Like Alice, through the looking glass

Boissiere House
Port of Spain, Trinidad

In Trinidad, a Painted Lady in Distress
The New York Times




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In the life

Jean and Dinah: Who Have Been Locked Away in a World Famous Calypso Since 1956 Speak Their Minds Publicly
By Tony Hall



Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clementina
Round the Corner Posing,
Bet your life is something they selling . . .
- Mighty Sparrow, 1956


Based on the 1956 calypso by the Mighty Sparrow, the play is a tragi-comedy set in present-day Port-of Spain, Trinidad, in Act One, then in Act two, the characters take us some 40 years back to their theatre of the streets of Port of Spain.

It is Jouvay morning, the dawn of Carnival Monday and Jean comes to take her friend, Dinah, to play mas (masquerade) in the city as they have done for the past forty years. This year, however, Dinah is tired and ailing and does not want to go. Jean tries desperately to rally her into making their annual pilgrimage through the streets where they play sailor mas on Carnival Tuesday.

In the ensuing battle to get Dinah out of bed onto the streets of Port of Spain, both women discover things about themselves that shaped their lives. This play gives the women in Sparrow’s calypso a voice. Their stories take us on an emotional roller coaster of laughter, pain and sorrow.

Aide-memoire

La mémoire du rhinocéros, 1980 by François-Xavier Lalanne



Life is all memory. - Flora Sissy Goforth


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Little girl blue

Princess Noire
The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone
By Nadine Cohodas


From Books of The New York Times
Under a Strange, Soulful Spell by Dwight Garner

Excess baggage...

Wardrobe by Bottega di Victor



and hang-ups.

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More often than not

Source books for curtains and hangings (note the deliberate omission of the hateful phrase window treatments) are overwrought affairs full of fussy suburban interpretations of historical designs.

But not always, thanks to Caroline Cliffton-Mogg.



The Curtain Design Source Book




Curtains, A Design Source Book





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Fauna

Lot No 252
A TAXIDERMY MOUNTED BEAR SKIN
MOUNTED BY VAN INGEN AND VAN INGEN, MYSORE, FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
With ink stamp to backing 'VAN INGEN & VAN INGEN, MYSORE 28835'
59 in. (150 cm.) long; 48 in. (122 cm.) wide





Lot No 242
A TAXIDERMY CROCODILE
FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
Cased in a William IV mahogany cabinet with brass castors





Lot No 251
A TAXIDERMY MOUNTED LEOPARD SKIN
MOUNTED BY VAN INGEN AND VAN INGEN, MYSORE, FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
With ink stamp to backing 'VAN INGEN & VAN INGEN 26423'



Chreistie's Interiors - Style & Spirit
23 Februrary, 2010


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Dear Madam,

Please find the attached images of the pieces we discussed. They are truly wonderful. Not simply because each is unusual or particularly fine, but because each also contributes a specific and different note to a whole that could be...quite magical.



A satinwood and caned settee, late 18th century



Anglo Portuguese child`s chair, 18th century



Oak window seat with ebonised detail



Late collage by Sir Terry Frost



Walnut and brass bound jardiniere



George III mahogany tray top commode



Yours faithfully,




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Flora

By South African artist Maggie Oliver.


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Le Nouvel An Chinois

Mussels in Black Bean Sauce

Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce


Both served with steamed rice. Everything else, from the duck (which symbolises fidelity) to the Char siu, is ordered from a restaurant.



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A dieu

Alexander McQueen CBE (1969-2010)






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Manfred, lord of the castle

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. So said Horace Walpole, the 18th century English art historian, author, politician and, not least of all, arbiter of taste. Today he is most remembered for his Gothic revival villa, Strawberry Hill.


Strawberry Hill




The Long Gallery




Strawberry Hill
By Anna Chalcraft and Judith Viscardi




Walpole also said, Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.


