| This knotted lace made its first published appearance when Mrs. Jane Gaugain used the word tatting in 1842. At the beginning it was used exclusively as a substantive noun; the verbal forms not appearing until later. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of this word (despite numerous speculations by tatting authors) is unknown. Here are some of the earliest needlework usages of the word and other examples of its appearance in literature over the years. Many thanks to the uncredited readers who supplied some of the citations. If you have a quote to add, please email me by clicking HERE and supply the title, publisher, year of publication, edition, chapter, page, and exact quote. |
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The Lady's Assistant for Executing Useful and Fancy Designs in Knitting, Netting, and Crochet Work. Fifth Edition. Re-arranged and Improved by the Proprietor . . . Gaugain, Mrs. Jane, 3 volumes Edinburgh, 1840-46, octavo. |
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| 1842, vol. II |
p. 411 "Common Tatting Edging" p. 412 "If the Tatting has not been properly worked, this scollop (sic) will not draw. All Tatting stitches must be formed with the loop around the fingers." |
| Saturday Review, London | |
| 1864, 22 May | "It retires to talk scandal over her tatting with any fashionable old maid with whom the party may be tormented." |
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Wives and Daughters. A novel. Gaskell, [Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson] New York, Harper & Brothers, 1866 (From a magazine serial published 1864-66) |
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| 1864-66, chap. 20 | "It was exactly one of the speeches Molly had disliked him for before(....) Molly took great credit to herself for the unconcerned manner with which she went on with her tatting exactly as if she had never heard it." |
| Reader, London | |
| 1865, 28 Oct., 479/3 | In 1851 the Census showed a return of 902 pupils in the various arts of crochet laces, point lace . . ., pillow lace, . . . plain sewing, knitting and tatting. |
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Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Alcott, Louisa May Roberts Bros.: Boston, 1868, octavo. |
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| 1868, part II "Good Wives" chap. 27 | p. 341 "They were early, and while Miss Crocker set the heel of her stocking, Jo amused herself by examining the faces of the people who occupied the seat with them. On her left were two matrons, with massive foreheads and bonnets to match, discussing Women's Rights and making tatting." |
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Middlemarch; a study of provincial life Eliot, George (Evans, Mary Ann) Edinburgh, W. Blackwood, 1871-72 4 v. 19 cm |
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| 1871, chap. 28 | "'Her back is very large; she seems to have sat for that,' said Rosamond, not meaning any satire, but thinking how red young Plymdale's hands were, and wondering why Lydgate did not come. She went on with her tatting all the while." |
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Tatting Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903) Etching and drypoint, 1873, 125 x 75 mm |
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| 1873 | Click HERE for image of etching. (Thanks Mad Tatter, et al.!) |
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Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary. A description of tools, instruments, machines, processes, and engineering; history of inventions; general technological vocabulary; and digest of mechanical appliances in science and the arts. Knight, Edward H. New York, Hurd and Houghton, Cambridge [Mass.] The Riverside Press, 1877 |
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| 1877 | "Tatting-shuttle, a small shuttle used in tatting." |
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My Day;
Reminiscences of a Long Life: Pryor, Sara Agnes Rice New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909 |
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| 1884, Aug. |
A letter by the author p.395 "MY DEAR AGNES: . . . p. 396 But lately she has brought up to the roof in the evenings a small rocking-chair of the Mayflower pattern, some crochet or tatting; and a great cat with an enormous upright tail has followed her, and rubbed himself comfortably against her knees. . . . p. 397 The little Mayflower chair rocks a bit more nervously, the cat is overwhelmed with surprise by receiving a slight push from the tidy slipper, the tatting takes on new energy, and I see - well, now, you surely don't expect me to tell you what I see? . . . p. 399 Your devoted SARA A. PRYOR" |
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What Katy Did Next Coolidge, Susan[Woolsey, Sarah Chauncey] Boston, 1886 |
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| 1886, chap. 9 | A Roman Holiday "In fact, all that Sister Ambrogia seemed able or willing to do, beyond the bathing of Amy's face and brushing her hair, which she accomplished handily, was to sit by the bedside telling her rosary, or plying a little ebony shuttle in the manufacture of a long strip of tatting." |
