Jim Thompson at the Musée Guimet

I heard through the grapevine that Jim Thompson Fabrics hosted a stellar party during Maison&Objet. The event was the launch party for the new Jim Thompson Spring collection as well as the debut of The Spotlight Collection by David Rockwell. The charming vignettes, all of which incorporated fabrics from the new collections, were the work of the very creative Douglas Little. (Don't you think the lions look right at home amongst the Asian artifacts of the Musée Guimet?) While I wish that I could have seen the fantastical menagerie in person, the photos below do a great job of capturing the beautiful fabrics used in very whimsical ways.














The lion and alligator installations incorporated fabrics from The Spotlight Collection by David Rockwell.









The three photos above show fabrics from Jim Thompson's Spring 2012 collection.



Eric and Waan Booth with Kenzo. (Yes, Kenzo!) Eric is the President of Jim Thompson America.


Douglas Little, Mai Timblick (Director of Global Marketing, Jim Thompson), and Chad Holman (Managing Director of Jim Thompson America).

The Stately Shugborough

I recently stumbled upon a 1969 copy of The Great Houses and Finest Rooms of England. Written by the late British House & Garden editor Robert Harling, the book profiles some of England's most beautiful stately homes including Hatfield House, Charlecote Park, Blenheim Palace, Leixlip Castle, and Sezincote. The book (which is now on my top twenty list of favorite books- it's that good) is an interesting mix of interior and exterior photos plus text that includes interviews conducted with each of the estate's owners. Downton Abbey fans take note: as these interviews took place during the late 1960s, the then-owners (including the Duke of Marlborough, The Marquess of Salisbury, and the Duke of Argyll) recall what life was like at their respective homes during the early part of the 20th century, a time when houses were tended to by large staffs like those at the fictional Downton Abbey.

If you're also a fan of John Fowler and David Mlinaric, then you're really in luck. The work of both designers appears in this book, including the Mlinaric designed private quarters of Shugborough, a Staffordshire estate once owned by the Earl of Lichfield. That's him, below, with his Swinging Sixties hair and attire. (Lord Lichfield was a prominent celebrity photographer whose professional name was Patrick Lichfield.) I'm showing a few photographs of Shugborough here so that you can get a taste of this book. If you're as enchanted by these country estates as I, then you should try to get your hands on a copy so that you can see it for yourself.



Lord Lichfield




The Bird Room




Lord Lichfield's bedroom





The private study.




The circular breakfast room.




A guest bedroom.









Two of the estate's follies, the Temple of the Winds and the Doric Temple, were built by James "Athenian" Stuart. The Chinese House was transported from the Far East by one of Lord Lichfield's ancestors.

The engraving at top depicts Shugborough.

Loretta Caponi Linen

Hand-embroidered linens are a weakness of mine, but in my opinion, it's not a temptation to which I mind succumbing. My lack of restraint has resulted in some great additions to my linen closet including a set of beautiful embroidered floral cocktail napkins from Paris. As far as I see it, it's not a such a bad problem to have.

Recently, I've become intrigued by the linen of Florence, Italy based Loretta Caponi, whose reputation for fine embroidery is known the world over. Along with her daughter, Caponi runs her eponymous linen shop that specializes in hand embroidered table and bed linen, lingerie, and baby clothes. Thank goodness for Caponi and others like her (Leron comes to mind) who are keeping the tradition of hand embroidery alive. It, like so many other crafts, is a dying art.

And because I couldn't resist, I also included a few photos of Caponi's christening gowns and children's dress clothes. If I had a son, I would be mighty tempted to dress him in that Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit- if I knew he wouldn't be traumatized, of course.





































All photos from Loretta Caponi's website.

Nature's Fabulous Jewels

Some of the most interesting collections that I've seen are those which consist of the fruits of Mother Nature's labor. Natural things like shells, rocks, and bird nests (not really made by Mother Nature but rather Mama Bird.) Through the years, I have collected shells, pine cones (I once had a great cache of enormous pine cones from South Georgia, but they disappeared during a move a few years back), and even acorns. For some odd reason, I absolutely love acorns.

The most striking of all natural collections are minerals. Now I don't know much about minerals, something that I attribute to my utter lack of interest in chemistry and geology, but I do admire their beauty. And the more organic looking they are, the better. Out of curiosity, I recently bought a 1974 book titled Minerals: Nature's Fabulous Jewels, written by Ian Campbell and Arthur Court. (Yes, the very same Arthur Court of aluminum tableware fame.) Both Court and Campbell are noted mineral collectors, and many specimens from their collections were photographed for this book. The examples are really quite stunning thanks to their fantastic shapes, unusual colors, and heavy texture. After reading the book, I'm sorry that I didn't pay more attention in science class. Well, almost.



Part of Court's collection of minerals that have been mounted.



Mimetite and Plumbogummite from Alston Moor, Cumberland, England



Halite from Brawley, California



Crocoite, from Comet Mine, Dundas mining district, Tasmania, Australia



Chrysocolla "stalagmites" and drusy Quartz, from Concepcion del Oro, Mexico




Calcite with Limonite, from American Nettie Mine, Ouray mining district, Colorado




Bayldonite, from Tsumeb, South-West Africa.




Azurite and Malachite, from Apex Mine, St. George, Utah.




Autunite, from Daybreak Mine, Mount Spokane, Washington


All photos from Minerals: Nature's Fabulous Jewels by Arthur Court and Ian Campbell, M. Halberstadt photographer.

Buy Me a Milking-Pail

Buy me a milking-pail, O mother, O mother!
Buy me a milking-pail, O dearest mother of mine!*

Sounds like an odd thing for me to request, but I wish that someone would buy me a milking-pail. A Sèvres style milk pail, that is. I never really thought much about them until I was looking through my copy of the Jayne Wrightsman auction catalogue over the weekend. The 2010 Sotheby's auction featured the contents of Wrightsman's London residence. And in that residence was a Samson Sèvres-style porcelain milk pail from the late 19th century. (That's it at the top.) Somehow, I missed seeing this lot when I first read the catalogue almost two years ago.

It was Marie Antoinette who first used a Sèvres milk pail while she and her courtiers played milk maids at the Dairy at Rambouillet. According to what I've read, Marie Antoinette's pail was decorated in a faux bois design, meant to emulate real wood grain. Later models, though, are more often decorated with a floral motif. It's the rams heads handles that I find most interesting, though.

If I had a milk pail, I would use it as a cachepot or maybe even as a waste paper basket. But if the milk pail look is a little too pastoral for you, you might be interested in the two jardinières that I included below. They're not milk pails, but they have those great gilt rams heads on them.

*The excerpt at top is from an old nursery rhyme.


A Sèvres style (Samson) milk pail, late 19th c. Sold at Christie's in 2006; price realized $2800.




Pair of Sèvres style milk pails




Sèvres porcelain cachepot with gilded rams heads. Available from Vintage Views Consignment & Consulting.




A Dresden porcelain ram head jardiniere. 20th c. Sold by Neal Auction Company.




Pair of Louis XVI style blue and white Sevres porcelain jardinières, 19th c. From the estate of Evelyn Walsh McLean. Available from Newel.




Also from Vintage Views, a Louis XVI style bisque porcelain jardinière.