Embroidered Tea Cosy

A fabric tea cosy, dating from the 1950s, consisting of an outer cover with a padded inner lining. The outer cover is sage green, and has on one side an embroidered motif consisting of three large leaves attached to a short stem, with three smaller inner leaves. The design has been embroidered, using shades of green, blue, brown and black on cream panels. On the reverse side is an embroidered, circlular motif using similar colours. Below this motif are thre small black squares, which have been created using cross stitch. The padded inner lining fabric contains an abstract pattern of blue, black and green circular shapes on a cream ground. This is one of three similar tea cosies, all dating from the 1950s. All would probably have been samples produced by a proffessional embroideress, and may well have been displayed in the sewing machine department of a larger store, or a haberdashery.