A LITTLE FALL FROM GRACE!

Christmas luncheon with Her Grace!  This is the Grand Dining Room at Chatsworth, home of the Cavendish family and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire  A beautifully arranged table, chairs lined up for dozens of guests, trees laden with baubles, it is a feast for the eyes with dashing red walls, golden ceiling and huge crescents of lights and candles - what more could you want?? just a jolly good ironing of the tablecloth and a tweak to get it straight,  sorry,  I wish I hadn't noticed it!

BUYING THE BEST

  In the last three blogs I have tried to describe the differences between the three kinds of fabric woven to make sheets in France;  fine linen,  fil, and hemp.  If you are buying any of these, you might find it useful to run through these pro.s and con.s to get good value:
Good points deserve better prices:
Perfect or almost unused condition.
Very fine linen lawn, even and white with no faults.
Really large sizes.  Anything over 7' wide is good and anything over 9' long is exceptionally long.  Old 
French beds were usually only 4' wide and the sheets were not tucked in but hung down the sides.
Best handwork on top border including Richelieu, ladder stitch and other drawn thread work, and other 
hand- made lace  in perfect condition.  Retours are the continuation of the main border pattern, worked a short length down the sides of the sheet - always a sign of good quality bed linen.
Distinguish between slightly uneven home-made family needlework and the professional evenly worked
  designs.  The latter will stand up to laundering much the best.  Perfectly shaped large elaborate initials, often infilled with French knots (skilled work).
Crowns and coats of arms (usually worked perfectly in the convents by the nuns) on extra large finest 
  lawn linen, rare to find and commanding very high prices, they are fragile, need careful hand-washing and 
  often only suitable for display rather than daily use.

Extra large fine linen sheet with hand-made lace and good initials in a pretty frame

Lower prices for the following:
Metis in soft shades of beige is a bastard mix of linen/cotton, useful but not valuable like pure linen.
Sheets that have been turned side-to-middle, where the small initials (about 1" high) are one side of central  
   seam  Those that have large initials, one each side of central seam are o.k. but you should always check   
   side seams and the long central 19c. seam for gaps in stitching and worn or frayed bits.   Central seams that
   are oversewn with strong thread  with a whipping stitch can make a ridge that is not so comfortable to
   sleep on - best central seams are stitched very finely edge to edge.
Hemp sheets that are very loosely woven and will stretch and sag with machine washing.
Frayed edges denote heavy wear, also torn centre seam.  Pin holes in finer linen where sheet has been
  folded and pressed too often.  Avoid patches, darns and stains.
Sometimes there is a rent or tear where a metal spring from the bed has pierced the sheet, if the rest is in
  good order, it can be worth repairing the rent with a neat patch.
Cloudy colour usually means that the sheet was very stained and bleach has been used.
Elsewhere I have recommended products for cleaning and removing stains such as ironmould, etc.See Blog Clean Sweep.

HEMP SHEETS



A good hemp sheet with hand-sewn hems

     I have written a few notes on the differences between the kinds of linen you might find and buy in France.  Hemp sheets are rarer and much sought after and only occasionally to be found in good condition.   This is because the plant was grown by the poorest peasants for their own use for clothing and bed linen and these were used until they fell to bits.  It grew like a weed and used little water and no chemicals in the growing and preparation of the fibre so it was extremely economical.  It was immensely useful on the farms and the boats for fishing lines and nets, for tyeing up crops and weaving sacks, for harnessing animals and carts and every kind of domestic cloth.  The weave is usually a little looser than linen and though it starts off in quite a dark shade of fawn, and is a bit string-like,  it bleaches with washing to a beautiful cream and the cloth gets much softer so that it falls in loose folds.  Hence it is now much used for curtains and for upholstery on furniture.    In certain areas of Brittany they wove the very coarsest cloth which is of blanket weight and is very nubbly with a porage colour and texture.  This is highly prized by many top decorators, and is rare and expensive to find in good condition.  There are also some coarse herringbone 'rugs', very heavy and rustic, which I have been told, were placed under beds (maybe the truckle beds which were stowed during the day under the big beds) to stop the damp rising from the tiled floors.   These look wonderful on stone floors and in really ancient buildings.   Although the weave of the sheets is rather thick and coarse, it is extremely healthy to sleep in as the hollow fibres of the thread wick away moisture from the body, and the friction of a slightly uneven weave is good for warmth and circulation.  Expect to pay over £60 for good hemp sheets and more if they are larger than 6' wide., but there is always the chance of a bargain at a small country Brocante.


A roll of hemp cloth with initial F,  tied with natural linen tape

 I usually have a small stock of  all these sheets, but at present none of the rugs.  I only buy sheets in good condition, but I have a pile of good smaller pieces ready for embroidery, cushion backing and for other small
confections from £15 to £35.  Enquire at dbaer@onetel.com  for sizes and prices.

FULL CIRCLE

IT'S CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN AND I SEND YOU ALL MY GOOD WISHES FOR A HAPPY HOLIDAY  AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! 
If you would like advance notice of all our Talent for Textile Fairs for 2012 and have not already informed me of any change in your Email address, please send it to dbaer@onetel.com and you will be Emailed by me by the end of January.   The full list of events will be sent by the usual Mail-out by post in March 2012 with the forms to apply for invitations. Regards Elizabeth


The wreath was made with tickings from Ian Mankin.

METIS is very French!



  The word means 'mix' and that is exactly what it is - usually 35%cotton and 65% linen - the reverse of our English union which is our cheap and hard wearing sheet fabric, where there is much less linen and ours feels softer and more like calico.  Metis came on to the French nmarket in the early 1900s and was hailed as an easy wash and iron bedding material, much less heavy than pure linen.  It was a very popular wedding present and part of the dowry and that is why you often see pairs still wrapped up in the original cello.

