A Decadent Deco Nightcap
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Lettice has spent the evening at one of London’s most exclusive and glamorous nightclubs, the Embassy Club on Bond Street: dining with friends the Honourable Gerald Bruton, Celia Beauchamp, Peter Bradley, Marguerite de Virre and Lettice’s older brother and heir to the pater’s title, lands and fortune, Leslie Chetwynd. After dinner, they danced into the wee hours of the morning to the wonderful music of Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra.
Letting herself in through the front door with her latch key, Lettice still tiptoes about like she did when she was younger and sneaking home to her parents’ Sloane Square terrace. She deposits her cape, gloves, compact and bandeau on one of her tub chairs in the drawing room before slipping quietly through the green baize door into the servant’s part of her flat. Now in lisle clad feet only, there is no need to tiptoe past Edith’s room, but old habits die hard as she trips lighly across the black and white cheque linoleum floor. However, once in the kitchen, Lettice throws on the lights and makes a clattering noise as she goes looking about for a milk pan, a teacup, saucer, plate, the Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted, and her decadent nightcap, the Bournville Cocoa.
“Can I be of any help, Miss?” Edith yawns as she steps bleary eyed into the kitchen in her dressing gown with her hair in Kirby grips.
“Oh, I shouldn’t think so Edith,” Lettice replies nonchalantly, gasping with delight as she finds the milk bottle in the food safe in the corner of the kitchen. “Nanny Webster always said that making cocoa was an art.” Giggling she continues. “Wouldn’t pampered Marguerite and Celia die if they saw me trying to make my own cocoa!”
“Have you ever made cocoa before, Miss?” Edith asks, watching her mistress with her arms akimbo.
“Well… not exactly, Edith, but it can’t be that hard.” Lettice replies as she looks in a rather perplexed fashion at the pan, the canister of cocoa and the milk.
“Well, I’m up now Miss, so shall I make it for you?”
“Oh! Oh, would you Edith?” Lettice gasps in delight. Turning around she throws her arms around Edith’s neck, much to the other woman’s consternation, and beams one of her winning smiles. “Oh you are a brick! There’s nothing quite like a hot cocoa after a night out dancing to help settle one down.”
“And whilst I make it, you can tell me what you and your friends got up to tonight, Miss.”
Edith busies herself pouring the milk into the pan and setting it on the stove whilst Lettice sinks into the ladderback chair, the only chair, in the small kitchen.
“Well, darling Marguerite almost got to dance with the Prince of Wales tonight… almost,” Lettice begins as she nibbles delicately on a Huntley and Palmer’s Bourbon biscuit.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “drinks” was chosen by Di, PhotosbyDi.
As adults, when we think of drinks, alcohol often comes to mind first. However, when it’s bedtime, Lettice is right, a cup of rich chocolaty Bourneville cocoa is a decadent nightcap. Lettice’s well set out ingredient selection is a little different to what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection, some of which come from my own childhood.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
The canister of Bournville Cocoa, which is a 1:12 artisan miniature from Small Wonders suppliers in England. Bournville is a brand of dark chocolate produced by Cadbury. It is named after the model village of the same name in Birmingham, England and was first sold in 1908. Bournville Cocoa was one of the products sold by Cadbury. The label on the canister is a transitional one used after the First World War and shared both the old fashioned Edwardian letter B and more modern 1920s lettering for the remainder of the name. The red of the lettering is pre-war whilst the orange and white a post-war change.
The Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit tin and Bourbon biscuits are also 1:12 artisan pieces. Huntley & Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world\'s first global brands and ran what was once the world\'s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley & Son and Huntley & Palmer. The Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted tin featuring Boudicca upon it was first used during the Great War to stimulate nationalist fervour both in the trenches and on the home front. The design was so popular that it carried on through the 1920s.
Lettice’s cup, saucer and plate are from a beautiful artisan tea set featuring a rather avant-garde Art Deco Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era.
The milk bottle, copper milk pan and spoon are also 1:12 size miniatures. The copper pan is made of real copper and is very heavy for its size!
The sink in the background has some interesting items on it. On the left hand draining board stands a box of Sunlight soap and a can of Vim, both cleaning essentials in any 1920s household. Vim scouring powder was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884.
To the left of the sink is the food safe with a mop leaning against it. In the days before refrigeration, or when refrigeration was expensive, perishable foods such as meat, butter, milk and eggs were kept in a food safe. Winter was easier than summer to keep food fresh and butter coolers and shallow bowls of cold water were early ways to keep things like milk and butter cool. A food safe was a wooden cupboard with doors and sides open to the air apart from a covering of fine galvinised wire mesh. This allowed the air to circulate while keeping insects out. There was usually an upper and a lower compartment, normally lined with what was known as American cloth, a fabric with a glazed or varnished wipe-clean surface. Refrigerators, like washing machines were American inventions and were not commonplace in even wealthy upper-class households until well after the Second World War.
