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.

 

Today however, we are far from Cavendish Mews. We are not even in England as we follow Lettice, her fiancée, Sir John Nettleford Hughes, and her widowed future sister-in-law, Clementine (known preferably now by the more cosmopolitan Clemance) Pontefract on their adventures on their visit to Paris.

 

Old enough to be Lettice’s father, wealthy Sir John was until recently still a bachelor, and according to London society gossip intended to remain so, so that he might continue to enjoy his dalliances with a string of pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger. After an abrupt ending to her understanding with Selwyn Spencely, son and heir to the title Duke of Walmsford, Lettice in a moment of both weakness and resolve, agreed to the proposal of marriage proffered to her by Sir John. More like a business arrangement than a marriage proposal, Sir John offered Lettice the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his large fortune, be chatelain of all his estates and continue to have her interior design business, under the conditions that she agree to provide him with an heir, and that he be allowed to discreetly carry on his affairs in spite of their marriage vows. He even suggested that Lettice might be afforded the opportunity to have her own extra marital liaisons if she were discreet about them.

 

The trio have travelled to Paris so that Lettice may attend the ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes’* which is highlighting and showcasing the new modern style of architecture and interior design known as Art Deco of which Lettice is an exponent. Now that Lettice has finished her commission for a feature wall at the Essex country retreat of the world famous British concert pianist Sylvia Fordyce, Lettice is moving on to her next project: a series of principal rooms in the Queen Anne’s Gate** home for Dolly Hatchett, the wife of Labour MP for Towers Hamlets*** Charles Hatchett, for whom she has done work before. Mrs. Hatchett wants a series of stylish formal rooms in which to entertain her husband’s and her own influential friends in style and elegance, and has given Lettice carte-blanche to decorate as she sees fit to provide the perfect interior for her. Lettice hopes to beat the vanguard of modernity and be a leader in the promotion of the sleek and uncluttered lines of the new Style Moderne**** which has arisen as a dynamic new movement at the exhibition.

 

We find ourselves in the Jardin des Tuileries**** where amidst the finely clipped square topiaries and brilliant white classical statuary of the gardens, on the lush and well clipped lawns, Lettice sits with Sir John and Clemance enjoying a very fine picnic repast in the warm autumnal sunshine of Paris. Arranged with the assistance of the chefs at the hotel they are staying at, Clemance has arranged a splendid picnic to which she has invited her good friends, Marcel and Léonie Dupont, and to which Sir John has invited some of his own Parisian acquaintances. A red and white gingham picnic rug has been spread across the lawn, and its surface is graced with water crackers, a selection of cheeses, dips, pâtés, breads, pies, pasties, sandwiches and even a dressed lobster and a traditional English trifle. Bottles of the finest French wines and champagnes stick up out of silver wine coolers and cutlery, gilt hotel crockery and glassware glint in the sunlight. Birds twitter in the trees and the distant burble of Paris traffic mixes with the chatter of the voices of visitors to the public gardens. In the middle distance, the Louvre Museum, housed in a palace of the same name, basks in the sunshine.

 

“So, to what pleasures, do we owe the pleasure of your company here in Paris, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Monsieur Dupont asks Lettice in slightly laboured and heavily accented English.

 

“We can speak French if you’d prefer, Monsieur Dupont.” Lettice replies kindly with a gentle smile as she tears a piece of bread delicately from a flour dusted roll, casting a shower of white snowflakes into the linen napkin spread across her lap. “I do speak it fluently.”

 

“Marcel is very proud of his command of Anglaise, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Madame Dupont proffers in reply with a laugh.

 

“I am,” Monsieur Dupont agrees with his wife, sitting up a little more straightly as he speaks. “I find my command of Anglaise to be useful when doing business with your fellow countrymen. Sadly, I don’t get to practice conversation à la Anglaise enough, Mademoiselle Chetwynd, so I should like to converse in Anglaise with you, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Not at all, Monsieur Dupont.” Lettice agrees, her own smile broadening, as she lavishes her piece of fluffy white roll with a lashing of creamy yellow butter from a silver knife as she speaks. “However, if you get tired of conversing in English, we can always revert to French.”

 

“Merci, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Monsieur Dupont replies with a grateful sigh and beaming smile below his small waxed petite handlebar moustache*****. “Vous êtes si gentil.” He holds up his glass of rich, jewel like red wine in a toast to Lettice.

 

“Mon plaisir, Monsieur Dupont.” Lettice replies.

 

“And in answer to your question, Marcel, my future sister-in-law is probably here more for business than pleasure, unlike Nettie and I.” Clemance adds to the conversation as she holds aloft her half-drunk flute of sparkling champagne, which glints in the sunshine. “For whom it is strictly a visit for pleasure.”

 

“Ahh.” Monsieur Dupont remarks with interest. “How so, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?”

 

“Well Monsieur Dupont, I’m visiting Paris so that I can attend the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. My fiancée is escorting me.”

 

“Nettie was looking for an excuse to visit Paris and catch up with old friends.” Clemance adds with a chuckle, using her pet name for her brother, indicating with her glass to Sir John, who sits on the other side of the red and white gingham picnic rug covered in the delicious repast organised by Clemance, surrounded by a few other picnickers, chatting rather intently with a lowered head with a heavily made up peroxided blonde woman in a fashionable fuchsia coloured afternoon frock.

 

“So I see,” Madame Dupont remarks a little dourly as her striking emerald green eyes follow Clemance’s gesture. Her nose crumples almost imperceptibly with distaste as Sir John and the blonde woman laugh at a shared confidence whispered into her ear by him.

 

Lettice’s pretty face clouds just a little as she observes the familiarity that seems to exist between her fiancée and the blonde woman to whom she has yet to be introduced, who arrived late to the picnic with a small coterie of loud and colourful friends who twitter around them like exotic birds. The way the pair’s heads are lowered towards one another, and the closeness of their shoulders seems to imply to Lettice that whoever the blonde woman is, she has been intimate with Sir John. Closing her eyes and quickly shaking her head as if ridding herself of an irritating insect, she tries to dismiss the idea from her mind. Yes, Sir John did come to Paris to meet up with old friends, including a long-standing acquaintance and old flame of his, Cinégraphic****** silent film actress Madeline Flanton, but surely this blonde woman wasn’t her! Sir John promised Lettice that he would never do anything to make her ashamed of him, in public at least. Paris might be freer than London was in relation to propriety and social mores, but surely even he wouldn’t flirt with an old flame like Mademoiselle Flanton in front Lettice in such a public way, would he? Of course not! She shakes her head again to rid herself of the idea. Not every woman Sir John knows is a former lover of his: take Sylvia Fordyce for example. Their relationship, whilst long standing and very close, is strictly platonic.

 

“I’m only here as a chaperone for Lettice.” Clemance goes on blissfully unaware of Madame Dupont’s disapproval of Sir John’s behaviour, breaking Lettice’s train of thought about him and the blonde woman. “But it also gave me an excuse to return to Paris and see you and some of my other friends.” She smiles beatifically at the Duponts. “I miss you all so.”

 

“Then you shouldn’t have left us, cher Clemance!” Mrs Dupont scolds Clemance good naturedly. “You can always come back you know.”

 

“Oh, I know Léonie.” Clemance remarks. “But it’s impossible.” She shakes her head. “After Harrison…” Her voice trails off as she mentions her dead husband and she gulps to gather her composure as unshed tears well in her eyes. “I have lost so much, here in Paris.” She blinks back the tears as she stares meaningfully at Madame Dupont. “No, it’s better if I am in London with Nettie nearby,” She turns to Lettice and smiles bravely. “And my dear Lettice of course.”

 

Lettice knows that Clemance lost her only child, a daughter, Élodie, to diphtheria when she was just twelve years old, but she cannot let on that Sir John has shared this deepest of confidences with her. So, she knows that Clemance has lost not only her husband, but her daughter in Paris, making the city of light and love a very dark place for her future sister-in-law.

 

“Of course, Clemance,” Lettice agrees. “And you will always be welcome to stay with John and I whenever you want. You have a home with us, wherever we are.”

 

“Thank you, Lettice my dear.” Clemance says with a grateful smile, reaching out her left hand and squeezing Lettice’s right forearm comfortingly.

 

“Ahh…” Madame Dupont taps her nose knowingly. “As the future Lady Nettleford-Hughes, you will become the mistress of Rippon Court.” She refers to the old castle built on Sir John’s vast family estate in Bedfordshire.

 

“Oh, I don’t think John and I plan on making Rippon Court our country seat, Madame Dupont.” Lettice responds. “He didn’t seem at all keen on the idea when I couched it.”

 

“Well, that’s hardly surprising.” Clemance adds in a strangulated tone as her face pales.

 

“Why not, mon cher Clemance?” Monsieur Dupont queries before slipping half a water cracker lavished in creamy and rich duck pâté into his mouth.”

 

“Surely it is only right that Sir John and Mademoiselle Chetwynd take up residence in the family estate once they are married, Clemance.” Madame Dupont adds.

 

“Rippon Court does not hold fond memories for either Nettie or myself.” Clemance snaps in an unusual pique of irritation, bristling all over.

 

“I was born in Wiltshire, on my parent’s estate, Glynes.” Lettice quickly adds in an effort to deflect questions away from her future sister-in-law, who is obviously suffering discomfort at the mention of the home she and Sir John grew up in. “Glynes is quite close to Fontengil Park, John’s Wiltshire estate. I’ve never been to Rippon Court before, but John tells me that even though Fontengil Park is smaller, it is more suitable for us. More comfortable. Heating old houses is so expensive nowadays, never mind a castle.”

 

“John and I will have to take you to Rippon Court before you get married, Lettice my dear.” Clemance says with less brittleness in her voice. “Even if you don’t live there, as county gentry, you’ll be expected to participate in events around the local hunt. Unlike our parents, Nettie and I have never enjoyed foxhunting, but the old Nettleford Hunt is as much part a part of the county social calendar as Bonfire Night*******, Christmas, New Year and Twelfth Night********.”

 

“Your brother is très curieux, mon cher Clemance!” Madame Dupont laughs as she reaches daintily for a golden pâté en croûte*********. “How can le gentilhomme Anglaise not like to hunt? It is in your blood, non?” She takes a bite, showing her napkin covered lap in pastry crumbs.

 

“My father would have agreed with you, Léonie.” Clemance replies. “Nettie and I used to say that our parents were born on horses. Father was always a fine rider, a mad keen steeplechaser********** and bloodthirsty hunter.’ She shudders. “Mother was too. They couldn’t understand why Nettie didn’t enjoy, nor have the aptitude for, the outdoor sports they embraced with such gusto. Nettie was a bookworm***********, like me, and we’d bribe our governesses when we were children with promises of good behaviour and no procrastination at bedtime to lie to our parents and say they hadn’t seen us when they came looking for either Nettie or both of us to join in the hunt.” She giggles rather girlishly. “He and I used to hide in one of Rippon Court’s towers where we kept a small library of our favourite books to amuse ourselves for an afternoon of hiding from our parents.” She pauses for a moment and sips some of her champagne. “I wonder if our childhood books are still up there, gathering dust and shrouded in cobwebs?” she ponders. “Lettice my dear!”

