PUTNAM AND UPTON FAMILIES, DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS / BRADFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE PICTORIAL NEEDLEWORK SAMPLERS, PAIRING, both silk on linen, completed by an aunt and a niece 35 years apart; comprising one having six alphabet and numeral rows with "MPHS" at the end of the third row and "MP" at the end of the fourth row, above the signature of "MEELY / PVTNAM / Work'd this 1790 / aged 9", all segmented by horizontal bands of decorative stitching, lower half with verse that reads, "If Life was a thing / that Money could / buy, the Poor wo- / uld not Live nor / the Rich would not die", below featuring pictorial motifs of two women in dresses and a man alternating with trees topped by birds, three sides with scrolling border having foliate motifs, eyelet-stitched blocks embellish all four corners, encompassed by a sawtooth border along edges; and the other with seven alphabet and numeral rows within a checkered frame, below signed "Phebe W Upton / aged 8 yearf 1825" in a frame, all encompassed by various pictorial motifs including a flower basket, flowers, and a rooster in addition to a barn and a house along the bottom edge flanked by trees and a large flower, sawtooth border to all four edges. Both conservation mounted under UV glass in matching modern painted frames. Dated 1790 and 1825. Putnam example 8 1/2" x 17 1/8" sight, 11" x 19 5/8" OA; Upton 12 1/2" x 17 1/2" sight, 15" x 20" OA.
Published: M. Finkel & Daughter - Samplings: XXXIII, p. 23.
Catalogue Note: Both are identified as makers of the same family originally from Essex Co., MA. Parmelia "Meely" Putnam was born on November 13, 1780 in Danvers, MA to parents Joseph Putnam (1739-1818) and Ruth Flint (1749-1806). She died at the young age of 17 on December 24, 1797, and she is buried at Putnam Cemetery in Danvers. Meely was the fifth child of eight that included her sister Polly, who likely inherited the 1790 sampler.
On January 6, 1806, Polly married Ebenezer Upton (1783-1822), a successful farmer and Justice of the Peace. The couple had at least five children with the youngest being Phebe Wood Upton, who was born on September 17, 1817 likely in Bradford, NH. The Uptons appear to have moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire some time in the early 19th century, making it unclear where Phebe completed her sampler. The will of Ebenezer, Sr. was written in Bradford, Hillsborough (now Merrimack) Co., NH on September 21, 1821 just before his death the following year. Phebe and her sister, Pamelia Flint Upton, were listed as 1832 graduates for the Abbott Female Academy in Andover, MA as well as being recorded in the 1835 catalogue of students for Hopkinton Academy in New Hampshire.
Prior to 1842, Phebe married Martin R. Buswell (1811-1863), and they had at least one surviving son, Henry Foster Buswell (1842-1919). By the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, the family of three moved away from Bradford and settled in Canton, Norfolk Co., MA, where each lived until their deaths. Phebe died on October 30, 1896 and is buried at Canton Corner Cemetery in Canton along with her husband and son.

Each in very good to excellent visual condition with some thread having expected fugitive color, a few losses to thread, frames with minor wear. Not examined out of frames.