Among the few significant recent sales of Deerfield material was a linen square stitched with blue flowers, which brought $1,000 last year at Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville, N.J.
Mary Carr's 1825 linen square is mostly blank; she managed to complete some colorful triangles, an alphabet and two words from a religious verse before her death at 10. Historians collaborating through the Sampler Archive Project have set out to document all American pieces.
Wool puffed vest, $1,410, cotton windowpane blazer, $2,280, cotton shirt, $815, cotton stone washed trousers, $475, and linen pocket square, $80, by Brunello Cucinelli; www.brunellocucinelli.com.
If any of this is wearying, it's not evident in his dress: He is wearing a chambray blue denim Ralph Lauren sport coat, white linen pocket square, monogrammed blue and red striped button down and black silk knot cufflinks; khakis, saddle brown loafers (no socks), also by Ralph Lauren, and a taupe Sea Island cap pulled over his wispy brown hair.
His purchase of a set just like it, plus two changes of linens and two square European-style pillows, set him back $1,400 -- a bit more than the tab for a three-night stay at the hotel.
Corporals are square linens that are a little smaller than the post Communion veil.
It wears a square, ivory linen shade and takes a 100-watt bulb.
As Parisian bistros go, it was no better or worse than most, but a bit dressier, with white linen on the small square tables.
In her office, she arranged a three-foot-high fern and a rectangular table by Perriand so that they would be glimpsed through a square of linen hanging from the ceiling.
Across the classroom, Nawal lay flat on her stomach with her sneakers on, her sheet folded under her in an untouched square of linen.
They worked on squares of linen that looked as if they were being readied for a priest's vestry.
