MASSACHUSETTS ATTRIBUTED PICTORIAL NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER, silk on linen, top half with four alphabet and numeral rows segmented by horizontal bands of decorative stitching, lower half signed with a verse "Almena Sherman is my name / With my needle I wrote the same / Leave this for my friends to have / When I am dead and in my grave" opposing another four-row verse of "My golden hours will soon be ore / When I can go to school no more / I would not endure the pain / Of having spent my time in vain", all above a picket fence-lined street scene featuring people and animals walking in front of a three-story building flanked by another building, trees, and a bird, all encompassed by a scrolling flowering-vine border. Housed under glass in a modern veneer frame. Circa 1825. 23 3/4" x 16 3/4" sight, 27 1/4" x 20 1/4" OA. Very good overall condition with light fading and fugitive color to some thread, pink thread with probable spots of later-added dye or pigment, a hole in lower left-hand corner, frame with minor wear. Not examined out of frame. Provenance: From the collection of Nick Routson, Phoenix, AZ.M. Finkel & Daughter, 2005 (retains dealer label). Catalogue Note: Probably identified as Almena (Almina/Elmina) Sherman, who was born on March 12, 1812 in North Adams, Berkshire Co., MA to parents Solomon Sherman (1779-1819) and Sarah "Sally" Chadwick (Shadwick) (1787-1858). In 1836, she married William Weir (1798-1880) of Washington Co., New York, and they had six children. Almena died in 1865 and is buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Cambridge, NY.