The upper third of the sampler has four rows of alphabets and numbers separated by simple crossbands. At the end of the fourth row are the letters “AEC, (thought to be the sampler maker’s initials), set on a green rectangular background. In the mid-portion of the sampler is a verse very commonly seen on samplers. The epitaph which follows is Psalm 49:3.6:

Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand,
As the first efforts of a youthful hand,
And while her fingers o’er the canvas move,
Engage her tender heart to seek thy love.

Epitaph
My Saviour shall my life restore
And raise me from my dark abode,
My flesh and soul shall part no more,
But dwell forever near my God.

The lower portion of the sampler has a green lawn with several trees and offset to the right, a two chimney, nine-over-one façade, Federal style house . In the foreground to the left is a weeping willow tree with several branches cascading over an outsized memorial urn with the inscription:
In
Memory of
Mrs Mary
Cave who
died Jan
16 1841
aged
27

There is a circumferential somewhat unusual “open-flower” and vine border surrounded by a more peripheral, highly damaged border, with the damage likely due to the prior use of tacks to adhere the sampler to a backing board.

The “AEC” at the end of the fourth row of alphabets, is thought to be the sampler maker, Ann Eliza Cave (03/25/1828-09/??/1841). She was born in Boone County, Kentucky, the daughter of John Cave (10/18/1799-09/28/1859), a Colonel in the Mexican War, and Lucy White (04/16/1800-04/15/1872)(m. 10/25/1821, officiated by C. Wilson in Boone County, Kentucky). Her siblings were Belfield (1822-1842), Almeda (1826-1827), Madeline (1833-1844), and John (1843-1932).

Ann Eliza Cave’s father, John D. Cave (10/18/1799-09/28/1859), had a brother named Belfield Cave (07/31/1804-10/7/1849). Belfield Cave married his first cousin one time removed, Mary Polly Cave (12/13/1813-??/16/1841)(m. 12/16/1828), and by marriage she became Mary Polly Cave Cave. This Mary Polly Cave Cave, per FindaGrave.com has a death date of 16 ??, 1841 and is buried in Petersburg, Boone County, Kentucky, in the Graves Family Cemetary. The gravestone is broken and the month of her death is illegible, but the day (16) matches the sampler. As such, the sampler maker, Ann Eliza Cave embroidered her mourning sampler as a memorial to her aunt, “Mrs. Mary Cave” (Mary Polly Cave Cave), who died on 01/16/1841.

Interestingly, Belfield Cave and Mary Polly Cave Cave had a child named Elizabeth Cave, born on 04/10/1829 and died on…03/31/1841, the same year as Mary Poly Cave Cave and Ann Eliza Cave. It is remotely conceivable that this Elizabeth Cave is the sampler maker “AEC”, but given the aforementioned Bible data, a time span of only two months between the deaths of Mary Polly Cave Cave and her daughter Elizabeth Cave, and the constellation of other information, AKS strongly favors “AEC” being Ann Eliza Cave. Furthermore, Ann Eliza Cave is more likely to have memorialized her aunt as “Mrs Cave” rather than Elizabeth Cave doing so. Elizabeth more likely would have used “Mother” or other term of endearment rather than “Mrs Cave”.

Ann Eliza Cave died of “consumption” in Boone County, Kentucky in September 1841, some eight months after the death of her aunt,” Mrs Mary Cave”. AKS could not find her burial site.

Mourning samplers from Kentucky are exceedingly rare with Ann Eliza’s being only the second such sampler documented by AKS. Interestingly, Maria E. Arthur’s mourning sampler, (https://antiquekentuckysamplers.org/collection/maria-e-arthur/), is from Kenton County, also in northern Kentucky.