TUTTI FRUTTI

   Can  you guess what these pretty , flimsy fruit decorated borders were used for?  When I first saw them in their hundreds on a French  brocante stall, I bought the lot, thinking I could use them as a

wallpaper border in a cottage kitchen I was doing up.  Half were in this lovely bluey/green shade and the rest, more formal, in a classic swagged design, were in a strong orangey- red colour.  So when I looked at them properly, I realised the paper was so delicate that it would not take paste and was rather useless for my project.  Oh dear! had I made a  another very silly purchase?   Anyway, I put them out at my next fair at a low price for a set of three and they disappeared within hours.  People bought them to decorate their kitchen dresser shelves and larders, to trim bathroom shelves, wardrobes and display units,for etsy style groups,  and reckoned they were so cheap that it did not matter if they were just ephemera, looking pretty for a period and then to throw away.   I discovered that these borders were used by fruit growers selling cherries, plums and currants in France to decorate their boxes going to the big food markets - hence the fruit motifs - and I rather wished that we could see something like them again in the fruit aisles of Tesco and Asda!   It would make me buy the box-full and then I would have to make lots of jam with the contents and there would be jam for every day!   The French really have a genius for display and packaging which continues to this day if you look at their confectionery boxes, their beauty products and  gift presentations.