They were considered by some as being rather low-grade and cheap and lay in the back of the linen cupboard.   Some dealers try and charge the full linen price for them - but no French housewife would pay that -  45 Euros is plenty.  The material is a very pleasant creamy shade and I have used it a lot for curtain linings, bed ends, valances and small accessories - it sews and tailors very well and you can get a good sharp look with it.  The sheets are usually larger than the hand woven 19c. linen sheets as they were commercially spun and woven in big factories which had the big looms.  The two previous Blogs try to explain the difference in value and cost of three main types of linen sheets in France

FIL is LINEN

  'Fil' linen sheets are the good common linen sheets that were in every-day use in France right up to the invention of nylon, polyester and polycotton.  'Fil' is usually coarser than percale (fine cotton) and a sturdy material with slight ridges and uneveness when it has been hand-spun and woven on narrow wooden looms, mostly 19C.  It is just off-white and feels cooler than cotton.  It is quite heavy to wash and iron but can be boiled, washed and hung on a line or dried in the old fashioned way flat on the grass in sunshine - the more it is washed the tighter the weave interlocks with itself.  It needs a hot iron to press or can be simply folded while very slightly damp with others piled on top and it comes out pretty well; if you can get someone to hold two corners and you have two and you pull against each other, this is the trad. way to get the edges and corners aligned when you fold.  There are usually a pair of initials in red cotton cross-stitch in one corner - not very large, but if  in the centre, then it is likely the sheet has been 'side to middled' for longer wear.  If, however, there is a large pair of initials, each side of the centre seam (which is quite usual because of the narrow loom widths) then you can be sure the two sides have not been reversed, so you need to check the two outer sides for wear.  The initials vary a lot - some people make a feature of them on cushions and curtains, others remove them if the sheets are very long  and make them up into patchwork, etc.   Most dealers add a little to the price if they are elaborate - but if they are rather amateur it may detract from the value and you can say so to the seller!  The very best initials (see example below) are usually early 20th. C  and more expensive.  The most usual fault with these heavy linen sheets is that they have been stained with fold marks while lying on old chestnut shelves which mark them and these are quite difficult to remove - I do not recommend bleach. but a lot of washing will make them fade.


Top quality embroidered initials, showing fine centre seam.SOLD



Professional work with many different stitches. SOLD.



Prices will be between £50 - £150 depending on size, condition and how elaborate and expert the embroidery is. Check that the width is enough for your bed - French beds are much narrower than ours and I would not buy one under 6ft wide.

BEDDIE BUYS

  Buying linen from abroad, and antique as well, can make you a little uncertain what to go for, so with experience of buying in France for 25 years or more I will give a few hints on the good, and not so good buys.  Much depends on the quality you need, but condition is almost more important!


This magnificent extra large sheet(14' X 9') has everything,  finest lawn, several feet of wonderful satin stitch
 embroidery showing water lilies, grand initials, splendid coronet, hand worked lace,  and is in perfect almost
unused condition. P.o.A. On Offer.(Dec.2011), now SOLD, but I have another exactly similar but with Iris flowers
 and foliage at the centre and on the revers (down the sides of the sheet) and also immaculate condition.  The
 designs are very reminiscent of the Monet paintings and date from 1890 or so.   These are very rare it known as
 Birthing Sheets and measure a huge 14ft X 9ft excluding Valenciennes lace frills.  P.O A Scan
available and a bit more history!

     The very best and the most expensive are the big sheets, over 7ft wide and 9 ft long, in fine smooth lawn, with no bumps or irregularities in the weave, hand sewn hems, with fine hand-embroidered decoration, flowers scrolls and large initials often with infill of French knots, and coats of arms or coronets denoting previous aristocratic owners (la noblesse).  The finest may have insertions and/or frills of best hand-made lace and all will be in perfect order - repairs to embroidery and lace are extremely difficult.   When held up to the light, there will be no weak areas, or rows of fine pinholes where the linen has worn through ironing and folding, and no cloudy patches where bleach has been used.  These may cost over £500 in the current market.
My next Blog will cover the more ordinary, everyday fil linen sheets which are available in most decent antique fairs and are a more practical buy.

Mother of Pearl Buttons and others

Mother of pearl buttons are my favourites -the French used a great many on their linen and clothes after the bone toggles and buttons of the early 19c. There are special double-thick with tiny holes for men's shirts that look almost like pearl studs and there are delicate pastel shades, all attractively packaged to catch the eye of the seamstress. I bought a huge lot of them from the attics of an old lady who had retired to Burgundy to bring up a handicapped child and she told me that she had sold her buttons from a factory at Sees to C.Dior, Schiaparelli and all the couturiers in Paris of the 30s and 40s.
   The factory, the biggest in France, made every kind of button, m.o.p., tortoiseshell, turtle,leather, papier mache boot buttons (I still have lots for Steiff teddy bear eyes - NOW SOLD OUT) casein, black metal , etc. etc. Almost all are gone but I have a couple of hundred left, all from 1926 or earlier. Picture of the factory, closed late twenties. Boot buttons, bottom right.

  I recently sold the last of my teddy bear eyes to a French lady, Nicolette Pede who has set up a new business in Tremolat, Dordogne, hand -making teddies and their wardrobes in trad. old French fabrics. They are very lovable! THESE PAPIER MACHE BOOT BUTTONS WERE IDEAL AS THEY HAD A METAL LOOP AT THE BACK WHICH COULD BE JOINED TO ANOTHER BUTTON EYE WITH WIRE AND THEY WERE THEN UNAVAILABLE TO HUNGRY CHILDREN!

It's good to be in the Red

If you can get hold of the stylish and enthralling bi-monthly textile orientated magazine Selvedge, you would find in the last March/April copy two double spreads showing the brilliant red and white tickings that I collected from France in a wonderful scoop-up near the Loire. After hunting for tickings for over 2 years and being told that they had all been burnt or used up as rags to clean machinery, one day I climbed up a rickety ladder into the roof space of a huge old hay barn, and there I found hundreds, all tied up in bundles ready to go to the rag merchants, but long forgotten. They lay there, rotting under a leaky roof, nibbled by rats and mice who enjoyed the grains left by the old straw fillings, but glowing with rich reds and vibrant pinks, all in stripes, and I knew I had found my golden fleece! See my Blog 'Ticking all the Boxes' and 'French Affairs' and others! I can't stop loving them.
Kaari Meng has now got my archive of samples - about 150 of them, that I saved before selling them all -and has done a bit of research and so they have become part of textile history. Kaari is a clever and inspirational author, designer and shopkeeper in Hollywood, contact her http://www.frenchgeneral.com/ and check her excellent blog. It's full of good news!

