Sampler motifs can have several and contradictory meanings, here we have compiled an alphabetical list of motifs, some of which can be found in our designs and antique collection.

 

Anchor:

• Safety, salvation, fidelity, prudence

Angel:

• The messengers or attendants of God. A guardian
• With trumpet – the voice of God

Apple:                            

• In serpent’s mouth  – original sin
• Apple tree with seven apples – the seven deadly sins
• As a gift – a declaration of love

Barley:        

• Fertility, life after death.

Basket:                          

• With flowers – hope, friendship and love
• With fruit – love, prosperity, health and happiness

Bear:

• Cruelty, vengeance, greed

Bees: 

• Hope, diligence, industry, sociability, selflessness, wisdom, courage, sobriety

Bee Hive or Skep:

• Maternal protection

Beetle:

• Blindness

Bell:

• Divine voice of truth, music, festivity, proclaims good news, warns of danger and tolls for death

Birds:

• Carrying a letter – declartion of love
• On floral branches – love of nature
• With crowned heart – love
• A pair of birds – eternal life
• Blackbirds – temptation
• Birdcage:
• Hope

Bows and Ribbons:

• Romantic love, a secret beau

Bull:

• Vigor, power, strength

Butterfly:

• Liberation, pleasure, inconstancy
• playfulness, transformation
  resurrection
• Camel:
• Sobriety

Candelabra:

• With seven branches – wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, devotion and fear of God

Candle or Candlestick:

• Devotion, watchfulness, prayer, hospitality

Carnation:

• True love, poverty
• Red carnation – betrothal
• Pink carnation – maternal love
• Vase of carnations – good luck

Castle:

• A challenge, heavenly home.

Cat:

• Deceit, love of ease, freedom, cleverness
• stealth, witchcraft

Caterpillar:

• Metamorphism
• Chain:
• Servitude

Chair:

• Hospitality, domesticity, diligence

Chamomile:

• Health

Cherry Tree:

• Prosperity, health and happiness

Cherub:

• Faith

Chicken:

• Charity

Circle:

• Eternity, unity,
• With  a square within – heaven enclosing earth
• Within a square – divinity in an earthly body

Clock:

• Temperance, moderation

Clover:

• Good luck

Cock:

• Vigilance, pride, insolence

Colours:

• Black – Grief, despair, death, disaster
• Blue – Hope, piety, faith, fidelity, modesty, humility, chastity
• Pale Blue – Peace, heaven infinity, sky
• Brown – Humility, poverty, renunciation
• Gold – Sun, fire, glory, god, divinity
• Gray – Penance, humility, tribulation, melancholy
• Green – Faith, immortality, joy, youth, renewal, gladness, faith
• Pale Green – Baptism
• Purple – Royalty, magnificence, justice
• Red – Divine love, charity, life, war, martyrdom
• Speckled – Diversity
• Violet – Temperance, penitence, spirituality, transition from life to death
• White – Light, truth, purity, innocence, hope, baptism, virginity, initiation
• Yellow – Faith, wisdom, constancy, glory

Corn, Grain or wheat

• Growth, rebirth, sacramental bread, gift of life

Cornucopia

• Health, generosity, horn of plenty, fertility

Coronet

• A type of crown – but one of lesser rank than a crown

Cow

• Maternal nourishment

Cowslip – Primula

• This plant represents the keys of St Peter

Crab 

• Deceit, cruelty

Crayfish

• A heraldic symbol

Crocodile

• Avarice, dissolution, hypocrisy, agent of divine retribution

Cross

• The four winds, faith in god
• the four cardinal points

Crow

• Bad luck, evil, death, war, solitude, longevity, hope – a predictor of the future

Crown

• Royalty, monarchy, noble rank, badge of authority, dignity, sovereignty, fidelity, innocence

Cuckoo

• A good omen – of summer and its abundance

Daffodil

• National symbol of Wales, regret, the flower of Hades

Daisy

• Humility, fickleness, deceit

Devil

• Symbols relating to the devil are: locusts, dragons, serpents, swine.

