The Stoddard Design Library

Illustration: Part of the Stoddard Design Library.

After much uncertainty the Stoddard design library of pattern books was finally acquired by the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art Library this year.

The pattern books consist of over five hundred volumes and were used originally by the James Templeton & Co carpet manufacturers of Glasgow, as an inspirational source by the company's designers. When Stoddard took over Templeton, the books became part of that company's assets.

It was recently thought that Glasgow University and the Glasgow School of Art would not be in a position to procure these valuable pattern books, and that they might either go abroad, or worse still, be broken up and sold separately. However, this historically important asset, both for Glasgow and for the history of carpet and rug design was, through the combined effort of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Fund for Acquisitions, Friends of the National Libraries, Glasgow Museums Acquisitions Fund, Friends of Glasgow Museums and a host of others, saved intact for the people of Glasgow and the wider world.

The entire collection of pattern books are now in the process of being both sorted and catalogued in order to make them ultimately available for wider public access.

You have to wonder, for every Stoddard design library that is saved for future use and posterity, how many others are lost or irretrievably broken up, sold and then scattered across the world through different libraries, museums and private collections. Over the last century, so many companies have been separated from their pattern books and design libraries that it is a wonder that any have survived intact. These company assets are important articles of history, both design and social, that everything should be done to procure them intact, as far as possible, for the benefit of future generations of the general public.

Sometimes these pattern books were so important, and companies were so avaricious regarding their contents, that rivals were often locked in battles in order to buy out and take over each other, just in order to procure the volumes held by their rival. This is understandable, especially when profitable designer names were associated with the pattern books. A good example is when Morris & Co went into voluntary liquidation in 1940, Sanderson bought up from the receiver all of the wallpaper blocks and pattern books and is now one of the major producers of William Morris wallpapers and textiles, all derived from the pattern books bought in 1940.

However, as long as these design libraries of pattern books are either still in circulation, as with Sanderson, or saved for public access, as with the Glasgow School of Art Library, their usefulness and relevance continues.

Further reading links:
Glasgow School of Art Library
THE STORY OF BRITISH CARPETS
A History of British Carpets: From the Introduction of the Craft until the Present Day
A century of British fabrics, 1850-1950: Carpets, by J.H. Mellor. Printed & woven fabrics, by Frank Lewis. Wall papers, by E.A. Entwisle