Margaret Kibbe

This important Connecticut sampler holds enormous visual appeal; the subject and composition are outstanding, and the needlework is excellent. But it is the fact of the green, linsey-woolsey ground fabric that makes the sampler truly spectacular. Adding to the significance is the fact that it was in the collection of Theodore H. Kapnek (1905-1980), a sampler collector who was extremely well-regarded. Prior to that collection, the sampler was owned by another important collector, Mrs. Thomas A. Lawton, and was included in the seminal 1921 publication, American Samplers by Bolton & Coe (National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Massachusetts).

Signed, “Margaret Kibbe’s Sampler wrought in the year 1806,” the sampler features a fine Federal brick house with details that include window mullions, fan windows and a door with an iron knocker and door-pull. The house is flanked by a brick well with a bucket and metal handle, and a lattice bench on a fine lawn with many plants and two fat spotted animals. The flora includes leafy trees, a strawberry plant and a delicate grapevine, with two birds and a large moth in the upper corners.

The Kibbe family in America began with Edward Kibbe (1611-1694) who emigrated to Massachusetts in 1639. Many generations later, Margaret Kibbe was born in 1785, the daughter of Capt. Amariah (1746-1829) and Hannah Kibbe of Somers, a small town in northern Connecticut, near the Massachusetts border. 

Margaret was 21 when she made this sampler, and shortly afterwards married Daniel Grover (1779-1860). They became the parents of 10 children born between 1807 and 1826. Margaret died in 1843 and is buried in East Cemetery, in Tolland with her parents and husband.

The sampler was worked in silk on linsey-woolsey fabric and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a fine mahogany frame.