TRADING POST

A good mixed selection - Sue Stokes' boutique at Lacock, nr.Corsham, Wilts tel.079862 47501 for opening times.  Sue has used every inch to display her stock and next week it will look quite different after she has re-arranged it all.  

    After many years of trading in folk art, textiles and decorative furnishings, I have a few thoughts on buying and selling!  When funds are short and space is limited, it is quite difficult to know how to plan your stock.  Certainly you need to have a speciality (or several) so that you become known for it and people come direct to you when in need.   My own specialities are as follows: I have always dealt in tickings and in heavy handwoven sheets from France and my Website showed some examples to 'catch' seekers and buyers.  Connected with these two lines are the old French chairs which my skilled master upholsterer re-covers in dashing stripes or creamy coarse hemp (sacks and mattress covers from Brittany and the Ukraine), and they add interest to the Website and sell very well.  I know my prices are modest compared to most other dealers and I have a high turnover.   Because I travel widely in France and have a network of  helpful dealers who collect old curtains and soft furnishings for me, I have a very good selection of long sets of tall curtains and other textile goods which can be useful for interior decorators.  Our T4T Rag Markets have become a very useful outlet for the out-of- fashion and surplus stock of dealers and the customers have flocked to enjoy the bargains.  Watch the Blog for news and dates - well worth a visit!
Look under the Blog  STOP PRESS FUTURE FAIRS.
     There are certain things that are always in demand and you can learn a lot from meeting the general public at an antiques fair.  If you can get a 'corner' in something that will sell all round the year and you know all about it to encourage the buyers, it can be quite profitable, whether it is table linen in damask, candlesticks for emergencies or pretty bowls for soup,  (the French ones are keenly collected now, even by the French, for their country cottages)- it is worth having plenty and making a good show so that you are remembered  later - it is worth computer-printing some cards with this information.  IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER AND CAMERA, AND CAN TAKE A FEW PHOTOS IN COLOUR, THIS IS SIMPLE TO DO (AND THIS OLD LADY HAS MASTERED IT RECENTLY!).   Keeping in touch with the market is so very important and I think it is well worth getting rid of obsolete stock, even at a loss, so that you have cash and space to promote a new line - it also gives you some enthusiasm which you can pass on to your customers.  Also remember that you cannot expect to make a big profit on everything!  otherwise all antique dealers would be millionaires! It's very like window dressing in a shop - however clever and arresting it may be, people just get bored and don't bother to look if it's all 'the same old things' and the display becomes stale, so you must keep working at it and changing the 'look'.

ITS ALL GO AT THIS RED

A view of a red and white room setting at Freshford, my previous home. All the decorations are from France and all are dyed with Rose Madder the cheapest and most effective dye after indigo blue. The red and whitelarge check is called Toile de Vichy and was much used to line bed pelmets and the backs of chairs upholstered with Toile de Jouy, and was a good way of continuing the colour scheme without too heavy a cost.
  Red and white quilts are always popular  and I know one lady who  has a collection of the many different named patterns as well as many other original ones and they make a great show.  I always like a collection that has a main theme and the owner usually has some very interesting history to tell as she has made a good study of the genre.

A Stiff sheet

COARSE HEMP

  HEMP STRIE

                 

One of my readers wants to know if there is any way to soften a very stiff Metis sheet.  Metis is a union of two different fibres, usually linen and cotton in different ratios.  It is a very strong closely woven material and was much cheaper to produce than pure linen and was very popular in the 20th century.  Washing the sheets in soft water or rain water and using them as bedding certainly makes them more supple, if you want to use them for upholstery or curtains later, but they can be quite difficult to arrange in soft folds.  You could try hanging them on a line outside in the rain (and snow!) for a few days to see if that works.  Putting them on the grass will probably stain them this time of year.   YOU MIGHT THINK THAT THEY WOULD BE VERY UNCOMFORTABLE TO SLEEP ON AND SCRATCHY, BUT MANY PEOPLE FIND THAT THE SLIGHT FRICTION OF THE WEAVE IS QUITE PLEASANT AND WARM .   It's worth a try.  I really don't know if any of the laundry aids like Lennor, a softener, will work at all - I have never tried, but I do sympathize as I have been trying to use some vintage tea towels which I thought were very sturdy, only to find that they are so hard and stiff I cannot use them for drying any glasses - just not soft enough.  LIVE AND LEARN!

COW COATS!

A cow coat (made for oxen)woven in hemp, complete with tail piece and neck halter.

  Hi Donna, I loved hearing that you too have discovered cow coats in Southern France - they seem to have been mostly used near the Pyrenees in the very hot sticky weather when the oxen had to work in the fields and the horse flies drove them mad!  I bought the first lot from a very Spanish lady who had a junky brocante at a farm and that was the first I knew about them and I have searched for more ever since as they seemed to me the epitome of rustic life - so useful, so suitable and quel chic!   She told me they were no longer of any use and proudly pointed to the tractor in the yard and said the oxen had gone.  When they were used for the Pacific  'Ocean Villa' of Andrew Lloyd Webber, they were ideal to take all the sun, rain and sea spray on the decks and they were converted into thick cushions for the wrought iron rocking chairs that adorned the terraces.  Everything was 'bespoke' and maybe the original farmer in the Pyrenees would have been surprised to know whose celebrity bottoms were sitting on his old discarded cow coats!  Sacks were also made from this material and many farmers kept a roll or two in their sheds - I once found one but no more since then!  I fancied a sofa covered in this gorgeous stuff.

PATTERNS AND PLACES.

