Monday, June 5, 2017

A Bit of History

    One of the first books I ever got was Tatting Patterns and Designs, by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. This, I find, is a staple for a lot of tatters. I have at least 3 copies of it around here, paperback and electronic. Yes, I bought the e-book. Last week I saw that Amazon had a hard copy available for under $11.00. That is cheap. I had never seen a hard copy. All I ever knew was the blue paperback.
The book was published October 1974.














    Well, I collect tatting books (approaching 200) and so I ordered it. It was listed as very good condition. It is. It still has the paper slip cover and it is not torn. the pages are all nice and no marks. The pages are starting to yellow ever so slightly. This is a really nice copy. I noticed the original price was $6.50. It is part of the slip cover just inside the front leaflet.
    What has stunned me are the photos below. I had never ever seen photos of the ladies that wrote this book. To be honest, not knowing anything about Scandinavian names, I thought Gun was a man's name. It is nice to finally put faces with the names. This book will have a place of honor in my library, right beside Mary Konior and, if I ever find an original, Dora Young.


     By the way, there are still copies of the hardback available on Amazon.

10 comments:

  1. Joyce Kilmer is a man I went to visit a beautiful memorial forest and found that out there. Reminds me of younger years when I first saw music videos I just imagined totally different people ❤️🌹❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. How interesting! I have this book in paperback but have never tried anything, what,s your favorite pattern?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My favorite is the bridal crown called Faith, though I have never completed it. I have made a couple of the doilies. The one on page 67 called Heptagon is on my dresser in the bedroom.

      Delete
  3. How fortunate to have such a great find!! Green with envy :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good find! It certainly is interesting to see photos of the authors, thanks for sharing them with the rest of us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this book - great copy! I've tatted a number of things from the book.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The doily that was under the candlestick - I was thinking I'd seen it in that Blomqvist and Persson book. Have a quick look and see if you can find it in there. I remember making one - either the same as yours, or very similar - years ago, and I don't own any Workbaskets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking on page 66 is a doily called Coppelia. The only difference is round 3. Could it be a coincidence? This is probably a very popular pattern and people just change it a little. The difference in round 3 is only where one ring is attached.

      Delete
  7. What a great picture of Gun and Elwy. This is a great book for any tatters library.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love that book as well! I have two copies, one that is well-loved and one that has barely been touched. I'll have to go looking for a hard cover copy. I wasn't aware they were available.

    ReplyDelete