My Post Box

Thanks Yvette for telling me that my tablecloth added something to your Christmas table - and I wonder if you had traditional English feast or did you slip a few French treats in ?- I seem to remember a wonderful custom of twelve special desserts sometime over NOEL OR HAVE I GOT IT MIXED UP ?- YOU HAVE SO MANY SAINTS DAYS AND CELEBRATIONS IN FRANCE THAT YOU KEEP, AND WE FIND IT HARD TO KEEP PACE - SOMETIMES IT IS A VERY USEFUL DATE TO HANG ON TO AS A BROCANTE OR ANTIQUE FAIR IS ALWAYS FIXED ON A CERTAIN SAINT'S DAY, SO I DON'T NEED TO BUY ALADIN TO FIND IT OUT!   ANYWAY,
JOYEUX NOEL TO ALL WHO LOVE FRANCE.

Answers to your comments

My Rag Market Fair on Sunday 19th May will be held in the Mason's Hall and in the old wine vaults next door in Bradford on Avon, nr. Bath.  Details:  email dbaer@onetel.com.

ITS NOT THE END

  
SORRY FOR THE GAP.  My computer crashed completely and it has taken two weeks to GET THINGS GOING AGAIN. FIRST ON MY LIST OF THINGS TO DO IS TO WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THINGS GOOD FOR NEXT YEAR.  WE ARE ALL A YEAR OLDER BUT ARE WE ANY WISER? HALF THE WORLD SEEMS MAD AND THE PRESS AND MEDIA NOT MUCH BETTER AND IF OUR AMAZING CHRISTMAS ELECTRONIC GADGETS CAN BLOT OUT SOME OF ALL THAT, THEN IT IS A VERY GOOD THING TO HAVE THAT RELIEF.  I am enjoying books on an IPad!

      I SUPPOSE IT IS NOT QUITE RIGHT TO COMBINE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS WITH TEXTILE BUSINESS BUT OWING TO MY COMPUTER CRASH THIS IS A LATE REMINDER TO PUT MY RAG MARKET DATE OF SUNDAY MAY 19TH IN YOUR NEW DIARY FOR 2013.      THIS HAS GONE AMAZINGLY WELL AND I AM ALMOST FULLY BOOKED WITH A WONDERFUL GROUP OF PEOPLE SELLING THEIR SURPLUS, AND THIS PROMISES TO BE A REAL FUN DAY!  I HAVE FOUR WELL KNOWN MAGAZINE DECORATOR LADIES FLOGGING THEIR REMAINING PROPS,  TWO FABRIC DESIGNERS RETIRING AND DISPOSING OF THEIR SAMPLES AND SECONDS, 2 PRIVATE LADIES FROM BIG OLD RECTORIES TURNING OUT LIFETIME COLLECTIONS OF 'USEFUL' HOUSEHOLD CHATTELS,  PLUS SEVERAL OTHER RETIREES AND DOWNSIZERS WHO RELISH THE THOUGHT OF GETTING A LITTLE BACK ON THEIR FAMILY BELONGINGS AND SORTING THEIR CUPBOARDS, ATTICS, TRUNKS AND MOVING ON.  There will be bargains galore! Free entry.
     IF YOU WANT TO JOIN US, THERE ARE ABOUT TWO TABLES LEFT, £20 FOR THE DAY, 9A.M. - 3 P.M. AND I AM ASKING EVERYONE TO BRING ONE GOOD RAFFLE PRIZE - MACMILLAN CANCER CHARITY ARE RUNNING IT AND WILL GET A GENEROUS DONATION FROM ME AFTER EXPENSES.  I WOULD REMIND ALL STALLHOLDERS THAT SETTING UP IS ON THE SATURDAY, IF POSSIBLE, AS THE VENUE HAS POOR ACCESS AND THE STREET HAS LITTLE PARKING.  APPLY TO dbaer@onetel.com.  Get your FLYERS AND INVITES FROM SAME eMAIL ADDRESS.

