Early 20^th Century Tatting

As the 19th century moved into the 20th century, there was a fashion for thicker threads. Here is an example:

Interestingly the round motif is the same as one shown on a collar in the Pam Palmer book, page 20 (see the list of Historical Tatting Books). The doily shows advances in tatting as there are properly joined picots and chains too. Other pictures of thicker tatting from this time can be seen in the tatting of Queen Elisabeth of Roumania and Lady Katharin Hoare: obviously using thicker threads was a matter of taste rather than ability!

The following doily is part of a vanity set and probably dates back to the early 1900s. The wheel motif is still popular today, but seems to have been particularly so in the early 1900s judging from the Lacis book "Tatting Designs from Victorian Lacecraft". This is a collection of patterns which were first printed in about 1909, and the wheel motif features in 11 of them! The linen centres are embroidered with Feather Stitch.

This illustrates a detail from another piece in the vanity set:

This embroidered doyley edged with tatting evokes the 1930s to 50s and images of afternoon tea with pretty china. Versions of this edging pattern appeared in the Anne Orr books which were first published in the 1930's and 1940s, so that ties in with the style of the embroidery. (Diameter 6.5" or 16cm)

We would love to feature more examples of tatting from the first half of the 20th century. Contributions welcome, please do send us a photo or scan.