Vancouver police are asking staff at secondhand stores and pawn shops to be on the lookout for two antique samplers recently stolen in a burglary.
The pieces are valued at $32,000. The samplers — works of cross-stitching usually produced as a test of needlework skill — feature words, pictures and geometric designs in multiple colors. They also both include a name: Maria Wise on one, Phebe Sawyer on the other.
Tuesday’s media release from the Vancouver Police Department didn’t include the age of the pieces, but stitching on one indicates it’s from around the year 1791.
“Phebe Sawyer born January 29 1778 Thirteen years,” the sampler reads.