JUMBLE JELLY

  If you saw this sign above a shop, could you guess what they sold inside??  Well, come to Silver Street in Bradford on Avon and explore this great new shop - I almost wrote emporium, because as you trawl through its stock you realise that it is one of the most useful places you could find to source everything to do with knitting and sewing - the range is wide and interesting and right up to date - in the last week I have found pale silky ribbons, sewing machine needles for sewing jeans and denim, and monster reels of thread in every colour - while there I was tempted by so many novel and useful ideas for trimming and finishing sewing works,  braids of cut-out jumping reindeer asking to be fixed to cakes, crackers and knitted hats and gloves,

buttons, hooks, eyes, zips and all haberdashery.  The welcome was charming and these girls know what they are selling and doing and they have lots of workshops for would -be sewing students of all ages - good fun and a good way to make new friends in the town.  This is saving me long and expensive shopping trips to Bath so I am really grateful for this new addition to the many  snall speciality shops we are lucky to have here in Bradford on Avon, all with helpful and friendly owners.Ring 01225 866 033 for more info. Jumble Jelly,10 Silver Street, BonA .BA15 1JY

A LINEN BASKET CASE

This picture, reproduced in a thumbnail size on a back page of W.of  I. was my introduction to buyers in the U.S.  I knew they were all very keen on the original tickings that their ancestors had brought with them when they colonized America, but I had no idea that they were hungry for new patterns that they had never imagined or seen before and were anxious to copy as soon as they could, before their rivals got hold of them.   I was very gratified to have visits from all the top decorators you might have heard of; Lauren, Klein, Brunschwig and many others.  They were all very charming and seemed to enjoy a visit away from London 'and down in the sticks' and  they all asked me for little samples of as many as I would give them - but by this time I had become a canny dealer and would only let them have the whole piece - no messing about with little samples!   I, myself, was so surprised to discover much later, that there was still a wealth of much more elaborate multicoloured tickings in Germany - beyond my reach at the time.  These were really wonderful shaded stripes with up to 17 different shades in them, really skilled weavers' work and with immense possibilities for decorating in new ways.  I found them in a recycling feather factory, (imported into France from  dealers who scoured the charity shops in Germany),  where the feathers were sterilised and re-used for ski wear and bedding, but the stripey covers were just chucked out and sold as rags for cleaning heavy machinery. It was a real treasure-trove find, but another Blog will recount the rather dreadful work of presenting them in  good selling condition.   You would not want to handle them without gloves and definitely not mix with ordinary washday linens! and so they were all carted home in black dustbin plastic liners with a string round the sack-neck in the back of our car, to await disinfection and sanitary treatment at home.

A BOOK FOR ALL TIME NOT JUST BEDTIME

The Book of Fine Linen by Francoise de Bonneville

     The up-market, bi-monthly magazine SELVEDGE has a good offer this week of £5 off my favourite linen book:  The Book of Fine Linen by Francoise de Bonneville.  Originally published in France, and normally costing £35,  it  is a most beautiful compendium of pictures, photos and articles about every facet of the subject Linen.  Every time I dip into it I find fascinating facts about trousseaux, a mass of useful examples to study, early origins, customs, history and much more,  all written in a very elegant style, and a pleasure to look at.  Offer available until April 2012. The luscious linen sheets are a sample of the excellent photography.    If anyone is interested, I have a spare, secondhand copy of this valuable tome, in brand new condition, for sale -NOW SOLD to a reader in Australia  .  A good present for a linen lover.

STUMPWORK IN THE GARDEN

  A wonderful example of stumpwork or Restoration raised-work embroidery showing Solomon greeting the Queen of Sheba.  The mermaid and kingfisher bird are particularly charming and the wealth of detail of the costumes, the flowers, creepy-crawlies, beasts and trees (note the bunches of acorns) are there to delight us all, and for us to admire the skill of the needlewoman who created this scene so many centuries ago and which is still in such brilliant condition (shown by Witney Antiques at a recent Fair).  Click on this to see the full picture (a beautifully dressed lady), stag (naked) lady in waiting (charming) castle (magnificent) and owl and squirrel in feather and fur.

MOTHER HUBBARD AND HER CUPBOARD

My previous Blog shows my Irish Housekeeper's cupboard, or linen cupboard, with all its shelves full of French linen torchons (tea towels and household cloths)  That was three years ago and it is now down to bare shelves.  It has worked hard for me and my buyers have always admired the regular piles of linen, folded into little groups of similar stripes and checks and showing every type of domestic drying, cleaning and covering cloth treasured by the diligent housewife (which I am not).  It measures   12" deep by 6ft.6" height by 8'6" wide, so needs a good wall space to back it.

The cupboard is all in pine, circa 1810 with panelled doors, with locks and one old key, and the central doors fold back on themselves so you can see the whole array in one go.  It has ventilation openings covered in decorative wirework panels.   I bought it in Bath about 20 years ago, it moved with me from Freshford to Bradford on Avon, where it may be viewed, and it is now past its date by 200 years,  We have had a lovely new bathroom tacked on to this room where I keep all my best linen and that will be my new spare bedroom - toile curtains already up, wallpaper hung, and I need the wall space for a toile double bed to complete my Jouy rasberry pinky-red scheme and that will be the end of my linen store which is de-moted to a lower floor!  Is this up- or down-sizeing?   Contact  dbaer@onetel.com  for further info.

Where did I put that Towel?

