High tea / high fashion
Having profiled one 1920s tea set in this issue, we thought it would be nice to show another, very different set, from the same period. This is the Campanula – […]
A teatime tale
Once upon a time, almost two thousand years ago on the Indian subcontinent, there was a tortoise in his pond, and one day he met two geese. The geese said […]
Letters on letter boxes
The 1850s saw the introduction of the post box on the streets of Britain, which brought with them, not only the convenience and encouragement of the postal service, but another […]
Doodling dissent
Dissent and writing materials defined the look of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The M1 “steel-pot” helmet (in use from 1941) had a camouflage fabric cover added as general issue […]
Rabbits and squirrels and dogs, oh my!
SylvaC was a pastel powerhouse. WIth the majority of their output taking place from the 1930s to 1970s, their wares have endured through changing fashions, and even now can sit […]
The Luddite, the poacher and the thieves
On 13th May 1787 the first ship of convicts sailed from Portsmouth, arriving in Botany Bay, Australia the following January. Over the next eighty years, Britain and Ireland transported around […]
I made him a little hat
If it doesn’t look nice, cover it up. It’s a philosophy that could happily sit alongside those of great interiors thinkers William Morris (have nothing in your house you do […]
Fight the power
Wear your heart on your sleeve and your outrage on your lapel. Protest badges are a symbol of allegiance and an act of defiance against the status quo. These small […]
Frames from a film
Google the name “Hermoine Burton” and there’s nothing. Or there wasn’t until her paintings were found, some ten years after her death, scattered across Bedford charity shops. Fortuitously, they were […]
Birds of prey
The younger sibling of the army and navy, the air force was still in its infancy when World War II began. Britain was the first country in the world to […]