Bank Holiday stock....

Some new stock for Gateshead Stadium this Bank Holiday Monday (30th May 2011).......embroidered pictures in original frames and hand painted, crinoline lady table settings.....

Vintage books, shoes, jug and pin brooch.......

 

Painted pie crust edge side table.... Farrow and Ball Vert de Terre.

And a large kitchen shelf with three drawers.....

Hope you all have a good, long weekend.....off to price and pack now....
Back soon,
Julie x

Blue for a girl...........

I bought these yesterday at the Antique Fair in Northallerton, Yorkshire.

The sweetest little ankle strap, blue leather shoes with tiny mother of pearl buttons and ribbon insert.

Scuffed on the toes with baby's first steps.....

Leather soles with writing still visible on the bottom.

( I am not sure if it is the original price or a shop guide for the age of the child....." 2 years" perhaps? )

Tucked away inside one shoe....a little note to say,

"Jane McCartney's first slippers
( Granny Robertson ) about 1869"

It always makes me wonder how anyone could possibly part with a piece of family history like this.....

Julie x

Dogs and cats......

New acquisitions from last week..... two Victorian, Staffordshire spaniel dogs, both quite different in style.....

One blind in one eye unfortunately...the other with a severe head injury.....

Yet from a distance they look fine!

Modelled as you probably all know on Queen Victoria's favourite spaniel "Dash"

They can be painted with red, black or even a metalic lustre.... but I personally like the plain white with the gilded collar and chain.

The little cat and kitten models I am pleased to see have not been in the wars.

Porcelain this time, not pottery.

I do wonder if they are supposed to be a family group on their green cushions...a tom with a kitten and a queen with a kitten perhaps?

Probably my imagination, but I do think the one on the right with the stronger stripes looks more like a boy and the one on the left with the softer stripes is a girl.....

Julie x

Little French pieces ....

Little French pieces from the " Frenchman" ....a tiny tin scoop, a tiny tin cup and a tiny tin whistle in the shape of a banjo on a French silk hankie.....

 The whistle even has a little chain for safety.....

A plated cake slice and two lovely mother of pearl handled knives with impressed PARIS on the steel blade.

Trying to decide what they were for.....table knives or for cheese perhaps....?

Regardless, they are incredibly sharp and so beautiful I think they will be staying for a while at Chez Cloth Shed...

Finally a little sachet in pretty French fabric for needles etc with a letter B label sewn inside.....so sweet..

Getting ready for The Spring Fair @ Rheged, Penrith, Cumbria this weekend....furniture painted, cushions made, boxes packed...just need to get it all in the car now....

Have a lovely weekend,
Julie x

French Classical prints.....

A portfolio of large French prints, featuring a buxom beauty who obviously worked out with the dumb bells....

And her equally muscley partner....

Michelangelo....Florentine School....!5th /16th century

Classical torsos....

 

Saint Marthe....

Marcus Brutus.....

Gentleman by Agnolo Gaddi....Early Renaissance Italian artist (14th century)

Young girl by Andrea del Sarto...High Renaissance Italian artist (15th/16th century)

Even the impressed French print label is classy...

More Frenchy things to follow shortly....

I love it when the "Frenchman" takes a stand at Hexham en route to Scotland ...so exciting... you never know what he is going to bring with him over the Channel.

Hope you all have a good week....

Julie x

New lease of life....

I think the old Camellia is dead....

Still no new shoots emerging.... yet I am reluctant to throw it away..... just in case.


 I think this was the culprit....snowy pom poms in November.

 Like a lot of plants in the garden, especially those in pots .....no longer here....
The giant agapanthus that we brought all the way back from the Eden Project in Cornwall....gone.
The hebes may have been hammered, yet the rhododendrons and tree peonies are fine.

There are certainly more flowers to come out this year.....

 The hostas are doing their usual bright green loveliness and filling the borders.....

 And the bluebells are taking over the messy patch where not a lot survives in the clay soil....

This is very much a woodland garden with mature beech, oak and larch trees , yet the under planting we did eight years ago tends to take care of itself now with minimal maintenance.


Anyway, I digress... where was I?.... a new use for the camellia skeleton....

Strip all the leaves off....

Plant some sweet peas around the base so they can climb through the branches....water and feed.

 This variety is called "Royal family" which I thought was quite appropriate last week when I bought them, but I have absolutely no idea of the colours I can expect in a few months time.

The "nice man" at the little market garden didn't know either!

 So what do you think they will be?

Red, white and blue?

Has to be a mix don't you think...

Julie x

Over the wall......

 

 Out this afternoon on a regular jaunt through the beautiful Northumberland countryside.....in a pretty little village called Netherwitton, we saw this....over the wall.....

Netherwitton Hall bedecked with one of the largest Union flags I have ever seen......

A privately owned, Grade 1 listed mansion house, dating from the late 16th century set in idyllic parkland..... obviously having celebrated the Royal wedding in grand style!

Now that is what I call a flag....

Brilliant....

Julie x