   The French housewife of pre-war years was a very methodical worker who followed the traditions and customs of her mother and grandmother. Her wedding dowry, if her parents were rich, could consist of dozens of sheets and all the other bed and table linen required for a large family, masses of all kinds of torchons, the ubiquitous coarse cloths used for cooking, baking, butchery, dairy work, etc., and a great pile of tea towels for drying different vessels after washing up; for pots and pans, for cutlery, for china, and extra fine for glass (woven with red check pattern). Tea towels all had stripes running through them and most had neat red initials embroidered on one corner. Some (especially from the Basque region), have very glossy, elaborate weave patterns, and many of my customers have used them to make kitchen curtains, cushions and bench seating as they obviously stand up to hard wear and lots of washing. All are unused and often still tied up in their original string packs from the convents and small cloth mills where they were woven and hand-finished.  I am showing them here in my capacious Irish Regency pine housekeeper's cupboard which was designed to hold all the linen of a large household, all kept under lock and key.  The cupboard is now surplus and for sale, as I am converting the room into a spare bedroom.    It's a pretty wonderful piece of 'household' furnishing, genuine and useful in any large room.All details from me at   dbaer@onetel.com .

LOOKING BACK

THIS WAS THE IMAGE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND VISITORS to the American Museum and who visited our Textile Fair there on Sept. 1st.  I have such a lovely collection of thank you's and compliments for a wonderful day and the adjectives/comments  are  'gorgeous day, smiles all round., special event,

extremely enjoyable and profitable, jolly near perfect day, a delight, superb venue, beautifully organised, incredibly impressed by numbers of buyers, meticulous organisation, wonderful fair, lovely day in a super venue, much appreciated,  a great show, many of my customers turned up, one all the way from France, and so on.  Fitting everyone in diverse spaces was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle and it was difficult to make them equal in size with various architectural features making the rooms irregular, but my general impression was that most dealers had plenty of interested customers and the customers were overjoyed with the amazing selection on sale and the very high quality of all the merchandise.  It was an inspiring day for many to make use of the superb facilities of the Museum, its buildings and the beautifully kept gardens and grounds. My thanks to all those who made such a splendid effort and were so helpful and cheerful all through a very long day.  We hope to be invited back to the Museum next year and as usual would be by invitation from my office.    

My Blue Heaven

Though a lot of French fabrics have red in them (the dye was called Rose Madder), there is also a tremendous lot of indigo blue. They learnt how to use the dye from the Far East, particularly Siam, and it was quite a complicated business to get the different shades - it all depended on the quantity of dye and the amount of 'dips' in the vat as well as exposure to sunlight which changed the muddy greens to the brilliant blue we know. Blue was used for many household linens like these tickings which were feather bed and mattress covers, pillows, bolsters and household cloths. They always look crisp and clean and appeal to most of us for kitchen, nursery and holiday house decoration. In particular, most men find them very smart and attractive. You know how they like blue striped shirts, socks and ties!

A doctor once told me that this is because men's eyes are not good at perceiving blue and they therefore have a great need for it in their colour spectrum.

TORCHONS ROUND THE KITCHEN

THESE ARE TYPICAL TORCHONS (TOWELS OR CLOTHS) used in French kitchens  to dry, clean and wrap, china, cutlery, glass, iron pots and pans, as well as preserve bread, meat and fish, and keep flies off .  Most kitchens in old France had open fires for cooking, with hobs and chains to fix the saucepans at different heights as well as spits for roasting and any ovens were mostly used for bread baking.  For the Sunday roasts, the pans were often carried down to the bakers' ovens which were still hot and were empty - Frequently without hot water, no handy detergents and dim lighting, it must have been a hard and awful job to get the pots and pans clean.   The Pot au Feu was a staple with bits of meat and any veggies being thrown in to make a hot nourishing dish and of course, all kinds of casserole were popular, economical and filling. The first course was often soup taken in a bowl, and supped, with plenty of bread,  and the next was the more solid bits fished out and put on a flat plate.  Washing up was done in big flat stone sinks and of course the soft, creamy pottery soon became cracked and chipped.  The drying cloths came in many weights and patterns - coarse and dark hemp for black pots, lighter linen for china and and very fine for glasses - with special ones for cutlery as well.   They were hung to dry from rows of hooks and sometimes you find enamel racks with the different labels printed on them.  Hemp, linen and cotton were used in varying mixes and amounts, depending on local crops and weavers, and you can still find masses of them at any good linen stand at antique fairs and brocantes.  Most have initials neatly embroidered and they come in large sets - I would not bother with any that are worn or stained!

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

strips of hand dyed linen on old hemp sheet
to make a smart shopping tote

ticking scraps left over from cushion-making

long narrow strips gathered and hand-sewn make good non-slip hangers
ticking and provencal print scraps

more ticking squares added to a n old coarse-woven sheet for a contemporary look cushion

  It's always nice when someone you know gives you a mention, especially if it is favourable - and Kaari Meng, my old friend (but she is actually quite young) has written a skittish Blog about my frugal ways.  She is quite right, I never throw anything away and that does not mean that I have awful piles of useless rags cluttering up the place!  What I actually do is much more interesting for me - it's a form of sieving, rather like a granite quarry where all the stone has to pass a certain size and be bagged up in separate  packs and sacks  The biggest pieces, which are often the cut-off bottoms of too long curtains, often slightly weather- marked from the open French windows of French country chateaux, are cut into wide strips and mixed with toning plains to create cushions, using up the old braids and trims to make a pleasing frame.  The smaller pieces are cut into long strips about 6" wide and then cut again into lengths up to 12" long and joined together with short seams into strips in two or three different patterns (they could be all blue, or multicoloured tickings with the stripes placed in alternative directions, or mixes of plain and pattern).  They will make more cushions and tote bags;  and other oddments will make a band across the bib of aprons with pockets to match, and the final scraps, especially pretty printed 19c. cottons, are bagged in  new poly. display envelopes and sold to quilters and toy makers who love all vintage bits and can use the tiniest scraps for faces and paws.   .No problems getting rid of buttons which I remove from all throw-away items and I have three friends who will always dispose of them to keen collectors.  My scheme is to join up with like-minded friends and start the merry-go-round spinning.