   The country round Toulouse was one of our first and most successful hunting grounds for antiques;   It was a rich and fertile land full of large farms and vineyards and large bourgeois houses in the towns.  The new generation was clearing out a lot of old stuff carefully stored by their forbears and the many convents and priories that were being disbanded at that time were almost giving away their carefully preserved stores of hand-made linen.The markets were loaded with interesting and obsolete feather bed covers, bolsters and sheets as well as strange religious garments adorned with lace and fine stitching.  I found it pleased the sellers most if I offered to buy the whole lot in a pile rather than piecemeal  and most were thankful to get rid of the stuff at any price.    I once bought six sacks full of fine lace and muslin bonnets and fichus from the workroom of a convent and at least half were wearable - they had been worn by old ladies and their nurses in a hospice.. Elsewhere I found little hoods that the nuns used to wear for early matins to walk to their church - it was cold for a shaven head!  They had only numbers on them as the nuns were not allowed to have their own names embroidered on anything... so sad!   Another interesting find was a pile of fine  hand-knitted white cotton  socks that the nuns wore under their habit - they were all sold by me to dress up vintage tennis and bicycle parties at home..   Toulouse itself had a very good small market for textiles round the impressive Basilica of St.Sernin and I found that many of the patterns were typical of the area (the Landes) and not seen elsewhere - very dark 'tartan' pattern cotton for curtains (against the strong sun) and dark red stripes for much of the bed dressing.      Every area of France had its own small weaving mills and factories and each had easily identified patterns that were worn for the local costumes and decorated their houses and farms.

Trim Outline

I show examples of my present stock of trims from old French haberdashery counters. The choice, pre-war, was wonderful and very inspiring for the keen needlewoman. The little Breton children are printed on silk, the daisy ribbon is woven and the pretty border pattern in blue and pink is part of a short remnant (what I call 'boudoir' style circa 1900).

The red trims are first, a blue/red machine embroidered ribbon for petticoat frills (this can be dated by the design which includes little circles which were difficult to achieve mechanically till the mid 19c )I have had huge lengths like this all in slightly different stitches. It was used by one of my clients to decorate lamps and cushions in a big Swiss chalet build. Then, two versions of open weave red and white fringes in glossy cotton, which I myself have often used to trim little down pillows and bed cushions with white pique covers.  Regret now all SOLD but always worth looking out for at the brocantes, often attached to ragged remnants of cushions, curtains and clothes.

COATS FOR COWS AND SHADES FOR OXEN

This beautiful striped drill fabric is part of a coat specially woven for cows and oxen in the Pyrenese area of France near Spain. The flies would sting and irritate the beasts while working in the vineyards and these coats protected them - note the coloured stripes, blue and red, often used to denote French nationality, also typical of the Basque country. This material was also used for farm sacks - very handsome and wish I could find some in good condition. Also shown is a strange bit of macrame work in coarse hemp, used to protect the oxen eyes from flies - genuine folk art and a little treasure! This is the last of several sets I have had.. In the past I have bought and sold hand-made halters for cows and horses, beautifully woven and plaited which became tie backs for curtains of oatmeal -textured hemp cloth. Fab! The cow coats were all used to provide cushion covers on the terraces of a Pacific Ocean villa of well-known musical composer and stand up well to sun, rain and ocean spray. I find it so exciting to make use of these lovely old cloths and trims - more anon! Nov. 14th A fantastic FIND! I wrote above 6 months ago and by pure chance came across an unused roll of this lovely hemp sackcloth only 10 miles from here at the American Museum Fair!!! Am now waiting for a client with maybe a big barn to furnish for parties, etc., this would be so ideal for doors and windows and sofas - rustic and draught-proof. Equally good for outside use on terrace furniture - as used by Sir Andrew L-.W. in the Caribbean.

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RINGING THE CHANGES

   When I first bought old French curtains from the brocantes, I was pleased to find that the large and elegant sets with beautifully designed borders and tie-backs were just right for my shabby old house near Bath.  Other people, newly moved to the area and finding the cost of new was exorbitant, admired them and asked me to help find more. So a new outlet for my small business!  The curtains often appeared to have been literally ripped off the walls - they were complete with pelmets, curtain hooks, rings, tie backs and poles.  I now have a large pile of surplus fittings available for anyone wanting period curtain accessories and I show here a collection of period hardwood turned and carved pole finials, discs and knobs. and a group of high quality metal rings, brass and heavy bronze.  In addition I have a good set of 6 ormulu tie backs (rather grand) and some poles and  brackets.  I am clearing all at very modest prices. Contact me at  dbaer@onetel.com   all can be seen near Bath.

XYZ initials

  My theory as to why initials on dowry linen was so important to young French brides runs something like this.   The girls were often born into large families  - a new baby every year!   The girls were all treated alike to a very standard routine in each family and given the same education and were tied to many strict and unchanging traditions of social behaviour, manners and etiquette.  They had little opportunity to show their different characters and talents and until they were of marriageable age, had no space or property that was truly their own.   The dowry was something very personal, destined for their future escape into marriage and their own household where they would be mistress and call the tune, so they took an immense interest and pride in having as fine a collection as they could, and it gave them  great pleasure to show it and count it out when their family and friends looked through the bridal cupboard - the initials denoted ownership of their treasure and the last initial was often left blank so that the husband's name could be added.   I think this small enrichment gave each girl a little status and she would do all she could to make her linen the most beautiful, with the idea of making a good and successful marriage, where goods and property and money were all taken into account by the couple's parents.