1915 "Initial Crotchet Co." A.L.S. from woman advertising "quilt kit" type offering

Folded sheet of gently embossed canary yellow writing paper, 6.5 x 5 inches; 3 pages of writing. With original cover addressed to Miss Mary Painter at the post office in Coulter, Pa., a mining town in Allegheny County that suffered when the depleted mines closed in 1910. The letter gives the generic salutation, "Dear Madam," and provides narrative quilting recommendations and descriptions ("Should you want to buy material this is what is needed") along with prices. It also describes a few available pattern blocks, like a "quaint duck & tree block" for a child's room ("We have a limited number of quilts all put together...").

The letter is signed only "Initial Crotchet Co." with a PO box return address in Cleveland, though no such company could be located in city records or newspapers (even spelled "Crochet"). It was most likely a woman-run home business--the first line reads, "Under separate cover we are mailing you the tulip block and pattern..." and the "we" has been written over an "I", suggesting an attempt to present the company as a more established operation than it was. The letter is contemporary to the rise of home quilting kits, such as those developed by Marie Webster, whose quilt designs were published in ladies' magazines in the early 1910s. Popular demand for her patterns led her to establish a mail-order business from her home, offering paper patterns and, by the 1920s, full kits that included pre-cut pieces. The present letter represents a commendably basic iteration of the concept during the trend's early years.