Peace

Watch samplers in needlework or cut paper were typically created by young ladies as gifts to be secreted within a gentleman’s pocket watch case. They were seen as love tokens to be worn close to the heart. This example may have been intended for a regimental sweetheart about to go on an overseas campaign. It includes an officer on horseback, a symbolic pair of tiny love birds and a couple of forget-me-not flowers.

The art of paper-cutting was fashionable at the Court of George III whose daughter Princess Elizabeth was an ardent cutter. Tiny sharp scissors and pointed quill knives were used to cut the paper with great delicacy.

Cut from laid paper and in remarkable condition with just a little dust-soiling and small loss to the initial P of Peace, the piece is loosely placed on red paper and presented in a turned wood frame.