Queen Elizabeth II: Tributes in textiles

Tammis Keefe handkerchief, 1950's.

Like many folks around the world, I respected and admired Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) and awoke a bit early to watch her funeral this morning.  There were tears.

The lifecycle event at the beginning of her reign, her coronation, was also televised, and celebrated with pomp, ceremony, and souvenirs.  Commemorative textiles were very popular, including scarves and handkerchiefs. Although I haven't been able yet to find documentation, I believe these two handkerchiefs, from my collection, were produced as souvenirs of the coronation of the young queen. The central image of the hankie above certainly resembles the Gold State Coach and the crowns in the corners evoke the silhouette of St. Edward's Crown, worn during the coronation.

Below, a silk pocket square again depicts the crown and the golden coach, in addition to London Bridge, yeoman of the guard, and The Tower.

Tammis Keefe, silk pocket handkerchief, 1950's.

I'll miss the Queen's colorful outfits and matching hats - designer Angela Kelly did wonderful work.  The Queen's self-presentation and style did much to make every event special.

The person who most closely approximately the Queen's role here in America might have been Mrs. Brook Astor, who once said:

If I go up to Harlem or down to Sixth Street, and I'm not dressed up or I'm not wearing my jewelry, then the people feel I'm talking down to them. People expect to see Mrs. Astor, not some dowdy old lady, and I don't intend to disappoint.

The Queen never disappointed us.

Tammis Keefe tablecloth

Air Ships, 64" x 48", linen.

I recently added another tablecloth to the online Keefe exhibit; it will be added to the Tammis Keefe website soon. To recap, Tammis Keefe was a textile designer active from about 1947 to her death in 1960.  She designed hundreds of domestic linens - towels, placemats, tablecloths - but is probably best known for her handkerchief designs. Air Ships is my name for this design; I don't know what manufacturer Fallani and Cohn called it.

Air Ships, detail.

I receive the newsletter of a fun museum in Michigan - the International Museum of Dinnerware Design, or IMODD. The museum is having a lecture series on aspects of mid-century modern tabletop designs for the home, including an online talk tomorrow at 6:30 pm (Eastern time)  entitled Setting the Standard for Setting the Table: Modern Women Textile Designers.

Learn more and register for the lecture at the museum's website: http://dinnerwaremuseum.org/main/

New Tammis Keefe items on website

Courage, pink colorway.

 

I began collection Keefe items in 1999, when a friend introduced me to this artist.  Although the pace of acquisition has slowed considerably in the last few years, I've been able to find some new items and, thanks to my patient DH, there are now 22 new images on the www.tammiskeefe.com website.  These include designs already listed but in additional colorways, and also a few new designs.  I continue to be impressed by Keefe's output, given the relatively short span of her career.  She began designing print textiles around 1947 and died in 1960.  The linen towels were produced by home textiles manufacturer Fallani & Cohn.

Grocery List.

Reef.

 

Thanks to the kindness of fellow textile aficionado Merle, who has a wonderful website dedicated to Vera Neumann,  I've recently added dozens of Keefe hankies to the treasure trove; it will take us a while to process them, but stay tuned. Before being posted to the site, the items must be photographed, the images water-marked, and then I have to think of a title for each design, which is more difficult than you might think when dealing with about 400 individual designs. Cataloging takes time but I love sharing the work of this talented woman artist.

Pond Lily.

Ringmaster, red colorway.

Mermaids, indigo colorway.

Tammis Keefe ad in Vogue magazine

Every now and then some Keefe-related ephemera comes my way, such as this advertisement I found on ebay.  It's part of a page from Vogue magazine, 1952.  This page also featured ads for Wisconsin Cheese, "Mother 'N' Daughter" aprons, and Nefertiti Egyptian Designs, vases from Kipp Ceramics.

Several  interesting discoveries in this ad: the copy gives a name, "Hokus Pokus", to two of Keefe's designs and the image prominently displays her packaging design for the set.  Finally, the ad lists Bloomingdale's as the retailer.   The late Phoebe Ann Erb, an independent scholar who had spoken with some of Keefe's contemporaries, was told that Keefe's designs, signed as "Tammis Keefe", were exclusive to Lord & Taylor.  We now know that some designs were sold at Bloomingdale's as well.

Both of these designs are shown on our website; when my husband has time, we'll re-label them as Hokus Pokus 1 and Hokus Pokus 2.

Hokus Pokus 1, gray

Hokus Pokus 2

Hokus Pokus 1, black

Happy Fourth of July!

Silkscreen tablecloth.