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The last relic of a beloved race

Gothic revival oak cabinet bookcase, circa 1880, the pair of glazed doors with stylised arch and trefoil applied detail, enclosing adjustable shelves, the lower section with a pair of doors and a pair of cupboard doors, flanked by engaged columns on a plinth base.



Nothing contributes so much to tranquilise the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley




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Rehab

These two chairs are a prime example of what is known around here as the Lilie Road look. Which is always used in the pejorative as it represents a... for the lack of a better word... style that is completely lacking in substance.




Chairs like these are toshed out by the hundreds. They are either so crudely made or so far gone they are not worth restoring properly. Instead, they get a slap of cheap emulsion and a shoddy re-cover in calico or linen and presto... shabby masquerading as chic.





The chairs are first primed with a liquid sand solution, allowed to dry, and then repainted by dry brushing on two different shades of white. The recessed areas are roughly painted with a red oxide colour to approximate exposed bole, the base used in water gilding. The areas in high relief are then sanded back to expose some of the grey and some of the raw wood. Three coats of wax in two different shades are then applied.


To combat the expanse of Belgian linen that is the sofa in this particular project, a raspberry cotton/viscose strié velvet was chosen for the squabs and backs.




As there was no support under the padding, new wooden insets needed to be installed prior to the upholstery work being done. Had these chairs been of a superior quality I would have advised that the seats be re-caned as they would have been originally.


No silk purse these, but not quite the sow's ears they were either. Now, I can happily stand by them.



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More tales from the road

Taken from The Times January 22, 2010
Article by Huon Mallalieu

Development threatens Portobello Road antiques trade


(Marco Secchi / Getty Images)

A Portobello Road dealer sets out his wares. The area's long-established antiques trade is under threat from chain stores and stalls selling cheap souvenirs



Since the early 1960s Portobello Road has been a magnet for tourists from around the world, as well as for serious collectors and buyers of antiques. On tourist brochures the Saturday market symbolises London, alongside St Paul’s, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, and its existence has helped to bring the prosperity that has regenerated Notting Hill. Now, it seems, it may become a victim of that success, lose the individuality that made it and be taken over as yet another chain shopping street.

In 2007 the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea published A Balance of Trade, the report of its Commission on Retail Conservation, which was chaired by, Councillor Tim Ahern, then the mayor, and numbered Sir Terence Conran among its members. A good deal of that widely welcomed document dealt with Portobello Road and its world-famous antiques street market. Among its conclusions, the majority of which were approved by the council, was this statement:

“Specific functions in specific settings can be protected. We think this is now required for the antiques arcades on Portobello Road.” The market, said the council, must not be “overrun by identikit multiples”.

Portobello Market, with its mix of antiques, fruit and vegetables, bric-a-brac and vintage fashion, ranks No 5 among London’s tourist attractions, and an average of 60,000 people frequent it each Saturday. Since the beginning of the 1960s the antiques stretch has been characterised by a mixture of shops, street and pavement stalls and arcades, some of them housing up to 200 or more dealers. The antiques section is quiet in the week, but the food stalls are still there, and as the neighbourhood has been regenerated, so property values have risen.

For some years developers have been on the prowl, with Guernseyregistered UK Investments, and Warren Todd’s Portobello Investments and Westbourne Arcades buying up properties in the area. Several small arcades have already gone or changed nature. Now, without a nod to A Balance of Trade, more than 150 dealers have been ejected from Lipka’s Arcade, a prime site on the corner of Westbourne Grove, which has been unveiled as a branch of the AllSaints clothing chain.

When the dealers vacated the twostorey and basement arcade last summer, they were assured that they would be able to return to a refurbished basement, with new retail space at ground level and flats above. However, when the hoarding came down, AllSaints was found to be in occupation of the basement as well as the ground floor. The flats were there, with a mansard extension which appears to breach planning regulations, as does the replacement of six shopfronts on Westbourne Grove and four on Portobello with sheet glass.

