This is a highly collectable antique textile.
It is a genuine antique sampler - and is being sold as such with all your consumer rights in place.
It is one of four antique samplers in my Iconic Edinburgh online store - all dating to the 19th century.
This one is now nearly 170 years old - and for its age, it is certainly in fine antique condition.
It is of a standard size - and the cotton is in good condition with no holes - it has discoloured naturally over the last two centuries and the textile has a beige colour commensurate with age.
Dimensions: 44 x 18.5 cm.
The top section half has an embroidered alphabet, done in dark green, black and red threads - the colours are still bright and fresh. Larger alphabet letters towards the bottom - each with little created holes in the letters - by the stitcher.
The lowest section of the sampler has a pretty pictorial scene -in the centre is an abstracted pale blue vase - with a blue tulip coming out in the centre - two red carnations to each side - and two drooping fuschias at each edge. There is a little bush and a lot of embroidered initials - which all relate to a member of the stitcher's family. Her name is to the side - it is I McLay.
The date is in red threads to the bottom: 1851 (I think?)
It is sold unframed - which makes it easy for you to fully check the condition, and allows you to see all the neat little knots in the thread where new thread was added during the stitching process - it looks nice and neat at the back - as to the front (see my last photograph).
It is listing at a fair price for a fine textile created in the 1830s. It came to me with the other ones listed - so I am assuming that this one is also Scottish in origin.