Pattern Book

It was the mail-order catalog of the 18th Century - by Harold B. Gill, Jr.

Pattern book illustrations of ladle and candlestick mimic actual objects

JUST BEFORE Nicholas Cresswell left England for America in April 1774, James Longsdon, a merchant in Liverpool, gave him a pattern book to take with him. Longsdon wanted Cresswell to sell merchandise to the colonists for him.

Just before the Summer Issue of the Colonial Williamsburg Journal came out in 1998, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation acquired for its collections a bound volume of drawings of tools and hardware made as the first step in preparation of a pattern book. They were copied by a copper-plate engraver and then used to print the final work. The printed book was designed to provide potential customers with illustrations of the varieties of goods available from the manufacturer or distributor.