Acquired at a Christie’s auction on Tuesday 9 March, the sampler cost a total of £10,000 of which £5,500 was contributed by The Art Fund. Generous contributions were also made by the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Worshipful Company of Weavers. The museum does not often make additions to its collections, making this acquisition particularly important.

The Foundling Museum was established in 1998 by the childcare charity the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children (now known as Coram), which is the successor of the original Foundling Hospital. Its collections mainly focus on the history of the Foundling Hospital between its foundation in 1739 and its closure in 1954. It also houses the Gerald Coke Handel Collection (GCHC), which relates to the life and work of the composer George Frideric Handel, and a number of works by and relating to celebrated artist and social documenter William Hogarth.

The sampler was created by ten-year old Sarah Ann Quartermain. Embroidered in fawn and green silks on a natural background with a floral border, the work depicts the Foundling Hospital as it looked in 1763. Experts at the Museum have tracked down records of an ‘S.A. Quarterman’, baptised at St Andrews in Holborn, a church which has links with the Foundling. It is believed that Sarah had a personal connection with the Foundling Hospital, given that topographical samplers of known buildings are unusual, and when they do occur, they usually directly relate to the child’s experiences.

Stephen Deuchar, Director of The Art Fund, said: "The Foundling Museum is a fascinating part of London’s social history, revealing the stories behind the famous charitable foundation which cared for thousands of orphaned children at the Foundling Hospital. The Art Fund is absolutely thrilled to have helped secure this beautiful sampler for the Museum, bringing to life a child’s vision of the Hospital as it appeared in the eighteenth century, and highlighting an important element of a girl’s education at the time."

The sampler is to go on display at the museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Material Witness, which opens in October 2010. When the exhibition closes it will join the museum’s permanent display of social history, currently on view on the ground floor of the Foundling Museum.