Embroidered Samplers as charms

 Embroidered samplers:  I’m surprised to find that this article from the Victoria &Albert Museum does not mention the charms.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/embroidery-a-history-of-needlework-samplers

I found a Zalktis - the good snake in the samplers pictured in this article from the V&A.  There are many other symbols of fertility/abundance.  I should make a list of them.

The article discusses the boxer as a mysterious figure.  But it’s not so mysterious:  it looks like a figure of male fertility.  It matches all the other wild men in the book, Santa Claus: Last of the Wild Men by Phyllis Siefker, published in 1997 by McFarland ISBN 978-0786429585.

My guess is the boxer matches Punch (of Punch and Judy fame); he matches Harlequin with his elegant walking stick, and he matches the leader of Scottish bagpipe troupes with his great club.  There was also a pagan tradition of beating people with birch branches for good luck - that’s the boxer.  How about the tradition of representing the New Year as a little boy? -That, also.

Many old samplers were made by young girls.  I think their age made the sampler more powerful as a protective charm.  There was a belief that before they had children, all their fertility was held inside.  I think they had to complete the sampler before they became a bride.  All our extravagant weddings today are a remnant of the belief that the bride and groom are the embodiment of all that is fertile and abundant. And once they probably represented the gods: lord and lady of life.

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