Antique Victorian 1857 sampler by Mary Anne Aston aged 10 this item is 167 years old incredible! Hand stitched by 10 year old Mary Anne Aston (more information to follow) shows the alphabet and some leafs etc showing great skill needle points in candle light only original frame and backing some age related wear and fading as you would expect rarer sampler's have the name and year 
25 cm wide 28 cm tall
Samplers date back to the 15th century and were used as a way of practising the needlework necessary to decorate items such as clothing, tapestries, fire-screens and bed linens in the home. 
A needlework sampler is essentially a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching that demonstrates a person’s needlework skill. They often include the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders or sometimes text. The word ‘sampler’ derives from the Latin exemplum, which means ‘example’. Rarer examples have the name and year