Ackworth Medallion Samplers

Sampler historian Carol Humphrey calls them “mysterious medallions”: samplers containing elaborate, predominately octagonal motifs that sampler enthusiasts readily identify as Quaker. Students began to create medallion samplers at Ackworth School near Leeds, England, at the end of the eighteenth century—almost twenty years after the earliest lettering, darning, and extract samplers. Like the other types of Ackworth samplers, more individuality is found in the earlier medallion samplers while the later medallion samplers become more standardized. But the medallions represent a departure from the other types of samplers worked at the school. No evidence has been found, such as the arrival of a new teacher, that clearly explains sudden appearance of medallion samplers within the Ackworth body of work. Nor has an explanation surfaced that explains why Quakers, who espoused plainness and simplicity, condoned these decorative and fanciful medallion samplers—many of which were stitched in bright colorful threads not found in typical Quaker clothing or household items.

While the Ackworth medallion samplers resemble certain types of European samplers, Humphrey cites a theory put forth by Averil Colby in Samplers as her favorite explanation for the motifs’ emergence: they could be a cross-craft adaptation from knitted pinballs. The exchange of small, handmade gifts, such as knitted pinballs and pincushions, was a popular pastime during the same time period in which the medallion samplers were produced, although the earliest surviving pinball dates to the early eighteenth century. Ackworth pinballs and medallion samplers share many motifs in common, and knitting fancy goods was considered a more genteel activity than knitting for necessity. Although Ackworth began as a school for students from more humble backgrounds, as more prosperous students began attending Ackworth, knitting was a skill shared by all. School records reveal that Ackworth students sold knitted pinballs to earn money, and many pinballs in other museum collections may be traced to Ackworth.