1844 noted this tragic event and stated, "Mrs. [Mary] Veazey, the grief-stricken widow, has outlived, in sorrow and affliction, nearly all her earthly ties, and the house that was one short year ago the scene of happiness, plenty, and the home of every earthly joy, has been thus suddenly made sad and desolate by the inscrutable hand of Providence." Mary died on July 7, 1867 and is buried along with the rest of her family at the Veazey Family Cemetery in Earleville, Cecil Co., MD.
For a sampler completed by Mary's niece, Sarah Veazey Lusby, see lot 2472 in this auction.
Condition
Good to very good visual condition with toning, linen having some stains/spotting and some holes mostly small in size including as-made from original tacks along edges, a mended area in the second alphabet row, some silk thread with light to moderate fading/fugitive color, frame with wear, some losses and cracks to veneer. Not examined out of frame.