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From Flag to Flag A Woman's Adventures & Experiences in the South During the War, in Mexico, & in Cuba McHatton-Ripley, Eliza New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1888 |
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| 1888 | pp. 289-90 "We embroidered conventional morning-glories and wheat on pillow-shams; scalloped flounces and dress-waists, and made yards upon yards of senseless tatting, till we wearied with the work." |
| Times, London | |
| 1895, Jan. 13/2 | "Orders for cotton embroidery edgings, trimmings and tattings have been disappointing." |
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Life on the Stage. My personal experiences and recollections Morris, Clara McClure, Phillips & Co.: London; New York, 1901, octavo |
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| 1901 | p. 46 "The 'tatting' craze was sweeping over the country then; everybody wore tatting, and almost everybody made it." [Context here is U.S.A c. 1863] |
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Lavender & Old Lace Reed, Myrtle 1874-1922 G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902 ([New York] : The Knickerbocker Press [London], 21 cm |
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| 1902, chap. 2, The Attic | p.32 "It seemed an age until six o'clock. 'This won't do,' she said to herself; 'I'll have to learn how to sew, or crochet, or make tatting. At last I am to be domesticated. I used to wonder how women had time for the endless fancy work, but I see, now.'" |
| ibid, chap. 3, Miss Ainslie | p. 53 "'If I don't take up tatting,' she thought, as she went upstairs, 'or find something else to do, I'll be a meddling old maid inside of six months.'" |
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Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1903 |
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| 1903 chap. 7, Riverboro Secrets | "The 'rich blacksmith's daughter' cast the thought of dotted Swiss behind her, and elected to follow Rebecca in cheesecloth as she had in higher matters; straightway devising costumes that included such drawing of threads, such hemstitching and pin-tucking, such insertions of fine thread tatting that, in order to be finished, Rebecca's dress was given out in sections,--the sash to Hannah, waist and sleeves to Mrs. Cobb, and skirt to aunt Jane." |
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New Chronicles of Rebecca. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1907 |
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| 1907 3rd chron., Rebecca's Thought Book | "The other girls could wield the darning or crochet or knitting needle, and send the tatting shuttle through loops of the finest cotton; hemstitch, oversew, braid hair in thirteen strands, but the pencil was never obedient in their fingers, and the pen and ink-pot were a horror from early childhood to the end of time." |
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The Story of Waitstill Baxter. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1913 |
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| 1913 chap. 16, Locked Out | "Patty had retired to the solitude of her bedroom almost at dusk, quite worn out with the heat, and Waitstill sat under the peach tree in the corner of her own little garden, tatting, and thinking of her interview with Ivory's mother." |
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A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1917 |
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| 1917 chap. 1, Preparation and Departure | "Three young girls, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old, were seated in different parts of the large room, plying industrious crochet needles and tatting shuttles." |
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Letters written by Mary Ann McIntosh to David Monroe Henderson Compiled by: Porter, Anthony & Kris http://hometown.aol.com/tporter111/private/letters.html, [no date given] |
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| 1914, Feb. 23 |
Otto, Wyo. "Dearest Dave, . . . I did quite a bit of embroidering tonight. If the spell lasts, I may accomplish something this week. I haven’t done much since Xmas. I’m going to learn a new kind of fancy work. I bought a tatting shuttle today and I’m going to learn to tatt (sic). I don’t suppose I’ll do very much at it, though. I like to embroider too well. . . . As ever, Mary" |
| 1914, Mar. 9 |
Otto, Wyo. "Dear Dave, . . . I finished tatting the ring for that 'beau-catcher' that I as working on Friday night and began to make the other today in school. After school I worked on the doily I am making for Ruth. When that is done I’m going to work on 'yours.' . . . Yours Mary" |
| 1914, Mar. 19 |
Otto, Wyo. "Dear Dave, . . . I’ve gone to bed early every night this week, so I haven’t done any embroidering. I have done a little tatting, though. . . . As ever Mary" |
| 1915, Jun. 14 |
