Beautiful Birds and Bulrushes

This is one of my favourite fabrics, the detail is incredible, beautiful finches and rushes, insects and flowers all in a soft shell pink and ivory on a moss green background. The fabric is cotton, but a heavy serge cotton like canvas almost, just lovely. The fabric is on a pair of large French pleated curtains with the prettiest tops, rosettes where the pleat is, if only I had a room that needed yet more curtains!!

How Toiles were created...

The Miller, his son and the donkey

This is a charming original Toile, dating from the early 1800s, the subject matter is the miller, his son and the donkey, a fabric which tells a tale, often from Aesop's Fables in illustration. These illustrations were then put onto copper-plate and printed in a single colour onto linen or cotton, the detail being very fine. That is what a toile is and the early dating toiles are very collectable.  By early I mean c. 1770 onwards and some of those fabrics only survive as an original design in a museum.

Often they were part of an eleaborate bed-hanging set and over the years the set would either get separated or parts worn and damaged, so you find pieces and rarely an early complete set, which would be very valuable. This piece is a pelmet, and would have hung from the canopy, hand-quilted and backed in home-spun linen.

Just wonderful when you think every part of the process was hand-made from the illustration being drawn, engraved on the copper-plate, hand-printed onto the fabric which in those days would have been loomed but still 'manned', then the hand-work to back the fabric with hand-spun and loomed linen, and to hand-quilt it, finally the making of the piece to fit the bed for which it was ordered. Really only something that wealthy follk could afford, but because of the naive, pastoral style of the fabric it still endures today.

August 2011: The Liberty Best of British Design Open Call - see Sebastian Cox!

French Inspiration

Extract from French catalogue c 1900

The above picture is a page from a wonderful French shop catalogue dating from the turn of last century, showing the lovely elegant items of furniture and furnishings on offer for the discerning buyer. These sort of catalogues are very useful to people like me because they give the narrative to things I find, which by themselves might be a bit of a mystery. For example, I might come across pelmet roses or patera, which would probably have formed part of a bed or curtain set, but the rest has long since been separated. So these designs give me a clue as to how to complete the look.

Sometimes also the name of an item is lost, either through translation or disuse of an item, for example, I sell hold back hooks, which essentially are anchored to the wall and are composed of brass or bronze 'arms' that hold back the curtain in the way a tassled tie back would, These have a  name, which is 'embrasse' or embrace (in direct translation) and that makes perfect sense! The brass curves 'embrace' the curtain fabric. Even French sellers do not know the name, so this catalogue is keeping a name alive, that would otherwise be lost.

Speaking of keeping names alive, I was astounded to hear that Collins say the words 'aerodrome' and 'charabanc' are now obsolete words and will no longer be in their short dictionaries, although they may be of interest to historians! They are lovely words, which I very much connect with a 1920s Miss Marple type world, and the loss of them from the dictionary will surely consign them to history. Use these words as often as you can please, strike back and support charming language! I use these words regularly and I really never thought the day would come where my language was obsolete!! Ouch!

France once more...

Chatea d'Amboise - Loire Valley

We took a short trip to the wonderful Loire Valley a few weeks ago, and to some extent you become accustomed to the the view of a chateau as they are so plentiful, however, this does not mean that you don't want to stop and stare! This is the Chateau d'Amboise which is so imposing and the town so charming, right on the banks of the River Loire, the longest river in France. Flowing through the Loire Valley it seems wide, with occasional islands in the centre creating sometimes dangerous conditions (quick-sand and hazardous whirlpools so we were told ) that catch out the unsuspecting traveller. The River Loire rises in the Ardeche at Mont Gerbier de Jonc and flows into the Bay of Biscay at St. Nazaire some 1020 kilometers later (that is 629 miles to us Imperialists). All along the Loire Valley there are vineyards, producing the lightest and most delicious of wines, mostly white, some reds, and plenty of 'methode traditionelle' sparkling wines which are every bit as good as champagne.

Known as the garden of France, the area between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes is a World Heritage Site, there being a great concentration of Chateaux, around 300!

Whilst in the Loire Valley we visited an antique fair at Chambord, yet another Chateau ( in fact the hunting lodge for King Francois I of France) where we spent the whole day looking at items of all descriptions, including things such as a copper turbotois, the pan in which you would cook turbot, what Mrs. Beeton would call a turbot-kettle, despite it not looking remotely like a kettle but rather kite-shaped. Surely only the French would have such fascinating things for sale!

We found some antique textiles and will be listing them over the next few weeks, as well as some gorgeous bronze curtain fitments, so keep a look out. But in the meanwhile feast your eyes on the chateau built purely as a hunting lodge of the King of France with 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, 84 staircases - and just marvel!

Chateau de Chambord