Sampler mid-17th century British The canvas ground of this spot sampler is a crowded, asymmetrical flurry of ornamental designs; these include fauna, such as birds, snails, a boar, and butterflies; a variety of fantastic flora in the form of flowering and fruiting branches and stylized blossoms known as slips; and geometric interlacing patterns similar to those of newly fashionable "knot" parterres, designs for which were first published in England by Thomas Hyll in his Proffitable Art of Gardening (1568). The sampler is divided roughly into two parts, with the natural world presented at the top and geometric motifs below.Spot samplers may have come closest to fulfilling the etymological destiny of the sampler, or exemplar, as "an example to be imitated; a model, pattern; an archetype." They are composed of collections of patterns and stitches to which the maker might refer when she was in need of inspiration or guidance for a particular technique. They generally do not include a date