 

“Hhhmmm….” Lettice says distractedly.

 

“Lettice, Nettie and I must show you the book tower when we visit Rippon Court in the New Year for the Nettleford Hunt.” Lettice doesn’t reply as her attention is caught by something out of the corner of her eye. Clemance doesn’t notice and continues, focussing upon her friends the Duponts. “However, luckily being the master of foxhounds************ is only a ceremonial role, and Nettie is not forced to mount a horse and take part in the hunt itself. Lettice of course, is a skilled horsewoman, but her role, at least on this first visit to the Nettleford Hunt will be ceremonial too. As the future Lady Nettleford-Hughes, she’ll be restricted to handing out the winners’ trophies.”

 

Clemance’s chattery voice dulls and morphs into a distant undistinguishable burble in her ears as Lettice’s attention is drawn back to her fiancée sitting on the other side of the picnic blanket. She notices a subtle movement on the fabric of the rug close to a plate of finely cut triangle sandwiches garnished with tomato and cucumber. It’s Sir John’s finger and that of the unknown blonde woman. They are discreetly playing with one another teasingly before entwining their little fingers tightly together, hidden from the view of those in front of them by Sir John’s back. A sparkling peridot in a gold ring on the woman’s finger twinkles whilst the sheen of Sir John’s Georgian gold and carnelian************* signet ring*************, bearing the Nettleford-Hughes crest glares in the sunlight, shining in Lettice’s eyes, causing her to blink and look down.

 

“Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Monsieur Dupont queries.

 

“What?” Lettice asks in a distracted fashion, her attention drawn back to the conversation happing on her side of the picnic, between Clemance and the Duponts.

 

“You never fully answered my question, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Monsieur Dupont explains.

 

“Err… what question was that, Monsieur Dupont?”

 

“You never told me why you are visiting the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Mademoiselle. Business or pleasure?”

 

“Well, it’s for business really,” Lettice manages to say with a slightly strangulated voice. “Although I can’t deny that there is a mix of pleasure to be found amidst the business.” She glances back to Sir John and the blonde woman’s entwined fingers, but find that they are no longer interlocked. She quickly returns her attention to Monsieur Dupont’s expectant face. “Thanks to Clemance’s generosity at organising this lovely picnic for us, and introducing me to her old and beloved Parisian friends. She speaks of you both so fondly.”

 

“Pardon moi, but I wouldn’t call that lovely!” Madame Dupont says in disgust, waving an accusing finger at the picnic.

 

For a brief moment, Lettice thinks that Clemance’s guest has seen the intertwined fingers of Sir John and the blonde woman, and she blushes red with embarrassment at the thought. Then she notices that Madame Dupont is actually pointing at a round container sitting on the red and white chequered rug, marked ‘U-Like-It Savoury Cheese’**************, featuring two cherub cheeked children in the label. It houses some individually wrapped triangles of cheese, each one’s tin foil*************** affixed with a different brightly coloured label.

 

“Oh that’s just for Nettie!” Clemance laughs with a sweep of her hand over the container of cheese before taking another sip of her champagne.

 

“Is our cheese not good enough for your frère, ma chere?” Monsieur Dupont asks, a little offended as he raises his hand to his chest, as if wounded by Clemance’s declaration.

 

“Not at all, Marcel!” Clemance assures him quickly. “When he inherited the family title, land and estates, amongst them he inherited a sheep station in Australia, called Rippon Station.”

 

“A railway station?” Monsieur Dupont asks in surprise.

 

“Built just for sheep transportation?” Madame Dupont adds in confusion.

 

“How très peculiar Antipodeans*************** are.” Monsieur Dupont declares as he takes up another cracker lavished with pâté and bites into it.

 

“No, no, Léonie and Marcel!” Clemance explains with a smirk, used to the confusion stirred within her Parisian friends, just as she and her brother had once been confused by some uniquely Australian vernacular. “A station in Australia can mean a railway station as we know it to mean. However, it can also be a name for large swathes of pastural land, like a very large farm.” She chuckles. “I know, it’s a strange term. Nettie and I were just as confused then, as you are now.” She looks at the perplexed looks on her friends’ faces. “Both Nettie and I sailed to Australia after our father died. It took six weeks to get there alone! I think Harrison despaired that I would ever return to Paris. The station, the large farm, is in Victoria. It is looked after by a very competent manager who grazes and breeds cattle for us on the property, and they produce cheddar cheese there. The Australians call it ‘tasty cheese’ rather than cheddar, but call it what you like, it equates to much the same thing. During our stay there, Nettie developed a taste for this uniquely Australian ‘tasty cheese’, pardon my pun. Now when his station sends crates of cheese from Rippon Station to London by refrigerated vessel****************, Nettie always has a few tins of our cheese marketed under the U-Like-It brand sent up to Belgravia for his pleasure. I had this shipped to our hotel in Paris from the London docks a few days ago, once I had settled on the fact that I was going to host this picnic luncheon whilst we were visiting.”

 

The pair of Parisians nod in slightly less confusion.

 

“You still haven’t answered my question, Mademoiselle Chetwynd,” Monsieur Dupont persists.

 

“Oh, that’s because I have been chatting away nineteen to the dozen*****************!” Clemance apologises with an embarrassed gasp. “Please, dear Lettice, tell Marcel why you’re visiting the exposition.”

 

“Well, as I said, I’ve come to view the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Monsieur Dupont.” Lettice says again, politely, trying to focus on his inquisitive middle-aged face, and not be tempted to take her eyes off him and stray back to Sir John and the blonde woman, thus drawing attention to their flirtatious behaviour. “I’m an interior designer in London, you see, and I am an exponent of the modernist and uncluttered Art Deco aesthetic.”

 

“Ahh!” Monsieur Dupont murmurs with interest. “Yes, we are very proud of all that France has on show at the exposition! It’s a symbol of national pride to show the world what the height of fashion is.” he adds proudly. “France, and Paris in particular, has always set the trends for fashion and design.”

 

“Now that Lettice has finished her commission for our friend Sylvia Fordyce,” Clemance pauses. “You remember Nettie’s and my friend the concert pianist who performed at the Casino de Paris******************?”

 

“Oui! Oui!” the Duponts reply enthusiastically.

 

“Well, Lettice is moving on to her next project: a series of rooms for a British politician and his wife in the heart of London.”

 

“Is that so, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Monsieur Deupont asks.

 

“Yes,” Lettice replies, blushing at the Frenchman’s intense interest. “Mrs. Hatchett wants me to decorate a series of formal rooms in her new London home, in which to entertain their friends.”

 

“Lettice’s star is on the rise as a society interior designer in London,” Clemance enthuses. “Everyone wants her to design for them. She hopes to beat the small vanguard of this new modern style emerging in London and be a leader in the promotion of the style. Err…” she stumbles. “What did you call it again, Lettice my dear?”

 

“Style Moderne*******************.” Lettice replies rather distractedly as once again her attention returns to Sir John and the blonde woman.

 

The blonde woman laughs overly loudly at something Sir John says and places a hand predatorily upon his upper arm in a most unnervingly familiar way, which only helps to confirm for Lettice that whomever she is, this woman has been her fiancée’s lover in the past, and seems to have easily wound him up in her thrall yet again in the short period of time since she and her coterie of friends arrived to join Clemance’s picnic. She peers more closely at her heavily rouged cheeks with their defined bones and her exotic eyes, made even more so by the dark kohl******************** rimming them. She is not as youthful as Sir John’s current conquest in London, the West End actress Paula Young – more middle aged than twenty something - but as Lettice observes her hand lightly caressing Sir John’s tweed jacketed shoulder with her elegant fingers with their pink painted nails, she perceives that this woman shares the same steely determination as Paula, and whilst she appears on the surface to be jovial and gay in a free and natural way, there is a glibness behind it all that suggests to Lettice that she is a woman who has had to fight for everything she now has, and she knows how to enchant Sir John with her coquettish charms, in spite of her age.

 

“I perceive that you and I may have a fruitful friendship, Mademoiselle Chetwynd,” Monsieur Dupont remarks. “If you intend to pursue your career in interior design.”

 

“Oh, Nettie is very supportive of Lettice furthering her pursuits as an interior designer, Marcel.” Clemance replies.

 

“Indeed, how very forward thinking of him.” Monsieur Dupont opines.

 

“I think it is the businessman in him, Marcel. They say that like is drawn to like, and Nettie saw the determination in Lettice that he has for being successful in business. Isn’t that so, Lettice my dear?”

 

Drawn back to the conversation, Lettice replies with an apology, “I’m afraid I was distracted, Clemance my dear. What did you say?”

 

“I was just telling Marcel that Nettie is very supportive of your career as an interior designer, my dear.”

 

“Oh indeed he is, Monsieur Dupont. He wants me to continue with my interior design business even after I become Lady Nettleford-Hughes.”

 

“Then I really do believe that you and I will have a very fruitful relationship, mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Monsieur Dupont reiterates.

 

“Oh no, mon cheri!” Madame Dupont implores. “No business talk today, please! We are here to have fun and see Clemance and Jean, and meet Mademoiselle Chetwynd!”

 

“Business?” Lettice queries.

 

“My husband is a fabricant de textiles… a fabric manufacturer who specialises in tissue d’ameublement.” Madame Dupont elucidates.

 

“A furnishing fabric manufacturer, Monsieur Dupont?”

 

“Indeed, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” The Frenchman replies proudly. “You will even see some of my fabrics on display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes when you visit it.”

 

“S'il vous plaît, ne parlez pas de travail, Marcel!” Madame Dupont implores her husband. “Let us just have fun today. Please! No work!”

 

“Oui! Oui Léonie!” he acquiesces. He then notices Clemance’s empty glass. “More champagne, mon cher Clemance?” he asks.

 

“How free you are with my champagne, mon cher Marcel!” Clemance giggles. “Please!” She holds out her glass.

 

“Très certainement!” he replies laughing as he withdraws the bottle from its silver cooler.

 

As Monsieur Dupont tends to Clemance’s and his wife’s glasses, Lettice cannot help but allow her attentions to return to the mysterious blonde woman sitting next to her fiancée on the grass. Solicitous towards her, she happily accepts anything Sir John offers her with a gracious elegance, yet it seems to be all artifice as she smiles a broad painted smile at him, and lowers her lids coquettishly as he refills her flute with champagne from another bottle.

 

“I see that you are taken by our ravissante cinéma chantuse*********************.” Monsieur Dupont’s voice breaks Lettice’s silent observation.

 

“Oh!” Lettice gasps, her hands rising to her cheeks as she feels the heat of embarrassment flush her face at being caught looking so overtly at the blonde woman. “I’m sorry, Monsieur Dupont. How frightfully rude of me.” she apologises to the Frenchman.

 

“Not at all, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” he assures her with a shake of his head and a gentle smile. “Who could blame the moth for being drawn to the flame? More champagne?” He doesn’t wait for a reply, but immediately begins refilling Lettice’s three-quarter empty flute.

 

“Who is she, Monsieur Dupont?” Lettice asks. “You obviously know her.”

