• Tea towel art

TEA TOWELS CAN TELL A STORY ABOUT HOW WE LIVE, HOW WE DECORATE AND OUR CHANGING RELATIONSHIP TO OUR KITCHENS

The tea towel definitely has designs above its status. This small rectangle of fabric, part of our everyday lives, also doubles as a modern design icon: injecting colour and pattern into even the drabbest of kitchens.

They’re packed with memories: pull out an old design from a drawer and it immediately evokes images of home – even if it’s squabbling over whose turn it is to do the washing up with your siblings.

But the tea towel has spent a relatively short time in our homes: they emerged as manufactured artefact in the Industrial Revolution, having evolved from the linen cloth initially used to keep a tea pot warm. By the late 19th and early to mid-20th century, your glass towel or tea towel would likely be striped or checked cloth.

That all changed with Astrid Sampe, in 1955, a Swedish-born designer, who became the first to create commercially successful designs. Taking note, Irish linen company Thomas Somerset & Co of Belfast saw a way to revive its flagging trade and hired British designer Lucienne Day. The timing was spot on – developments in automatic screen printing reduced the costs, while post-war consumers craved some cheer.

Our kitchens haven’t been the same since. As Day said, “It takes a woman to think up a design idea that other women have been wanting for years.” Since then, they’ve reflected the times and designs in which we live: from 1960s poster art to 1970s nostalgia. They remain an affordable way to get a bit of art into your home – and still add a much-appreciated degree of pleasure into the dullest of kitchen chores. »

1960s hippy patterns begin to edge their way into the kitchen. Candy Jar was designed by Ian Logan, whose fabric print company JRM Design also created prints for the likes of fashion designers Mary Quant and Jeff Banks.A Lucienne Day design, ‘Batterie de Cuisine’, commissioned for Belfast firm Nova Products, shows the growing influence of Elizabeth David and her promotion of Mediterranean cooking in the 1960s. 2

The 1970s saw the birth of a British tradition – the National Trust tea towel. Queen of the art was Pat Albeck, who designed more than 300 tea towels for them from the 1970s to the present day. Here she turns her illustrative hand to various Scottish castles held by the Trust. 3