Jane A. Huestis

Jane A. Huestis

Condition: Good

Description of condition:

Main issue with condition is a small stain along the hemmed edge on the left.  There is a water stain from top to bottom on both the left and right sides as well as in the upper middle.  There appears to be thread colour bleeding in the bottom motifs as they are stitched with very dark colours vs the alphabets.  Threads have disappeared on some letters and it is difficult to say if the thread has fallen away or was taken out to redo.  You can see the area that was stitched in at one point.  There are no stray ends in the missing stitch areas so does not look like thread deteriorated.  Looks more like they were deliberately taken out but not put back in.

Hemmed edges are hemmed with a Slanted Goblin Stitch vs an Antique Hem Stitch.  The stitch goes from the bottom right to the top left with a 2 x 2 count.  Stitched with same colour as material.

Thread colours are red, olive green, blue grey, orange, pink, gold/yellow, linen colour close to material colour, brown, dark green, black.

Used 1 strand of very fine wool for the alphabets and numbers.  Some of the motifs have 2 strands and some have 2 colours blended such as on the chimneys and tree trunks.

Motifs

Row 5 has a diamond

Row 7 has 2 hearts

Last row – centre is a house, 2 trees on either side, 2 flower pots or baskets on either side with the left one having a red bird on it, the right flowers has the bird next to it.  The outer motifs are flowering trees with the right one having a pink bird on the top.  Along the entire area is grass stitched in Satin stitch over 2 threads.

It may be that the threads ran out.  The one bird is pink vs red and the one green tree on the right has 2 colours of green.

Row dividers

Row 1 Slanted Goblin from bottom right to top left

Row 2 is 2 rows Cross Stitch 3 stitches and then 3 spaces with the second row filling in the spaces of the first row.

Row 3 has 3 rows of cross stitch with the top and bottom being solid rows and the middle row has a stitch and leaves 3 spaces.

Row 4 and 8 is pulled eyelet in one line across

Row 5 is 1 motif row but 4 stitched high of cross stitch the bottom row being 3 stitches with 1 space and above the space is a diamond shape made of 4 stitches.

Row 6 is 2 rows of cross stitch with the top row in groups of 3 and 1 space and the second row it stitched where the space is in the row above.

Row 7 is 3 rows of cross stitch that are 1 stitch and 1 space.  Each row alternates in the space above the prior row.

Row 9 is 1 row of cross stitch

Back has many long thread ends not darned in and left hanging.  There are many threads that trail from one area to another.

Borders:

Motifs: plants, animals, buildings

Type of stitches: cross, eyelet, other – Slanted Gobelin

Name or initials on sampler: Jane A Huestis

Verse or Inscription:

No verse but the letters in a stitched box “JAHPWYO”.  The box frame has cross stitch on the 2 sides and Slanted Goblin along the bottom stitched from bottom left to top right like a half cross stitch.  It is almost as if she forgot to come back across the line to complete the “x”.  But on the far right of the box bottom the slants are going the opposite way of bottom right to top left.

The letters may represent JAH for her initials. The other letters are unknown as to their meaning.

Owner / Donor Story:

Carl Jackson of Bridgewater NS

Other Information:

Per the donor, the house was a brick house that burnt.  The house is from Bear Island above the school on a riverbank 1/4 (?) up from Bear Island Road.  The house is the house Jane grew up in.

Jane Huestis was brought up on Bear Island and married Adam Jackson.

Jane Huestis 1835-1882