COPY CAT

    I used to love walking along the antique shops of Pimlico Road, London. You could gaze at the grandest marble mantlepieces, imposing statues, exotic furniture made of stag horns, as well as discover slightly Bohemian objets de charme at the corner shop LOOT which was owned by a clever lady dealer Ruth Sheradski.   Very occasionally I bought something from Ruth and I still have two lovely brass studded trunks made for the so-called 'fishing fleet' i.e. the unmarried daughters and ladies who went out East to the British Stations to find a husband among the many unmarried soldiers and civil servants out there.  Miss Howell had beautifully engraved brass plates with the numbers 1 and 2 on the trunks which were made of cedarwood to repel termites which could rip through everything in a matter of days.   I always hope she caught her husband and returned to England with far larger trunks and a trousseau.  Ruth at LOOT used to be one of the first dealers trawling through Portobello Market at 5a.m. and I was told she always got first dibs, wielding her torch and filling her car.  Alas ! she died in a road accident, but I always remember her when I sit on the trunks in the hall window of my house and look at the street below while doing a little sewing and mending of my textiles.  By pure chance I have sold objects and fabrics to three later tenants of this impressive and spacious corner shop, all well-known decorators, and the latest is Rose Uniacke, a leading light with a beautiful stock of modern and antique furnishings.

                  Pr. of trunks made for the 'Fishing fleet' travelling to India and Africa,
                        cedar wood, bound with steel bands and brass studs
                                         Miss Howell, Nos. 1 and 2
From  PIMLICO ROAD!

My Howard of Berners Street armchair re-upholstered with a vintage curtain
More about my chair and Howard's later.

  Geoffrey Bennison,  a famous dealer and decorator, had 3 shops further along the road and they were rather like dark caverns, full of imposing lumps of furniture  There were vast sofas and chairs, often made by the famous upholsterers, Howards of Berners St., deeply comfortable with huge down cushions, often covered in Kelims and rich velvets and damasks, tiger skins, brass, marble statues and pillars.  He was a vibrant man with a huge circle of friends and clients, and his original style, grand and rich with heavy  dramatic patterns, ethnic needlework and unusual objects, had a big influence on contemporary decoration.    He had the endearing habit of calling all his male friends 'dear boy' and was known for the tremendous (and sometimes rather wild) parties that he gave.   I think he might have liked my Biedermeir sofa done up with 'shot' old Lyons silk and alpacca velvet curtains and some lovely canvas-work stolen from another pair of shabby silk curtains, all pulled together with rather amusing rows of pom-pom fringing,  (all credit to my inspired lady upholsterer).   The fabric on the big stool (originally made to line up with an important wing fauteuil as a foot rest)and also on one cushion,  is called Shadow Rose and was a Victorian copy I bought from the Bennison shop.  These pouffes are very useful as extra seats (near the fire) and a resting place for magazines and/or trays of drinks, etc.)