New doily in colors on the right, old doily in white on the left, both tatted by me 40+ years apart. Pattern from a library book. I don't have the book, just the 1970s tatting I did from it. Yes, I am old.
All that I could remember about the book was that it was small, hard cover, the title was "Tatting" and it was already time-worn in the 1970s. So, I did an online search something like "mid 20th century small hardcover tatting book" and found this picture on eBay:
Moving on to the mysterious origins of the House of White Birches Tatting Book No. 5 that's sat on my shelf for years. Turns out, it's actually a reprint of Priscilla Tatting Book No. 3 (published 1924) which is available as a free download at The Antique Pattern Library. Scroll to about the middle of the page to find it, look for a greenish cover.
The leaf pattern is now one of my favorites! The original directions indicate that the leaves were to be sewn on separately, but I've decided to join them while tatting. It's resulting in overlapping, closely crowded leaves, but I like it!
