As my research into vintage tatting information continued I found a surprising statement online in several articles. 'General Meritt Heminway of the Heminway Silk Company in Watertown, CT, est. 1821, was the first person to ever wind silk on a spool.' According to a History of Litchfield County, CT, he expanded this silk thread business in 1849 to include "sewing silks of all kinds." The first person to ever spool thread?? Wow! that surprised me.

You will remember the Belding Bros. Co from the patterns posted in July. Belding Brothers & Company merged with Heminway Sons Silk Company in 1925 and did business as Belding-Heminway.

The silk threads were intended for embroidery, especially floral "needle painting", which was so very popular at that time. There are a number of Heminway Sons Silk Co. pattern booklets available for free download online.
As was common practice among the early manufacturers of thread, flax, cotton wool or silk Hemingway Sons Silk company also published patterns which called for the use of their products. Prizes and premiums were very common also. The manufacturers often published their own magazines or catalogs and around the start of the 20th century to sponsor patterns in woman's magazines

Among the booklets there are a few tatting patterns also. From Book #9 I have posted the cover, a sample advertisement, and four pattern pages for you to enjoy. http://antiquepatterns.dreamhosters.com/MHeminway9.pdf

http://antiquepatterns.dreamhosters.com/MHeminway9.pdf

Visit http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/museum/collection/household/6.php for a sample photo of silks from Heminway Sons Silk Co.

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9cover.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9silks.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9tatpg75.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9tatpg76.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9tatpg77.jpg

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/bella/heminway9tatpg78.jpg

If any tatter would like to rewrite these vintage patterns in modern tatting terms, I will be happy to post the solutions on BellaOnline.