RHYS BOWEN: The British are known for their eccentricities, are they not? Aristocrats dress like old tramps when they own millions. They keep pet lions. We have Morris dancing in which men prance around waving ribbons and looking… well, unmasculine. We roll cheeses down a hillside.
These occupations only apply to the few.. The most weird among us.
But one of the universal strange customs in England is the collecting of tea towels. You won’t find paper towel in most British kitchens. You’ll find tea towels, usually drying on the handle of the AGA (and in case you don’t know what that is, it’s a large cast iron stove that heats as well as cooks and is a must in a country kitchen.
Tea towels are a necessary piece of equipment, and one needs a few of them, as they get dirty. Except.. Most British houses have scads of them. Because… whenever they travel, or a family member travels, they bring back a tea towel to prove they have been somewhere. Pretty, decorative tea towels. Sometimes they are maps of places, or paintings of the countryside. Sometimes they are designed by well known artists.
I confess to bringing back tea towels from the Costwolds and from St Malo in France the last time I was there. My daughters love them ( they have inherited British genes). Also they are souvenirs that are attractive and useful at the same time.
And I have my share of ones that have been brought back from Europe for me. I only thought of writing this piece because I happened to take a photo of my kitchen here in Arizona and I noticed that the tea towel, hanging on the stove, was of King Charles’s coronation. Quite a regal tea towel. Who else has the royal coat of arms hanging from her stove? Lady Georgie would approve!
I went to my pantry and found several more: one from New Zealand, one from the Falkland Islands, one from Cornwall. (This one is St. Ives).
I've asked Clare to share some of her favorites. She has a large collection and uses it all the time!
In California I have many more, all gifts from people who have come to stay or family members who have brought them home. The irony is that i seldom use them. John and I prefer to use paper towel. More hygienic. But not as pretty.
So let’s hear what strange or unusual souvenirs you bring back when you travel?
We have [and use] a big collection of tea towels . . . not souvenirs, but bought locally, most with flower patterns. I don't usually buy souvenirs . . . my most treasured souvenir is an Alaskan doll Jean brought me when she and her husband went on an Alaskan cruise . . . .
ReplyDeleteAlways collect tea towels everywhere we travel. Among my favorites was a tea towel from Rome, 🇮🇹 . I have tea towels from aristocratic houses in 🇬🇧. Love tea towels. My great aunt collected tea towels too. She and my great uncle loved traveling to 🇬🇧 and Europe.
ReplyDeleteThat was me.
DeleteA friend brought me one from Bewley’s Cafe in Dublin 30 years ago and I haven’t stopped collecting them. My latest one from Cornwall has lighthouses, another love.
DeleteLisa in Long Beach , we are kindred spirits. Love that you collect tea towels from your travels. I still have mine from the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday celebration 🎉
DeleteSince I was a carry-on luggage only traveler , I usually only buy small items such as postcards and a unique food item.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of souvenirs as I am still unpacking /sorting what I brought back from my 16-day trip to Singapore-Taiwan.
Here are 3 small, inexpensive items I got from Taiwan:
1. Taiwan Zoo keychain with two enamelled Pandas (60 NT or less than $3 CDN)
2. Pineapple cake, box of 6. These are Taiwan's quintessential sweet is more like a shortbread biscuit filled with pineapple jam. (50 NT or $2.50 CDN)
3. FREEBIE with my 3-day Taiwan fun pass. A pair of 2 Taiwanese nightmarket glasses (tiger and dragon figures) with HO DA LA (aka CHEERS).
As for Singapore souvenirs, I ended up buying a Singapore Heritage (paperback) cookbook at the National Museum of Singapore when my 1/2 day Singaporean cooking class was abruptly cancelled! Now I have over 80 historical recipes I can try & cook instead of the 3 dishes that I was supposed to make in class.
Sounds like a much better return on investment, GRACE.
DeleteLISA: Truth. I got a full refund for the cancelled cooking class ($139.00 SGD) the next day. The heritage recipe cookbook was only $24 SGD!
