object · polyester filament · context · linen sampler, 1640 · impossibility · petroleum chemistry, dye not yet synthesised
the sampler is correct in almost every respect. ground of evenweave linen, the year picked out in cross-stitch, the initials of m. v. h., bands of madder and indigo and walnut. between the third band and the embroiderer's mark there is one line of magenta filament that catches the lamplight with a hardness madder will not give.
under the loupe the magenta thread is monofilament, extruded, dyed with a coal-tar dye not patented until 1858. the brass needle in the corner still trails several inches of it. somebody, in never, sat down at this sampler in good light and stitched a few centimetres of polyester through it before setting the needle in the corner and walking away.
the supposition: a conservator practiced a repair, then forgot. the supposition: m. v. h. stitched it deliberately, having seen the dye from elsewhere. the supposition: the thread arrived in the linen and grew there, like a memory the cloth did not consent to.
field-note · the magenta has not faded a tone in three centuries. the indigo has lost half its blue.
lacework · ribbon · memory · never · plastic · relic