ALEXANDRE – MANUEL DE BRODERIES NO. 179
ELEVEN WHITEWORK ALPHABETS
P-YS021 Maison Alexandre – Manuel de Broderies No. 179
All whitework alphabets. Four extra small ones for handkerchiefs, one slightly larger decorated with flowers. Five medium ones, one large, four pages with each three border designs, and four pages with crowns, initials, and names.
Small hardcover book, no title page or date. 40 numbered pages. 4.5 by 5.8 inch, printed in blue on cream.
Scans donated and edited by Sytske Wijnsma.
There’s a staggering amount of alphabets in our catalog, from the smallest simple letters to letters in sizes to occupy a page on their own. One might wonder why this obsession with marking linen with initials, when the outer clothing was far more expensive. The answer is of course simple: the linen was often sent out for washing, and when it came back you had to make sure that these were your items and that all of them came back. Ball dresses and evening gowns were not washed with the linens and certainly ended up less frequently in the laundry basket.
In more recent times the tedious marking of 64 towels and 12 sheets etc. etc. has been replaced by sewing on a piece of monogram tape, machine embroidered with two letters in red on white cotton. Now that washing / dryer combinations are common in many households, not even that is necessary. Only when living in an institution that does the washing of all residents is marking still useful.
That explains also why most linen was marked with the maiden name of the wife and not her married name. Putting together a trousseau started early, often when girls were still in primary education. At that time, it wouldn’t be known what her future husbands name would be, and therefore items were marked with the girls maiden name.
Pattern books like this one were used with some carbon paper or similar to transfer the design. There were also metal templates with initials that could be used to stencil the design with blue paint that would wash out, and then over-embroidered. Stamping a design would also be an option. And more recently the iron-on letters had their own market. There’s a set of M and S in our catalog, combined with patterns for pin-cushions, towels, and other items. They had a ring-shaped design and the letter was supposed to go in the middle.