DeleteSorry you didn’t get your cooking class experience, Grace. I know you were looking forward to it. Glad you got a refund.
DeleteBRENDA: Thanks, it was just bad timing/luck the cooking class instructor was hospitalized and they could not find an alternate to teach the class on short notice!
DeleteGRACE: so sorry that your cooking class was cancelled. Thank you for the reminder. On my first trip to continental Europe, I sent myself postcards to my home so I could remember special moments from my travels. Carry on luggage too.
DeleteDIANA: I also sent myself postcards from memorable locations on my first solo overseas trips.. I then made scrapbooks documenting those solo European trips. Great memories of what I did when I was 20 and 23! I still buy some panoramic postcards since I could notmtake such professional photos with my phone.
DeleteI’m a tea towel gal. Mostly from the UK, but my most far-flung one would be from the Cook Islands. They take up zero space in my bag, can’t break, so they remain favorites even though I have way too many of them.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have focused on wooden items that we hang on the wall. It wasn’t planned, but after we brought back the boomerang from Australia, the carved Welsh love spoon, and a carved face in bark from Poland, we noticed the common denominator and now we try to stick with it. Wooden shoes from the Netherlands, a totem from Alaska, folding fan from Spain, tiny surfboard from Rarotonga . . .
LISA: I like your wooden souvenir theme!
DeleteI like this. We bought a spoon made of olive wood in Italy, but we actually use it.
DeleteI had to bring back a boomerang from Australia, especially after learning how to use it.
DeleteIf I ever go to Australia, I am definitely bring back a boomerang …or else Crocodile Dundee. 🤣
DeleteRhys, I understand why people collect tea towels. It makes perfect sense. During the pandemic, to cut down on the use of paper towels, I bought plain white bar cloths and plain white flour sack towels. One roll of paper towels can last 2 or three months now. Using tea towels from all over would be more fun and just as practical.
ReplyDeleteWhen we travel, I will frequently look for a small piece of artwork to bring home, or a scarf or shawl. Another thing I will seek out is locally crafted silver earrings. There are always local jewlers who work in silver and have locally sourced stones that are unique to the region. Nice memories.
I used to buy an unframed print or small piece of handmade art. But I noticed that I have not put up most of those purchases on my walls /shelf, so I stopped.
DeleteI live in Australia and a tea towel souvenir fits easily into luggage and taken from home as a gift weighs very little. I also iron them which takes care of the hygiene issue Rhys and when I use them I am reminded of my travels. Nicola
ReplyDeleteI'm a big tea towel user, too, and the one currently in use hangs from the oven door. My collection is getting a bit dingey, so it's time to find a few more.
ReplyDeleteLike Judy, I often bring home a new pair of silver earrings from a trip. My grandmother traveled internationally quite a bit in her later years, and she would bring my sisters and me each a doll from the country. My collection of dolls from her are from India, Japan, Spain, China, and more. I've added dolls from Mali, Brazil, Costa Rica, Quebec, England (a tiny black-hatted red-coated guard) and possibly others. Fun!
Edith, I bought this adorable doll for a young relative while I was living in England. I was able to fit it into my carryon luggage since I didn’t pack that much . On my first trip to Scandinavia, we bought bunads for relatives.
DeleteThat was me.
DeleteI don’t know what happened to my comment; I will try again.
ReplyDeleteTea towels as souvenirs make a lot of sense as they are lightweight and take up minimal space.
Looking back, I see some themes in my souvenir purchases. Refrigerator magnets, clothing items, and food items.
I have souvenir tshirts, hats, socks, and even shoes. I have a pair of canvas Mickey Mouse print tennies from Disney World and a pair of custom fit leather sandals from Italy. On Mackinac Island we purchased fudge and we took a cooler with us just for this purpose. In Italy I bought pasta and olive oil.
