Emily’s sampler is offered to you in two different formats ~ as a printed booklet and as an instant PDF download. Details of the PDF download can be found HERE.
The sampler is worked with cross stitch over two threads of linen and four-sided stitch. Emily can be worked on Aida, Linaida, or linen and is rated as suitable for all levels of ability.
Emily’s needlework has been reproduced using the slightly mellowed colours found on the front of her sampler. The ten-year-old child used wool and 20ct Penelope canvas to create an elegant sampler that gracefully flows from row to row. Her sampler contains elements that are reminiscent of the artwork on Roman Catholic prayer cards. Emily recorded that she completed her pretty sampler on November 18, 1874 at the Convent of Mercy in Chelsea.
Emily Augustine Marie Wildhack was born on April 13, 1864 in Chelsea, London, to Robert Andrew Frederick Wildhack and Marie Josephine Arcolier. Robert, a courier, was born in Vienna and became a naturalised British subject; Marie was born in Belgium. They married on August 31, 1847 in London. Emily was named after a sister who died in 1860 before reaching her first birthday.
In the 1881 census return the family are recorded as living at 61 Sydney Street, Chelsea. Today, Chelsea is an affluent area in West London on the north bank of the River Thames and forms part of London’s fashionable West End district; it is predominantly residential in character and includes a royal palace and the embassies of several countries. It once had a reputation as London’s bohemian quarter, the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets; today it is home to investment bankers and film stars. When the Wildhack family lived there, Sydney Street with its two- and three-storeyed terraces housed a range of professionals and tradesmen.
Emily married Rudolph August Levedag on January 9, 1890 at the City Hall in Amsterdam. Rudolph was a hotel owner in Hilversum. Rudolph died on February 18, 1901, leaving Emily with a son and daughter to raise. We have not found Emily’s date of death, but we believe that she died in The Netherlands.
Emily’s legacy is her needlework, and we hope that her sampler brings you many hours of enjoyment.
