Up for sale here is a very rare, unframed, circa late 1700s or earlier, what could be described as an embroidery for a couple getting engaged or for someone of a romantic interest. You can see two doves with hearts in their mouths flying over the heads of the couple in the work almost like cupid. It is quite a departure from your typical religious or historical pieces of the period. The work is hand stitched silk on thin silk fabric that has a few hand painted elements including the faces and hands of the figures and the miniature grouping of lambs in the lower left corner. The lambs themselves are interesting as there are many in the group and very tiny while the figures are quite large in comparison. The stitching has then been secured to thin gold colored metal along the edges. The entire piece has then been hand sewn onto an extremely old piece of bluish grey colored paper. At one time this paper appears to have been mounted to something else using red wax, as you can see from the pictures of the back of the piece. The work itself measures 8 1/4 inches high by 11 1/8 inches across. There is no indication from what we can see of a maker’s name , an artist or who the couple is that is in the picture. We think that this piece could be French in origin though we found this piece glued inside the back of the spine of an old mid to late 19th Century English inlaid notebook which just had blank pages in it. The condition of the work is good to very good overall. Since the piece was probably sealed up for at least the last 150 years in the back of the book no light, air or bugs have gotten to it. The fabric is nice and fresh and has good colors probably just as good as when it was made. The only defects we can see are a 1/16th of an inch diameter spot of fabric missing in the lower right corner. The old ribbon has come off the edges but we still have it so if you want to restore it , it will be original. The thin fabric holding the piece down to the piece of paper is also undone along the top edge but the other three edges are secure. We are guessing the age to this piece to probably be around the 1770s or so. As you can see in the embroidery the man still has a purse and from our research on men and purses , is that most men did not carry them anymore by the year 1800 so even if this piece is as late at the 1770s or 1790s it would have been a late period for a man having a purse. While we have seen many pieces from this era over the years, we have not seen one with the subject matter or detail as this work has. If you collect these old rare textiles, this would make a great addition to your collection. This is probably the first time this work has been seen in a long long time. The item “18th Century Old ANTIQUE Folk Art Sampler EMBROIDERY Needlepoint with PAINTING $” is in sale since Monday, May 29, 2017. This item is in the category “Antiques\Primitives”. The seller is “unusualfindscompanyinc” and is located in Huntley, Illinois. This item can be shipped to United States, all countries in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Saudi arabia, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica.

• Featured Refinements: Antique Folk Art
• Material: Fabric
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
• Type: Textiles
• Style: Naive, Primitive
• Region of Origin: Europe
• Date of Creation: Pre-1800
• Samplers: 18th Century