There were so many food items that I wanted to bring back from Singapore & Taiwan. But meat and dairy items are not allowed to be imported into Canada (e.g, salted egg yolk pastries, seasoned pork jerky (bak kwa).
DeleteA Murano glass wine bottle stopper in shades of red swirled like a marble.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Murano last October and never thought about a wine stopper. That we could have afforded!! (It was our very first stop on our trip and my husband wisely said we shouldn’t buy something expensive when we hadn’t even boarded the ship for a 9-day cruise.) — Pat S
DeleteIn the before times when married, we collected matchbooks from the restaurants, or corks from the wine bottles. Now when I travel, it is usually close to a body of water. I find a pebble or beach stone, and bring it home as a memory token.
ReplyDeleteI love to poke around in thrift shops, and note the tea towels. So many varieties and such fun to see the art. But when cooking, I would not use them instead use chef's towels. They are so useful and as someone mentioned last far longer than paper -- more eco friendly I guess.
I
Oh yes. Matchbooks. And coasters!
DeleteI love tea towels and use them everyday. I brought one from visiting the royal boat Britannia but never used it. The others I use like one with Scotland’s coat of arms and one with four leaves clovers from Ireland . I also like to bring back aprons.
ReplyDeleteOops, I should read to the end before I start my thoughts! Apparently you want to talk about bringing back stuff, and I thought the topic was going to be tea towels. Here are:
ReplyDeleteTea towels: random thoughts.
Associate with my grandmother and old people, not because they always had them, but because they would always give you one or a set for an event – think wedding, Christmas. Often were embroidered, or had that thing where some threads were pulled to make holes that were then stitched around – it has a name, or had homemade lace attached to both ends. These were horrible to wash, as the lace shrunk at a different rate than the tea towel.
They were only good if they were linen, as riff raff used cotton. Yarumpphhh.
They were always wrinkled and had to be ironed.
Old people claimed they dried dishes the best. Also never dry the pots especially if the washer did not wash well, and then gunk would get on the towel.
There were special ones that were only put out for company. Heaven forbid if you ever dried anything with them, as they were never to be washed and must always remain pristine.
Smaller linen ones were found in the bathroom – again only put out for company, or as in my grandmother’s house, on the rack, unused and often had to be dusted if company actually used that bathroom.
I use terry towels in the kitchen – used only for drying hands, wiping stuff, cleaning up messes – you get it. No need to use them on the dishes as those are in the dishwasher which dries them for me. I go through about 4 a day, as they seem to always be wet. I then put them on the outside line to dry before putting in the washer. Someone in this house puts the wet ones in the drawer on top of the dry ones – I have no idea why? I need new ones.
Margo, the pulled thread embroidery is called hardanger. It's a Norwegian craft, maybe brought to Canada by seafarers?
DeleteI love decorative tea towels and have at least two dozen in my collection. Admittedly, I only purchase them to adorn our kitchen stove handle but I don't use them. And It's nice to know that I am not the only individual who considers a stove handle a part of interior design. :-) My collection is based only on the four seasons of the year as well as celebrated holidays during the year. Right now a lovely tea towel portraying a sweet rabbit in watercolor is decorating the front of our stove in celebration of both the spring equinox and the Easter bunny. I do fuss over my selection like another Martha Stewart...lol...as the colors have to match and not clash with the other items in the kitchen. Friends and family are amused by how much effort I put into my "collection" of tea towels...changing them out like I do the decorative pillows.. but it's just one of those silly little things that makes me happy. As for souvenirs purchased over the years I have found that most of the time I have selected items as gifts for others; most notably my mother and mother-in-law who both loved tea cups, candy and jams.
ReplyDeleteMy parents had a tea towel map of Yorkshire (the old ridings) hanging on the living room wall. I believe my little sister had it framed after they passed on.
ReplyDeleteGillian, I just added your "two-ones" twin poem to my WIP (in which the protag is a twin, and her twin has twin sons). I'd love to acknowledge you for it but I don't know your last name!
