Thanks to reader Linda, who emailed me yesterday to let me know that Crate & Barrel is now offering some exclusive Vintage Vera Neumann designs on dish towels.
Currently there appear to be three designs available — Insalata, Canning, and By the Pint.
The towels are cotton, and cost just $5.95 each. Link: Vintage Vera Neumann dish towels at Crate & Barrel.
Thanks to Crate & Barrel for providing the images!
But also read on — New Old Stock vintage linen dish towels are also still widely available.
Personally, I prefer linen towels, but if want Vintage Vera, those are getting harder and harder to find, and they are likely to be more expensive. Like, $20 – $30 each. So, buying these designs from Crate & Barrel puts Vera Neumann solidly within the reach of many more homeowners.
That said, other designs of NOS linen dish towels — unused, still with their original tags — still can be found via ebay, etsy and estate sales — at very reasonable prices (if you don’t get sucked into some kind of bidding war). It seems that many women collected these or received them as a gift… and then socked them away for a special occasion (?). I personally adore how linen wears, and find that it is just as absorbent as cotton. Some of the big names in vintage linen dish towels include Parisian Prints, Kay Dee, Bucilla, Vera, and Tammis Keefe. Note, Tammis Keefe is as collectible as Vera; Tammis designs also will be spendy. Read one of my main stories about Tammis Keefe here.