We're at home for this Fourth; no fireworks for the first time in ages. However, in my mind I've set up a picnic with this fun tablecloth, red Fiestaware and plenty of lemonade.  Maybe next year.

Detail, with Tammis Keefe printed signature

Tammis Keefe towels

Linen dish towels by Tammis Keefe, c. 1957.

My wonderful DH just processed a batch of twenty-six towels to add to our Tammis Keefe website.  Visit the website and see more of these charming domestic linens, which brought color, and a little humor, to kitchen chores back in the day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tammis Keefe, linen towel, 1950's.

The lettering on the sign beneath the bird's foot is a bit blurry, but states Roast Turkey Today.  The turkey looks suitably irate.

Safe travels to everyone on the road, in a plane, on a train or on foot!

More Tammis Keefe

Woof, yellow colorway.

The Westminster Kennel Club show, America's most prestigious dog show, was held earlier this month in New York City.  Dogs of all shapes, size and colors competed for glory, although none of the dogs were as colorful as the pooches in Tammis Keefe's dog hankie above. This silk-screened accessory, designed by someone with obvious affection for canines, emphasizes the textures of furry coats - silky and long, curly and styled, short and smooth. Note the tiny white chew bones in the background.  Keefe's work is a wonderful exemplar of the long-standing tradition of dog-themed artwork.

After a long hiatus, my husband and I have added new items to our tribute website featuring the work of designer Tammis Keefe (1913 - 1960). Some of the new additions are highlighted in this blog post. 

Labyrinth.

Cats made the scene at the dog show too, in a "Meet the Breeds" event.  In the image above, three dogs (poodles?) will test their senses of smell to find the kitties in the center. The yarn threading its way through the twists and turns may be a nod to Ariadne, a legendary Cretan princess.  She gave mythological hero Theseus a string to mark his path through the labyrinth as he sought to find and kill the fearsome Minotaur. I really think Ariadne, not Theseus, was the clever one in that story.

Giraffes, pink colorway.

From domestic animals to beasts from faraway lands - purple giraffes run through a thicket of pink bamboo, above. Turns out bamboo is native to parts of Africa, although not necessarily in giraffe habitat; we'll allow Keefe some poetic license.

Most of the hankies here and on the website are roughly 14" x 14" and were silk-screened on fine linen. The printed rolls of fabric appear to have then been sent to the Philippines where the individual hankies were cut from the roll and hand-hemmed. The finished textiles were then sent back to New York for distribution to department stores such as Lord & Taylor.

Some of the hankies are approximately 9" x 9" square; perhaps these were pocket squares, which were just ornamental - not to be used anywhere near one's nose.  On our website I call a small square like the one below a mouchoir, which just means handkerchief in French.  I just like the sound of the word.

In French, a pocket square is a pochette or a mouchoir de poche.  Children's hankies were often smaller, too, but they usually featured some kind of child-friendly imagery.

Moth mouchoir, green colorway.

By the time Keefe died, in 1960, I suspect that all, if not most, printed cloth handkerchiefs were for show, rather than blow, as the saying goes, as Kleenex and other brands of disposable paper facial tissue were well-established.

Moths also make an appearance in the hankies below, along with dragonflies and some of my personal favorites, ferns. Perhaps Keefe, who lived in New York City for most of her textile career, encountered these insects and plants in her summer home, in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Fronds, brown colorway.

Hayscented, tan colorway.

Autumn, pink colorway.

Did Keefe do much gardening in Connecticut? It appears she had the tools. This hankie still has the "Kreated by Kimball" gold sticker.  Kimball Company contracted designs from Keefe and other artists and produced hankies and scarves. There's also a remnant of a price sticker on Autumn; Keefe's hankies did sell for a premium.

Floating Flowers.

From Connecticut to Asia -  I've categorized this hankie under Japan in my website as the flowers could be stylized chrysanthemums, a flower associated with the Japanese Imperial family. 

Shrine, green colorway.

Finally, this hankie in cheery purple, green and gold.  I situate this hankie in Southeast Asia; Keefe traveled quite a bit but I don't know if she visited any countries in this area.

How did I come up with the names? I labelled the hankies and other items throughout the website for ease of discussion and navigation.  Kimball advertised Keefe's hankies in publications like The New Yorker, and in these ads the copywriters sometimes gave names to the designs, but we don't know if these came from Keefe herself.  Mostly, I've named the designs for their imagery or theme. It's been a labor of love.

Tammis Keefe Holiday Art

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2018 to all!!

Box design by Tammis Keefe.

 

 

The box is a recent acquisition - there were no cards, but someone had saved the box. In addition to graphic work for textiles, Keefe also created designs for packaging, so very likely did the layout for the box.

