It sounds almost like a pre-printed version of Trace N Toile (which I'm always tempted by, but I'm not a huge fan of - it's expensive compared to paper, and almost every version I've found is non recyclable). Or if anyone was printing patterns directly on Swedish tracing paper (which you can apparently sew like fabric and is recyclable, but I've struggled to find anyone selling it in a decent width or length for a price I can afford who'll ship it here.)

From skimming a fairly closely dated Sears catalogue (1897) it looks like sellers did differentiate between paper patterns and these, but I can't find if Sears was selling them to see what they were listed as or the price difference.