DeleteI do use a tea towel in my kitchen at all times, but those are usually highly functional things, not so pretty.
ReplyDeleteAs for souvenirs, I mostly focus on things I will really use. They don't necessarily speak of the vacation to anyone but me, but everytime I wear those earrings or use that piece of pottery or umbrella or admire that print, I am taken back to the happy occasion when I picked it up. My sister, on the other hand, LOVES destination t-shirts. She has one from every major trip she has ever taken, and it has become de rigueur that I bring her one from every vacation I take, now that she doesn't really travel.
This is such a great topic! And I was just thinking about two towels. I have a stack of them, that I never used to because they were too pretty. And then I thought why are you not using these? They do no one any good in the cabinet. So now I use them every day, and truly enjoy them some are just pretty, some are from various places I’ve visited, or gifts from book events! So much fun… And so much better than paper towels.
ReplyDeleteWhen I often bring back from vacation and book your is T-shirts but I am going to have to stop – – I just have way too many.
Hank, did you receive my email? Thanks in advance.
DeleteSince we've been downsizing for years, even before we moved to The Cottage, I've tried to cut back on souvenirs. I used to look for a Christmas tree ornament from wherever we traveled - but then I wound up with boxes of ornaments we could use because the tree would probably collapse.
ReplyDeleteI do like to bring back earrings. I bought a lovely silver pair with a beautiful blue stone when I was in Salt Lake City last year, but I think housekeeping filched them. Can't prove it, but I hope whoever has them is enjoying them.
Oh, my son was collecting the Starbucks mugs from different states/cities. I brought him the Utah one. Don't know if he's still doing that.
Oh yes, I have several souvenir Christmas ornaments too.
DeleteEarrings are a great idea!
DeleteI love tea towels Rhys! I have one hanging from the stove here that has Paris and the Eiffel Tower on it...
ReplyDeleteLUCY: You sent me a tea towel with your roasted shrimp recipe from "A Clue in the Crumbs"! That is the only tea towel that I own (won).
DeleteI collect ball caps from travels and native indian dolls.
ReplyDeleteThe only tea towels I have are embroidered with someone else's initials, from back when I collected antique linens. Like the antique silverware I collected, it was cheaper than buying new back in the day. But I never use them. Might as well start.
ReplyDeleteI like to collect scarves on my travels, and family and friends have also brought me scarves from London, Paris, Turkey, Beijing, Peru, etc. On my own, I keep my eye out for some small, iconic items: a carved bowl from Tanzania,
a miniature pair of the traditional ceramic bulls affixed to every roof in rural Peru, a ceramic Aztec cross, a pair of canvas Aboriginal dot paintings from Sydney, a carved and colorful guinea fowl from Kenya. All small enough to fit in even a carryon suitcase. My daughter also gave me a carved hoopoe (colorful orange and black bird), which reminds me of seeing one while Rhys and I were sitting together in Tuscany.
I bring back miniature boxes
DeleteRhys, I also have a pair of tea towels I brought home from New Zealand. They're blue and white with ferns and kiwis on them, and I use them regularly. And I have a tea towel that my parents brought home after living three years in Saudi Arabia--it is green and says, "Welcome" in Arabic (or so I've been told). I've also received tea towels as gifts from traveling friends, one from Ireland and several from France. I use my whole collection two at a time in rotation, and wash them once a week.
ReplyDeleteMy mom started me on tea towels, not for collecting, but everyday use. I still have a couple she gave me, 23 years after her death—still in use! I decided some time ago to use and love them and not worry about them getting stained and faded. It’s amazing how long they go on. And I didn’t even know it was a British “thing”, ha. Plus, they dry dishes and counters so much better than what we call kitchen towels here in the US, although I have and use those too.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely towels! I have been looking for a new keepsake hobby. My old ones were mugs from places I've visited and handmade folk dolls. They quickly outpaced the available storage space!