Dog

• Loyalty, protection, knowledge
• Also pertains to the sense of smell

Dolphin

• Speed, love, diligence, a forewarning of storms

Dove

• Peace, charity, mercy, tenderness, fidelity, humility, simplicity, meekness

Dragon

• Evil, sin, chaos, paganism, satan

Dragonfly

• Speed, lightness, elegance

Duck

• Deceit

Eagle

• Majesty, strength, faith, pride, inspiration, lofty thoughts, keen eyesight, courage, ascension of Christ

Eclipse

• Symbol is a rayed sun with a centre black filling – symbolising an ill omen

Elephant

• Ponderousness, temperance, sagacity

Faith

• Symbols for faith include: anchor, book, lighted candle, chalice, child, church, cross, crown, triangle, unicorn

Falcon

• Pride, nobility

Fan

• Romance, flirtation

Fish

• Symbolises Christ
• baptised, Eucharist

Fleur de lis

• The trinity

Flowers

• Nature, spring, youth, paradise, gentleness

Fly

• Evil, pestilence, insignificance

Forget me nots

• Loyalty, friendship

Fountain

• Purification, inspiration, knowledge, life force

Fox

• Wisdom, cunning, artfulness, gluttony

Frog

• Heresy, devil, harbinger of spring rains

Fruit

• Prosperity, abundance, earthly pleasures

Garland

• Victory, joy of nature, eternity, innocence

Gate

• Symbolises the passage into heaven

Goat

• Lust, folly, lasciviousness, Satan

Goldfinch

• The Christian soul

Goose

• Conceit, stupidity, watchfulness, folly, gullibility, love, marital happiness

Grapes

• The blood of Christ

Grasshopper

• Old age

Griffin

• Vigilance, guardian, sacred

Halo

• Sanctity, holiness, divinity

Hare

• Gentleness,
• faintheartedness
• timidity
• melancholy

Harp

• Purity, poetry, music, harmony

Hart

• Wisdom of God, gentleness, pride, manliness, solitude, purity

Hawk

• Superiority, liberty, rapacity

Heart

• Love, divine, joy, sorrow, compassio
• Crowned heart – fidelity, love
• With cross and anchor – faith, hope, love
• With crosses – faith and hope
• With tree and cherub – love, hope, faith
• With key – key to the heart
• Pierced by arrow – love
• Winged – prayer

Hedgehog

• Gluttony, prudence, pugnacity

Heron

• Good omen, inquisitiveness, conquering the vicissitudes of life

Holly

• Winter, hope, joy,
• Christmas holidays,
• the resurrection

Honeysuckle / Woodbine

• Enduring faith, generous, affection

Hoopoe (bird)

• Filial devotion

Horse

• Masculinity, pride, speed,
• grace, ardour, vitality
• White Horse – Victory
• Black horse – Famine, death

Horseshoe

• Good fortune, luck

Hour glass

• Temperance, mortality

Household items

• Domesticity, hospitality

Iris

• Purity, protection, rainbow

Ivy

• Immortality, fidelity, tenacity, eternal life

Key

• Fidelity, authority, entry, initiation, knowledge

Kingfisher

• Fidelity, peace,
• a righteous man,
• immortality, holiness

Knots

• Infinity, longevity

Lamb

• Youth, innocence, gentleness, humility, charity, sacrifice, purity

Lamp

• Spirit, truth, intelligence

Leopard

• Sin, devil, ferocity, courage, pride, speed

Lily

• Saints, deliverance,
• chastity, purity, innocence

Lion

• Strength, majesty, courage, authority, wisdom, protection, steadfastedness

Lizard

• Resurrection

Lobster

• Contemptuous symbol for a Roundhead (soldier) – also for redcoats (soldiers)

