Wednesday Wish: Antique Victorian sampler

_{(please click on the image for a more detailed view)}

This antique Victorian sampler came up for sale last week at Wilkinson’s Auctioneers with an estimate of £250-£450 – not a bargain, but a fair price, and within our grasp. We planned to bid on it, but bids started at £600 and it eventually sold for £900!

It wasn’t the most colourful embroidery work for sale that day, but the skillfulness of 10-year-old Mary Maria Dagg whose work it was, was astounding. And we loved the little verse entitled `Tree of Dispassion’ on the perils of drunkenness – here it is:

The
sin of
drunkenness
expels reason,
drowns memory,
distempers the body,
defaces beauty, dimin-
ishes strength, corrupts
the blood, inflames the liver,
weakens the brain, turn men
into walking hospitals, causes in-
ternal, external, and – incurable
wounds, is a witch to the senses, a
devil to the soul, a thief to the pocket,
the beggar’s companion, a wife’s woe, and
children’s sorrow – makes man become
a beast, and a self murderer, who
drinks to others’ good health,
and robs himself
of his
own !
The
root of
all evil is
DRUNKENNESS!!

Glass of wine anyone?

Fair Finds

We made the trip to Lincoln Antiques and Home Fair on Monday. Our alarm was set for 5.30am, so it was quite an early start in the cold and the dark. Add in a few hours driving and you have to hope that the effort will be worthwhile.

Fortunately it was – and we picked up some very nice pieces – some favourites are shown here. It’s mainly vintage, mid 20th century stuff; but we couldn’t resist a couple of country antiques too, such as this beautiful 18th century bowl and bread/pie oven peel.

We bought quite a few West German ‘fat lava’ pots, concentrating on bold reds & oranges. Their prices are certainly on the rise. Other ceramics included the wall plaques designed by Bjorn Wiinblad for Nymolle of Denmark. Each one represents a month of the year and features a loving couple’s story – from courtship to parenthood. We like the whimsical, folk art design and we’ve actually got a set on our kitchen wall.

A slightly more recent piece of wood was to be found in the shape of this 1950s/60s teak coaster set. We’re not sure who the maker is, but it’s got real quality to it – it’s very Scandinavian and has a gorgeous, warm colour. There was no shortage of enamelware to be found – we plumped for this set of graduated blue kitchen pots – the largest has an impressive 18 litre capacity!

The sewing box dates from the 1960s and is made of a plastic weave material. Some people call in Dandycord – which we think was a trade name or brand of PVC flooring. The same material was used in the manufacture of these sewing boxes. You also see chairs, plant pot holders, magazine racks etc from the same period made from it. We were given a real flash of flower power colour when we lifted the lid! Equally bold & bright were the lovely little teatowel and this absolutely stunning roll of unused 1950s fabric, with it’s classic vase design & period colour combination of yellow, red, grey, black & blue.

It’s always tempting to stay in a warm bed, but we’re glad that we didn’t when we look back at this haul!

Bookmarks: Menu Design in America

We have a really fabulous book for today’s Bookmarks post.

It’s Menu Design in America, 1850-1985 by Steven Heller & John Mariani and edited by Jim Heimann.

The book charts the history of menu design in America in the 19th & 20th centuries.

The menus featured inevitably incorporate the evolution & development of food.

But they also draw in American and social history, politics, immigration, civil rights, prohibition, social taboos & norms for various eras – some of which can be eye openers.

Fans of graphic design, illustration and typography will also be in heaven!

There’s a broad subject overview at the start of the book, followed by further insightful captions on each page.

They add details for specific venues or menus – artists/designers, who owned/frequented an establishment, its popularity, dates, details about the food – chefs, new introductions, where items may have been sourced etc.

In some cases, there are accompanying photographs of the actual restaurant locations, buildings, interiors and the diners themselves.

The menus are the real stars of this book, of course. There are nearly 400 pages crammed full of fabulous examples. Both the stunning covers and their menu contents will give hours of visual pleasure.

We’ve included lots of images for this post, but even this is only a small portion of those contained within the book.

Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Jazz age to Space age – it’s all in here!

The menus are sourced from hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, diners, steamships, cruise ships, trains & planes.

We know one thing though – after browsing this book for an hour we were starving!

Some of the menus had up to a hundred items from which to choose.

There are familiar dishes such as steaks & burgers (done in a myriad of different ways, of course).

Others have choices that were new to us – ‘stewed terrapin with hominy’, ‘fried smelts with figaro sauce’, ‘calf’s head en tortue’.

There are enjoyable aspects to take from all the menus – our favourites in terms of design & artwork are those dating from the 1930s and the 1950s. There’s a few in this book we’d love to add to our collection.

We started acquiring vintage menus some time ago. In fact, we’ve blogged about the subject before.

We love both the artwork and browsing the dishes on offer. They can be stored in a folder, but also look great framed – and as you can see from the wonderful examples in this book, the designs can be just stunning.

So we were sold even before opening a page, but if you are a newcomer to the subject, this book can be enjoyed as pure eye candy or will provide a fascinating insight into the history of a nation through its culinary culture.