 

“Of course, Mademosielle! Like any red-blooded Frenchman, I know of her.” He cocks his head, looking thoughtfully at Lettice. “But you evidently, do not?”

 

Lettice looks at Monsieur Dupont and shakes her head.

 

“That, is Madeline Flanton, the famous French film star. She has been smouldering across our cinéma screens, and working her way into our hearts, since before the war.”

 

Lettice feels the blood drain from her face just as easily as it was flushed moments ago, as her worst fears, the concern that has been curdling her stomach ever since she noticed the familiarity between her and Sir John, is brought to fruition. Lettice’s mind is suddenly filled with the memory of the conversation she and Sir John had at the Savoy********************** when she first mentioned that she wanted to visit the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. His counter proposal involved him attending the exhibition with Lettice in the mornings, before slipping away discreetly and meeting up with his old flame, Madeline Flanton in the afternoon. Determined not to lose face over this suggestion, Lettice suggested that perhaps she could meet Mademoiselle Flanton as well. Rather than balk at the idea, as she had in her heart-of-hearts hoped he might, Sir John warmed quickly to Lettice’s idea, suggesting that if they both went to Mademoiselle Flanton’s apartment for cocktails, the Parisian media wouldn’t question Sir John visiting her, and any whiff of scandal would thus be avoided. He suggested that after a few polite social cocktails with Mademoiselle Flanton, she and Sir John could escort Lettice out via the back entrance to her apartment into a waiting taxi to return her to the hotel that she, Sir John and Clemance have arranged to stay at, leaving Sir John to spend the rest of the night with Mademoiselle Flanton.

 

Lettice lifts her refilled glass of champagne to her lips and takes a gulp of champagne, rather than her usual ladylike sip. However, rather than tasting refreshing and sweet, the effervescent golden liquid tangs of bitterness, as it roils in the pit of her stomach. And suddenly, everything she was enjoying about Clemance’s picnic in the Tuileries Garden – the delicious spread of food, the warm autumnal sunshine, the birdsong, the pleasant chatter of her companions – all seems suddenly spoilt, and when Mademoiselle Flanton laughs again at something Sir John has said, and she places a hand on his upper arm again, the sound of her guffaws appear harsh, strident and forced.

 

*International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was a specialized exhibition held in Paris, from April the 29th (the day after it was inaugurated in a private ceremony by the President of France) to October the 25th, 1925. It was designed by the French government to highlight the new modern style of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewellery and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. Many ideas of the international avant-garde in the fields of architecture and applied arts were presented for the first time at the exposition. The event took place between the esplanade of Les Invalides and the entrances of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and on both banks of the Seine. There were fifteen thousand exhibitors from twenty different countries, and it was visited by sixteen million people during its seven-month run. The modern style presented at the exposition later became known as “Art Deco”, after the exposition's name.

 

**Queen Anne’s Gate is a street in Westminster, London. Many of the buildings are Grade I listed, known for their Queen Anne architecture. Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner described the Gate’s early Eighteenth Century houses as “the best of their kind in London.” The street’s proximity to the Palace of Westminster made it a popular residential area for politicians.

 

***The London constituency of Tower Hamlets includes such areas and historic towns as (roughly from west to east) Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Wapping, Shadwell, Mile End, Stepney, Limehouse, Old Ford, Bow, Bromley, Poplar, and the Isle of Dogs (with Millwall, the West India Docks, and Cubitt Town), making it a majority working class constituency in 1925 when this story is set. Tower Hamlets included some of the worst slums and societal issues of inequality and poverty in England at that time.

 

****"Style Moderne," often used interchangeably with "Streamline Moderne" or "Art Moderne," is a design style that emerged in the 1930s, characterized by aerodynamic forms, horizontal lines, and smooth, rounded surfaces, often inspired by transportation and industrial design. It represents a streamlined, less ornate version of Art Deco, emphasizing functionality and sleekness. It was first shown at the Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925.

 

****The Tuileries Garden is a public garden between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the first arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. Since the Nineteenth Century, it has been a place for Parisians to celebrate, meet, stroll and relax.

 

*****A petit handlebar moustache is a smaller version of the classic handlebar moustache. It features the same upward-curling ends, but the overall length is shorter, with the ends typically stopping just before the cheeks.

 

******Cinégraphic was a French film production company founded by director Marcel L'Herbier in the 1920s. It was established following a disagreement between L'Herbier and the Gaumont Company, a major film distributor, over the film "Don Juan et Faust". Cinégraphic was involved in the production of several films, including "Don Juan et Faust" itself. Cinégraphic focused on more experimental and artistic films.

 

*******Guy Fawkes Day, also called Bonfire Night, British observance, celebrated on November the fifth, commemorating the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Guy Fawkes and his group members acted in protest to the continued persecution of the English Catholics. Today Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with parades, fireworks, bonfires, and food. Straw effigies of Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire, as are—in more recent years in some places—those of contemporary political figures. Traditionally, children carried these effigies, called “Guys,” through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and asked passersby for “a penny for the guy,” often reciting rhymes associated with the occasion, the best known of which dates from the Eighteenth Century.

 

********Dating back to the fourth century, many Christians have observed the Twelfth Night — the evening before the Epiphany — as the ideal time to take down the Christmas tree and festive decorations. Traditionally, the Twelfth Night marks the end of the Christmas season, but there's reportedly some debate among Christian groups about which date is correct. By custom, the Twelfth Night falls on either January 5 or January 6, depending on whether you count Christmas Day as the first day. The Epiphany, also known as Three Kings' Day, commemorates the visit of the three wise men to baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

 

*********In French, a pasty is known as "pâté en croûte". Whilst "pasty" can also be translated as "friand" or "tourte" depending on the specific context, if referring to the Cornish pasty, it can be described as a "petit pâté en croûte à la viande et aux pommes de terre".

 

**********A steeplechase is a long-distance race involving both galloping and jumping over obstacles, primarily fences and water jumps. In horse racing, steeplechases involve horses jumping over various obstacles like fences and ditches.

 

***********The term "bookworm" was first used in the mid-1500s, specifically in 1549 in a translation by Thomas Chaloner, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Initially, it referred to the actual insects that would bore into books. Later, around 1580, the term began to be used metaphorically to describe people who spent excessive amounts of time reading, often with a somewhat negative connotation.

 

************A master of the foxhounds is a ceremonial position in foxhunting. The master of foxhounds is the person responsible for the conduct of a fox hunt and to whom all members of the hunt and its staff are responsible.

 

*************Carnelian is a semi-precious gemstone, specifically a reddish-orange variety of chalcedony, a type of quartz. It is known for its vibrant colors, ranging from pale orange to deep reddish-brown, and is often used in jewelry and decorative art. Carnelian has been valued for centuries for its beauty and is also believed to possess various metaphysical and healing properties.

 

**************A signet ring is a type of ring, traditionally with a flat face, that is often engraved with a family crest, initials, or other symbolic design. Historically, these rings were used to seal documents by pressing the engraved face into hot wax, effectively acting as a personal signature. Signet rings have been a symbol of status, family heritage, and personal identity for centuries.

 

***************"U-Like-It" was a brand of cheese made in Australia, marketed to the rest of the world. It contained a variety of cheddars, marketed as "tasty cheese" in Australia. The term "tasty cheese" itself is commonly used in Australia to describe a medium-aged cheddar, and the "U-Like-It" brand was part of this category. The brand is now known as Cheer, and the "U-Like-It" brand was discontinued after the Second World War.

 

**************Tin foil, made from thin sheets of tin, was first commercially produced and used in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. While the term "tin foil" is still used today, it now often refers to "aluminium foil", which replaced tin foil due to its superior properties and lower cost.

 

***************The term Antipodean is used when referring to people or items relating to, or originating from places on the opposite side of the globe, especially Australia and New Zealand.

 

****************Refrigeration on ships began with experimental shipments of chilled and frozen meat in the 1870s, with the first successful voyage occurring in 1878. The Paraguay arrived at Le Havre with five and half thousand frozen carcasses, proving the concept of refrigerated shipping. This was followed by the Strathleven's successful voyage from Australia to London in 1879-1880. The Dunedin's voyage in 1882, carrying a full cargo of refrigerated meat from New Zealand to England, further solidified the viability of refrigerated shipping. By 1900 a worldwide survey indicated 356 refrigerated ships in operation, carrying a variety of cargo. By the mid 1920s, when this story is set, refrigeration on ocean bearing vessels was quite common and reliable, thus making produce from the far-flung corners of the British Empire able to be brought to the heart of Empire in London.

 

*****************We are all familiar with the phrase “ten to the dozen’” which means someone who talks fast. However, the original expression is actually “nineteen to the dozen”. Why nineteen, you ask? Many sources say we simply don’t know, but there are other sources that claim it goes back to the Cornish tin and copper mines, which regularly flooded. With advancements in steam technology, the hand pumps they used to pump out this water were replaced by beam engines that could pump 19,000 gallons of water out for every twelve bushels of coal burned (much more efficient than the hand pumps!)

 

******************The Casino de Paris, located at 16, Rue de Clichy, in the 9th arrondissement, is one of the best known music halls of Paris, with a history dating back to the Eighteenth Century. Contrary to what the name might suggest, it is a performance venue, and not a gambling house. The first building at this location where shows could be mounted was erected by the Duc de Richelieu around 1730, while after the French Revolution the site was renamed Jardin de Tivoli and was the venue for fireworks displays. In 1880 it became the Palace Theatre, which housed shows of different types, including wrestling. It was at the beginning of the First World War, however, that the modern Casino de Paris began to take shape, when the venue was converted into a cinema and music hall. After the bombardments of the First World War caused performances to be interrupted, the revue format was resumed, one which lasted through a good part of the Twentieth Century.

 

*******************"Style Moderne," often used interchangeably with "Streamline Moderne" or "Art Moderne," is a design style that emerged in the 1930s, characterized by aerodynamic forms, horizontal lines, and smooth, rounded surfaces, often inspired by transportation and industrial design. It represents a streamlined, less ornate version of Art Deco, emphasizing functionality and sleekness. It was first shown at the Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925.

 

********************Kohl is a cosmetic product, specifically an eyeliner, traditionally made from crushed stibnite (antimony sulfide). Modern formulations often include galena (lead sulfide) or other pigments like charcoal. Kohl is known for its ability to darken the edges of the eyelids, creating a striking, eye-enhancing effect. Kohl has a long history, with ancient Egyptians using it to define their eyes and protect them from the sun and dust, however there was a resurgence in its use in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s, kohl eyeliner was a popular makeup trend, particularly among women embracing the "flapper" aesthetic. It was used to create a dramatic, "smoky eye" look by smudging it onto the lash line and even the inner and outer corners of the eyes. This contrasted with the more demure, natural looks favoured in the pre-war era.

 

*********************Whilst the chanteuse became a stock character in the film noir genre — a woman singing sultry songs in a smoky nightclub or cabaret — the word simply means "female singer" in French.

