GLASGO LACE THREAD COMPANY
I encountered the fourth book in this series through a donation to our local tatting guild. I went looking for more of them, and found only the second edition(I was given the 4th edition). Eleanor Arnold was their in-house designer - I'm still trying to hunt down information on her. Miss Arnold had 12 Tidy Patterns and 12 Bed Spread Patterns offered for sale as well as the 4 crochet/knitting books. If more books and patterns were offered, I am not aware of them. Because of the difficulty in finding any information on this woman, it is likely that she(or he) was using a pen name, or was a construction of the thread mill so as not to have to acknowledge the work of their stable of designers. The latter being the most likely. I will, of course, keep digging.
Their ads offer sizes 20-100, all twilled lace thread. The third book offers a Preface signed "Nellie Arnold" and says, "...To the ladies, to whom I am under such manifold obligations for past assistance, I can only repeat my thanks. I would like, oh, so much, to take each by the hand as I said it, but as I cannot, I repeat, I thank you one and all." Is she/he referring to the designers? Its customers? What an opaque and mysterious thank you!
The last two books of this series have tatting patterns, and it was over a year before I found the third book, which I assumed would have the obligatory tatting lesson in it because it wasn't in the 4th book. So I was somewhat crestfallen when I went to the title page and saw that tatting was not listed in the title. But when I leafed through the book, I did find a handful of really lovely tatting designs on pages 57-61. This may be the first time someone offered tatting designs without wasting a lot of space giving us a sketchy tutorial to go with. There is no way from the size of the pictures to figure out the designs, and the instructions are in written notation. I haven't tested any of the patterns to see if the instructions can be followed.
The paper upon which they were printed is very poor quality - I have not found a copy of any of these books in what I would call good condition, and the covers especially are dissintegrating. I will make pdfs of all of them as soon as I am able in order to try and preserve the designs they contain, and of course I'm doing all I can to conserve the originals. I do not know yet whether the 4th book was the end of this series. I will need to find out when that thread mill closed, for one thing. So I may(or not) have the entire series of these books. If you know anything, please get in touch.
The Smithsonian Institute has some of their books listed in their collection.
Pix
Bibliography Entries
Book of Crocheting and Knitting, Book 1(second edition),
by Eleanor Arnold (TPB:1890)
Notes: 68 pages; Language: English; Publisher: Glasgo Lace Thread Co., Glasgo, CT; ISBN: None;
First edition and second edition are identical...
Book of Crocheting, Knitting and Drawn Work, Book 2,
by Eleanor Arnold (TPB:1890)
Notes: 64 pages; Language: English; Publisher: Glasgo Lace Thread Co., Glasgo, CT; ISBN: None;
Miss Arnold's Book of Crocheting, Knitting and Drawn Work, No. 3,
by Eleanor Arnold (TPB:1892)
Notes: 68 pages; Language: English; Publisher: Glasgo Lace Thread Co., Glasgo, CT; ISBN: None;
This also has a small handful of tatting patterns pages 56-61...
Miss Arnold's Book of Crocheting, Knitting, Tatting and Drawn Work, Book 4,
by Eleanor Arnold (TPB:1894)
Notes: 68 pages; Language: English; Publisher: Glasgo Lace Thread Co., Glasgo, CT; ISBN: None;