Happy Birthday, Tammis Keefe

Handkerchief designed by Keefe, produced by Kimball Co., 1950's.

Artist Tammis Keefe was born on this day in 1913.  Ms. Keefe designed everything from handkerchiefs and scarves to men's sportswear. Learn more about her at http://www.tammiskeefe.com/index.html 
Ms. Keefe died in 1960.

Holiday Cheer

1950's holiday card designed by Tammis Keefe.

I'll begin this post with a big "thank you" to all my blog readers for visiting this site throughout the year. It's been a privilege to share my adventures with you, and I hope this blog has been helpful, instructive or entertaining in some way.

Above is a vintage card by artist Tammis Keefe (1913 - 1960), the focus of my collecting hobby, and whose birthday is December 27 (she'd be 102 this year.)  The card was published by the imprint "Irene Dash," originally part of the Associated American Artists group. This consortium of artists sought to bring art to the masses and is the focus of a new book and exhibit.  Evidently a successor firm still publishes the holiday cards, including another one by Keefe.

December found DH and I babysitting in Manhattan, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather as well as the holiday lights and decorations.  Whatever one's beliefs, the bright colors and lights are a tonic for the sunlight-deprived during these short winter days.

Tree guard on Madison Ave.

Outside a restaurant.

Apartment building near the Metropolitan Museum.

Joy and peace to all.

Tammis Keefe and Coats and Clark

A gallery of Keefe designs.

Thanks to the efforts of my stalwart DH, we've added over 50 handkerchief designs to the Tammis Keefe website, as well as towels, placemats and more furnishing fabrics.

Gold metallic ink remains lustrous in this unlaundered hankie.

I was fortunate enough to acquire a group of hankies which an expert needleworker, with a good eye for color,  personalized with tatted edgings. Tatting is a form of lace-making, using a special shuttle and thread.  Since some of these items retain their original sticker, it seems they were treasured not for their function, but as objects of delight in and of themselves. Three are featured in this post; as always click on the image to enlarge.

The needlewoman accentuated the orange motifs with her colored edging.

The bright aqua edging is just perfect.

Centerspread of 1955 Edgings booklet.

Coats and Clark, the venerable textile company founded in Scotland in 1812, published many pattern books with designs for their line of crochet cotton, which came in a wide variety of colors, such as Chartreuse Green, Hunter's Green and more imaginatively, Killarney, Mandarin Rust, Limefruit, and Devil Red. The instructional booklet above is from 1955, and has a Keefe hankie in the lower right-hand corner. (The two print hankies on the center crease were designed by Keefe's friend Betty Anderson.)

To celebrate its 200th birthday in 2012, Coats and Clark, now owned by the same conglomerate which absorbed Rowan Yarn and FreeSpirit fabrics, created an informative website chronicling the firm's industrial history. In addition, stitchers have shared their stories of sewing, and making things generally, on the website.

So, Keefe's art pops up in a wide variety of places.  Her fabrics are featured in the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design exhibitions in the late 1940's - 1950's; at the same time the publicity department of a huge thread company features her work in crochet booklets.  This inclusion in such disparate venues - cutting across boundaries of class and status -  exemplifies Keefe's broad and enduring appeal.

Pocket Picasso - more Tammis Keefe

Handkerchiefs designed by Tammis Keefe.

After a flutter of photography by me, and several hours of patient website editing by my DH, we've added more than seventy recently-acquired handkerchiefs to the more than four hundred already on view at www.tammiskeefe.com, our website featuring the artist, Tammis Keefe (1913 - 1960.) 

Article by NEA journalist Gaile [sic] Dugas, 1956.

Tammis Keefe employed New York fashion publicist Rea Lubar (1920 - 2004) to promote her work, and Ms. Lubar created and sent press releases to such outlets such as the National Editorial Association (now the National Newspaper Association), an organization which provided features for community newspapers. NEA writers prepared articles such as the one in the above image, which would be published in multiple community newspapers in the US and Canada.

Text of the article:

Open up your handbag right now and take out your handkerchief.  If it's a print linen, the chances are very good that is bears the signature "Tammis Keefe" in one corner. 

For what bone is to china, Tammis Keefe is to handkerchiefs.  She's been at handkerchief design only nine years, but those years have seen a revolution in handkerchief styles.

From bunches of roses (or violets) coyly tied with ribbon, we've graduated to subtle (or bold) color and striking design.  All in good taste.

Women collect her handkerchiefs, which probably accounts for a high percentage of their phenomenal sales.  For one can, after all, blow one's nose on a paper tissue. But it isn't half so much fun as a satisfying honk into a Tammis Keefe design.