 

**********************The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by Carte's family for over a century. The Savoy was the first hotel in Britain to introduce electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the lavishly furnished rooms, constant hot and cold running water and many other innovations. Carte hired César Ritz as manager and Auguste Escoffier as chef de cuisine; they established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel service, entertainment and elegant dining, attracting royalty and other rich and powerful guests and diners. The hotel became Carte's most successful venture. Its bands, Savoy Orpheans and the Savoy Havana Band, became famous. Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel. The hotel is now managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It has been called "London's most famous hotel". It has two hundred and sixty seven guest rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Thames Embankment. The hotel is a Grade II listed building.

 

Beautiful as it may be, this decadent and delicious looking picnic on the lawns may not be all it seems, for it is in fact made up of miniatures from my 1:12 miniatures collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The silver tray of biscuits and crackers in the foreground has been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. She also made the silver tray of pâté en croute, the basket of bread, the porcelain tray of tomato and cucumber sandwiches in the background, the footed glass bowl of trifle and the glass dish containing butter. She also made the U-Like-It tin of cheeses. Each wedge of cheese is carefully wrapped up in foil and stuck with a label, just like the real u-like-it cheeses were presented when they were manufactured! Frances Knight’s work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination.

 

The dressed lobster and the cutlery came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering, as did the cutlery and the gilt edged porcelain plates. The champagne flutes also came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures. Each is made from real, finely spun glass.

 

The bottle of champagne is a 1:12 size artisan miniature made of glass by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, as are the other bottles you see. The champagne bottle has real foil wrapped around its neck, and all are hand made from glass. Each bottle features the label from a real winery in France or Germany.

 

The silver wine cellar in which the champagne bottle sits is made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The second wine cellar in the background and the silver water jug are miniature artisan pieces that I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom.

 

The two large wicker picnic baskets were made by unknown miniature artisans in America. The floral patterns on the top of the one with handles have been hand painted. The hinged lids lift, just like a real hamper, so things can be put inside. It came with some miniature handmade placemats and napkins inside including the yellow napkins sitting in the bottom right-hand corner of the photograph.

 

The picnic blanket being used is in reality a corner of one of my gingham shirts, which my partner derisively calls my “picnic blanket shirt”. The grass in the background is real, as this scene was photographed on my front lawn during the height of summer, on a partially sunny day.

Some wonderful and generous person here on Flickr learned that I intended to leave the Flickr community and they gifted me a Pro Account.

 

I can not express how very grateful I am to that person and want to thank them so very much.

 

However, given that it is Flickr there seems to be a problem in getting the Gift Pro account activated.

 

When I try to activate it all I keep getting is an error message that says " An Error Has Occurred, Please Try Again." and when I try again and again and again I still only get the error message.

 

It seems that Flickr is stuck on the " An Error Has Occurred, Please Try Again." message.

 

Hopefully this glitch gets resolved soon, I will try to activate the Gift Pro Account again tomorrow.

The darkness gives the space to light. It let's the light glow. If it was a devilishly bad thing, there could never be any light. The darkness is the most generous of all, if you think like me ;)

“To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy”

Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Essayist, Poet and Author of fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

 

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Winston Churchill

  

Letter generously translated by xiphophilos; penned in Wettstetten on the 12th of October 1914 and addressed to Herr Georg Fritsch in Otzing Bavaria. Postage cancelled in Wettstetten the same day.

 

He writes: "There are 23 of us and 1090 Frenchmen. But they don't do anything, they are also very afraid of Bavarians."

 

French prisoners of war including a Chasseur Alpin and two Hussars sit at the feet of their Bavarian captors, just a couple of months after the commencement of la « Grande Guerre ».

Private Language / Singular Beauty

 

Vitoria F.

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.

 

Today we are in the kitchen of Lettice’s flat: Edith, her maid’s, preserve, where Frank Leadbetter, the young grocery delivery boy and sometimes window dresser of Mr. Willison’s Grocery in Binney Street, Mayfair, has just finished unpacking Edith’s latest grocery order for the household. Edith has been stepping out with Frank for a while now, and now that they are committed to one another, they hope to make it official soon by announcing their engagement to Edith’s parents and Frank’s grandmother, Mrs. McTavish.

 

“Do you have time to stop for tea, Frank?” Edith asks cheerfully as she places a can of tinned peaches onto a lower shelf of the kitchen dresser.

 

“If we make it a quick one, yes.” Frank agrees tentatively. “I still have to make a delivery to Lady Hackney’s cook all the way up along Upper Brook Street*, and finally a drop off some groceries to Hilda at the Channon’s in Hill Street.”

 

“Well luckily the pot’s not long been filled,” Edith replies, patting the top of the white china teapot sitting on the table, covered with a tea cosy knitted in yellow, blue, purple and cream by her mother, Ada. “Sit of a spell.” She smiles indicating to a chair drawn up to the table. “We need to give you a bit of strength for you to cycle all the way down Upper Brook Street.”

 

“Thanks Edith,” Frank sighs gratefully as he slips into the worn seat of the Windsor chair at the top of Edith’s deal pine kitchen table. “I wish Lady Hackney’s cook was as hospitable as you.”

 

“A bit of tartar**, is she?” Edith asks as she withdraws a Delftware cup and saucer from the kitchen dresser and puts it on the table next to hers.

 

“Is she ever! She barks orders and looks down her nose at me.” Frank opines. “As if she’s any better than me.”

 

“Of course she isn’t, Frank.” Edith assures her beau soothingly as she takes a seat in her usual Windsor chair adjunct to Frank’s. “She’s just like me.” She pauses. “Shall I be mother then***?”

 

“Yes please Edith!” Frank replies eagerly as he picks up the Delftware jug and sloshes some milk into his teacup**** before adding a dash to Edith’s as well. Edith picks up the pot and pours tea for Frank into his cup before then filling her own. “And you’re nothing like Lady Hackney’s cook.”

 

“No, Frank!” Edith giggles, returning the pot to the table. “I only meant that she’s a servant, just like me, or even you for that matter. It doesn’t matter who she works for. She could even work for Their Majesties, and she’d still be a servant.”

 

“Oh!” Frank adds two spoonfuls of sugar to his tea and stirs it before handing the sugar bowl and teaspoon to his sweetheart who accepts them from him.

 

Frank looks at the surface of the table. Across it are spread several colourful, glossy film magazines including Picturegoer***** and Photoplay****** alongside a copy of the Daily Mail.

 

“I see you’re keeping busy.” Frank notes with an air of sarcasm as he picks up a copy of Photo Play Magazine******* featuring a rather striking coloured portrait of motion picture star Norma Shearer******** painted by Earl Christy*********. In the portrait she gazes up over her shoulder with kohl rimmed eyes, an image that is both striking and provocative at the same time to his mind.

 

“Oh Frank!” Edith hisses. “Can’t a poor hard-working girl have a tea break?”

 

“Only if her tea break is with her best beau.” Frank smirks cheekily.

 

“I’ll have you know, Frank Leadbetter, that I’d not long finished ironing Miss Lettice’s newspaper********** before you arrived to deliver my grocery order.”

 

Frank murmurs a muffled agreement with his sweetheart, eyeing her with a knowing look.

 

“And I was just taking a break before I settled down to decide what took Miss Lettice for diner,” Edith defends as she pats two small cookbooks perched on the edge of the table to her left. “Since she is dining in tonight.”

 

Frank nods but continues to eye her knowingly.

 

“Oh, you are awful, Frank!” Edith sighs in exasperation.

 

“I don’t mind what you do in your spare time.” Frank says, smiling a little more broadly as he speaks. “I just hope Miss Lettice doesn’t catch you enjoying these magazines on her time.”

 

“No fear.” Edith chuckles. “I think after five years, I have finally cured her of barging into my kitchen unannounced like she was used to doing when I first came here. All the same though,” she adds a little self-righteously. “I think I do have the right to stop for a tea break during the morning, and I don’t think Miss Lettice would bemoan me for that. I have been up since six after all.”

 

“I’m sure she wouldn’t. You don’t have to prove anything to me.” Frank agrees, chuckling to himself as he takes a sip of his tea.

 

“What?” Edith asks, glaring at Frank. “What’s so funny?”

 

“You are Edith.” Frank admits. “I do love it when I can rile you up just a little. You are even prettier when you are being self-defensive.”

 

Edith sits back in her seat, looking appalled. “I have a right mind to throw this tea all over you, Frank Leadbetter!” she mutters.

 

“What, and ruin all your precious moving picture magazines in the process?” Frank exclaims. “I don’t think so!”

 

Edith looks anxiously at her magazines on the table. “Well, perhaps I’ll move them first. Then I’ll fling this tea on you.”

 

“Well, I like that!” Frank retorts with a snort and a good-natured guffaw. “My best girl prefers her magazines over me!”

 

“That will teach you for riling me up, Frank Leadbetter!” Edith says with a smirk, unable to hold the pretence of appearing to be angry with her sweetheart any longer.

 

The pair settle back comfortably in their seats, laughing happily together as they sip their tea and look at one another with love and affection.

 

“Frank,” Edith ask tentatively. “Do you think I should have my hair bobbed?” She pats the side of her wavy blonde hair, which is fastened in a chignon at the back of her neck.

 

“What?” Frank gasps, choking on his mouthful of tea as he does. Coughing, he quickly covers his mouth with his hand to make sure he doesn’t splutter on Edith’s magazines.

 

“Let me get you some water, Frank!” Edith exclaims, as she goes to get up from her seat.

 

“No. No!” Frank manages to answer her, pushing his right arm out across Edith’s waist to bar her from getting up. “I’ll… be fine.” After a few more coughs he manages to ask hoarsely, “Why on earth do you want to get your hair bobbed, Edith?” He reaches out his right hand again but this time he places it with a gentle and loving touch upon her tresses draped partially across her ear. “It’s so soft and lovely as it is.”

 

“But don’t you think I’d look glamorous with bobbed hair, Frank?” Edith asks. She leans forward and pulls her latest copy of Photoplay from beneath the Picture Play magazine with Norma Shearer on the cover. Edith holds up the magazine next to her face. On the cover of Photoplay is a portrait of newcomer silent picture actress Louise Brooks*********** posing dramatically in a cheongsam************ holding a fan up to her cheek. “Like her! Look at how stylish it looks! So smart.”

 

“I like your hair as it is, Edith. It’s soft and beautiful, and frames your face so much more nicely than I think that sharp look would. It’s so severe, and you aren’t severe, Edith.”

 

“But all the girls are doing it now.” Edith mewls.

 

“But you aren’t just any girl, Edith.” Frank replies, now moving his hand to her left cheek, where he caresses her soft skin gently. “You’re my best girl, and I like you the way you are.”

 

“But it would be so much easier to manage.” Edith adds.

 

Frank looks at her with gentle, sparkling eyes. “We’ve had this conversation before. Please, don’t bob your hair.”

 

Edith sighs deeply and places the magazine down on the table again. “Alright Frank. I won’t.”

 

“That’s my best girl.” Frank purrs. “Thank you.”

 

The pair fall into companionable silence for a short while as they both finish their cups of tea.

 

Sighing with pleasure as he finishes his drink, Frank returns the cup to its saucer and stands. “Well, I’d better be getting along on my way. Heaven forbid, that I should be late in delivering Lady Hackney’s cook’s tin of Tate and Lyall’s************* golden syrup.”

