Over the years the TRC in Leiden has been making a collection of embroidery booklets and other items relating to the famous French company of DMC.
Booklet with designs for Tenerife lace, published by DMC, early 20th century (TRC 2020.0393).
DMC (Dollfus-Mieg et Compagnie) was set up in the mid-eighteenth century by Jean-Henri Dollfus, Jean-Jacques Schmalzer and Samuel Koechlin. The three partners established a company known as Dollfus, based in Mulhouse, France. The company produced textiles with hand printed, Indian-style designs for the European market.
At the end of the eighteenth century Dollfus’s nephew, Daniel Dollfus, took over the business. In 1800, Daniel Dollfus married Anne-Marie Mieg and in the same year he gave the company a new name, Dollfus-Mieg et Compagnie (DMC).
Between 1870 and 1918, Mulhouse was part of Germany. In 1884, DMC established strong links with a famous Austrian embroiderer, Thérèse de Dillmont (1846-1890). She created designs that were printed by DMC to enhance the sales of their yarns. She also established an embroidery school in Mulhouse. In addition, DMC and De Dillmont published the famous Encyclopédie des ouvrages de dames in 1886, which was quickly translated into various languages, including English, Dutch and German, and then reprinted throughout the twentieth century.
By the first half of the twentieth century, DMC had become well-known for the production of a wide range of embroidery materials, such as background fabrics and yarns, as well as a series of design booklets, as for instance a booklet with designs for Tenerife lace (TRC 2020.0393). Following various managerial and economic crises in the 1990's the company was bought by the British investment fund BlueGem, in 2016.
Crochet pattern sheet, DMC, France, 1930's (TRC 2020.3566).
Sheet for darned netting, with seven different patterns, DMC, France, 1930's (TRC 2020.3568).
But back to the DMC booklets in the TRC Collection: A few months ago we were given some DMC pattern sheets that, for my initial feelings, were of an unusual size, namely between 22 - 24 x 4 cm. There were three examples for crochet lace (TRC 2020.3566, TRC 2020.3567 and TRC 2020.3568) and two for darned netting (TRC 2020.3569 and TRC 2020.3570). Since then I have wondered when they were produced and why were they this size, but found no satisfactory answer.
Ball of white linen thread, DMV, France, with rolled-up pattern sheet tucked inside (TRC 2021.0775h).
Rolled-up pattern sheet from inside a ball of thread, DMC, France (TRC 2021.0775i).
Embroidery pattern sheet with three alphabets that was tucked inside a ball of thread, DMC, France, 1920's-1930's (TRC 2021.0775i).
However, very recently we were given and have added to the TRC Collection a small group of lace and lace equipment that included two balls of DMC linen thread, all of which date from between the 1920’s and 1940’s. I noticed inside one of the balls (TRC 2021.0775h) a card roll and within that there was rolled up a piece of paper (TRC 2021.0775i). And yes, it was a DMC pattern sheet, but this time for three alphabets suitable for cross stitch embroidery!
There seem to be two possibilities. Firstly that you could buy these patterns separately and while using them, they could be rolled up and stored in the ball of yarn to keep them safe. Or secondly, and more likely, that each ball of DMC yarn came with a free pattern that was rolled up inside and placed in the core by the manufacturers as a form of advertisement.
I would love to have further details about these sheets. Does anyone know when they were produced and how many different techniques are represented on these sheets?
Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC Leiden, 23 March 2021
