An unlimited fancy: Ann Flower's Sketchbook, 1753-1765

Abstract

Between the years 1753 and 1765, the Flower sisters of Philadelphia produced at least seven pieces of embroidery significant in the variety of techniques employed and the quality of workmanship. One among them, Ann, also created a sketchbook of over thirty pages of pencil, ink, and watercolor drawings, ranging from whimsical birds and flowers, to figures and houses, bold embroidery designs, and copies of botanical prints. This thesis examines Ann Flower's sketchbook as a component of women's education, as a key to deciphering the creative process that produced Philadelphia embroideries, and as a rare document of drawing practices from colonial America. When compared to the work of contemporary draughtsmen and embroiderers, Ann Flower's sketchbook exhibits her unconstrained experiments in art, her familiarity with the fashionable idioms of the day, and her final determination to direct her drawing to the service of her needlework.