An Apron for every Occasion

   I confess that aprons and all 'work wear' have a special appeal for me and in France they come in a very wide variety of material, size and shape for both men and women. Many are for specific jobs and to me, are a sort of link with the daily work and lives of past generations. My collection includes indigo linen, straight, long ones for cooks and gardeners with large pockets at the front; womens' everyday cream linen and hemp on a waistband for general wear, usually with neat cross stitch initials and two pockets; then there are the housemaids' in whitest lawn with bibs and ties and pretty circular pockets at the front. Butchers and chefs have big sturdy affairs with one side higher than the other to make a good wrap, and a protective patch across the midriff, often in a hemp and cotton herringbone weave. Bistro waiters' gear are not much more than a short square across the front, with pocket for cash. The final group are the girls' dark printed cotton and serge traditional costume wear, sometimes gathered and frilled with interesting stitched detail round the waist. The most impressive (and difficult to track down) is the sommelier's (wine waiter's) apron worn in restaurants, indigo or black heavy linen with leather straps, and pockets for the corkscrews, napkin and other tools of the trade.   Since typing this blog, I have sold some of the above to an opera company, so stock is very low - all now on my shopping list!

POP GOES THE WEASEL

    It's great when you have a successful Fair and both buyers and sellers are happy.   I have recently had two very good fairs in a row and am glad that both were such fun and worthwhile.  The American Museum fair was quite hard work but it was wonderfully busy and the atmosphere was so lively and cheerful - many of our old friends and customers made the effort (some we had not seen for several years) and had a really good day out with their friends.  Everyone seemed to find something to buy that pleased them
 and as they all got in for free with our invitation, they may have had a little pocket money to spend!  They also got to see the beautiful features of the Museum and its estate, with gardens and arboretum so I do hope they will go back there when they have special friends to stay and want to take them out for the day.  Sitting on the long terrace with tea and a cookie from the coffee shop with that fabulous view across the wooded valley is quite a treat!     
My next Fair date was at the delightful Meeting House in Ilminster - a lovely small market town with the famous Dyers draper's shop complete with most of the original fittings - quite a period gem!
   There I sold the pretty cherry fabric illustrated on my recent Blog, several lengths of the Hungarian sack cloth for covering chairs, stools and ottomans, and I must now work through this winter to find new and exciting textiles for my next season of fairs which will start in March.  All the people on my mailing list will get invitations then (March 2012) listing our programme of fairs and I think I may have an exciting Country House venue in line.  Sellers and buyers take note !

A WEEK OF WORK

   It's strange how some of my weeks seem to follow a pattern - - last week was all about large shipments of natural and coarse linen and my buyers were not interested in the pretty, the decorative and the finer weaves.  One big lot of hand-woven  matched linen sheets (25 from the same household - which is so rare to find) has gone, as I prophesied, to the US, another big lot of rolls of Ukranian roughest weave is leaving for New Mexico, for film costumes, and the third lot of coarse natural 'taupe' sheets will be used to dress up a cottage near here, lined and interlined, to keep out the cold winds of winter.  I think the original weavers and gatherers of these fibre crops, hemp and flax, would be very surprised to know how far their wares are travelling, and how very pleased the customers for this coarse stuff are and how keen they are to find it.      The Flemish finer linen sleeping-bag liners (I had a hundred in July), have all gone and I was pleased that so many were bought by people who sew and make things and I do hope they all turned out o.k.  My own efforts got bogged down with the wrong needle in my machine, taken on holiday with me to France!!! but I am now ready to go full steam ahead and will publish results (if they are worth it, which I doubt).

RAVISSANTE!

These, oh so pretty, French bed hangings, do, I think, come into the category of just 'ravishing'. I spotted them spilling out of a cardboard box at the big French textile/antiques fair at Montpelier last week. They looked so tired, so dirty, so crumpled, that I was suspicious they would fall to bits if I pulled them out to inspect. They were yellow with old tobacco fumes(the French will smoke in bed) smelly and weighed down with heavy metal curtain rings, but I decided to risk the lot and staggered to my car with all in a plastic sack to keep the car's air nicotine-free. Later, back home, to my delight, a couple of days in three changes of cold water, some oxygen powder and mild soap, they have come up to something very near their original beauty and are now very bright and usable with original colours and patterns seen at their best.See later BLOG Any Connection and Pretty Good.  The big long soak is my secret for removing the dinginess of old cotton fabrics with white backgrounds - it does most of the work for you as it is soaking the inner core of the woven threads and the oxygen powder will then release the grease and dirt that is trapped deep in the material which your washing machine is unlikely to reach in a short wash.  See later BLOG Any Connection? and Pretty Good, for more about the curtains.
I use the same process for our own hankies, pillow cases and underwear that are losing their sparkle!(SORRY TO MENTION THIS DIRTY WASHING IN PUBLIC!)
  I really like this delicate Spring flower design with its ribbon twirly borders - so easy to complement with either blue or pink accessories in a bedroom with a few touches of green if you must! All for sale - four very deep PELMET bed curtains and a good big full length one, and a canopy, all lined, interlined and in good used condition but with several poor patches on the linings.  A real challenge for the home do- it -yourselfer!  The touches of mauve are so typical of French flowery patterns and I love it all! A bigger (photo) shot is to follow.


Can  anyone please date this print for me?



ANY CONNECTION ?