As the council has written to Costas Kleanthous, the chairman of the Portobello Antique Dealers’ Association, planning consent was neither requested nor granted, but it is merely

“investigating” the matter, while Councillor Ahern says that the council cannot intervene as there has been no change of use — the site is still retail.

As Portobello Investments has bought up properties in the antiques section, and UK Investments in the food section stretch beyond Elgin Crescent, vendors of Third World tourist goods, such as Chinese handbags, T-shirts and the like, have been encouraged to take stalls in front of arcades and shops, which inevitably gives passers-by the impression that similar wares are on sale within. This has resulted in an exodus of traditional dealers. In smaller arcades, such as World Famous, antiques have been replaced entirely by tourist wares, on sale all week. Feelings are running high, and violent incidents between traders and arcade managers have already been reported. As Marion Delehar, whose family has been in the trade for a century and had a shop on the road for 50 years, says: “Incandescent doesn’t begin to describe our feelings.”

Another textile dealer says: “Lipka’s was the stomach of the market. We are left with the head and toes. Red Lion, Harris’s, Admiral Vernon and Rogers are still there — but for how much longer? Without them the market will be finished.”

Precedents are not good. London councils have rarely supported their markets. In the 1970s Southwark tried to do away with the Friday morning Caledonian in Bermondsey, a favourite with the antiques trade, and after recent redevelopment regulars describe it as a travesty of its former self. Camden Passage has largely fallen to developers, despite words of support from Islington. Despite requests and assurances the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has not provided the necessary lavatories and rubbish bins for Portobello, even though rates as well as rents have increased.

Undoubtedly there is profit to be made in changing the nature of Portobello, but given the proximity of the Westfield shopping mall on one side, and Whiteley’s shopping centre on the other, Costas Kleanthous, the Friends of Portobello Road and the market’s many other supporters doubt that the road would have a longer-term future as a street of chain shops like any other high street.





Afrika Bambaataa/John Lydon - World Destruction

Sounds exciciting doesn't it?

Unfortunately it wasn't. And hasn't been for two years now. What was once the highlight of many a bleak January is now nothing more than a direct marketing ploy. One or two (four to be exact) nice things afloat on a sea of absolute dross (and absolutely pristine Barbour).

On the upside I did manage to enter and leave the building without incident. And believe me it was a minefield of possible incidents.



Heather Leigh West - Drop A House

Hello...

Tall, dark and handsome.






Lot # 55

SECRETARY DESK- 18th c. Country Chippendale Secretary Desk with simple molded top over two raised panel doors and three fixed shelf interior set on slant front base, simple pine nested interior over four graduating drawers on shaped bracket base, old black painted exterior. 84 1/2" high, 36" wide, 19 1/2" deep, good condition.



Sophie Tucker - He's Tall, and Dark, and Handsome

One congratulates the groom...

and wishes the bride good luck. The bride in this instance is Emily Evans Eerdmans. And my gift to the couple would be a pair of Black-necked Swans.



Saint-Saens - Le Cygne

Le japonais

Self portrait, Paul Jacoulet


Paul Jacoulet (1896-1960) the French born artist best known for his Japanese woodblock portraits. Following in the tradition of ukiyo-e printmaking, Jacoulet was able to reproduce, and transform, his delicate line drawings and watercolours.




Trois Coreen, Seoul, Coree



Le Bonze Errant, Coree




La Mariee, Seoul, Coree



Le Marie, Seoul, Coree




Le Tabouret de Porcelaine, Mandochoukuo



Les Paradisiers, Mendo, Celebes





Ryuichi Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours

Something for the weekend

Die Mommie Die! (2003)

Written by and starring Charles Busch as Angela Arden. Angela is an unhappily married cabaret singer trying to make a comeback. And she is not going to let anyone stand in her way.

Angela Arden: I hate this house! I hate these walls... I hate that sofa! The only part of this dump that doesn't make me puke is that door - because that's the way I'm gettin' out!





You've slipped into my life as easily as vermouth into a glass of gin... quickly and just a bit too smooth.


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