George Palliser (1849-1903), an English immigrant, first worked as a carpenter in Connecticut, then owned a sash, blind, and door factory. With his brother Charles his publishing business produced eleven titles, in multiple editions over 30 years. From publishing house designs his business evolved into selling the working drawings and specifications for the houses illustrated in his books; his was one of the first successful mail-order businesses. Design #35 (plate 25) was built at 2314 W. 111th Place in 1882, now a Chicago landmark.
- "Design 35," Nine-room Cottage, plate 25. Palliser's American Cottage Homes. Bridgeport, CT: Palliser, Palliser & Co., 1878.
Pattern books often included advertisements for various construction and finish materials and particularly for new technologies for the home such as plumbing, and kitchen and heating appliances.
- Advertisements for Brown & Brothers boilers, Bickelhoupt's skylights, and Lucas paints. Palliser's Model Homes showing a Variety of Designs for Model Dwellings... Together with a large amount of Miscellaneous Matter, making in all a very Valuable Book for Every One who Contemplates Building. Bridgeport, CT: Palliser, Palliser & Co., 1878.
In the catalog's prefatory remarks the Palliser brothers expressed the goal of the publication: "to present a mass of Architectural designs and details, easy of construction, pleasing in form, and generally of an inexpensive though artistic and tasteful character..." The Queen Anne style, for which the Pallisers were well-known, was a very affordable design based on the quickly and cheaply erected balloon-frame structure. In this later publication there are significantly more details plus a discussion of construction and finish details.
- "Designs 30 and 31," Two Cottages, plate 11. Palliser's New Cottage Homes and Details, containing nearly Two Hundred & Fifty new & original Designs in all the Modern Popular Styles... New York: Palliser, Palliser & Co., 1888.