Pat Albeck, (1930-2017), was a Hull-born, award-winning designer dubbed the ‘Queen of the tea towel’. She attended the Royal College of Art in 1950 to study Printed Textiles.
In her long and illustrious career, she worked for English stalwarts, the National Trust, Horrockses, Worcester Ware, Jonelle and John Lewis for whom she designed ‘Pansy’ and the incredibly successful, William Morris-inspired, ‘Daisychain’ (seen in two colourways, second row of images above).
Her designs grace fashion and furnishing fabrics, tea towels, tablecloths, wrapping paper, wallpaper, paper bags, metal trays and ceramics. Later on in her career, she produced beautiful paper collages (as seen in the bottom right image above).
Many of her vintage homeware items are readily available on eBay. There are also a number of books exploring her designs that are available on Abe Books and Amazon.
She collaborated with her daughter-in-law, Emma Bridgewater, on numerous designs. She once said:
You won’t find my designs in people’s living rooms; they are far more suited to the working areas of the home – the kitchen, the nursery and children’s bedrooms.
Check out this tour of her wonderful home in Oxfordshire.
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