From the drawing board of her East 61st Street studio, Tammis Keefe readily admits that the role of the handkerchief has shifted in the last few years.

"More and more, they're becoming fashion accessories," she explains. "Women like to use them as a flash of color in a belt, at the neck of a shirt or tied through French cuffs in place of link."

In designing, she has many things to consider. The special holidays: Christmas, birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and such things as bon voyage and get-well-quick.

She does about 50 handkerchiefs designs a year.  Then, she must consider color.  Not only must it be in good taste and original in use, it must also follow the current fashion trends.

"I can't use a lot of brown if everything's pink," she says.  "Then, too, I must watch seasonal color.  The handkerchiefs I've just completed for spring are creamy, pastel and delicate. For fall, I use color boldly, vividly."

American good taste, she thinks, is at the highest level ever. It's been improving steadily in the last decade.  Never before were there so many things in such good design for so little money.

"When I first started designing, it was because I was literally driven to it," she says.  "My mother loved pretty handkerchiefs and I found it nearly impossible to get her something really lovely at the price I could pay. That was how I started."

Tammis Keefe now also designs glasses. shower curtains, drapery and upholstery fabrics, table linens  and towels, dress fabrics and scarves.

Practically everything finds its way to a Tammis Keefe handkerchief sooner or later: watches, antiques, hitching posts and weather vanes, Persian people and animals, Christmas angels and ornaments. But no more nosegays and ribbons. 

Keefe's point about American taste is more than just a note of patriotism. After the war, the European fashion industry, led by Paris, sought to resume exports of its products to the American market. At the same time leaders in American retailing, such as Dorothy Shaver, president of Lord & Taylor, strove to promote American design and production. 

Also interesting is Keefe's ability to "cross over" from fashion accessories into home furnishings. Although this is now common - think Ralph Lauren for the home, not to mention Calvin Klein - I think this was unusual for the late 1950's.  The research continues...

Tammis Keefe website - new textiles added!

Linen towels, from the 1950's.

Click to enlarge image.
The website team - myself and my DH - just added six more examples of Keefe's output to our website, www.tammiskeefe.com  One of my favorites is the large towel on the left, above, with the motto Rare - Medium - Well.  Keefe created a heraldic blazon for all the backyard Escoffier's firing up the bar-b-que. Particularly fitting for today's celebration of Father's Day.

Tammis Keefe website - placemats added!

Click on image to enlarge.

Thanks to the web skills of my patient DH, the Tammis Keefe website now features a selection of her placemats, produced in the 1950's by Fallani and Cohn. As advertised by Lord & Taylor, a set of four placemats and four napkins cost $5.95.

I've featured some examples in their original gift packaging, including fiber content label. My favorite, if I'm allowed to have favorites, is a design I've named "Famous Vineyards" (center mat, above.)  DH and I took a fun wine education class this spring and learned about some of the reds and whites and terroirs which Keefe displays in her design. So, a toast to Tammis and her tabletop designs!

Tammis Keefe website - cocktail napkins added!

Linen cocktail napkins, in original gift box.

  

If you are looking for gifts that will make things a little brighter, more liveable, more usable and more sympathetic to human beings, then look for the name of Designer Tammis Keefe.

 - Dallas Morning News, December 15, 1957

The holiday season, full of festive food and drink, in is full swing as we approach New Year's Eve.  Throughout the land, revelers are performing a two-handed juggling routine - balancing plates of tidbits in one hand while manuvering a cup of punch or a cocktail in the other.  Napkins are involved, for wiping a stray bit of onion dip, or to place beneath the mug of mulled wine, saving the party giver's nice furniture from tell-tale waterspot rings.

The career of Tammis Keefe (1913-1960) paralled the resurgence of post-war cocktail party culture, when Prohibition and rationing were distant memories. Thanks to my patient DH, examples of Keefe's artistry can be seen on my website, http://www.tammiskeefe.com/collections.html She did many sets of cocktail napkins, and her designs often have an element of humor, putting everyone in a party mood.

"Out to lunch" cocktail napkin set.

The set in the image above tells a sad tale - start in the upper left corner, and move clockwise to follow the narrative.  Other napkin sets celebrate the manufacture of hospitality, especially the sharing of food and drink.

Mixed drinks.

Canapes.

  

Don't overdo it, lest you see elephants!

Party music, Persian-style.

Antique images repurposed for 1950's living.

We'll skip the "one for the road" and use a designated driver or taxi-cab for a safe start to 2013.
 
Thanks to everyone for reading my blog this year and best wishes for the New Year!