Antique Vintage Butterick Pattern Book Very Old 1891 and Very Rare

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This is an antique Vintage Butterick Pattern Book called "The Delineator" -A Journal of Fashion Culture and Fine Arts. Published by The Butterick Publishing Company (Limited) London & New York. 1891-- Price 15 cents. Butterick to the Great Depression Ebenezer Butterick, a tailor in Sterling, Massachusetts, was the father of a baby boy in 1863, when his wife, fashioning a dress for the infant at her sewing table, remarked how much easier it would be if she had a pattern to go by that was the same size as her son. There were patterns that served as a guide, but they came in one size only, and the sewer had to grade (enlarge or reduce) the pattern to the size needed. Ebenezer experimented with the idea of graded patterns and discovered that tissue paper was ideal to work with and much easier to package than the heavy cardboard templates he first created. The first graded sewing patterns were cut and folded by members of the Butterick family and sold from their home. In no time they needed extra space and expanded, first into an adjoining house and then to a larger house in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In the next year they established quarters in New York City. Butterick first specialized in men's and boys' clothing but in 1866 began to manufacture dress patterns. Soon the women's line included dresses, jackets, and capes in 13 sizes and skirts in five sizes. By 1873 Butterick was selling some six million patterns a year, at 25 cents each. By 1876 the firm (then called E. Butterick & Co.) had 100 branch offices and 1,000 agencies throughout the United States and Canada. Butterick patterns also had made their debuts in London, Vienna, Berlin, and even Paris, the international center of fashion, where more patterns were sold from the Butterick Shop than anywhere else in the world. Corporate headquarters were moved in 1903 to the new 16-story Butterick Building in what is now known as Manhattan's Soho district. Butterick was now one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the industry, and the building, constructed expressly for the firm and featuring interiors designed by Louis Tiffany, housed the largest printing plant in the world except for the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. Inside the Butterick Building, which employed some 2,000 workers, merchandisers brought ideas fresh from the latest European designer showings. New styles were made up in muslins, scrutinized for line silhouettes and fashion, and also for practicality and suitability to the company's customers. After the season's styles had been chosen, patterns were created, graded into sizes, printed on tissue papers, and cut, folded, and inserted into envelopes, complete with instruction sheets. These patterns sold for ten or 15 cents each. For use in magazine articles and advertisements, garments were constructed, sketched with pen and ink, and engraved for colored fashion plates. Butterick entered the magazine business in 1867 in order to showcase its patterns and induce women to order patterns by mail. The Delineator, founded in 1873, evolved into a service magazine with general topics of interest to women as well as fashion news.In 1873, Butterick created a new publication called The Delineator. Originally, The Delineator was intended simply to market Butterick patterns. However, it quickly expanded into a general interest magazine for women in the home. As readership skyrocketed, The Delineator continually gained revenues and prestige. By the turn of the century, it was considered to be the finest women's service and fashion magazine.(copied from Butterick Co., Inc. the Company). read more

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