Each year Hands Across the Sea Samplers publishes a sampler which we consider to be not only beautiful but outstandingly so and worthy to be crowned our Queen of the May. We are pleased to offer to you Lucy Navier 1818 our Queen of the May for the year 2019 presented in a limited edition 60 page booklet in full colour with an extensive stitch guide. This striking pictorial needlework sampler was stitched in the Regency era, a period in time when romanticism, elegance, high society, art and literature flourished. A bucolic scene is dominated by a magnificent English oak tree set in the parkland of a Georgian house. Woodland and a farm building can be seen on the ridge in the distance. A boy sits on the bank of a fenced pond and is fishing for his supper. To the forefront an out of scale hunting dog watches a modishly dressed girl stroll across the sampler past three lambs. The aloof cat stares regally at the observer in a way that only cats can deign to do. Above, a stunning meandering floral vine flanked by tassels hangs below an angel with spread wings. The verse Lucy chose to include in her sampler is a particularly uplifting and positive one and was taken from the hymn “Source of Light and Power Divine” written by Augustus Montague Toplady. He is best remembered as the author of the hymn “Rock of Ages.” The sampler was executed with great care and skill in a variety of stitches (see stitch guide for full details) from a palette of 26 glorious shades of silks on linen ground. The original and model side by side “Lucy Navier her work Aged 12 years 1818” has been reproduced from a sampler in the private collection of Nicola Parkman. The sampler was acquired from Witney Antiques by her husband as a Christmas gift several years ago. “Reproducing Lucy’s sampler has been an exciting and epic journey shared with an amazing needle worker who I have the greatest respect for. My grateful thanks go to Bethany Gallant for every stitch she has exquisitely executed and her patience with me as I reproduced Lucy’s tiny stitches of which there were many!” ~ Nicola