Lotus

• Fertility, forgetfullness

Lute

• Music, hearing, harmony

Lyre

• Harmony, music

Maple leaf

• Symbol of Canada

Marigold

• Obedience, purity, ray of light, purity, perfection

Mermaid

• Vanity, temptation

Milk

• Rebirth, immortality, compassion, abundance

Mirror

• Pride, vanity, magic, soul

Monkey

• Devil, folly, lust, cunning, laziness, unclean, malice, idolatry

Moth

• Pleasure, frivolity

Mountains

• Holy places

Numbers

• One – Unity
• Two – Duality, diversity, strife, evil
• Three – Harmony, Holy Trinity
• Four – Power, justice, solidity, square, earth, continents
• Five – Christianity, senses
• Six – Justice, union, equilibrium
• Seven – Sacred and magical number, completion, perfection, wisdom, understanding etcetera
• Eight – Perfection, regeneration
• Nine – Mystical number comprising three matters: hell; angels, man and his ages
• Ten – Perfection
• Eleven – Sin, danger, conflict
• Twelve – Union of spiritual and earthly planes

Oak tree

• Endurance, longevity, might

Oak leaves

• Bravery

Octagon

• Nature, rebirth, baptism

Olive, Olive branch, Olive tree

• Peace, prosperity, goodwill, strength, beauty

Orange tree

• Virginity

Owl

• Wisdom, learning

Ox

• Patience, strength, fortitude, pride, submissiveness

Pansy

• Good wises and good thoughts

Parrot

• The woman, gossip, loquacity, mocking verbosity

Peacock

• Ostentation, pride,
• vanity, purity,
• immortality, an ill omen

Pelican

• Piety, charity, unselfish love

Phoenix

• Rebirth, hope, charity, resurrection

Pig

• Gluttony, obstinacy, Satan, selfishness

Pillar

• Strength, support

Pine tree

• Fidelity, Christmas

Pineapple

• Hospitality

Pomegranate

• Abundance, prosperity

Poppies

• Showy,
• not matched by real worth

Primrose

• Youth, first love, premature death

Rabbit

• Timidity, gentleness

Rainbow

• Hope, promise

Ram or Ram’s head

• Perseverance

Rat

• Avarice, destructiveness, foresight

Raven

• Ill omen, death,
• infection, bad luck

Ring

• Marriage, union, eternity, wholeness, authority

Robin

• Trust

Rose

• Love, beauty, joy, silence, patience

Salamander

• Courage

Scales

• Justice

Scallop

• Hope, pilgrim, resurrection

Sceptre (Scepter)

• Sovereignty

Scissors

• Mortality, unpredictability

Serpent

• Wisdom, healing,
• envy, cunning, treachery,
• malignancy

Sheep

• Meekness, silliness, inoffensiveness

Shell

• Love, good fortune

Snail

• Sloth, lazy

Spinning wheel

• Domesticity, diligence

Squirrel

• Slyness, rogue like, mischief

Staff

• Power, authority

Stag

• Faithfulness, charity

Stairs

Progress to enlightenment

Star

• Bravery, patriotism

Stork

• Good luck, purity, spring messenger, constancy, parental love

Strawberry

• Perfect righteousness

Sun

• Vitality, heat, courage, knowledge

Swallow

• Renewal, resurrection,
• messenger of spring

Swan

• Grace, love, a good death, good luck for seafarers

Table

• Domesticity, hospitality, contentment, diligence

Thistle

• Punishment, emblem of Scotland

Thunderbolt

• Justice

Toad

• Lust, avarice, darkness, evil

Tortoise

• Chastity, determination, slowness

Tree

• Growth, regeneration, rebirth

Trident

• Sea power, personification of Britain

Rose

• Red rose – Emblem of Henry VII (1457 – 1509)
• White rose – Emblem of House of York

Tulip

• Love, woman, worldly folly

Turkey

• Thanksgiving, insolence

Turtle dove

• Fidelity

Unicorn

• Purity, charity

Vase

• Femininity

Violet

• Humility, innocence,
• modesty, shyness

Virgins

• A row of ten female figure; the wise holding lamps and the foolish ones without a flame! Also symbolises imprudence

Water

• Source of life

Weathercock

• Vigilance

Weeping Willow

• Mourning, loss,
• sorrow, bereavement

Well

• Truth, knowledge, truth

Whale

• Regeneration

Windmill

• Energy, life, labour

Winepress

• Contrition

Woodpecker

• Protection