MONKEY BUSINESS

    The first time I saw a design of little monkeys swinging through jungle trees was down the Kings Road in London. It was on a pair of early 19c.chintz bed covers in a very smart antique shop called Browns. I was shocked to hear they were more than £30 but you have to know that this was in 1950 when I was newly married and trying to furnish a little mews house on a wage of £5. 50 a week! Somehow they stuck in my brain and next time I saw another pair of lovely green chintz counterpanes with ivy leaves in a trellis pattern and a rich border with red berries for £10, I bought them to console myself! In fact I got them from Robin Eden in Pickwick, Corsham, on my way for a Cornish holiday. I was to meet his son Matthew, another antique dealer, nearly 30 years later, when I moved to Freshford and I was able to tell him that his father (much missed by many) had started my love of old textiles.

     I have always loved the 'singeries' but they are quite rare - porcelain, silver, carvings and textiles were decorated with monkey figures in the 17th .18th C. and give a playful, exotic Eastern image to European designs. The picture shows a good example and comes from the collection of Julia Basset who lives in France and is a well known textile dealer.   I saw her at the Textile Society's Fair in Kensington in Septembrt.  She has lovely and rare things and often takes her textiles to Newark Antiques Fair..

INDIENNE ROSES

            I love this gentle Indienne design from France, late 19th C. The flowers and buds are in soft misty colours so the bolder brown branches make an effective trellis, running in diagonal lines across a background of tiny dots and other greeny- gray flowers that hardly show. This diagonal line is very important in designs and particularly effective when used on wallpapers and curtains.

         A long time ago when I learnt a bit about flower arrangements (I had two flower shops for several years) I was shown how to create a diagonal line across large arrangements, taking one colour  from top left to bottom right using four or five stems of the same flowers and pulling them forward or recessing them alternately and repeating with another colour from top right to bottom left. It not only gives a life to the design but gives a rhythm and line to the whole.which is very satisfying to the beholder. This has a sort of connection with the S, or serpentine line, which artist and classic draughtsman, William Hogarth, decreed was the' line of beauty' in the 18th Century following the High Rococo movement in furniture and art designs.
      If you look at the beautiful calicos of 19C. they often have interesting backgrounds of dots, wormlike squiggles (vermiculate) tiny geometric diaper patterns which add to the depth and charm of the overall design - something that modern copyists often leave out and neglect.  The dots (picotage) were made with a board that had pins driven into it and then the board was hammered on to the cloth with the dye on it - this was because it was almost impossible to get the fine pattern on an engraved metal 'bat'. A lot of Colefax &Fowler designs do have this feature - I think John Fowler was very exact in his reproductions of beautiful old fabrics that he found in the country houses he helped to re-furnish and restore.  There were coral, seaweed, mosaic and other popular patterns all used for the background of larger designs;. in fact  inspiration was often from nature - leaves, ferns, feathers,  all used in repetitive forms.

Do you find Camel a bit tame?

As I look at the fashion pages of the magazines, I seem to be invaded by a caravan of camels - warm and cosy for a top layer, soft and bland for the cashmere underneath with a swirly chiffon skirt below in caramel, shoes, bag and curls to blend and so I then turn the page hoping to find a brilliant accessory that will lift the whole ensemble and raise my spirits - I find an echo of all this now in decorating a room - at the moment I am sorting out a small maisonette and trying to make a plan to suit my purse as well as attract a good tenant. I now see that I have myself been in a camel mood (except that in underwear it is called ecru), and while it hasn't given me the hump I feel I must pep it up, or I and my house will look like the Sahara sand desert. I have recently had two easy chairs and small settee upholstered in lovely porridgey hemp in stripes that are caramel to butterscotch (all sackcloth from the Ukraine) and these sit on a mushroom fitted carpet. I have decided that the dining chairs shall have a fairly graphic orange and green print and the curtains will be of the same material (a neat Laura Ashley remnant). I shall pick out the red in a couple of cushions and the lampshades.  I will add one upholstered side chair in orange and red silky stripes and hope the room looks cosy and inviting, with a spark of colour here and there.   A pine tramp-work framed mirror goes on the wall and a series of red and black pictures showing painted panels in an Italian 18C. style will complete the job.  Upstairs will be in my favorite pale turquoise with a bit of French painted furniture in pastel shades., pale blue bedding and bluish flower print curtains and light canewood bedside tables and matching chair..  Hopefully I will find a calm tenant to take up residence and my safari-inspired interior will work.