ReplyDeleteNo tea towels (except a few gifts) in my kitchen - I am a messy cook and paper towels save me every day! My souvenir of choice is an attractive mug. I look for ones that capture memories, not blatant touristy. So I have one from Crete with ancient-style dolphins, from Brittany with words in the Bretagne language, tulips of course from Netherlands, and the best - hand painted Scottish scenery. Useful and fun.
ReplyDeleteI used to look for spoons but tried to stay away from tourist store spoons, they can fall apart after polishing. I liked to find second hand or little antique shops to find a silver spoon. I have other spoons given to me by family members when they would travel.
ReplyDeleteI would get an embroidered flour sack dish towel or two for Christmas when the lady's guild was still around and held it's annual Christmas bazaar. In our family you would need a stack of them to use after holiday meals because Grandma's dishes, crystal and silver didn't go in the dishwasher.
I love tea towels and always ask for them if someone is traveling and wants to get me something. I have an ancient one with the London Tube map, and one holiday, Celia gave me another with the sights of London. In return, I bought her a towel of King Charles's coronation, because of course.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother always had the ones with the years calendar printed on them - they must have been a giveaway, but I don't know from whom. I inherited a few, and enjoyed seeing 1973 hanging from my oven handle, until it finally fell apart.
Julia, did you and Hank receive my email ? Thanks, Diana
DeleteWe use tea towels AND paper towels - the latter to wipe grease from pans before we wash them, the former for dishes and glasses. I think tea towels are so cheery in a kitchen. But a friend brought back a tea towel for us when she went on a trip to Maine. Much too pretty to use. Instead we turned it into a kitchen wall hanging. Meanwhile, when we travel, I often bring back refrigerator magnets for souvenirs.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, my mother used to collect refrigerator magnets. I loved seeing the variety, and let's face it, they're very practical as well!
DeleteElizabeth and Julia, thank you for the reminder. I also collect refrigerator magnets on my travels, especially the cute magnets at the airport gift shop after I’m packed and already went through security. They fit in little shopping bags.
DeleteI definitely have the British tea towel gene, Rhys, and use them every day. I have loads of really pretty ones--Anthropolgie is a great source--and some not so pretty, like the map of Eel Pie Island.
ReplyDeleteI have a collection of bears, so in traveling I have looked for small ones made out of different materials. I have hand carved wooden ones from Switzerland, Finland, Russia and Denmark. A pottery storytelling bear from New Mexico. Ivory (legal) from Alaska, quartz from Canada and glass from Denmark and a very small stuffed cowboy bear from San Antonio TX. I also have other assorted animals made of different materials, a Wedgwood glass dolphin from England, a small hand carved wooden deer from Switzerland, a glass penguin from Denmark and a soapstone seal and penguin from Canada.
ReplyDeleteJewelry include an amber bracelet from Denmark, a silver and garnet (my birthstone) bracelet from Austria, a coral bracelet from Opatija (Croatia), a silver bracelet from Dubrovnik and assorted necklaces with pendants from Scotland (heather), Norway, a fetish necklace from New Mexico and a hand carved wooden necklace from Switzerland.
I’ve accumulated a variety of maps from places I have visited, some I had before going there and others I acquired during the trips. I don’t know if they still have them available, probably not with GPS, but a number of cities in Switzerland had very nice city maps in many of the banks.
Vintage post card drawings of historical cities in England and Scotland and the London transport system. A set of postal couriers from the different cantons of Switzerland and maps given out by the Norwegian rail system of some of the scenic train routes in Norway.
A set of pictures of the fountains of the summer palace Peterhof (Petrodvorets) and the city of St Petersburg.
Post cards of views of Iceland, Holland and the Canadian rockies that would have been impossible for me to take.
I don’t do the traveling I used to do, but looking at the different things I collected bring back the memories of the places I visited.
First of all I love England and have traveled there many, many times. My hubby and I always say we really must go somewhere on vacation this year where we've never been before. How about India, or Japan? Yeah sounds good I say. Then we look at each other and say - so it's England then?