OUR NINE YEAR OLD GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER AND HER CHRISTMAS CARD 2012

A bientot! Elizabeth  

HEIRLOOM LACE

In the days after the last war when old houses were being broken up into flats, shabby old family places were emptied of their contents and people moved into smaller more manageable houses.  There were lots of auctions run by the local auctioneers, some of whom were more used to selling farms and livestock than the domestic contents  They were held in old marquees with village hall chairs and roneo'd catalogues that were often incomplete and certainly did not give details of each item to be sold. You had to make up your own mind as to the quality, age and condition, so  view-day was essential if you wanted to know what you were buying.   Much had come out of store after being shut away during the war and there was a huge variety of Victorian furnishings, often shabby and damaged.  I was furnishing a big old house on a very low budget to accomodate my growing family and attended many sales in the Essex, Cambridge area with very good results.  Small items sold for a lot of money but the big old lumps were almost given away and I made the most of this.  I had a Volvo shooting brake and was able to transport everything myself, would search the pantries,  kitchen, servants rooms, stables for the bargains which had often been stored there for years as old fashioned and surplus and were often unlisted at the end of the sale under a heading  'contents of the....'. tool sheds, lamp sheds often had interesting bits waiting to be re-discovered!

     Some of the 'Executors' sales were the best,as they were badly advertised, at short notice, and no-one knew anything about the chattels to be sold.   One of the best was a villa where two maiden ladies, descendants of the great Warren Hastings, had lived with masses of family papers and belongings going back to Georgian times.   The few dealers who were there were interested in the historic papers with details of his Governorship of India, and I found the most delightful and charming momentoes, sewing tools, mini boxwood pill boxes, snuff boxes, etc.  I saw some linen tied up and stacked below the big dining table and had a peep without undoing it as I had seen there was a pretty Paisley shawl I wanted.   I was the only bidder and I think I paid £13 for the bundle.  In those days some of the dealers used to hide the more interesting lots under tables so that the ordinary 'punters' missed them. When I got home, I undid it and to my delight found this amazing lace table cloth, perfect and unused.  I have since found out that it is very rare to have anything so large made with this Bedfordshire lace;  strips of narrow lace are all stitched together to make the square and then the border is worked around the whole.  And I have been told that the wavy line running round the edges was inspired by the river Ouse which runs through the flat lands of Bedfordshire in big loops.  I would be so glad to know more if there are any readers with knowledge of Beds. lace and to know if this is fairly unique - I have seen collars and cuffs for dresses but never anything of this size.   Do Email me at www.dbaer@onetel.com.   or put something in 'comments'  for the benefit of other readers.

QUEEN OF QUILTS

Jen Jones  is indeed the foremost expert and collector of Welsh quilts and at any one moment has several hundred in her collection for sale at home in her cottage shop and at the Quilt Museum in the  old Town Hall, Lampeter, which she has recently opened with the help of her architect husband.    Jen has produced books, gives talks and has organised several exhibitions abroad, and is very well known to all the visitors to the Talent for Textile Fair at Bradford on Avon, where she brings a wonderful collection well displayed quilts on large rails.   She will be with us on May 19th, next, for our Rag Market when she will bring a selection of quilt seconds, Welsh blankets and linen, lots of bargains!Contact her on 01570 480 610 for visits.

A LADY AT WORK

   This is Mme de Pompadour stitching away at her tambour frame 1764/4.   One of her hands is below the frame to guide the hooked tool which was used to trace lines of chain stitch across the net or muslin stretched over the frame.  I have a net canopy over my own four poster bed worked on net and it is a real pleasure to look upwards when lying on the bed to see the elegant tracery above and I much prefer this airy look to the rather grand and stuffy pleated chintzy canopy you see on some old beds.    In the past some of these false ceilings were necessary because very old houses often had no plastered ceilings and were open to the slates and tiles of the roof, draughty and dusty, and sometimes inhabited by insects and animals and birds, a bit of a menace to a good night's rest.