COPPER TEMPLATES

YOU WILL KNOW THAT FRENCH WOMEN WERE VERY KEEN ON HAVING ALL THEIR LINENS MARKED WITH THE INITIALS OF THEIR MARRIED NAME - IT WAS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE DOWRY, AND REFLECTED SOME OF THE PRIDE THEY FELT IN HAVING BEAUTIFUL SHEETS AND FINE UNDERWEAR WHICH THEY HAD COLLECTED OVER THE YEARS.
     I went to a rather good fair at Fayence, in Provence behind Nice, and found an old friend selling lots of linen. He rather diffidently opened a large metal box and showed me an amazing collection of different patterned alphabets in copper, all unused, and arranged in little cardboard boxes. He explained that they had come from a linen factory where the bridal trousseaux and dowries were woven and that the templates, with powder tamped with a stiff little brush, were for marking the initials of the bride, ready for embroidery. They were all complete and unused and varied from very small, for hankies and underwear, to very large, about 6" high and with elaborate swirls and decorations, meant for sheets. I think there were 12 or more sets, in every possible combination and in many sizes, using all 27 letters of the alphabet. I took them to fairs and they were a great success and people found many uses for them, decorating their craft work and so on. After about a year, one of my friends suddenly decided to buy all the big ones and she started a wonderful bespoke business - she placed the double initials, well spaced out, and pushed acrylic paint through, like a stencil, and she used white paint on a blue linen ground, and blue on a white linen sheet. The resulting fabrics thus had the personal initials of the clients who hung them as curtains and bed drapes and found many other uses for these exclusive designs. It was such a simple idea (though it did demand patience and skill to get the spacing right) and I thought she deserved her rich reward for a very original invention. As Polly Lyster had the business of dyeing the hemp and linen, it was a rather good example of co-operation by T4T members working together. We all made a reasonable profit for our work and the customers had something quite original and exclusive.

SHOWING THE FLAG

   When I bought this pretty little tablecloth lovingly embroidered with hearts and flowers in red, blue and white, the seller told me that it had a secret message in the design.  It was embroidered during the last war by a patriotic housewife to show defiance to the occupation, the colours are taken from the tricolor flag of France and the hearts an obvious symbol of patriotism.  Such small acts of bravery remind us of the cruel times suffered by the French under Nazi rule.   During the war there were acute shortages and the women used to gather nettles, thistles and broom to spin and weave into cloth for clothes and home;  the broom made a very lovely silky golden fabric which is rare to find but much prized for its colour and softness.

A MODERN TALENT

   The name Georgina von Etzdorf will ring many bells.  Her silks and scarves were the talk of the town several years ago and now, after a long break, expanding in other directions,she is back with treasures from her archives to sell in time for Christmas.  Although I deal in old textiles, I am fascinated by her bold and innovative designs and colour combinations and this could be a chance to give something rather unique for Christmas that could be someone's best fashion accessory.  The enclosed invitation is for all lovers of fine design and they will be welcome at Shrewton, not far from Salisbury, and the entrance fee of £1 will go to the Alzheimer charity.  Refreshments available.  THE DATE IS  SUNDAY NOV.28th  12 pm - 5 pm

The place is Zion House, Salisbury Road, Shrewton SP3 4EQ.  Tel. 01980 621940.
    I have kept the picture on the right for many years - an early work of her art entitled WURLITZER
which has a wonderful 3D dimension and embodies the harmonies and swelling sounds of the organ in a very graphic way.  I like the idea of two different arts being joined in this way - music and art and design.

RED IN A COLD CLIMATE

This watercolour, 'Red bedroom, hunting lodge' by Alexandre Serebriakoff, shows  an interesting interior design which is vibrant and warm.  There are a great many different striped treatments, including the half-drawn blinds, and I felt myself drawn to the warm and stimulating colours of all the soft furnishings;  the rich rug, the red tablecloth,  the bed ends, the trellis pattern bedcover, pennant pelmet and striped curtains, with plenty of lighting in table lamps and bracket wall lights for dark winter evenings.  Little book case, small ornaments, vase of flowers, mirror and w.p.b. complete the details and I guess this was painted in the 1920s?  With a bright fire in the grate I can imagine a wonderfully cosy bed-sit in a rather grand style!   It's always interesting to see how other people decorated their houses in other countries - we are used to seeing the fabulous  ballet costumes and jewels of the Russians and the grandest of palaces, but everyday living in more modest houses is difficult to discover.

INDEED TO GOODNESS ME!

WELSH QUILTS discovered by a fanatical American collector - you will know that I mean Jen Jones , Queen of Quilts, from Llanybyder, Ceredigion, who has the biggest and best collection in the world and who has recently opened this Museum. It could make a very nice day out if you joined with a friend and motored there (the roads there are good) and looked at her museum collection with excellent home-made snacks in the cafe, and maybe visited her cottage where you can try out on actual beds her big collection of quilts and blankets for sale. You might think that her quilts would be very expensive as she is such an expert, but in fact she has lovely covers at all prices and her Comfy quilts in pretty Paisleys sell fast - I buy them myself from time to time as I remember them fondly from my childhood in Wales.  They were printed, usually in pretty Paisley designs, in Manchester, usually in a large diamond outline and they are reversible, as inexpensive alternatives to the traditionnal hand stitched and stuffed Welsh quilts.