 

“Is that all you are delivering to her?” Edith asks in shock.

 

“Just that.” Frank confirms.

 

“That’s just awful, Frank!” Edith replies hotly. “Surely she could have sent her kitchen maid or one of Lady Hackney’s tweenies, maids or footmen to get it for her! What a cheek!”

 

“Such is the plight of a lowly and humble grocer’s boy.” Frank opines with a sigh and a fall of his shoulders.

 

“There’[s nothing lowly about you, Frank!”

 

“Thank you, Edith.” Frank smiles back gratefully.

 

“Fancy you having to bicycle all the way along Upper Brook Street, just to deliver a single tin of golden syrup! That cook sounds as bad as Mrs. Clifford’s maid, Myra, downstairs: a toffee-nosed snob, and that’s a fact!”

 

“You’re beautiful when you’re fired up too, Edith Watsford.” Frank murmurs lovingly. “Still,” He smiles down at her. “Toffee-nosed snob or not, Lady Hackney’s cook will be fit to be tied if I’m too much longer, and then I’ll get what for from Mr. and Mrs. Willison if word gets back to them that I was late delivering to her. The Willisons are toffee-nosed snobs every bit as much as Myra or Lady Hackney’s cook, and they are proud of every one of the titles on their books, even if most of them are tardy in paying their accounts. I wouldn’t have a job if I lost them Lady Hackney’s business.”

 

“So much for your wonderful new world for the working man.” Edith grumbles as she stands herself, and starts to gather up her magazines, shuffling them into a stack.

 

“It is coming, Edith.” Frank assures her. “And things are already changing.”

 

“How?”

 

“Well, not so long ago, you would have been in a great deal of trouble if you’d stopped for a break like this.” He waves his hand across the tea things on the table. “But now it’s a right given you.”

 

“It’s not much, Frank.”

 

“But it is something,” Frank assures Edith. “And many small concessions add up to big changes. We just have to be patient for a bit longer.”

 

“Well,” Edith huffs with determination as she enfolds her arms around her magazines as she draws them up to her chest. “Luckily I’m a patient girl.” She looks poignantly at Frank.

 

“Not much longer now, Edith.” Frank replies softly. “Thinking of which,” he adds more brightly. “What are you doing on your Wednesday afternoon off?”

 

“I haven’t really made any firm plans yet, Frank. I thought I might invite Hilda to come with me to Mrs. Minkin’s haberdashery in Whitechapel. She needs more wool for her knitting, and I want the latest copy of Weldon’s**************. I want to make a new summer frock. Why do you ask? Don’t tell me you’ve got Wednesday afternoon off too?”

 

“As a matter-of-fact, I do.” Frank crows.

 

“Oh Frank!” Edith exclaims. “I haven’t said anything to Hilda yet. Shall we make plans to do something?”

 

“I’d like that.” Frank replies brightly with a beaming smile. “In fact, I’d like to make a suggestion!”

 

“What do you want to do, Frank?”

 

“Well, I can’t really tell you, because I want it to be a surprise.”

 

“A surprise?” Edith squeezes the magazines more tightly as she gasps. “Frank, I love surprises!”

 

“Do you think you could make it to Clapham Junction by one on Wednesday, Edith?”

 

“By one?” Edith ponders. “I don’t see why not. I could catch the train from Down Street*************** to Leicester Square, and then take the Southern**************** from Waterloo. Could you meet me at Clapham Junction Railway Station*****************?”

 

“I think I could manage that.” Frank replies with a winning smile. “Wear that lovely white blouse of yours with the Peter Pan collar****************** if you would.”

 

“Oh! Are we going on a picnic to Clapham Common*******************?” Edith asks.

 

“If I told you,” Frank replies with an exasperated sigh. “It wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”

 

“I suppose not.” Edith agrees begrudgingly. “Let’s hope the weather is good, just in case it is.”

 

*The western continuation of Brook Street, Mayfair, (to Park Lane) is called Upper Brook Street; its west end faces Brook Street Gate of Hyde Park. Both sections consisted of neo-classical terraced houses, mostly built to individual designs. Some of them were very ornate, finely stuccoed and tall-ceilinged, designed by well known architects for wealthy tenants, especially near Grosvenor Square, others exposed good quality brickwork or bore fewer expensive window openings and embellishments. Some of both types survive. Others have been replaced by buildings from later periods.

 

**A tartar is a bad-tempered or aggressively assertive person, typically a woman, and is based upon the hard crust of calcium salts and food particles on the teeth which is known as tartar.

 

***The meaning of the very British term “shall I be mother” is “shall I pour the tea?”

 

****In the class-conscious society of Britain in the 1920s, whether you added milk to your cup of tea first or the tea was a subtle way of defining what class you came from. Upper-class people, or those who wished to ape their social betters added milk after the tea, whereas middle-class or working class people comfortable in their own skins were known to add milk before the tea.

 

*****Picturegoer was a fan magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1911 and 23 April 1960.

 

******Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines, its title another word for screenplay. It was founded in Chicago in 1911. Under early editors Julian Johnson and James R. Quirk, in style and reach it became a pacesetter for fan magazines. In 1921, Photoplay established what is considered the first significant annual movie award. For most of its run, it was published by Macfadden Publications. The magazine ceased publication in 1980.

 

*******Picture Play, originally titled Picture-Play Weekly was an American weekly magazine focusing on the film industry. Its first edition was published on April 10, 1915. It eventually transitioned from a weekly to a monthly magazine, before ending its production run, when it continued as Your Charm, in March 1941.

 

********Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated women. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, and William Shakespeare, and was the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee, winning Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930).

 

*********F. Earl Christy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1882. The "F" is believed to stand for "Frederic". At seventeen, he painted originals for the Boardwalk Atlantic City Picture company, with many of his early works published by the J. Hoover and Sons Calendar Company of Philadelphia. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts from 1905 to 1907. Christy produced dozens of magazine covers including; Dell Publishing Company for Modern Romances, Modern Screen and Radio Stars, Ainslee's magazine, American Magazine, Sunday Magazine of the New York Times, Collier's, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Liberty Magazine, McClure's Photoplay Magazine, and Puck Magazine. He also created illustrations for many calendar prints, ink blotters, postcards and Princess Pat Cosmetic's advertisements. Most of his images were of beautiful girls primarily playing sports such as basketball, golf and tennis. Earl Christy never married and lived most of his life with one or both of his sisters. He passed away on Long Island New York in 1961.

 

**********It was a common occurrence in large and medium-sized houses that employed staff for the butler or chief parlour maid to iron the newspapers. The task of butlers ironing newspapers is not as silly as it sounds. Butlers were not ironing out creases, but were using the hot iron to dry the ink so that the paper could be easily read without the reader's ending up with smudged fingers and black hands, a common problem with newspapers in the Victorian and Edwardian ages.

 

***********Mary Louise Brooks was an American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.

 

************A cheongsam is a straight, close-fitting silk dress with a high neck and slit skirt, worn traditionally by Chinese and Indonesian women. It was developed in the 1920s and evolved in shapes and design over years, and gained popularity in Western society as an outfit that represented the exoticism of the orient.

 

*************The Tate and Lyall sugar packet was acquired from Jonesy’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. In 1859 Henry Tate went into partnership with John Wright, a sugar refiner based at Manesty Lane, Liverpool. Their partnership ended in 1869 and John’s two sons, Alfred and Edwin joined the business forming Henry Tate and Sons. A new refinery in Love Lane, Liverpool was opened in 1872. In 1921 Henry Tate and Sons and Abram Lyle and Sons merged, between them refining around fifty percent of the UK’s sugar. A tactical merger, this new company would then become a coherent force on the sugar market in anticipation of competition from foreign sugar returning to its pre-war strength. Tate and Lyle are perhaps best known for producing Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Lyle’s Golden Treacle.

 

**************Created by British industrial chemist and journalist Walter Weldon Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was the first ‘home weeklies’ magazine which supplied dressmaking patterns. Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was first published in 1875 and continued until 1954 when it ceased publication.

 

***************Down Street, is a disused station on the London Underground, located in Mayfair. The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opened it in 1907. It was latterly served by the Piccadilly line and was situated between Dover Street (now named Green Park) and Hyde Park Corner stations. The station was little used; many trains passed through without stopping. Lack of patronage and proximity to other stations led to its closure in 1932. During the Second World War it was used as a bunker by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the war cabinet. The station building survives and is close to Down Street's junction with Piccadilly.

 

****************The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR). The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London and South Western Railway.

 

*****************Clapham Junction is a major railway station near St John's Hill in south-west Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Despite its name, Clapham Junction is not in Clapham, a district one mile to the south-east. A major transport hub, Clapham Junction station is on both the South West Main Line and Brighton Main Line, as well as numerous other routes and branch lines which pass through or diverge from the main lines at this station. It serves as a southern terminus of both the Mildmay and Windrush lines of the London Overground.

 

******************A Peter Pan collar is a style of clothing collar, flat in design with rounded corners. It is named after the collar of Maude Adams's costume in her 1905 role as Peter Pan, although similar styles had been worn before this date. Peter Pan collars were particularly fashionable during the 1920s and 1930s.

 

*******************At over eighty-five hectares in size, Clapham Common is one of London’s largest, and oldest, public open spaces, situated between Clapham, Battersea and Balham. Clapham Common is mentioned as far back as 1086 in the famous Domesday Book, and was originally ‘common land’ for the Manors of Battersea and Clapham. Tenants of the Lords of the Manors, could graze their livestock, collect firewood or dig for clay and other minerals found on site. However, as a result of increasing threats from encroaching roads and housing developments, it was acquired in 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and designated a “Metropolitan Common”, which gives it protection from loss to development and preserves its open character.

 

This comfortable domestic kitchen scene is a little different to what you might think, for whilst it looks very authentic, it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

 

Edith’s deal kitchen table is covered with lots of interesting bits and pieces. The tea cosy, which fits snugly over a white porcelain teapot, has been hand knitted in fine lemon, blue and violet wool. It comes easily off and off and can be as easily put back on as a real tea cosy on a real teapot. It comes from a specialist miniatures stockist in the United Kingdom. The Deftware cups, saucers, sugar bowl and milk jug are part of a 1:12 size miniature porcelain dinner set which sits on the dresser that can be seen just to the right of shot. The vase of flowers are beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium and inserted into a real, hand blown glass vase.

 

Edith’s two cookbooks are made by hand by an unknown American artisan and were acquired from an American miniature collector on E-Bay. The newspaper which features an image of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth and one day Queen Mother, is a copy of a real Daily Mail newspaper from 1925 and was produced to high standards in 1:12 by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.

 

The Picture Play, Photoplay and Picturegoer magazines are 1:12 miniatures made by artisan Ken Blythe. I have a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my miniatures collection – books mostly. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! Sadly, so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. As well as making books, he also made other small paper based miniatures including magazines like the ones you see displayed here. They are not designed to be opened. What might amaze you in spite of this is the fact is that all Ken Blythe’s books and magazines are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make them all miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

Edith’s Windsor chairs are both hand-turned 1:12 artisan miniatures which came from America. Unfortunately, the artist did not carve their name under the seat of either chair, but they are definitely unmarked artisan pieces.