Modern repro Braquenie

   On my last buying trip to France I bought a very large quantity of printed cotton, all made up into four- poster bed hangings, and thought that the pattern of little bunches of flowers and twisted ribbons in an alternate blue and red ribbon trellis, was one of the very prettiest I have seen - so simple and fresh;  I wondered if it might be a Braquenie (one of the best and most famous of the pattern printers from the 18C. onwards until Pierre Frey took them over).  So I was rather excited when I saw a very similar pattern (by Braq. and Pierre Frey repro) in a magazine feature this week.    The cost is £156 per metre, a bit more than I paid for my shabby chic bundle!  I would love to know whether my attribution could be correct?  What think ye?  Has anyone ever seen this pattern before??  Do copy, if there is no copyright; I think it is a winner as you could go with the blue ribbon, or with the pinky red for your room decoration.  See BLOG Ravissante

THE SACK OF UKRAINE

Grain sack from the Ukraine with initials and with pouring lip



French easy chair (one of a pair) covered in Ukrainian sack cloth,
note  the 'lumbar swell' back support feature, so comfy!There is a small elegant sofa to match - if you have room!
These original furniture items are very reasonable  as I like to turn this sort of stock over quickly and go to France and find more.

 This post will be more picture than print - a grain sack  showing one of the lovely shades that were introduced to these humdrum articles in daily use on the farms of distant Ukraine - beautifully hand-sewn with strong hemp twine, they are grain-proof and often have a pouring lip at the top end for avoiding spillage and waste and a piece of strong hemp cord to tie round the neck of the sack, with two buttonhole stitched eyelets.  The stripes denote the village or farm from which the grain came so the empty sack could be returned to its owner or possibly filled with the milled flour, and some of them have large initials embroidered in big cross stitch half-way down the sack.   I used to buy similar sacks from Hungary and my first sale of them was to a very top designer who used them to cover some easy chairs and the upholsterer made the covers with the initials bang in the middle of the back, which was  a really good touch and a talking point..  I gave up the Hungarian sacks as they seemed to be everywhere, no longer exclusive, and the colours of the stripes were very strong in blue and red;  and I now prefer the softer more natural shades of caramel and soft blues and creams produced further East and in Northern Europe.  They are so much easier to blend with existing furnishings and more closely woven for good shape and long wear;  covering chairs is costly so go for the best!

EMBROIDERERS! FOLLOW THE THREADS!

    A new Exhibition on October 20 - 23,  2011, 10.00 - 4 pm. at West Barn, Barton Grange, Pound Lane
Bradford on Avon, BA15 1LF. 0FF THE FROME ROAD AND NEAR THE FAMOUS TITHE BARN.
   This is an Exhibition of Creative Textiles worked and shown by a group of local embroiderers;  some have been studying together on a course at Missenden Abbey, Bucks.   If you are interested in machine embroidery, this will be something to enjoy.   Their last year's efforts were a great success and this year they will be even better!  The Barn itself is a most delightful venue,  recently fully restored and adapted, and is well -warmed and lit.    Nearest easy parking is in the Station Car Park and the Barns are a short walk away along the river.  Small gift items for sale.  Free entry, 

PETROL price GONE up?

Is this the future for lowly Brocante dealers ?- Fresh air and pedal power are all very well, but they might run out of puff as well - and what would the rain do to all those cardboard boxes?  I have to say this is a French joke in a women's glossy. 

From the UKRAINE to the UK

  A cartload of sacks has arrived here all the way from the Ukraine, near Russia, and I am absolutely delighted with both the quality of the weaving and, even more, with the soft natural shades of the stripes on them.  They are all in pale earthy shades which blend with any decor and look particularly good  in a relaxed, comfy room where there is not too much pattern - they go well with sea-grass carpeting and somehow seem very much at home with both antique and contemporary furnishings -  - like most hand-made materials they are classic and good quality and it shows! and will last a lifetime.!  They are mostly about 50 years old, unused, and cost around £45 for a large sized grain sack. - two will cover a small armchair.  I have covered and sold about ten pairs of such chairs during the last few years and the customers are delighted with them!

PUTTY AND PAINT

 I have been chasing the new top fashion shades of taupe, pewter, porage, fawn, putty, beige, nude or whatever you like to christen them and I have just acquired a lovely batch of unbleached linen sheets in a perfect shade which should please those who are able to follow the fashions of house decoration.  I found this lovely picture of a French (painted?) bed which is exactly the same shade, now in the newly decorated home, Ven House, deep in the South West, of Jasper Conran.   I love its simplicity (see W.O.I. current magazine)

  My sheets will probably go to L.A. where they may be used to cover bespoke easy chairs and sofas often bought by the Hollywood crowd who are always wanting the latest must-have.  Recently it was deep leather chairs for the 'den', before that it was white linen, a luxury fashion that took a lot of washing and dry-cleaning, now it is linen and hemp in unbleached shades and next I hope it will be my wonderful striped sackcloth in bumpy texture woven in the Ukraine, and now piled high in my wine vault stores.   Here in England, decorators have been using hemp and linen in natural colours for ages but it takes the U.S. a little longer to get used to these rough and rustic vintage stuffs and, quite honestly , they are now a bit late on the scene - Hemp is almost finished and linens are going the same way, and the new, sold by top fabric design firms, are so very expensive and really not quite in the same class, as they cannot be hand-woven any more.   The Ukrainian coloured stripes are all in soft earthy shades which blend with any colour scheme and are a good choice for hard wear and a sturdy country house look.  I am very happy in my newly covered upright armchair covered with two Ukrainian grain sacks, and I don't think I will wear it out.  I have had two extra arm-pieces made which are easily washable and take up the dirt from my grubby gardening hands and if I have visitors I can whip them off in a trice!

