Tips on Dating Lily Mills Threads and Yarns

Last updated on August 27th, 2023 at 11:53 am

1903-1934: Lily Mill & Power Co.

Lily Mill’s oldest logo has a squared/flat bottom on the letters.  Any yarns, patterns, books, etc. with this type of logo most likely date to 1934 or before.

1934-1960: Lily Mills Co.

Not sure *exactly* when but definitely by 1936, the Lily logo displays with rounded bottoms on the letters.  I suspect this logo change occurred concurrently with the company changing their name from Lily Mill & Power Co. to Lily Mills Co.

Although the older squared bottom logo continued to appear on large cones of weaving warp/weft at least a couple of years after the company changed its name to Lily Mills Co.

1960-??: Belding Lily Co. after merger with Belding.

Sometime after 1959, the Lily logo changed to thicker letters on packages, although the thin letter logo continues to be visible on pattern books I think throughout the 1960s into the early 1970s. So far, earliest I see the thicker lettered logo on a pattern book is 1978. I suspect this logo change occurred concurrently with the Belding merger.

I do think that for a while after the Belding merger, they continued to use the Lily Mills name as this label of “The Sugar-‘n-Cream Yarn” shows a ZIP Code (which would date it to post 1963, which is after Belding merger).

?1980s?:  B. Blumenthal & Co., Inc. (Definitely by 1982.)

Trademark Registrations

18th Century Mercerized Crochet & Bedspread Cotton

Trademark Registered 1969

Lily Antique Crochet Knitting/Tricot – Article 59

Lily Antique dates from 1934 per this trademark registration record.

Double Quick Mercerized Crochet Cotton

Trademark registered 1954.  I think this was in Size 5?

Frost-Tone Crochet Cotton

Lily Frost-Tone dates from 1935 per this trademark registration record.

Glo-Tone Mercerized Cotton – Article 42

Trademark registered 1958

Jute-Tone – Article 47

Trademark registered 1956 so all Jute-Tone dates to 1956 or later.

Came in 4 ounce/75 yard rolls

Kool-Knit – Article 908

Trademark registered 1966

Mercrochet

Lily Mercrochet dates from 1934 per this trademark registration record.

Mist-Tone

Lily Mist-Tone trademark registered 1935.

Sil-Tone – Article 112

Sil-Tone dates to 1937 per trademark registration record.

Image: Etsy user BombshellBetties

Skytone Mercerized Crochet Cotton – Article 123

Lily Skytone dates from 1937, per this trademark registration record.

Lily Cotton Yarn “The Sugar-‘n-Cream Yarn” – Article 930

This trademark was first registered in 1933.

Lily Thrifty-Knit

Lily Thrifty-Knit dates to 1935 per this trademark registration record.

Tru-Tone Carpet Warp – Article 153

Lily Tru-Tone dates from 1934, according to this trademark registration record.

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