The Unwanted Cloisonné Egg
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
When Lady Southgate’s seafaring brother Hector brought her a gift of a green cloisonné egg from his latest trip to China, he thought he was bringing her something she would love. Unfortunately, her taste is not quite what Hector supposed. As soon as Hector left London and set sail on his next voyage, she had Withers the butler banish it to the small Green Drawing Room at the back of the house overlooking the garden. “The Georgian wallpaper in there is green anyway, so it is much more suited to sit on the mantle in there.”
The Green Drawing Room on the first floor of Wickham Place with views over the garden, is much smaller than Lady Southgate’s preferred space, the Salon. Despite its size and outlook, the Green Drawing Room is very elegant, for it retains much of its Eighteenth Century décor in spite of the passing years and fashions in interior design. The Green Drawing Room is so named for its hand printed Georgian wallpaper featuring branches, flowers and exotic monkeys. It still retains its white marble Georgian fireplace as well. The instigator of the original décor, Georgiana Lambert - a Georgian relative of Lord Southgate - hangs in a portrait on the wall to the left of the fireplace. It, and her two favourite Meissen figurines of the Lady with the Canary and the Gentleman with the Butterfly have since been moved from their original home in the Green Drawing Room as seen here into the more modish Salon by the current Lady Southgate. Lady Southgate may be fickle about her tastes, but she was correct when she said that the green cloisonné egg would be better suited in the Green Drawing Room. It’s mauve and yellow flowers with russet leaves also suit the décor much better.
The theme for the 4th of April “Smile on Saturday” is “Egg-Cellent”, and this green cloisonné egg seemed the perfect choice for the theme. It is actually only 2 ½ centimetres in height when standing in its porcelain stand and is part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood including the little green cloisonné egg, which I bought at a flea market when I was around seven.
The mantle mirror is actually a small pink plastic framed looking glass. The handle broke off long ago, and I painted in black and gilded it to give it a Regency look. The two Meissen figurines: the Lady with the Canary and the Gentleman with the Butterfly, are diecast figures that have been hand painted and gilded by me. The white cloisonné vase is also a miniature which I bought in an auction some years ago. You may just notice two small wine glasses on a silver salver on the sideboard at the bottom left-hand corner of the photograph. These are artisan pieces made of real blown glass and sterling silver.
The Unwanted Cloisonné Egg
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
When Lady Southgate’s seafaring brother Hector brought her a gift of a green cloisonné egg from his latest trip to China, he thought he was bringing her something she would love. Unfortunately, her taste is not quite what Hector supposed. As soon as Hector left London and set sail on his next voyage, she had Withers the butler banish it to the small Green Drawing Room at the back of the house overlooking the garden. “The Georgian wallpaper in there is green anyway, so it is much more suited to sit on the mantle in there.”
The Green Drawing Room on the first floor of Wickham Place with views over the garden, is much smaller than Lady Southgate’s preferred space, the Salon. Despite its size and outlook, the Green Drawing Room is very elegant, for it retains much of its Eighteenth Century décor in spite of the passing years and fashions in interior design. The Green Drawing Room is so named for its hand printed Georgian wallpaper featuring branches, flowers and exotic monkeys. It still retains its white marble Georgian fireplace as well. The instigator of the original décor, Georgiana Lambert - a Georgian relative of Lord Southgate - hangs in a portrait on the wall to the left of the fireplace. It, and her two favourite Meissen figurines of the Lady with the Canary and the Gentleman with the Butterfly have since been moved from their original home in the Green Drawing Room as seen here into the more modish Salon by the current Lady Southgate. Lady Southgate may be fickle about her tastes, but she was correct when she said that the green cloisonné egg would be better suited in the Green Drawing Room. It’s mauve and yellow flowers with russet leaves also suit the décor much better.
The theme for the 4th of April “Smile on Saturday” is “Egg-Cellent”, and this green cloisonné egg seemed the perfect choice for the theme. It is actually only 2 ½ centimetres in height when standing in its porcelain stand and is part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood including the little green cloisonné egg, which I bought at a flea market when I was around seven.
The mantle mirror is actually a small pink plastic framed looking glass. The handle broke off long ago, and I painted in black and gilded it to give it a Regency look. The two Meissen figurines: the Lady with the Canary and the Gentleman with the Butterfly, are diecast figures that have been hand painted and gilded by me. The white cloisonné vase is also a miniature which I bought in an auction some years ago. You may just notice two small wine glasses on a silver salver on the sideboard at the bottom left-hand corner of the photograph. These are artisan pieces made of real blown glass and sterling silver.