 

In the background you can see a very modern and up-to-date 1920s gas stove. It would have been expensive to instal at the time, and it would have been the cook’s or maid’s pleasure to cook on and in. It would have included a thermostat for perfect cooking and without the need of coal, it was much cleaner to feed, use and clean. It is not unlike those made by the Roper Stove Company in the 1920s. The Roper Stove Company previously named the Florence-Wehrle Company among other names, was founded in 1883. Located in Newark, Ohio, the company was once the largest stove producer in the world. Today, the Roper Stove Company is a brand of Whirlpool.

 

The tin bucket, mops and brooms in the corner of the kitchen all come from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.

i have been so wonderfully inspired by so many of you who rock textures, imaginations, dreams, magic places, generosities, and other worlds. recently, i came upon a most wonderful artist, franziska... when i saw her creation, i was so inspired and thought, i want to TRY something like that. although i will not do her justice, i wanted to honor her creativity...what is that age old saying? imitation is the sincerest form of flattery??? i hope to flatter her well! i've had a ball at putting my rendition of her creation to work! (and i honestly know nothing...i am however learning, trying, and making mistakes, yet LOVING the process!)

i can't absorb this fast enough...and oh how i need to exercise patience!

 

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

eeegads...i never say this, but if viewed on black, it's even a bit more magical...

(ok, i said it, but still feels awkward) sheeeeeeesh...

  

A two shot panoramic stitch with generous overlapping to minimise camera distortion. My teenage daughter and I went for sunset a couple of nights ago.

I used to live about a 15 minute walk from here and spent many times walking here with her when she was a toddler onwards. Athough I only live about 5 miles away now it was strange and nice to go back with her after a long lay off.

Thanks for looking.

Thanks to the generosity of one of my longtime flickr-pals, I was able to spend some time with Black Bears this summer. They were waiting for salmon, and keeping a close watch for other bears. This big boy had been squeezed out of the prime fishing spots by a dominant male, but he seemed content to graze on the grasses nearby. Bears are omnivores, and salad is one of their many options. Although fish would be the main course, we also saw them feeding on berries, rolling driftwood logs over to see what was underneath, nosing through the rockweed in the intertidal zone, and generally helping themselves to all available resources.

 

I used a 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter for this shot. It is cropped only minimally. Photographers were not on the menu that day.

 

Photographed along the coast of British Columbia (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

 

Divided reverse. Letter generously translated by Alpenkorps1915; authored in Mühlhausen on 1.6.1916 and sent to a Joh. Kaiser in Kussel, the author Martin Kaiser asks his brother to keep this photograph safe for him. Records indicate a Wehrmann Martin Kaiser died on the Western Front on 10.5.1917 but currently there is no way to tell if it is the same fellow depicted above. Postage cancelled in Mühlhausen (Th.) on 1.6.1916.

 

In 1905 and 1906, Prussia produced large numbers of these "experimental" helmets, with what was essentially the shell of a regular M.95 helmet covered with a layer of felt. The front and rear visors were left uncovered.

 

"Mühlhausen 1.6.1916,

 

Dear brother Joh. I am sending you my photograph, I hope you like it. Otherwise I'm still doing well, what I also hope for you. Farewell and many greetings from your brother Martin. To a hurried reunion! Please keep this photo for me in good hands."

 

________________________________________________

Notes:

 

In late 1917 and 1918 the 2nd Landwehr Div. participated in the fighting in the Argonne Forest. Late in the war, it faced the American offensive in the region.

   

Liverpool

anyone notice the coin?

©2012 Katya Horner

·

Thanks to the amazing generosity of Michael Tompkins I have had much enjoyment recommissioning a gorgeous Retina IIIC Type 028 with a little drop damage. Michael described it as a 'little extra' something sent to me with an equally lovely Retina IIF box and matching camera that I will share a separate post when I have it sorted.

 

The camera details are:

 

S/N. 57596

L/N. 5298818

Shut. 3017735

 

So the symptoms were that the shutter button didn't return properly and the camera locked out not allowing the camera to be wound on again without pressing the film release. I was hoping it might simply be that the little indent/shaft actuated by the shutter button might not be fully depressing... this proved not to be the case.

 

With regard to the drop damage there was minimal cosmetic evidence, just a little bit of deformation in the bottom of the front door, a visible bend in the bottom hinge plate and a bit of deformation in the black surround that the shutter/front plate lock buttons act against (it looks as though the button was forced backward into the housing) other than that everything appeared to be in good shape.

 

With the top housing off I discovered that the camera must have taken a direct hit on the shutter button (perhaps it had an extension or soft release button in place?). The little screw in the top of the release shaft below the shutter button was bent right over?! - I have never seen this before (see pics). I hoped that simply replacing the screw might sort it, but no...

 

I stripped the camera down further and found the following:

=============================================

 

1) The release shaft was also bent and to add to that the spring on its base was not correctly located.

 

2) The screw in the top of the wind shaft was sitting loose (I have seen this a number of times) - I don't think this had anything to do with the issue.

 

3) The screws in the bottom chrome trim plate were all sitting loose. I wonder if it had been that way from new as there was no evidence of new adhesive on the bottom leatherette.

 

4) The top housing, although not obviously dented, was distorted causing it to lift upward and backward fractionally and in turn bind on the shutter button.

 

5) The shutter shaft itself while not apparently bent was binding slightly in its bush down the side of the shutter and as a result not easily returning.

 

Fixes as follows:

=============

 

1) Removed the wind lever, bottom leatherette and plate and replaced release shaft, screw and spring

 

2) Tightened the wind shaft main screw.

 

3) Removed the front door and straightened the hinge plates.

 

4) Replaced the bottom hinge screw as the thread and head were in poor condition.

 

5) Straightened out the bottom edge of the front door and reattached.

 

6) Lubricated and exercised the shutter button/shaft until it moved freely.

 

7) Twisted the top housing until it sat flush on a flat surface before refitting.

 

8) cleaned inner viewfinder surfaces and lubricated as required and then reassembled base and top of camera.

All now working nicely!

 

There are couple of minor things left to look-at at some point:

===============================================

 

1) The bottom closing button on the front plate doesn't snap into place quite as positively as I would have liked. It is better than it was but I suspect the little locating pin on the back of the button is slightly bent.

 

2) The slower shutter speeds are a bit too slow - I will give it a shutter CLA at some point when I'm feeling so inclined but not right now.

 

3) The position '1' lockout isn't locking out. I have a suspicion this might be due to the shaft top being slightly distorted from the drop and not quite engaging with the cut-out in the underside of the film counter. I have absolutely ZERO intention of fixing this as I consider it a 'happy accident' and functional improvement!

Long Neck Tribe Women

  

Be the first to kick start your generous support and fund my production with more amazing images!

 

Currently, I'm running a crowd funding activity to initiate my personal 2016 Flickr's Project. Here, I sincerely request each and every kind hearted souls to pay some effort and attention.

 

No limitation, Any Amount and your encouraging comments are welcome.

 

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Please PayPal your wish amount to : men4r@yahoo.com

 

Email me or public comments below your contribution amount for good records with your comments and at final day, at random, I shall sent out my well taken care canon 6D with full box n accessory during random draw to one thankful contributor as my token of appreciation.

 

Now, I cordially invite and look forward with eagerness a strong pool of unity zealous participants in this fundermental ideology yet sustainable crowd fund raising task.

Basically, the substantial gather amount is achievable with pure passion n love heart in photography and not necessary be filty rich nor famous to help me accomplish raising my long yearning photography career, a sucking heavy expense that been schedules down my photography making journey had inevitably, some circumstances had badly fall short behind racing with time and inability to fulfill as quickly in near future consolidating good fund .

Honestly, with aspiration and hope, I appeal to urge on this media for a strong humanity mandate through good faith of sharing and giving generously on this particular crowd funding excercise to achieve my desire n is not just purely a dread dream , is also flickers first starter own crowds funding strength turning impossible into reality through this pratical raising method that I confidently trust it will turn fruitful from all your small effort participation, every single persistency will result consolidating piling up every little tiny bricks into an ultimate huge strong living castle.

In reality, I have trust and never look down on every single peny efforts that been contributed as helpful means, turning unrealistic dream alive is the goal in crowd funding excercise, No reason any single amount is regard to be too small when the strength of all individual wish gather to fulfill my little desire to make exist and keep alive. .

I sincerely look forward each and every participants who think alike crowds funding methodlogy works here no matter who come forwards with regardless any capital amount input be big or small , please help gather and pool raise my objective target amount as close to USD$10K or either acquisition from donation item list below:

 

1- ideally a high mega pixel Canon 5DS ( can be either new or use ok)

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Last but not least, a photography journey of life time for a trip to explore South Island of New Zealand and Africa.

.

My intended schedule may estimate about 1 month round trip self drive traveling down scenic Southern Island of New Zealand for completing the most captivating landscape photography and wander into the big five, the wilderness of untamed Africa nature for my project 2016 before my physical body stamina eventually drain off.

 

During the course, I also welcome sponsor's to provide daily lodging/accommodation, car rental/transportation, Fox Glacier helicopter ride and other logistic funding expenses, provide photographic camera equipments or related accessories .

Kindly forward all sponsors request terms of condition n collaboration details for discussion soon.

We are Just Novice Monk

 

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Due to copyright issue, I cannot afford to offer any free image request. Pls kindly consult my sole permission to purchase n use any of my images.You can email me at : men4r@yahoo.com.

 

Don't use this image on Websites/Blog or any other media

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Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1939, for Orologi e Cinturini Delgia. Photo: Studio Chaplin.

 

American actress Paulette Goddard (1905-1990) started her career as a fashion model and as a Ziegfeld Girl in several Broadway shows. In the 1940s, she became a major star of Paramount Pictures. She was Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator. Goddard was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.

