Medium Silk on linen with Algerian eye, cross, and four-sided stitches; thread count: 25/inch vertical & 23/inch horizontal
Provenance Made by Lucy J. Byrns in 1845. Bought at an estate sale in Indian Hills, (eastern Jefferson County) Kentucky, in ~2000 by Private Collector #26.
Description The sampler has six rows of alphabets and limited numbers separated by lines of moderately ornate stitchery. The third and fourth rows' incomplete alphabet are unusual and perhaps unique in style. The entire sampler is surrounded by a lovely flower and vine border. At the bottom are two baskets of flowers which flank the central signature:
Lucy J. Byrns
Owen Cty Ky
Nov th 10 1845.
Lucy Jane Byrns (Burns) was born on February 14, 1831, in Owen County, Kentucky when her father, Patrick Dennis Byrns, was forty years old, and her mother, Mary Ann Spiers, was thirty two. Lucy had two brothers, one half brother and two half sisters.
At age twenty-two, Lucy married John H. Lawler (b. 8/18/1823, d. 7/28/1884) in June 1853 in her hometown. Her daughter Annie was born on November 11, 1872, in Henry County, Kentucky. Lucy Jane Byrns Lawler died on April 6, 1892, at the age of sixty-one, and was buried in the Monterey Cemetary in Monterey, Owen County, Kentucky.
An ancillary image shows Mary Spiers Byrns and her sampler maker daughter Lucy Jane Byrns in an undated photo.
