Thomas Rice’s Sampler, Lyndoch Valley, South Australia


Nicola Kissane

Australiana, Vol 47 no 3, August 2025

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Sampler made for Thomas Rice, Lyndoch Valley, South Australia, c 1860, cotton threads on linen, 39 x 42 cm. Maker unknown, but possibly made by his wife Jane Rice or one of their daughters-in- law. Photograph courtesy Leski Auctions. Private collection, Sydney.

Embroidered samplers worked in various stitches by girls or young women to demonstrate their needlework skills. Typically, samplers include the alphabet, some mottoes, and simple pictures and patterns, often with the maker’s name and the date.This mid-Victorian sampler is a tribute to Thomas Rice (1808–1887), patriarch of the Rice family in South Australia, with an elevation view of his single-storied home Rose Cottage at Lyndoch in the Barossa, plus plans of its fenced stockyard andgarden, with paths and ornamental borders.

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