CORNELLI - TAMBOUR LACE ON MUSLIN

  Cornelli were one of the most delightful discoveries I made in France.  They seem to be unknown in this country so I will try and describe them - they can still be found very occasionally with quality linen dealers in France.   They are long, elegant curtains, usually 8 - 9ft long, made with fine cotton muslin.  The muslin is embroidered with a machine (a Cornelli) that follows the design drawn with blue lines; I do not know how these were drawn or were they stencils or iron-on transfers?   The stitch is always chain stitch and is similar to the bed covers made with net and a crochet type tool  stretched over a circular drum, called tambour lace;  the patterns vary from the most dainty and elaborate floral designs often loosely joined with scrolls and curls, to others (probably later in period), in elaborate geometric patterns, greek key, borders in straight lines with boxes, angles and corners and have an Edwardian classic Adam revival look.     


see tiny pin holes at top near the flower



    Almost all had shell scalloped borders in a vandyke or scrolling edging, along the leading edge and base. They were usually to be found in pairs, occasionally in larger groups, and I have never seen the same pattern again.  It seems they were made in many small workshops and factories from 1860 or so until the turn of the century.   They were considered essential for shielding the furnishings in the best rooms, from light and sun, and helped to filter the dirt that came in through the windows from the dusty unmade roads and driveways as the horse-drawn traffic rumbled by.   The most common (new) use for the cornelli is to decorate four poster beds in a light feminine style which is elegant and pretty to look at, without stiffling the sleepers within - it can make a welcome change from all those yards of expensive chintz which festooned the bedrooms of the 80s and 90s, lining the pockets of the fabric firms and the decorators and causing some husbands to wince at the cost!   If you buy them (they are no longer cheap as the decorators have dug them out) you need to check them very carefully for small pin holes and wear half way down where they have been gripped by hands or tied back with 'embrasses' (tie-backs) and suffer damage.  Very few are quite perfect and slight damage is to be expected if they were used over 100 years ago.  Pairs usually cost about £200 or more, in good condition.  Only hand wash (can be risky if they are fragile!) and a very light bath of starch can help them if they are a bit floppy.

THE CHERRIES ON THE CAKE

 NOW SOLD

Fine cotton with cherries

Dainty Indienne pattern

  



















  These little treasures,  short lengths of very fine cotton, were raked out of a mixed-up stall in France recently and are so typically French - cherries were grown there in huge quantities and the sight of a cherry orchard is  very delightful - they hang neatly in pairs and decorate so much of  French kitchen ware.  They are embroidered on the linen pelmets for windows, shelves and mantelpiece, appear on aprons, tea towels and even sheets (often worked into the initials of the owner) a'plenty on china and enamelware and the combination of green and red is a well known stimulator for your appetite -I hardly need it when enjoying my French meals!   The other little cotton piece is another type of design which I like very much, much more boudoir than kitchen, and the chain of medallions with little roses is an adaptation of the Indienne patterns so popular at the turn of the century (1900s).  This would have been used for discreet little shelves and cupboards, work baskets,  cushions and 'necessaires' known as cartonnage which the inventive sewing ladies were so good at.   They covered blotters, booklets, letter racks, glove and fan boxes with great skill and were just so neat!

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS

   I was wondering the other day just how some clothing firms are able to justify extremely high prices for some fashion garments that you can buy on the High Street for so much less.  So the other day |I bought a shirt-blouse with the Tommy Hilfiger label in it at my local Dorothy House charity shop.- I knew the label came from a much loved and expensive US couturier.  I like having a striped red shirt in my wardrobe for winter wear with tweed and plaid trousers and have several red pullovers with v necks to put over.   I had just said a final goodbye to a very favourite red striped poplin shirt that I bought 50 years ago which I wore quite regularly every winter, and I'm wearing it in my Profile Blog portrait from the 70's seen above. The poplin was the very best fine cotton shirting and it had attractive pie-crust frilling at the neck and cuffs - you may remember Princess Di had a very similar one later on.  I had endless compliments on how fresh and jolly it looked and when the frilling edges finally frayed it was a sad day. It cost about £5  which was plenty in the 50's!  and it was from Rowland's classic and country wear shop in Bath.  Here in Bradford on Avon we have their bargain factory outlet shop just by the Station, which is a mecca for many well dressed ladies!

  My new second-hand model from Tommy H. was in a similar quality fine cotton, with slight stretch in it and the detail was very interesting - extra neat button holes,  a fine red piping line round the inner edge of the collar visible at the open neck and a V shaped tab with all the labels stitched on it, an extra embroidered Hilfiger logo elsewhere, short sleeves with proper button-up cuffs, bias-frilled with picot edges, and a rather low-cut neck line with no buttons, ready to show off some great bit of bling!  It only cost £4.50 so it was quite a bargain and I'm wearing it as I write just now.  Plus ca change........

CLEAN SWEEP

   I thought it would be good for many of us handling old and worn textiles to learn of simple remedies for removing stains -  I have suggested Rubigine from France for removing iron mould (rust) stains, it's just magic! Vanish for ordinary ones and Napisan for restoring bright whiteness - others have said sunshine, I say moonshine, and , lying on the grass - the sheet, not you - and soaking may be the most important part of the process - just two or three days in plain cold water can work wonders.  Any more suggestions?   I do not find Stain Devils very useful so far!  but I daresay Health and S. forbid greater strength of chemicals.  The French seem able to poison their families much more easily.  Please send your suggestions and I will print - we are all in this together and it is so good to rescue spoilt and damaged articles for further use.  DID YOU KNOW STARCH, AFTER A LONG DISAPPEARANCE, IS BACK ON THE MARKET?  Personally I only use it occasionally and a little goes a very long way (see my future Blog on Cornelli muslin curtains from France) and I was surprised to hear that powdered starch will be back at our wonderful local ironmonger's  next week - will it still have a robin on it?  I never liked the 'plastic' starch which was also jolly expensive, just as I hate furniture 'cream' made with silicon which wrecks old woods with its plastic seal., and as an ex-bee-keeper, know that there is nothing better than old fashioned beeswax, turps, etc.

Birds in the bush

s

  These birds date from the late 19c. and are beautifully printed on fine cotton and known in France as Indiennes.  Many different versions of birds, flowers and plants were designed at the height of their fashion and the new chemical dyes give some a very brilliant colour.  It was the Empress Josephine who loved 'la Nature' in every form, who encouraged the French print manufacturers to design them and they copied the new patterns which came into France on the Eastern and Indian trade routes - they were a novelty and in a very different style to some of the older classical styles of the Napoleonic period and the more romantic Eastern visions of the jungle with exotic flowers, bamboo and tropical birds with brilliant plumage were extremely popular.   Many different colours were used, all sizes of birds from little tree creepers to massive parrots and raptors were copied and in general, the smaller the birds, the earlier the design.  The later ones showing fierce claws and beaks are not to everyone's taste and might cause nightmares!  I have examples of birds of the first kind in brilliant blue in my kitchen, and very sweet multi-coloured ones in a bathroom and they are very light and pretty at the windows.  They are liable to rot and fade as the cotton is so fine but I now have a splendid example in crimson just in from France, which is a door curtain, already gathered and with matching braid in what appears to be unused condition and quite unfaded.  It would split to make two narrow dress curtains or cover a small  chair, or possibly make a very dashing item of dress.