 

Paulette Goddard was born Pauline Marion Levy in Whitestone Landing, Long Island, New York. Sources variously cite her year of birth as 1911 and 1914, and the place as Whitestone Landing, New York, USA. However, municipal employees in Ronco, Switzerland, where she died, gave her birth year of record as 1905. Goddard was the daughter of Joseph Russell Levy, the son of a prosperous Jewish cigar manufacturer from Salt Lake City, and Alta Mae Goddard, who was of Episcopalian English heritage. They married in 1908 and separated while their daughter was very young, although the divorce did not become final until 1926. According to Goddard, her father left them, but according to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by her mother, and did not meet her father again until the late 1930s, after she had become famous. To avoid a custody battle, she and her mother moved often during her childhood, even relocating to Canada at one point. Goddard began modeling at an early age to support her mother and herself, working for Saks Fifth Avenue, Hattie Carnegie, and others. An important figure in her childhood was her great uncle, Charles Goddard, the owner of the American Druggists Syndicate. He played a central role in Goddard's career, introducing her to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. She made her stage debut as a dancer in Ziegfeld's summer revue, 'No Foolin' (1926), which was also the first time that she used the stage name Paulette Goddard. Ziegfeld hired her for another musical, 'Rio Rita', which opened in February 1927, but she left the show after only three weeks to appear in the play 'The Unconquerable Male', produced by Archie Selwyn. It was, however, a flop and closed after only three days following its premiere in Atlantic City. Soon after the play closed, Goddard was introduced to the much older lumber tycoon Edgar James, president of the Southern Lumber Company, by Charles Goddard. She married him in June 1927 in Rye, New York, but the marriage was short. Goddard was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, in 1929, receiving a divorce settlement of $375,000. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "A stunning natural beauty, Paulette could mesmerize any man she met, a fact she was well aware of. "

 

Paulette Goddard first visited Hollywood in 1929, when she appeared as an uncredited extra in two films, the Laurel and Hardy short film Berth Marks (Lewis R. Foster, 1929), and George Fitzmaurice's drama The Locked Door (1929). Following her divorce, she briefly visited Europe before returning to Hollywood in late 1930 with her mother. Her second attempt at acting was no more successful than the first, as she landed work only as an extra. In 1930, she signed her first film contract with producer Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Goldwyn Girl in Whoopee! (Thornton Freeland, 1930) with Eddie Cantor. She also appeared in City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) with Gary Cooper, Ladies of the Big House (Marion Gering, 1931) starring Sylvia Sidney, and The Girl Habit (Edward F. Cline, 1931) for Paramount, and The Mouthpiece (James Flood, Elliott Nugent, 1932) for Warners. Goldwyn and she did not get along, and she began working for Hal Roach Studios, appearing in a string of uncredited supporting roles for the next four years, including Young Ironsides (James Parrott, 1932) with Charley Chase, and Pack Up Your Troubles (1932) with Laurel and Hardy. One of her bigger roles in that period was as a blond 'Goldwyn Girl' in the Eddie Cantor film The Kid from Spain (Leo McCarey, 1932). Goldwyn also used Goddard in The Bowery (Raoul Walsh, 1933) with Wallace Beery, Roman Scandals (Frank Tuttle, 1933), and Kid Millions (Roy Del Ruth, 1934) with Eddie Cantor. The year she signed with Goldwyn, Goddard began dating Charlie Chaplin, a relationship that received substantial attention from the press. They were reportedly married in secret in Canton, China, in June 1936. It marked a turning point in Goddard's career when Chaplin cast her as his leading lady in his box office hit, Modern Times (1936). Her role as 'The Gamin', an orphan girl who runs away from the authorities and becomes The Tramp's companion, was her first credited film appearance and garnered her mainly positive reviews, Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times describing her as "the fitting recipient of the great Charlot's championship". Following the success of Modern Times, Chaplin planned other projects with Goddard in mind as a co-star, but he worked slowly, and Goddard worried that the public might forget about her if she did not continue to make regular film appearances. She signed a contract with David O. Selznick and appeared with Janet Gaynor in the comedy The Young in Heart (Richard Wallace, 1938) before Selznick lent her to MGM to appear in two films. The first of these, Dramatic School (Robert B. Sinclair, 1938), co-starred Luise Rainer, but the film received mediocre reviews and failed to attract an audience. Her next film, The Women (George Cukor, 1939), was a success. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, the film's supporting role of Miriam Aarons was played by Goddard. Pauline Kael later wrote of Goddard, "she is a stand-out. fun."

 

David O' Selznick was pleased with Paulette Goddard's performances, particularly her work in The Young in Heart, and considered her for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). Initial screen tests convinced Selznick and director George Cukor that Goddard would require coaching to be effective in the role, but that she showed promise, and she was the first actress given a Technicolor screen test. After he was introduced to Vivien Leigh, he wrote to his wife that Leigh was a "dark horse" and that his choice had "narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh". After a series of tests with Leigh that pleased both Selznick and Cukor, Selznick cancelled the further tests that had been scheduled for Goddard, and the part was given to Leigh. Goddard's next film, The Cat and the Canary (Elliott Nugent, 1939) with Bob Hope, was a turning point in the careers of both actors. The success of the film established her as a genuine star. Her performance won her a ten-year contract with Paramount Studios, which was one of the premier studios of the day. They promptly were re-teamed in The Ghost Breakers (George Marshall, 1940), again a huge hit. Goddard starred with Chaplin again in his film The Great Dictator (1940). In 1942, Goddard was granted a Mexican divorce from Chaplin. The couple split amicably, with Chaplin agreeing to a generous settlement. At Paramount, Goddard was used by Cecil B. De Mille in the action epic North West Mounted Police (1940), playing the second female lead. She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in the acclaimed musical Second Chorus/Swing it (H.C. Potter, 1940), where she met actor Burgess Meredith, her third husband. Goddard made Pot o' Gold (George Marshall, 1941), a comedy with James Stewart, then supported Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn (Mitchell Leisen, 1941), from a script by Wilder and Brackett, directed by Mitchell Leisen. Goddard was teamed with Hope for a third time in Nothing But the Truth (Elliott Nugent, 1942), then made The Lady Has Plans (Sidney Lanfield, 1942), a comedy with Ray Milland. She co-starred with Milland and John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind (Cecil B. DeMille, 1942), playing the lead, a Scarlett O'Hara type character. The film was a huge hit. Goddard did The Forest Rangers (George Marshall, 1942) with Fred MacMurray. One of her better-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (George Marshall, 1943), in which she sang "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang" with Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake.

 

Paulette Goddard received one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for So Proudly We Hail! (Mark Sandrich, 1943) opposite Claudette Colbert and Veronica Lake. She didn't win, but it solidified her as a top draw. Goddard was teamed with Fred MacMurray in the delightful comedy Standing Room Only (Sidney Lanfield, 1944) and Sonny Tufts in I Love a Soldier (Mark Sandrich, 1944). In May 1944, she married Burgess Meredith at David O. Selznick's home in Beverly Hills. Goddard's most successful film was Kitty (Mitchell Leisen, 1945), in which she played the title role. Denny Jackson/Robert Sieger at IMDb: "The film was a hit with moviegoers, as she played an ordinary English woman transformed into a duchess. The film was filled with plenty of comedy, dramatic and romantic scenes that appealed to virtually everyone." In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), Goddard starred with husband Burgess Meredith under the direction of Jean Renoir. It was made for United Artists. At Paramount she did Suddenly It's Spring (Mitchell Leisen, 1947) with Fred MacMurray, and De Mille's 18th century romantic drama Unconquered (Cecil B. DeMille, 1947), with Cary Grant. During the Hollywood Blacklist, when she and blacklisted husband Meredith were mobbed by a baying crowd screaming "Communists!" on their way to a premiere, Goddard is said to have turned to her husband and said, "Shall I roll down the window and hit them with my diamonds, Bugsy?" In 1947, she made An Ideal Husband in Britain for Alexander Korda, and was accompanied on a publicity trip to Brussels by Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, niece of Sir Winston Churchill and future wife of future Prime Minister Anthony Eden. She divorced Meredith in June 1949, and also left Paramount. In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Goddard starred in Anna Lucasta (Irving Rapper, 1949), then went to Mexico for The Torch (Emilio Fernández, 1950). In England, she was in Babes in Bagdad (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1952), then she went to Hollywood for Vice Squad (Arnold Laven, 1953) with Edward G. Robinson, and Charge of the Lancers (William Castle, 1954) with Jean-Pierre Aumont. Her last starring role was in the English production A Stranger Came Home/The Unholy Four (Terence Fisher, 1954).

 

Paulette Goddard began appearing in summer stock and on television, guest starring on episodes of Sherlock Holmes, an adaptation of The Women, this time playing the role of Sylvia Fowler, The Errol Flynn Theatre, The Joseph Cotten Show, and The Ford Television Theatre. She was in an episode of Adventures in Paradise and a TV version of The Phantom. After her marriage to Erich Maria Remarque in 1958, Goddard largely retired from acting and moved to Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland. In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film Gli indifferenti/Time of Indifference (Francesco Maselli, 1964), starring Claudia Cardinale and Rod Steiger, which was her last feature film. After Remarque's death in 1970, she made one last attempt at acting, when she accepted a small role in an episode of the TV series The Snoop Sisters, The Female Instinct (Leonards Stern, 1972) with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick. Upon Remarque's death, Goddard inherited much of his money and several important properties across Europe, including a wealth of contemporary art, which augmented her own long-standing collection. During this period, her talent at accumulating wealth became a byword among the old Hollywood élite. During the 1980s, she became a fairly well known (and highly visible) socialite in New York City, appearing covered with jewels at many high-profile cultural functions with several well-known men, including Andy Warhol, with whom she sustained a friendship for many years until his death in 1987. Paulette Goddard underwent invasive treatment for breast cancer in 1975, successfully by all accounts. In 1990, she died at her home in Switzerland from heart failure while under respiratory support due to emphysema, She is buried in Ronco Village Cemetery, next to Remarque and her mother. Goddard had no children. She became a stepmother to Charles Chaplin's two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin, while she and Charlie were married. In his memoirs, 'My Father Charlie Chaplin' (1960), Charles Jr. describes her as a lovely, caring and intelligent woman throughout the book. In October 1944, she suffered the miscarriage of a son with Burgess Meredith. Goddard, whose own formal education did not go beyond high school, bequeathed US$20 million to New York University (NYU) in New York City.

 

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Denny Jackson / Robert Sieger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Letter generously translated by Xiphophilos; penned in Wahn on the 7.11.1914 and addressed to his sister, Fräulein Fr. Hörstemeier in Herford. Postage cancelled the same day at the Wahn Schiessplatz.

 

7am - Coffee and milk.

11.30am - Peas with bacon.

3.30pm - Coffee and milk.

6.30pm - Tea with rum and sausage.

 

Schießplatz Wahn was a sizable military facility located south of Cologne. It was so large it hosted an artillery firing range as well as an airfield „Artilleriefliegerstation Wahn“.

Letter generously translated by Nettenscheider; penned somewhere in France on the 4.7.1915 and addressed to his wife Frau Anna Rademann in Düsseldorf, the author sends his regards and lets her know he is alive and well.

 

German soldiers poking about the wreckage of Maurice Farman M.F. 11 (serial no. 699) of Escadrille MF 44. The bomber was shot down behind German lines on the 15th of June 1915 and it's crew, Warrant Officer Jean Sismanoglou (pilot) and Sub Lieutenant Eugène Virolet (observer), being killed in the action.

I'm not sure if those white disks with a tiny off-centered darker "hole" (see my note) are lens flares or bokeh. I would love to find out an optic explanation for them. I doubt the small dark circles are from dust as I only see them with certain lighting angle, and also have seen them in other people's photos.

 

I'll offer 1 million flickr smiles :) (x 1 mil) as a payment for a good answer. ;)

Texture by h_roach

The past has been generous with Teruel and leaves a Mudejar legacy that today is recognized as a world heritage site. Four towers, that of El Salvador and San Martín, that of San Pedro and that of the Cathedral of Santa María de Mediavilla, apart from its roof and dome, form this unique Mudejar ensemble.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_church_of_San_Salvador

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud%C3%A9jar_art#:~:text=Mud%C3%A9j....

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruel

we're getting ready for a YS and i came across a small box that was labeled "small decorative buttons- brass" in my mom's distinctive printing. it reminded me that she often made little plaques/pictures with suede and these buttons, choosing a button that went with the intended gift recipient's interests.

