I just started charting the German sampler dated 1704 and immediately noticed that the leaves in one of the upper third match exactly the leaves on Mary Bailey, made 114 years later.
If I hadn't been examining both samplers simultaneously I might have missed this. It isn't a huge detail, but the evidence points to the fact that printed patterns were indeed shared, over centuries. We have an ongoing legacy of patterns.
There must be a print book of patterns out there with this illustration.
Sleuthing t
ime!