Stains on the characters

I have had a query about those wood stains that mark and spoil some of the old folded sheets from France (chestut wood shelves are to blame). It has been suggested that good old Marseille soap is the best treatment and it may well work if the stains are light and fairly new. If this soap, which has some olive oil in it, I understand, does not work after a good long two -day soak in cold plain water, a light brushing with the soap is the best, try nail brush, then I have two remedies which often work - one is the oxygen powder Vanish which you can apply as a paste for a short while and then rinse, or a soak in Napisan which is used to whiten babies clothes and nappies, and does not scorch the material - bleach is the very last resort, applied with cotton buds directly along the lines and rinsed as soon as they move, the trouble with bleach is that it leaves 'cloudy' stains behind and spoils the creamy look of old linen. Constant washing and exposure to sunshine will lessen the stains but will take much longer and if you are using the sheets as curtains, is not practical. Good luck!

The American Museum in Britain 5stars event.

HOW SHALL I START? THE WEATHER WAS TRULY WONDERFUL, WARM SUN ALL DAY AND WE ALL THOUGHT IT MATCHED THE SMILING PEOPLE WHO NEARLY OVERWHELMED US AT OUR BIG TEXTILE FAIR - THEY CAME IN THEIR HUNDREDS, ALL DAY LONG, HAPPY AND (CARE)FREE, WITH THEIR FRIENDS AND PARTNERS AND USED THE SPARE CASH, CREDIT CARDS AND CHEQUES TO TREAT THEMSELVES AT OUR SPLENDID ARRAY OF TEXTILE GOODS - NOT JUST ENGLISH AND FRENCH, BUT EXOTIC AND RARE TROPHIES FROM REMOTE AND UNKNOWN PARTS OF THE WORLD - OUR INTREPID HUNTER-GATHERERS ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN THE UNKNOWN WORKS OF SMALL SPECIALIST GROUP WORKERS IN ASIA AND AFRICA AND HAVE FASCINATING TALES TO TELL - THESE ARTEFACTS WILL NOT GO ON FOR EVER - THEY EVENTUALLY END UP IN MUSEUMS AND BIG STUDY COLLECTIONS AND WE WERE LUCKY TO HAVE JOHN GILLOW (AUTHOR AS WELL) MARTIN CONLAN AND BARBIE CAMPBELL COLE TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR ETHNIC THINGS. ALL OUR STALLHOLDERS WERE SO DELIGHTED TO HAVE SO MANY INTERESTED AND BUSY SHOPPERS IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES AND THE BUYERS COMMENTED ALL DAY LONG ON THE SUPER STANDARD AND WELCOME FROM THE MUSEUM PEOPLE AS WELL AS OUR t4t MEMBERS! ALL IN ALL, IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS FOR US AND I DO THANK THE MUSEUM FOR ALL THEIR EFFORTS TO MAKE THE GARDENS AND EVERYTHING ELSE LOOK SO GOOD AND GIVE US A WONDERFUL DAY. WE HOPE THEY WILL INVITE US BACK AGAIN WHEN THEY HAVE GOT THEIR BREATH BACK!

FRANCE IS ONLY A LONG SWIM AWAY

wE ARE OFF AGAIN WITH AN EMPTY CAR, EMPTY ZIP BAGS. AND WE HOPE TO PART FILL THEM WITH A GOOD ASSORTMENT OF fRENCH DELIGHTS, NOT JUST CHEESE AND WINE, BUT ALSO A SELECTION OF THOSE LOVELY THINGS THAT SOMETIMES GRIP YOU WHEN YOU SEE THEM ON THE STALL OF A DEALER, WHO SOMETIMES JUST REGARDS HIS STOCK AS CLEARANCE JUNK AND CANT WAIT TO GET RID OF IT
AND WHO THINKS THE FOREIGNERS ARE JUST MAD TO BUY OLD JUNK THAT IS CERTAINLY NOT A LA MODE AND BELONGS TO THE DAYS OF HIS GRANDMOTHER.

apologies - American Museum

ONCE AGAIN I MUST APOLOGISE TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE APPLIED THESE LAST TWO WEEKS FOR INVITATIONS TO THE T4T TEXTILE FAIR AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM ON THURSDAY, SEPT 1. WE HAVE HAD TO STOP SENDING INVITATIONS OUT AS THERE IS NOT ENOUGH ROOM IN THE CAR PARKS(2)FOR ANY MORE CARS AND THE BUILDINGS WILL BE OVER-FILLED BEYOND THEIR CAPACITY. YOU CAN PROBABLY FIND PARKING (PAYING) AT THE NEARBY UNIVERSITY CAMPUS. WE HAVE THEREFORE RELUCTANTLY CLOSED THE LIST AND HOPE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. IF THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE TRYING TO GET INTO THE FAIR BUILDINGS, WE MAY HAVE TO CLOSE THE DOORS TEMPORARILY, BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER ATTRACTIONS TO VISIT AND WE HOPE ANY CRUSH WILL SOON DISPERSE.. VISIT AND ADMIRE MARILYN MONROE'S 20 DRESSES IN THE EXHIBITION GALLERY, THE MANSION HOUSE WITH ITS WONDERFUL HISTORICAL AMERICAN FURNISHINGS, THE COFFEE SHOP, THE EXCELLENT GIFT AND REPLICA SHOP, THE MOUNT VERNON GARDENS AND THE ARBORETUM, ALL INCLUDED IN YOUR FREE INVITATION.