"why are Tea towels..called TEA towels?"

Topics: kitchen, home, housewares

Asked by Talibah 17 months ago

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just wondering where the origins of the humble tea towel come from....

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"It dates back to 18th Century England"

by iamhobbit on Sep 08 2008 (17 months ago)

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Tea towels were special linen towels that the mistress of the house would use to dry her expensive china tea things with. You had to know with it being "tea" that it had to date back to England though. Heehee Frankly, in the south we just call them dish towels now and most of us don't have expensive tea things either.
Sources: http://www.answers.com/topic/towel

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"They were originally used to clean teapots"

by PamPerdue on Sep 08 2008 (17 months ago)

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Various sources differ on the details, but the original tea towels were used to clean your delicate tea china. The first reference in print is from 1863:

Anna said she was going to keep house exactly as Grandmother did, so after supper she took a little hot water in a basin on a tray and got the tea-towels and washed the silver and best china but she let the ivory handles on the knives and forks get wet, so I presume they will all turn black.

(From Village Life in America, by Caroline Cowles Richards)

From there, tea towels became more generally used as kitchen towels, but the name stuck even though the tea is long gone.

Sources: http://www.wordowner.com/richards/index.htm

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