Casgliadau Arlein

Muslin, embroidered with coloured silks in cross and satin stitches. At the top are the following inscriptions, separated by a horizontal band of Greek fret pattern: "Remember now thy Creator in the / days of thy youth while the evil days / Come not nor the years draw nigh / when thou shalt say I have no plea- / sure in them. ECCLES. 12 CHAP I VER". "Mary Williams. Her Work Aged 19 - 1835". Beneath the inscriptions, within a floral wreath, are the initials "OW/MW". The remainder is filled with a large number of detached designs - conventional flowers, flowering plants and trees, dogs, lions, birds, coronets, houses, ships, human figures, and representations of Adam and Eve, the Tree of Knowledge and serpent, almost entirely symmetrically arranged in pairs. There is a border of a wavy stem with strawberries.

Source: Guide to the Collection of Samplers & Embroideries (Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, 1939) by F. G. Payne.