A Decadent Deco Nightcap
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Lettice has spent the evening at one of London’s most exclusive and glamorous nightclubs, the Embassy Club on Bond Street: dining with friends the Honourable Gerald Bruton, Celia Beauchamp, Peter Bradley, Marguerite de Virre and Lettice’s older brother and heir to the pater’s title, lands and fortune, Leslie Chetwynd. After dinner, they danced into the wee hours of the morning to the wonderful music of Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra.
Letting herself in through the front door with her latch key, Lettice still tiptoes about like she did when she was younger and sneaking home to her parents’ Sloane Square terrace. She deposits her cape, gloves, compact and bandeau on one of her tub chairs in the drawing room before slipping quietly through the green baize door into the servant’s part of her flat. Now in lisle clad feet only, there is no need to tiptoe past Edith’s room, but old habits die hard as she trips lighly across the black and white cheque linoleum floor. However, once in the kitchen, Lettice throws on the lights and makes a clattering noise as she goes looking about for a milk pan, a teacup, saucer, plate, the Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted, and her decadent nightcap, the Bournville Cocoa.
“Can I be of any help, Miss?” Edith yawns as she steps bleary eyed into the kitchen in her dressing gown with her hair in Kirby grips.
“Oh, I shouldn’t think so Edith,” Lettice replies nonchalantly, gasping with delight as she finds the milk bottle in the food safe in the corner of the kitchen. “Nanny Webster always said that making cocoa was an art.” Giggling she continues. “Wouldn’t pampered Marguerite and Celia die if they saw me trying to make my own cocoa!”
“Have you ever made cocoa before, Miss?” Edith asks, watching her mistress with her arms akimbo.
“Well… not exactly, Edith, but it can’t be that hard.” Lettice replies as she looks in a rather perplexed fashion at the pan, the canister of cocoa and the milk.
“Well, I’m up now Miss, so shall I make it for you?”
“Oh! Oh, would you Edith?” Lettice gasps in delight. Turning around she throws her arms around Edith’s neck, much to the other woman’s consternation, and beams one of her winning smiles. “Oh you are a brick! There’s nothing quite like a hot cocoa after a night out dancing to help settle one down.”
“And whilst I make it, you can tell me what you and your friends got up to tonight, Miss.”
Edith busies herself pouring the milk into the pan and setting it on the stove whilst Lettice sinks into the ladderback chair, the only chair, in the small kitchen.
“Well, darling Marguerite almost got to dance with the Prince of Wales tonight… almost,” Lettice begins as she nibbles delicately on a Huntley and Palmer’s Bourbon biscuit.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “drinks” was chosen by Di, PhotosbyDi.
As adults, when we think of drinks, alcohol often comes to mind first. However, when it’s bedtime, Lettice is right, a cup of rich chocolaty Bourneville cocoa is a decadent nightcap. Lettice’s well set out ingredient selection is a little different to what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection, some of which come from my own childhood.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
The canister of Bournville Cocoa, which is a 1:12 artisan miniature from Small Wonders suppliers in England. Bournville is a brand of dark chocolate produced by Cadbury. It is named after the model village of the same name in Birmingham, England and was first sold in 1908. Bournville Cocoa was one of the products sold by Cadbury. The label on the canister is a transitional one used after the First World War and shared both the old fashioned Edwardian letter B and more modern 1920s lettering for the remainder of the name. The red of the lettering is pre-war whilst the orange and white a post-war change.
The Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit tin and Bourbon biscuits are also 1:12 artisan pieces. Huntley & Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world\'s first global brands and ran what was once the world\'s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley & Son and Huntley & Palmer. The Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted tin featuring Boudicca upon it was first used during the Great War to stimulate nationalist fervour both in the trenches and on the home front. The design was so popular that it carried on through the 1920s.
Lettice’s cup, saucer and plate are from a beautiful artisan tea set featuring a rather avant-garde Art Deco Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era.
The milk bottle, copper milk pan and spoon are also 1:12 size miniatures. The copper pan is made of real copper and is very heavy for its size!
The sink in the background has some interesting items on it. On the left hand draining board stands a box of Sunlight soap and a can of Vim, both cleaning essentials in any 1920s household. Vim scouring powder was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884.
To the left of the sink is the food safe with a mop leaning against it. In the days before refrigeration, or when refrigeration was expensive, perishable foods such as meat, butter, milk and eggs were kept in a food safe. Winter was easier than summer to keep food fresh and butter coolers and shallow bowls of cold water were early ways to keep things like milk and butter cool. A food safe was a wooden cupboard with doors and sides open to the air apart from a covering of fine galvinised wire mesh. This allowed the air to circulate while keeping insects out. There was usually an upper and a lower compartment, normally lined with what was known as American cloth, a fabric with a glazed or varnished wipe-clean surface. Refrigerators, like washing machines were American inventions and were not commonplace in even wealthy upper-class households until well after the Second World War.