At the recent marvellous Antiques For Everyone fair at the NEC in Birmingham, a friendly dealer approached me with a folder of around 50 photographs of furniture, home accessories, and room designs. Her father was a teacher and had used them in the late 1950s and early 1960s as props for lessons. Since he retired, […]
At the recent marvellous Antiques For Everyone fair at the NEC in Birmingham, a friendly dealer approached me with a folder of around 50 photographs of furniture, home accessories, and room designs. Her father was a teacher and had used them in the late 1950s and early 1960s as props for lessons. Since he retired, […]
Nobody knows everything, and you ought to run away from anyone who says they do. I know very little about tiles, it’s a very specialist market. But a specialist market that is growing in size and appeal as more choose to use antique tiles in fireplaces or hallways or, in fact, all over the house. […]
As we didn’t manage a holiday this year, and Summer wasn’t exactly hot, the banker and I decided to cash in some air miles and spend New Year in the hot sun of Florida. When I take a holiday, it doesn’t usually take long for that ‘itch’ to set in and for me to start […]
I’ve been a fan of ‘The Chap‘ magazine for quite some time now, having found issue 7 in a vintage clothes shop a fair few years ago. Who couldn’t resist a magazine with a strap-line reading ‘Divinity lies in the insouciance of a moleskin waistcoat‘? Especially as I was wearing one at the time. For […]
Over the past few years, the mid-century modern look of the 1950s-70s has become THE mainstream look influencing many of our homes. Although many say that the magazine is dead against today’s eReaders and websites, two brave and innovative publishers have launched marvellous magazines focusing on the area. And proving that the magazine isn’t dead, […]
Well, sort of…a picture of them at least. I can’t pass a charity shop without going in. Fact. Walking to a meeting in north London this morning, I sped past a fair few of them – yippee! On my way back, I popped into them all. I usually head towards the ceramics and glass first, […]
Rummaging around a secondhand bookshop (always one of life’s little pleasures) a few weeks ago, I discovered a small and slim hardbound copy of Sheraton’s furniture designs. It was published in 1946 by John Tiranti, and the simple yet charming, Classically-inspired illustrations inside made me glow. So I spent the £4 the bookseller was asking, […]
Well, that might be an over-statement, as it has its moments, and I ought to be celebrating it after last night. This weekend I bought a mid-19thc Copeland Late Spode stoneware bottle vase in a junk shop in Edenbridge. Yes, just the one, not a pair. And, I know, it’s not my usual thing at […]
The clever, or observant, amongst you will have noticed that 2011 is the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. A landmark event that buoyed up the nation after the war, it celebrated our culture, developments in technology, manufacturing and design, and looked forward to ‘the world of tomorrow today’. The main event was held […]
Uruguay. It’s hardly a place where you’d expect to find much modern design, mid-century or otherwise. Or so I thought in my naïvety. My thoughts of a Cuba-like state of elegant disrepair were blown apart pretty much as soon as we landed. A swish and well-designed airport at Punta Del Este, and an even swisher […]
Taking advantage of the two long holiday weekends, the banker and I decided to blow some of our carefully amassed air miles and seek out some sun by flying to Buenos Aires and Uruguay for a Spring break. We first visited this amazing city three years ago, after hiking the Inca Trail for four days. […]