Linen dish cloths

I started collecting monogramed old/antique dish cloths almost as soon as I arrived here in Germany.  But some are more special than others.

This is from Dora Wichmann Menke, Werner's aunt.  She was born in 1903 and would have finished embroidering all of her monogramed linens before she married about 1924.The last time we visited her son-in-law (now 85+) he gave me two of her cloths.  They're pretty simply stitched, but nicely done. (I also have a pair of her pillowcases with intricate white work on hand-loomed linen. but those were not for everyday use.)

The other day I had to do a little rearranging and ran across these and thought, Why not use them?  THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN USED, not since about 1920-ish, close to 100 years.  Never been washed. Never been used. Can you imagine?

And we discovered, they don't dry well before being washed!

What's more amazing is that there are probably another 100 or more cloths in her linen cupboard that have never been used, plus several rolls of home-loomed linen.  A century ago, farmer's daughters prepared not only for a lifetime but well beyond.  Thank you, Tante Dora.