A Pictorial Needlework of a Lady with Sheep, Probably New York or Massachusetts, circa 1790

Grace and Elliot Snyder, South Egremont, Massachusetts sold at the Connecticut Antique Show, Hartford, Connecticut, 1990.

Remi Spriggs, “Living with antiques: An Americana collection in New Jersey,” Magazine Antiques (April 2005), 94-105;

Leslie and Peter Warwick, Love At First Sight: Discovering Stories About Folk Art & Antiques Collected by Two Generations & Three Families, (New Jersey: 2022), pp. 179-80, fig. 318.

This silk pictorial needlework was discovered in Burlington, Vermont but was likely made in Western Massachusetts or New York, based on a needlework by Sallie Hathaway sold in these rooms on October 1989, auction 5905, lot 92. A needlework in a private collection in Virginia, is the mate to this needlework, both of which have the same old half dead tree, perched doves, and rose bush. Both of these are similar to Sallie Hathaway's needlework in The American Folk Art Museum, with both ladies having the same hair style, wearing a hat and a long gown with a sash tied in a big bow, and both men wearing the same jacket, carrying doves, and with the same spotted dog behind them. Both this needlework and Sallie's also contain a scalloped edge along the top. Sallie Hathaway (1782-1851) moved to Hudson, NY in 1784 and her father was the owner of a fleet of ships. Hudson was a newly established town may not have had a school. Sallie possibly attended a school in New York City or the recently opened school of Miss Betsy Bostwick (1771-1840) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which was 27 miles away.