Fonteindoek met ketting-satijnstrepen (dessinnr. 417)

A dish towel in white, green, yellow and black, in a simple striped design: it’s not so sensational nowadays, but it was an innovation in Dutch households between the wars. The women’s magazine ‘De vrouw en haar huis’ (The Woman and Her House) rejoiced in 1937: ‘Truly, this artist and designer has managed to give our dish towels, glass towels, hand towels and bath towels a more colorful, shall we say modern, cachet’. Former Bauhaus student Kitty van der Mijll Dekker was recruited by the Van Dissel linen factory in 1935 to design new household textiles. Decorative artist Chris Lebeau had been doing the same for table linen since the beginning of the century. While he worked with figurative forms, Van der Mijll Dekker kept strictly to geometry. By varying the weaves and colors, she created an endless range of designs, which were far more interesting than the usual red or blue checks. She also ensured that the towels were colorfast, easy to wash and hardwearing. Every housewife’s dream...