"Dearest Dave, . . . On rainy days when we can’t get out, I tatt (sic). I have made two collars like my white one for Roah and Caroline. My next fancy work is going to be a pair of pillow slips. I started to embroider a pair my cousin gave me, while I was at Sprague’s and I’m going to see if I can finish them. Aunt Tive has knitted lace for another pair for me, so I’ll have some pretty ones, I guess. . . . Yours for keeps, Mary" |
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From inside cover of a boxed tatting set: Inside lower left corner reads: Copyright 1915 F. L. Morgan Co. San Fransisco Click HERE for illustration. |
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| 1915 |
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The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After Bok, Edward Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1921, octavo |
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| 1921, ch. XXVIII, Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer |
"Usually," said Bok, "men, for some reason or other, hold aloof from me on these lecture tours. They stand at a distance and eye me, and I see
wonder on their faces rather than a desire to mix." "You've noticed that, then?" smilingly asked the poet. "Yes, and I can't quite get it. At home, my friends are men. Why should it be different in other cities?" "I'll tell you," said Riley. "Five or six of the men you met to-night were loath to come. When I pinned them down to their reason, it was I thought: they regard you as an effeminate being, a sissy." "Good heavens!" interrupted Bok. "Fact," said Riley, "and you can't wonder at it nor blame them. You have been most industriously paragraphed, in countless jests, about your penchant for pink teas, your expert knowledge of tatting, crocheting, and all that sort of stuff. |
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A Lesson in Tatting Anna C. Sterling Needlecraft Magazine, Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine, March 1923 |
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| 1923 | Poem, click HERE for full text. (Thanks Mad Tatter, et al.!) |
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Mapp and Lucia Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic) London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1931 |
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| 1931 |
p. ? "Lucia: 'Time to do your tatting.' Georgie: 'Petit pois!' Lucia: 'Petit point!'" |
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Senator Marlowe's Daughter Keyes, Frances Parkinson New York, J. Messner, [1933] |
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| 1933 | p. 307 "'You could'da knocked me over with a feather,' Mrs. Elliot said to her husband at supper time. 'She war'nt any more embarrassed at being caught looking as if a cyclone had struck her than if she'd been sittin' in the front parlor doin' tattin'!" |
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Gone With The Wind Mitchell, Margaret Macmillan & Co.: London, 1936, octavo |
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| 1936, chap. IX |
"It simply wasn't fair. She [Scarlett] had worked twice as hard as any
girl in town, getting things ready for the bazaar. She had knitted socks and
baby caps and afghans and mufflers and tatted yards of lace and painted
china hair receivers and mustache cups..." "He went off pompously toward a group of chaperones in one corner, and just as the two girls turned to each other to discuss the possibilities of the secret, two old gentlemen bore down on the booth, declaring in loud voices that they wanted ten miles of tatting." |
| ibid., chap. LV |
"Melanie sat facing her, in a low chair, her feet firmly planted on an
ottoman so high that her knees stuck up like a child's, a posture she would
never have assumed had not rage possessed her to the point of forgetting
proprieties. She held a line of tatting in her hands and she was driving
the shining needle back and forth as furiously as though handling a rapier
in a duel." "But only by the flashing needle and the delicate brows drawn down toward her nose did Melanie indicate that she was inwardly seething." |
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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
1999 50th Anniversary VHS Video rerelease of 1949 animated motion picture cartoon, Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Tale of Ichabod Crane, Narrated by Bing Crosby, story adapted from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving Click HERE for illustration. |
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| 1949 | Ichabod's 'Social Calendar' for Wednesday, "Women's Tatting and Chatting Club" |
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The Golden Helmet
1952 Comic book, Donald Duck #408, The Walt Disney Co., July 1952 (reprinted Walt Disney Album Series #13, Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures: The Golden Helmet, Gladstone Publishing, Ltd. Prescott, AZ, 1988.) Click HERE for illustration/quote. |