   Madame P's dress is itself a lovely concoction of fine embroidery, trailing flowers, a deep and elaborate border to the skirt and layer upon layer of fine lace swathing her arms, not forgetting the silken striped bow at her bosom  The little lace bonnet with matching ribbon completes this charming portrait of a lady in her boudoir, surrounded by her pet dog at one side and very fine gilded furniture and a musical instrument on the other.  French civilization at its peak! 

The MARKET PLACE

This last year was very successful for Talent for Textiles and we had 5 good fairs during the summer months.   Yarlington and Bradford were particularly well attended and busy all day (although rain spoilt the afternoon at Y. but neverthless the profit for the two charities was over £6000)  It is always so good to see all our regular long term supporters coming back and bringing so many friends.  We really do value this support and it makes the fairs happy and successful events enjoyed by everyone.This is advance notice of a rather different sort of Textile Fair I am planning for late Spring, next year.  This is for anyone wanting to dispose of surplus textiles.
   I propose a Rag market to be held on May 19th, Sunday in our usual spaces in Bradford on Avon, with 1/3 our  regular exhibitors, 1/3 new exhibitors (decorators, curtain makers, craft workers), and 1/3 private sellers with surplus  textiles.  All will have a 6' trestle table, with small space for one card table (bring your own) or a short clothes rail, not both.  Simple home-made refreshments by The Fat Fowl, as before. The idea is that everyone who has dress and furnishing remnants, ends of rolls, surplus linens, blankets, buttons and trims, and vintage oddments in their stores, cupboards, attics, should bring them along and make a modest profit!  Good designer label clothes welcome.
   I am always hearing the refrain, 'I don't know what to do with this old thing from my Granny, too good for a jumble sale and not enough to put in an auction',  This is your chance to clear the decks while you Spring Clean!
  We have held similar Rag Markets on the South Coast and they have been highly successful and copied elsewhere!  Large amounts of stuff have been moved and keen buyers have loaded up and often come back for more!
  The rent for the day will be £20 per stand, 9 am. - 3pm.  Application for stands can be made any time up to the end of November;  new exhibitors, please give an indication of your goods.  Those selected will be sent flyers to distribute among their friends, (a really important part of the deal)  full details of parking and unloading, and a request for the rent to be paid by March 30th, 2013.  Send no money now, please.  This will be a fun and sociable event, and better than a Boot Fair!  Start sorting now all the things you can live without!  Contact me at dbaer@onetel.com.   I am trying to do as much as possible by Email to save time and expense as I am on the verge of retirement and this may be my final fling!

A ROMANTIC ROMANY ROOM



Traditional West Country Shepherds Smock



  Have you heard of the highly mobile shepherd's huts that are rolling round the countryside, providing extra office, studio and lodging space ?  For years they have stood neglected in remote grazing fields where shepherds used to watch their flocks in the lambing season, with primitive lighting by lanterns and small iron stoves to keep the newborn lambs warm in their little hay-beds.    The huts had large iron wheels and could be pulled from one field to another.  I used to see several high on the Marlborough Downs when walking with the beaters on a game shoot there.   Now a friend of mine,  Caron Cooper, who runs a delightful B and B in her traditional farmhouse, Fosse Farmhouse, near Chippenham,  has renovated two of these old wagons and many of her visitors book them ahead for a totally peaceful and romantic stay.  Here she is wearing the best smock I ever had with fantastic smocking back and front, looking the part in front of her renovated van.   Contact Caron 01249 782 28 for accommodation , www.fossefarmhouse.com and contact me www.dbaer@onetel.com for another genuine West country smock, newly acquired!  These are now rare to find in good condition as many have gone into the County Agricultural Museums, and are kept for agricultural shows.



Caron's B and B



Kate Humble's new spare room



Caron's smock bought last year