ReplyDeleteI don't collect tea towels but have had many given to me as gifts which I adore getting.
But for practical purposes I have bought about 20 100% cotton face towels and they are perfect for kitchen towels - they are absorbent and large enough to dry dishes and sop up messes. I also use paper towels occasionally.
I have kitchen towels that my grandmother embroidered. They were my mom’s and even though I picked the best of the lot when we cleaned out their house, they are still falling apart. (I kept them out of sentimentality and none were souvenirs from trips.)
ReplyDeleteWhen we remodeled our house, we had some walls removed in the kitchen. That has resulted in a few less cabinets so our souvenir mug collection has been drastically reduced. I am on an austerity plan of not bringing “stuff” into the house that we don’t need or have room for. I came home from Europe with a scarf and a pair of earrings. My husband the souvenir seeker bought shot glasses, t-shirts, pieces of art, olive wood cutting boards and probably other things he didn’t show me! — Pat S
As I reread these ideas on tea towels, I look at a tea towel brought to me from a neighbour who spent a year living in Africa. Her family were ambassadors to Harare, Zimbabwe to explore and teach people about water conservation in 1986. (they harvested 45-gallon drums from the dump, cut them in half, and constructed a mini-stove, that burned next to nothing, to allow a cooked meal. Zimbabwe has very little to burn to make fire and so a hot meal.) At the time we were neighbours, and as such looked after their property. They brought us back an interesting picture of a cow on glass, painted backwards on the glass – think about it and wonder how you envision painting back to front, as you can’t overlay. The other thing was a tea towel in Batik of a guinea fowl which we both raised and loved. We framed it, and it resides in the living room. The cow is in the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI used to pick up jewelry, ceramics, clothing, all sorts of things. As I got older and wiser and had too much stuff I found tea towels to be a perfect souvenir. Pretty or funny and useful. And yes, I use mine. I still might pick up a pin to stick on a hat but that hat has too many souvenir pins to be worn now. I'm still a sucker for a tee shirt and I also wear those.
ReplyDeleteI don't use tea towels much, but I do hang one from the stove handle for different holidays. I think I may have bought a couple as souvenirs on trips. I'll have to check that. What I really love to bring back from trips is artwork, usually paintings and already framed. I think this habit kicked into high gear when I fell in love with Key West. Lucy can attest to the presence of an amazing amount and beautiful pieces of local art found there. When I was going to Key West frequently in 2007, my favorite shop there was the Wild Side Gallery on Duval. They had so many different forms of art, including but definitely not exclusive to paintings. My favorite item I bought there was a small goat statue, which I need to make sure my daughter knows it cost $180 then, so she won't put it in a garage sale when I'm gone. Another favorite item I got, from another shop in Key West, is a painting of a woman reading, done in an abstract sort of form. When we were in Paris last year for our river cruise, one of my main objectives was to peruse the art vendors set up along the Seine River. I was able to get two small oil paintings on canvas, one of the Moulin Rouge for me and one of the Eiffel Tower for my daughter. I also got some small water color paintings on card-size sturdy paper. I only made it to one of the famous Passages of indoor shopping in Paris and that was Passage Jouffroy. I plan to do more of the Passages if I go back to Paris, but in one of the small shops, I found a gorgeous, framed painting of Batman, which I bought in honor of my son Kevin and plan to hang in his old room. I also like wood carvings, and I have several from Hawaii I love. I'm not as quick to add to my collections these days, as my main objective now needs to be downsizing my possessions.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were huge tea towel collectors while travelling, which turned me into one as well. I have not only my own collection, however, but a box of at least a hundred that I inherited after my parents died. I cannot part with them, I am sad to say, because seeing them brings back childhood memories of time spent in the kitchen. Because I have so many, my partner rolls his eyes every time I come home with a new one, but we also have no qualms about pulling out a fresh one whenever we need a dry one.
ReplyDelete