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| 1952 | Duckburg Assistant Museum Guard Donald Duck directs visitor to the "Lace and Tatting Collection" and later in the story, unaware that tatting, along with crochet and knitting, was one of the pastimes of genuine sailors (especially whalers) on long voyages, derides those who "tat their tatting" as "softies". |
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Little Witch Illustrated by Helen Stone. [A tale for children.] Bennett, Anna Elizabeth J. B. Lippincott Co.: Philadelphia & New York, 1953, octavo |
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| 1953 | p. 113 "She doesn't do anything but play on a musical instrument called a lute, sing like an angel, and tat lace that looks like spun moonbeams." [describing the activity of a beautiful fairy] |
| Stranger in a Strange
Land Heinlein, Robert A. Avon Books - 7th printing July 1967 |
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| 1961, G.B. Putnam's Sons | p. 138 Part Two - His Preposterous Heritage "Jubal decided to resign from the Philosophical Society and take up tatting!" |
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Me & Mine The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, as told to Louise Udall Udall, Louise The University of Arizona Press: Tucson, Arizona, 1969 |
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| 1969 |
p. 138 "I had to earn all of my spending money and my hands were never still, I was always doing embroidery or crochet or tatting, making things to sell." [Hopi Indian writing of her three years in the Phoenix Indian School (1910's), whose purpose was, according to 1888 pronouncements made by Superintendent of Indian Schools John Oberly, "to wean the student from the tribal system and to imbue him with the egotism of American civilization, so that he would say "I" instead of "we," and "this is mine," instead of "this is ours."] |
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Scarlett : The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind Ripley, Alexandra New York: Warner Books, 1991 |
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| 1991, chap. 13 |
p. 139 "Her [Eleanor Butler’s] fingers moved a gleaming ivory shuttle rapidly back
and forth, tatting an intricate web of loops." p. 140 "Mrs. Butler put her tatting down on the table at her side." |
| ibid, chap. 21 | pp. 211-212 "Eleanor Butler dropped her tatting into her lap and laid her hands on it, left atop right. It was a signal that she was taking Scarlett’s account seriously, giving her full concentration." |
| ibid, chap. 22 |
p. 225 "She [Scarlett] turned her back on them and sat in a chair close to the settee
where Eleanor Butler was doing her tatting.
“This piece is almost long enough to trim the neck of your claret gown
when it needs freshening,” she said to Scarlett with a smile. “Halfway
through the Season it’s always nice to have a change. I’ll be finished with
it by then.” p. 225 "Eleanor dropped her ivory tatting shuttle." |
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The Truelove (15th in the 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin Series (21st volume at chapter 3 at author's death). O'Brian, Patrick W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American Ed hardcover edition (May 1, 1992), Paperback reprint edition (July 1, 1993) |
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| 1992 |
p. 82 "He tended therefore to avoid the quarterdeck when she was there, sitting by the taffrail, sometimes tatting in an inexpert fashion but much more talking to the officers who came aft to ask her how she did." p. 86 "...She does not take it ill, however, but sits there tatting away, listening to their stories; and her presence adds to the gaiety of the ship." |
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The Shipping News Proulx, E. Annie New York : Scribner ; Toronto : M/M Canada ; New York : M/M International, 1993 |
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| 1993 | "Everything in the house tatted and doilied in the great art of the place, designs of lace waves and floe ice, whelk shells and sea wrack, the curve of lobster feelers, the round knot of cod-eye, the bristled commas of shrimp and fissured sea caves, white snow on black rock, pinwheeled gulls, the slant of silver rain." |
| Mommy Heiress Wisdom, Linda Randall Harlequin Books, 1995 |
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| 1995 | Chap. 12, p. 202 "You know, having these prekindergarten classes is great. They're already primed for school and they'll do much better," she chattered. "And did you know Mrs. Timmerman tats? Makes lace, that is. She learned from her mother. She brought in doilies she had made and they were beautiful I told her I once read somewhere tatting was a lost art. She's donating them for the fund-raiser. We had the kids decorate posters today that the high school kids are going to take around to the other towns and put up. They're really cute." |
| The Farseer: Assassin's
Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book I) Hobb, Robin Bantam Books - Bantam paperback trade edition May 1995, U.S. and Canada simultaneously, republished mass market edition April 1996 |
