Wiehler MAGAZIN - Wiehler Gobelin

symbols of temptation, christening, sacrificial death and
salvation. It appears together with numerous most beautiful
symbols such as plant ornaments (paradise, resurrection),
heart (love), birds (transcendence) cogs (the voyage
of life), 4-poster bed (domesticity, home, hospitality) and
a house with stork and owl (wisdom) on the roof. It was in
1787, when the spinster Anna, with thousands of tiny crossstitches,
completed the sampler that was to accompany her
through life as her very personal treasure and be passed on
to her daughter after her death.
„The sampler was like a notebook“, the director
of the museum explains. „ At the top edge there
were letters and numbers for labelling the dowry
as the obligatory part of the sampler...
When Elfi Connemann looks at this embroidered sampler
she is constantly fascinated by its unbelievable fineness,
its aesthetics and the poetry that speaks through the
The elegant layout takes the form of a spacious alignment of rooms
with high double doors, reticent coffered wall panelling and splendid
rococo stucco ceilings that vary in design from room to room. in
the large Gartensaal (Picture) one can find the original floorboards
Wiehler MAGAZIN – May 2007 Page
pictures. She runs the German Sampler Museum in Celle and
can tell many a story about her exhibits. Most of the approx.
30 x 40 cm small samplers were once used for teaching young
girls the skills of embroidery and for training their sense of
colour and shape. But also the development of virtues such as
diligence, orderliness, cleanliness, domesticity, obedience and
self-denial formed part of female upbringing. In the “Jongfern-Scholen“
(Girls’ Schools) in the protestant north where
they were mostly run by the vicar’s wife, and in the catholic
south, the emphasis was on handicrafts. Each girl between 5
and 15 years of age embroidered her own sampler as a reference
and collection cloth for motifs. „The sampler was like a
notebook,“ the director of the museum explains. „At the top
edge there were letters and numbers for labelling the dowry
as the obligatory part of the sampler and below this so-tospeak
the “freestyle” part, i.e. Christian and worldly motifs
in brightly-coloured diversity. “If a marriage was imminent,
then the bride presented her „Musterfleck“ (literally “sample
spot”), as the little cloths were called, to her future mother-inlaw
as a „proof “ of her skills and her virtues. If the sampler
was convincing, the proficient girl was married „on the spot“.
of the time. The harmony between the fragile exhibits and the wonderful
interiors conveys a historic atmosphere that alone captivates
the visitors and transports them into a very special world.