 Mail Order Pattern-No Brand |
 Marian Martin Mail Order Pattern |
I think that some of the most interesting pattern designs come from mail order companies. These are the companies that supplied patterns to magazines and newspapers. These patterns were very popular with rural homemakers who couldn’t get to a pattern store very frequently. The patterns came in an envelope from the magazine or newspaper usually and often had only a design number and not a brand name. You might find the very same pattern in an envelope from Grit or Progressive Farmer.
Some of the mail order patterns were branded. The most common brand names associated with patterns are Ann Adams and Marian Martin. Barbara Brackman in Women of Design reports that
Quilt Historian Wilene Smith has determined that Nathan Kogan,Max Levine,and Anne Bourne formed a business called Needlecraft Service, Inc in 1932. As yet pattern historians know nothing about the actual designers who created the innovative patterns and drawings. To add to confusion about company history,Smith found that Needlecraft Service set up two competing branches to make the most of cities with competing newspapers. Laura Wheeler might offer patterns in one newspaper and Alice Brooks in another. Each “designer” had a different New York city address, which Smith thinks were mail drops to distinguish the bylines. The company also used regional names such as Carol Curtis in the Midwest and Mary Cullen in the Northwest. Marian Martin and Ann Adams were additional bylines, primary for clothing patterns.
So how does one date these patterns?
Not easily. Looking at the design itself and the fashion can usually narrow the style to a decade.
If you’re lucky enough to have the envelope that came with the pattern, the postdate can give you the general era. However, many patterns were sold for a 4-6 year period, so any dating has to be considered approximate within that margin of error. Many of the envelopes do not have a postdate as they were metered. Cemetarian.com gives a guide to approximate dating from metering markings.
Metered Mail should be stamped. Undated meters are as follows:
- “SEC 564 PL&R” , 1 or 1 1/2 cent or similar = early 1930′s to early 1950′s
- “SEC 34.66 PL&R” , 1 1/2 cent meter = 1950′s
- “BULK RATE” the postage helps narrow down the range:
- 2 1/2 cent = July 1960 to Dec 1962
- 2 5/8 cent meter = 1963
- 2 3/4 cent meter = 1964
- 2 7/8 cent meter = Jan 1965 to Dec 1967
- 3 6/10 cent meter = Jan 1968 to Jun 1969
- 3 8/10 cent meter = Jul 1969 to May 1971
If the meter has a serial number the number might give a clue to the date:
- PB with 4 digit numbers are usually 1945 or earlier
- PB with 5 digit numbers 01000 to 01549 or PB 55000 to 56999 are usually 1933-1940
- PB with 5 digit numbers 01550 to 01999 are late 1930s to 1950′s
- PB with 5 digit numbers 05000 to 05499 or PB 5400 to 54999 are usually 1960s or 1970′s
- PB with 5 digit numbers 57000 to 59999 cane be anywhere from 1930 to 1970
- PB with 6 digit numbers are usually 1980 and later
