1956 Olympics

Always on the lookout for teatowels I have been narrowing my searches to vintage Melbourne and Victorian examples after making a couple of cushions for a stylish Melbournian.

My net was cast and Christine at Carrington Street Bazaar answered my call. (I think that I am mixing up my metaphors here, but you get the gist)

An unused 1956 Olympics linen tea-towel, made in Ireland was to be had. Sounds good eh! That makes it 54 years old!! My imagination was running amok at the thought of some fabulous 50's atomic kind of futuristic Olympic design.

Maybe, being the 50's and all, the Irish thought we wouldn't know the difference between good design and bad. Maybe they thought that they had to make the design simple, naive and primitive, because of Aboriginal rock paintings that were gaining some popularity. Plus the ultimate snub, Melbourne isn't even mentioned. Maybe the Irish didn't know where it was?

We will never know. But we are blessed to be given this wonderful depiction of a koala.

Don't push me 'cos I'm close to the edge!

The whole teatowel.

Closeups of the sides actually look quite good, though a bit disproportionate. Kind of vintage Boys Own.

It may be ugly, but I am still going to make a cushion from it. It's ugliness is quite endearing. A snapshot of an unsophisticated Australia.