The Weil & Durrse company made table linens for 60 years. The tablecloths, napkins, kitchen towels, runners, placemats, and aprons they made are highly collectible today. Anyone who wants to collect Weil & Durrse tablecloths should first educate themselves on how to recognize one. It is easy to find some of the tablecloths with a sewn-in tag and even possible to find one with the original paper label. However, many are not tagged and many are misidentified. There are a couple of good guidebooks on the market, but I will get you started with some basic information. I’ve been researching, buying, and selling Weil & Durrse table linens for almost three years and I’ve learned a lot.

Weil & Durrse sold tablecloths under several brand names. Wilendur is their most well-known brand. Many people use the term Wilendur when they really mean Weil & Durrse. It has become a term for Weil & Durrse tablecloth in general, but it is in fact just one of several brands. In 1958 Weil & Durrse added an "e" at the end of Wilendur and re-designed the paper labels. All Wilendur tablecloths were made from heavy cotton sailcloth. Later Wilendure tablecloths can be found in several fabrics including cotton and terrycloth. The earliest Weil & Durrse brand was Pride of Flanders. This line was made of linen. Their America’s Pride brand was made from a rayon-cotton blend. Two other brands of cotton tablecloths are Setting Pretty and Oppa Tunity. It is not unusual to find the same Weil & Durrse pattern under two different labels. For example, I have seen the "American Beauty" pattern tagged both America’s Pride and Wilendur.

"American Beauty"

Weil & Durrse is best known for patterns that have what I call "repeating blocks." This is also called "Array" - for the orderliness of the design. Michelle Hayes (see reference below) calls this "3-across." This is the Weil & Durrse pattern arrangement that most people recognize as Wilendur. Other companies made tablecloths with this arrangement too, however, so you cannot assume that every cloth with a 3-across repeating design is a Wilendur. There are tablecloths made by St. Regis, Calaprint, Sun-Glo, and even Startex that are similar to Wilendur prints.

Wilendure "Blue Bell"

This is by Sun Glo - NOT Wilendur

Other common design arrangements are:

Border - The pattern is mostly around the border. Some border prints also have a solid stripe or multi-stripe border. I have seen the "Meadowbloom" and "Cosmos" patterns with several different types of borders an with none at all.

Strawberry Border Print

Selvage - This arrangement has one design running the length of each selvage, often with a different design down the center of the tablecloth.

Setting Pretty "Tea Rose"

Arc - In this arrangement the design is an arc at each end of the tablecloth with space in between. If the tablecloth is square these two arcs will meet making it look like a border print.

Tops in Terry by Wilendure "Crabapple"

Not all Weil & Durrse designs fall neatly into these pattern categories, of course. There are tablecloths with solid colored backgrounds and white flowers, with flowers over a plaid or checkered background, allover patterns, and even plaid.

There are many tablecloths that it is still not known whether they are a Weil & Durrse design or not. Some of these probably are, but no proof has yet been found. I have also noticed a lot of tablecloths from Canadian sellers that look like Weil & Durrse designs but have some slight difference. I don’t know if these could be by Weil & Durrse or if they were copied from their designs. Weil & Durrse was known to let their patents run out on their designs and then other makers could copy them. The long-running and popular "Royal Rose" design is known to have been copied. (You can easily tell a Royal Rose copy from a true Wilendur Royal Rose by the leaves - the Wilendur version will have grey leaves; the copy has only green leaves.)

I highly recommend buying a few guide books. These are my favorites:

Elegant Table Linens From Weil & Durrse Including Wilendur by Michelle Hayes

Colorful Tablecloths 1930s-1960s Threads of the Past by Yvonne Barineau & Erin Henderson

Collectors’ Guide to Vintage Tablecloths by Pamela Glasell