Mayfair byline from Peerless Fashion Service, 1936-1938
Mayfair was a short-lived byline from Peerless Fashion Service, New York City, found in Indiana, New York, Oregon, the New Orleans area, two Canadian newspapers (Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Halifax, Nova Scotia), and other locations. The Oakland (CA) Tribune also carried these patterns, but without the Mayfair byline. Most, if not all are are earlier Nancy Cabot and Peerless Fashion Service designs, and numbers with multiple patterns offered a single quilt pattern instead. By mid-1937, four-digit pattern numbers in the 5,000 series offered two, three, and even four former Nancy Cabot / Chicago Tribune designs illustrated with the original Chicago Tribune engravings.
Quilt pattern collectors once identified Mayfair with the Eastern Chronicle Publishing Company which was probably the parent company of the Halifax, Nova Scotia, newspaper known today as the Chronicle Herald that carried the Mayfair patterns in the mid-1930s. (See this newspaper's history at http://thechronicleherald.ca/services/aboutus.html.)
Mayfair offered quilt patterns by November 4, 1936, and continued to January 21, 1938, during which time Peerless was still promoting a few of the individual quilt patterns from the Grandmother's booklets. Beginning in August 1938, Peerless began anew with promoting the Nancy Cabot / Chicago Tribune quilt patterns when the Tribune decided, for whatever reason, to discontinue mailing patterns from their offices in Chicago.
For additional information, search your favorite online search engine for "newspaper syndicate."
No. 165 Monkey Wrench and No. 214 Orange Peel
No. 216 Crazy Quilt Bouquet and No. 232 Friendship Dahlia.
No. 243 Key West and No. 245 Applique Crib Quilt
No. 277 Star Design and No. 300 Applique Tulip
No. 316 Ships At Sea and No. 391 Sunbonnet
Mayfair No. 485 School of Fish. Out of the thousands of original clippings I've accumulated since 1980, this is the only Mayfair clipping I had found until recently, and had no idea about its original source. Interestingly, it is not included in the NewspaperArchive.com extensive records online.
No. 5005 Grandma's Fan, Robin, and Teddy
No. 5006 Crazy Ann, Sunbonnet Baby, Scottie, Rose and Sunflower
No. 5032 Wheel of Fortune, Tulip, Pilot Wheel, Bleeding Heart
No. 5050 Mississippi Oak Leaf, Double Links and No. 5064 Purple Iris, Star of Many Points
No. 5052 Appliqued Roses, Art Square and No. 5054 Old English Flower Garden, New Star
No. 5058 Poinsetta, Charm and No. 5059 Kitten, Iris
No. 5061 Siberian Wallflower, Economy and No. 5065 Shooting Star, Good Luck
No. 5056 Blazing Star, Rose Spray and No. 5057 Drunkard's Trail, Peaches
No. 5062 Lamb, Royal Star and No. 5063 Star and Planets, Salvia