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| 1995 | p. 103 "A few watchful mothers tapped toes as they tatted at their lacemaking while Jerdon's withered old fingers on the harp strings kept the young voices almost in tune." |
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Fever Season Hambly, Barbara New York : Bantam Books, 1998 |
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| 1998 | p. ? "She took a deep breath, not meeting his eyes, folding carefully the pleats of her green cotton sleeve where they ran into the wristband. There was a thin line of tatted cotton lace there, pale ecru, the kind schoolgirls produced by the yard while their governesses read to them from edifying books." [Setting is an anachronistic New Orleans, Lousiana, 1833 as there is no evidence of tatting anywhere in the world at this date, much less in the United States] |
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The Weight of Water Shreve, Anita Back Bay Books 1998, paperback |
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| 1998 | p. 45 "My dress, I have neglected to say, was my wedding dress and had a lovely collar of tatting that my sister, Karen, had made for me." |
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First Test Pierce, Tamora Random House Children's Books May 23, 2000, hardcover, library binding & hardcover large print editions |
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| 1999 | p. 33 "Salma's mouth twisted wryly. "What do they think their mothers do, when the lords are at war and a raiding party strikes? Stay in their solars and tat lace?"" |
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Expecting at Christmas Maclay, Charlotte Silhouette Romance, 1999 |
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| 1999 |
p. 30 "...Tia Louisa has lived with us for ages. She's my great-aunt twice
removed. A wonderful woman who does beautiful tatting.." "Tatting?" he asked, distracted." "It's like lace except stringier. She makes up hope chests full of her tatting for all us girls. For our wedding presents, you know." p. 116 "She ushered him toward two older women sitting in folding lawn chairs
where they could keep an eye in the activities. One was busily engaged
in something that resembled crocheting -- with kite string.
p. 117 "Ignoring the conversation, Tia Louisa kept on tatting. [N.B.:
Tia Louisa is deaf. That is why she doesn't participate in the conversation] |
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Border Fire Scott, Amanda Zebra Books, New York, 2000 |
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| 2000 | p. 33 "'Tis men's business to deal with reivers,' he snapped, ignoring, as was his custom, a point that he did not wish to debate. 'It is your business to tend the kitchen, or your needlework or tatting, or whatever the devil it is that you women find to eat up your time...'" [A gross anachronism in that tatting didn't appear until the early 1800's and the first appearance in print was 1842 - this book is set in 16th century Scotland!] |
| Rogue's Reform Laurens,
Stephanie Harlequin Books July 1, 2000 - Three complete previously published novels The Reasons for Marriage ©1994, A Lady of Expectations ©1995, An Unwilling Conquest ©1996 |
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| 2000 | p. 42 "Seeing her aunt pull her tatting from a bag beside the chair and start to untangle the bobbins, Lenore placed hand on her arm and slowly stated, 'I'll bring you some tea when the trolley arrives.'" |
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American Outlaws
Fictional account of the adventures of the James (Jesse) and Younger, gangs motion picture, Distributed by Warner Bros. Inc. Costume Designer: Luke Reichle Click HERE for illustration of tatted collar and instructions. |
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| 2001 | Kathy Bates in the role of 'Ma' James wearing black dress with Torchon lace trimming and tatted lace collar, Post-bellum period. |
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Lost in Your Arms Dodd, Christina Avon Books March 2002 |
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| 2002 | p. 181 "Her things! She hadn't even thought...her clothes, her letters from Lady Halifax, the shawl she'd been painstakingly tatting for over four years...she sobbed harder." |
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Lord DarcyGarrett, Randall Baen Books July 2002, Compilation of her stories, from "Too Many Magicians" originally serialized in the Analog magazine August-November 1966, reissued as a novel by Doubleday 1967 |
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| 2002 | p. 344 ""And what have you been doing? said Her Grace. "Tatting?"" |
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A Very Merry ChristmasShort stories by various authors Bah Humbug, Baby, Gemma Bruce Brava Books, Kensington Publishing 2006 |
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| 2006 | Chap. 3, p. 138. "There were ginghams, wools and something that looked suspiciously like hand-tatted lace." |
