A Cool Treat at Newport
Newport, Rhode Island, Wednesday 14th June, 1911.
Today, my hostess Mrs. Van Der Mott’s cousin, Mrs. Bucknell, invited me to play tennis with her two daughters, Sherri and Rosalind, and her teenage son, Dana, at her house that looks out directly onto Narragansett Bay. Mrs. Van Der Mott said that I was to go to help make up a suitable number for mixed doubles. Dana was a surly boy with little in the way of conversation, barely saying a word and scowling at me whenever I caught his eye. However, his lack of charms were made up for in full by Miss Rosalind, and Miss Sherri Bucknell in particular, who is every bit as charming jeune fille à marier as you could wish to meet here in America. I do suspect that Mrs. Van Der Mott and Mrs. Bucknell have been conspiring behind my back to introduce me as an eligible young bachelor from England to Miss Sheri and Miss Rosalind, in the hope that I will be seduced by their charms, and the Bucknell’s department store money, and take one of them back to England to be my bride. After several energetic matches of tennis, Mrs. Bucknell called us up to the terrace where we were served freshly squeezed orange juice, and something the likes of which I have never had before in my life, as a cool treat after our sporting exertions in the Newport sun. Called a ‘knickerbocker glory’ by Miss Sherri, it was a layered sweet dessert of ice cream, cream, fruit and meringue, topped with slivered nuts syrup, extra cream and a glacé cherry. Seated next to Miss Sherri, I noticed that hers was different to mine. Hers had wafers sticking out of it, whereas my own had the two ends of a banana protruding from it. Unlike the ices we get back home, which are purely refreshing, this concoction was creamy and so sweet to eat! It may be the imagining of further ‘knickerbocker glories’ that sway me to woo Miss Sherri every bit as much as her charm, beauty, good conversation and Bucknell money!
* * * * * * * * * *
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 9th of August is “ice cream”. Now, I do not indulge in ice cream. This is only because I have extremely sensitive teeth, and therefore, eating ice cream unless it is half melted, gives me a headache and causes me pain. Luckily for me, I am allowed to include imitation ice cream. What might surprise you about this photograph is that everything in it, from the glasses, cutlery and even the amazing confections of knickerbocker glory ice creams are all in fact 1:12 miniatures from my extensive collection which I use for photography purposes. I photographed them outside on my back terrace one later winter afternoon when the sun was both bright and pleasantly warm. Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I love and collect 1:12 size miniatures which I photograph in realistic scenes. The artifice of recreating in minute detail items in 1:12 scale always amazes me, and it’s amazing how the eye can be fooled. I hope you like my choice of this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The decadent knickerbocker glory confections of ice cream that look so real are artisan miniatures made by an unknown artist and set in real glass bowls. I acquired them from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House shop in the United Kingdom.
The glass of orange juice and the jug in the foreground are also made of real glass, and along with the miniature metal cutlery, these pieces came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.
The tablecloth is actually a small hand embroidered square doily.
The Chippendale style chairs in the background, are very special pieces. They came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The furnishings are taken from a real Chippendale design.
A Cool Treat at Newport
Newport, Rhode Island, Wednesday 14th June, 1911.
Today, my hostess Mrs. Van Der Mott’s cousin, Mrs. Bucknell, invited me to play tennis with her two daughters, Sherri and Rosalind, and her teenage son, Dana, at her house that looks out directly onto Narragansett Bay. Mrs. Van Der Mott said that I was to go to help make up a suitable number for mixed doubles. Dana was a surly boy with little in the way of conversation, barely saying a word and scowling at me whenever I caught his eye. However, his lack of charms were made up for in full by Miss Rosalind, and Miss Sherri Bucknell in particular, who is every bit as charming jeune fille à marier as you could wish to meet here in America. I do suspect that Mrs. Van Der Mott and Mrs. Bucknell have been conspiring behind my back to introduce me as an eligible young bachelor from England to Miss Sheri and Miss Rosalind, in the hope that I will be seduced by their charms, and the Bucknell’s department store money, and take one of them back to England to be my bride. After several energetic matches of tennis, Mrs. Bucknell called us up to the terrace where we were served freshly squeezed orange juice, and something the likes of which I have never had before in my life, as a cool treat after our sporting exertions in the Newport sun. Called a ‘knickerbocker glory’ by Miss Sherri, it was a layered sweet dessert of ice cream, cream, fruit and meringue, topped with slivered nuts syrup, extra cream and a glacé cherry. Seated next to Miss Sherri, I noticed that hers was different to mine. Hers had wafers sticking out of it, whereas my own had the two ends of a banana protruding from it. Unlike the ices we get back home, which are purely refreshing, this concoction was creamy and so sweet to eat! It may be the imagining of further ‘knickerbocker glories’ that sway me to woo Miss Sherri every bit as much as her charm, beauty, good conversation and Bucknell money!
* * * * * * * * * *
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 9th of August is “ice cream”. Now, I do not indulge in ice cream. This is only because I have extremely sensitive teeth, and therefore, eating ice cream unless it is half melted, gives me a headache and causes me pain. Luckily for me, I am allowed to include imitation ice cream. What might surprise you about this photograph is that everything in it, from the glasses, cutlery and even the amazing confections of knickerbocker glory ice creams are all in fact 1:12 miniatures from my extensive collection which I use for photography purposes. I photographed them outside on my back terrace one later winter afternoon when the sun was both bright and pleasantly warm. Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I love and collect 1:12 size miniatures which I photograph in realistic scenes. The artifice of recreating in minute detail items in 1:12 scale always amazes me, and it’s amazing how the eye can be fooled. I hope you like my choice of this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The decadent knickerbocker glory confections of ice cream that look so real are artisan miniatures made by an unknown artist and set in real glass bowls. I acquired them from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House shop in the United Kingdom.
The glass of orange juice and the jug in the foreground are also made of real glass, and along with the miniature metal cutlery, these pieces came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.
The tablecloth is actually a small hand embroidered square doily.
The Chippendale style chairs in the background, are very special pieces. They came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The furnishings are taken from a real Chippendale design.