The notebook image below is from an interested blog post from the V&A Museum in London. It’s an example of a pattern book:
“They are reference guides for production. Maybe they show things made by the company in the past, maybe images by competitors, maybe historic objects – all intended to aid in further design. Though they serve the same purposes as an artist’s sketchbook, often the pictures are not drawn, but rather are pasted in and then perhaps annotated or marked-up. Here’s a spread from a book kept by the Leeds ceramic firm Hartley, Greens & Co, which shows the collage-like approach typical of such pattern books.”
The rest of the post talks about other examples of notebooks from their exhibits, including some by Leonardo da Vinci.
Read more at : Duly Noted | Victoria and Albert Museum