Das Deutsche Stickmuster Museum

My visit to the Sampler Museum in the charming town of Celle was such a treat.   I read on the Needleprint Blog that the future of the museum was uncertain since the couple that owned it wanted to retire.  Well, some issues on that front have been worked out - the City of Celle has bought the collection - that is the good news.  If it will remain in the building it is in now is not certain.  The bad news is that some items remain in dispute and are therefore under lock and key until the courts can decide what should happen.  Some of these disputed items include the inventory of the gift shop.... hence there was no stash enhancements to be had.  In addition Mr. Conneman ( the owner) passed away and was buried the day prior to my visit.  But lets start in the beginning.

Here I am eagerly approaching the building...

As you can see  - the windows are covered to protect the samplers from the sun.  Olivia came along, and as we entered we were greeted by a very nice man who had settled in for a quiet afternoon.  I was ready to pay my 3 Euro entrance fee plus my fee for the guided tour, but he said just to go ahead and look around while I waited for my tour guide.  I asked permission to take pics  and he smiled and said gave his permission... when I asked him if he prefer I not use my flash, he had a confused look on his face and after a moment shrugged his shoulders and said that was fine.  I was surprised that he even gave me permission to photograph the samplers.  We were the only people in the museum, and so I popped my head back into the reception and asked how busy they usually are, he smiled and said that hardly any people come to the museum.  What a shame.... 

In the first room the samplers displayed were from the Saxony area of Germany - I saw two samplers on the wall that just took my breath away...one was pictured in the most recent issue of SANQ. This is one of the oldest samplers in this collection dating from 1643. 

Here is a close-up of the lace followed by a close-up of the bottom stitching.

The portion of the sampler pictured below hangs next to this sampler - one side is all white work (not pictured), and the other is a band sampler - this one dates closer to 1630 and I am amazed at the colors.

Most of the samplers in the first room are long narrow band samplers, heavy on religious symbolism without any verses and just a smattering of alphabets.

This almost concludes the first room.  Now I am off to seven hours of baseball, softball and soccer... something I did not consider when I had 4 children.  At least it is sunny and beautiful out.  More later.