This volume deals with “samplers”, embroidery pattern books popular in Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It includes beautiful examples contemporarily held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, with authentic photographs and information relating to materials and production. Highly recommended for those with an interest in the history of decorative needlework. Contents include: “Embroidery”, “Samplers”, “England”, “Foreign Samplers”, “America”, and “Bibliography. Sources of Meaning in the Speech of Infants”, “Gaps, Gluts and Vagaries of a Native Terminology”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on embroidery.