Crochet Sample Book

2024.014

Crochet Sample Book

Unknown

1898-1905

71.1 X 61.0 cm (28 X 24 inches)

The book is sewn down the middle by hand with ecru thread, then folded in half. There is no cover or binding, suggesting the book was made for personal use. The crochet motifs worked in ecru or white thread are sewn onto pages made of shipping paper from yarn suppliers active during the late nineteenth century. Sampler books served as pattern references in the years before the advent of books of crochet patterns in the late 1800s. Most contain 100 or so motifs, so this one is unusually extensive. This sampler was a gift from my mother who responded to an ad in her hometown newspaper (Ft. Wayne, IN). She learned that the seller had discovered the book in a drawer of a chest she had purchased at an estate sale in Ohio. Sold to my mother for $40.00, Mother worried that she had paid too much! The book was appraised at $1,100.00 in 2000; and was dated based on the shipping paper. I was thrilled to receive it and mom was delighted that she got a real bargain!

Gwen Blakley Kinsler

Antique Crochet Sampler Book with 31 pages and approximately 620 motifs.

Crochet motifs in fine thread; antique shipping paper

Thread crochet with a vast array of different designs and styles.