 

macromonday- generosity

 

ODC/ODT- wide open (i interpreted it as wide open choices ~grin~)

and my heart is wide open thinking about, and missing, my mom :)

 

so i guess it will choose this one for today's DS (dailyshoot) too..........

#ds491 What reminds you of home? Make a photograph of it today.

 

wow, a 3-fer

COTH

 

111 pictures: #1 buttons

“We, the generous and rich in spirit, who stand at the sides of the streets like open fountains and would hinder no one drinking from us. . . .”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Unfortunately not my size

SHWE INN THA Floating Hotel and Resort

 

Be the first to kick start your generous support and fund my production with more amazing images!

 

Currently, I'm running a crowd funding activity to initiate my personal 2016 Flickr's Project. Here, I sincerely request each and every kind hearted souls to pay some effort and attention.

 

No limitation, Any Amount and your encouraging comments are welcome.

 

Crowd funding contribution can be simply direct to my PayPal account if you really appreciate and wish my forthcoming photography project to come alive.

Please PayPal your wish amount to : men4r@yahoo.com

 

Email me or public comments below your contribution amount for good records with your comments and at final day, at random, I shall sent out my well taken care canon 6D with full box n accessory during random draw to one thankful contributor as my token of appreciation.

 

Now, I cordially invite and look forward with eagerness a strong pool of unity zealous participants in this fundermental ideology yet sustainable crowd fund raising task.

Basically, the substantial gather amount is achievable with pure passion n love heart in photography and not necessary be filty rich nor famous to help me accomplish raising my long yearning photography career, a sucking heavy expense that been schedules down my photography making journey had inevitably, some circumstances had badly fall short behind racing with time and inability to fulfill as quickly in near future consolidating good fund .

Honestly, with aspiration and hope, I appeal to urge on this media for a strong humanity mandate through good faith of sharing and giving generously on this particular crowd funding excercise to achieve my desire n is not just purely a dread dream , is also flickers first starter own crowds funding strength turning impossible into reality through this pratical raising method that I confidently trust it will turn fruitful from all your small effort participation, every single persistency will result consolidating piling up every little tiny bricks into an ultimate huge strong living castle.

In reality, I have trust and never look down on every single peny efforts that been contributed as helpful means, turning unrealistic dream alive is the goal in crowd funding excercise, No reason any single amount is regard to be too small when the strength of all individual wish gather to fulfill my little desire to make exist and keep alive. .

I sincerely look forward each and every participants who think alike crowds funding methodlogy works here no matter who come forwards with regardless any capital amount input be big or small , please help gather and pool raise my objective target amount as close to USD$10K or either acquisition from donation item list below:

 

1- ideally a high mega pixel Canon 5DS ( can be either new or use ok)

2- Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L IS lens ( can be either new or use ok)

Last but not least, a photography journey of life time for a trip to explore South Island of New Zealand and Africa.

.

My intended schedule may estimate about 1 month round trip self drive traveling down scenic Southern Island of New Zealand for completing the most captivating landscape photography and wander into the big five, the wilderness of untamed Africa nature for my project 2016 before my physical body stamina eventually drain off.

 

During the course, I also welcome sponsor's to provide daily lodging/accommodation, car rental/transportation, Fox Glacier helicopter ride and other logistic funding expenses, provide photographic camera equipments or related accessories .

Kindly forward all sponsors request terms of condition n collaboration details for discussion soon.

 

Great Ocean Drive- the 12 Apostle's

 

Please Click Auto Slide show for ultimate viewing pleasure in Super Large Display .to enjoy my photostream . ..

Due to copyright issue, I cannot afford to offer any free image request. Pls kindly consult my sole permission to purchase n use any of my images.You can email me at : men4r@yahoo.com.

 

Don't use this image on Websites/Blog or any other media

without my explicit permission.

 

For Business, You can find me here at linkedin..

 

Follow me on www.facebook.com here

Generous packaging the small paper box, with approx. 4.4 x 4-4 x. 7.4 cm, an volume of approx. 139 ml, includes the instructions, and a small pills can.

 

Within the pills can, there is a small cylinder to keep try and 7 medicine capsules. The tablet can has in the lower part below the neck a diameter of 3.8 x 2.2 cm, the volume of 25 ml The drying cylinder with approx. the radius of 14 mm and a hight of 18 m, volume approx. 2.77 ml. The tablet capsule is 1, 4 x 0.5 cm, volume approx. 0.18 ml.

 

Just in case you are wondering about the relation volume of one pill to drying matter, this is 2.77 ml vs 0.18 ml, pills can to 1 pill this is 25 ml to 0.18 ml, paper box to one pill this is 139 ml to 0.18 ml.

 

No, I will not the math for you, but including instructions, the pill can, the trying cylinder there is still place for more than 700 tablets. Or the ratio of package volume to content is approx. 1:100.

Lots of air, in that package so to say approx. 99 %, This is like working 1 month and getting a salary for 2 hours.

 

Ok there are the reason for the minimal size of the packaging, for example, to put in the necessary documentation, simple handling, and I am sure many more, they are profit-oriented, nevertheless, this is, in my opinion, there is no reasonable relation between the size of the tablets and packaging.

 

On display 2 out of 7 pills.

    

the quality of mercy is not strain'd

it droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven

upon the place beneath

it is twice blest:

it blesseth him that gives and him that receives

  

~ william shakespeare

portia, the merchant of venice

       

*

 

Going beyond sunset is like catching bended, filtered sunlight rays, corrupted or enhanced by bouncing off all the surfaces it can get hold off and then finding its way onto your tiny camera sensor. Simply magical process which results in an image in your head, and all you have to do is just click.

Letter generously translated by xiphophilos; penned in Posen on 31.10.1915 and addressed to Unteroffizier E. Kilian serving with Infanterie Regiment Nr. 341. The author tells his friend he has been given a new command. Einheitsstempel: Verkehrs-Offizier vom Platz Posen. Postage cancelled the same day in Posen.

 

Vizewachtmeister (staff sergeant) Reinhard Rabe stares intensely into the camera lens for an impeccable portrait.

Letter(s) generously translated by bw-collector; penned 20.11.1916 in Siegmar (Chemnitz) by three of the Fräulein in the photograph.

 

A wonderful group photograph sent to "Otto". One of the authors is his sister, perhaps the Fräulein taking the photograph? His cousin writes „Liebes Ottel! Gefällt Dir der Gefreite? Den möchst Du wohl gerne verhauen?“ - would you like to spank the corporal, so I suspect she might be the one wearing his uniform.

Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever. ~ Margaret Cho

 

A Zen View

Letter generously translated by Nettenscheider; penned in Lambersart on the 25th of October 1915 and addressed to the sender's children, Ilsa and Editha Bartels in Wolfenbüttel. Einheitsstempel: Königl. Preussen Festungs-Maschinengewehr-Abteilung. Postage cancelled 26.10.1915 (24. Infanterie Division).

 

Three fellows take advantage of the warmer weather and strip off their tunics and shirts to hunt lice. Apart from causing discomfort, lice also caused "trench fever". It is estimated one in five German soldiers suffered a bout of trench fever during the war.

 

Lambersart lies to the north of Lille in the Nord region of France.

View On Black

Vintage Bat Figures from the "Captain Action" line.

 

Thanks to a generous grant from the Wayne Foundation, Batman now has an official vintage Ideal cape.

 

Batgirl is actually Misty with a repro belt, cape and gloves. The real Batgirl doll is hard to find....and not cheap.

St Anns square, Manchester.

I placed ads in FreeCycle asking for clippings for succulents. I'm starting a succulent garden - Look at how generous these two people were with me. This guy's yard is full of beautiful plants and has been lovingly decorated (I'll post pix) 0- feel free to tag and leave me any kind of advice that you have :-)

View Large On Black

 

Charlevoix................Quebec !

You can buy this photo here, and generously support my medical costs by doing so : payhip.com/b/4Kd7y

 

Money goes to helping me pay for private specialist medical care for a severe immune damaging disease I have, MECFS, outside the coverage of public medical care.

MECFS is akin to liver/kidney failure in severity. The body becomes severely unable to defend against disease and harmful matter, as essential immune functions are damaged.

A 2016 USA MECFS Mortality study found a median 17 year life expectancy reduction amongst MECFS afflicted.

MECFS research and treatments exist, but hasn't reached public medical health. Almost exclusively, the only medical care is via private medical specialists.

More info, details and documentation : payhip.com/b/KvdD0

for The Endless Book

 

"Nada lhe posso dar que já não exista em você mesmo. Não posso abrir-lhe outro mundo de imagens, além daquele que há em sua própria alma. Nada lhe posso dar a não ser a oportunidade, o impulso, a chave. Eu o ajudarei a tornar visível o seu próprio mundo, e isso é tudo."

 

(H.H.)

Luray Caverns, originally called Luray Cave, is a cave just west of Luray, Virginia, the United States, which has drawn many visitors since its discovery in 1878. The cavern system is generously adorned with speleothems such as columns, mud flows, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and mirrored pools. The caverns are perhaps best known for the Great Stalacpipe Organ, a lithophone made from solenoid-fired strikers that tap stalactites of various sizes to produce tones similar to those of xylophones, tuning forks, or bells.

 

Visitors enter the cave via a path that curves downward through the caverns, eventually reaching Dream Lake, The Saracen's Tent, The Great Stalacpipe Organ and some large stalactites and stalagmites. The path proceeds to the Wishing Well and a war memorial honoring veterans from Page County. It then ascends to a small passage past the Fried Eggs rock formation and returns to ground level through a smaller passage to the entrance. The entire trek is 1.5 mi (2.4 km) long and can be completed in 45 minutes to 1 hour. Visitors can carry small pets on the cave tour, and leashed pets are permitted on the grounds outside the cave. The caverns now offer a step free access. While this extended pathway will allow for wheelchair access, the caverns aren't advertised as handicap accessible.

 

Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13, 1878 by five local men, including Andrew J. Campbell (a local tinsmith), his 13-year-old nephew Quint, and local photographer Benton Stebbins. Their attention had been attracted by a protruding limestone outcrop and by a nearby sinkhole noted to have cool air issuing from it. Seeking a cavern, the men started to dig and, about four hours later, a hole was created for the smallest men (Andrew and Quint) to squeeze through, slide down a rope and explore by candlelight. The first column they saw was named the Washington Column, in honor of the first United States President. Upon entering the area called Skeleton's Gorge, bone fragments (among other artifacts) were found embedded in calcite. Other traces of previous human occupation included pieces of charcoal, flint, and human bone fragments embedded in stalagmite. A skeleton, thought to be that of a Native American girl, found in one of the chasms, was estimated, from the current rate of stalagmitic growth, to be not more than 500 years old. Her remains may have slipped into the caverns after her burial hole collapsed due to a sinkhole, although the real cause is unknown.

Litigation

 

Sam Buracker of Luray owned the land on which the cavern entrance was found. Because of uncollected debts, a court-ordered auction of all his land was held on September 14, 1878. Andrew Campbell, William Campbell, and Benton Stebbins purchased the cave tract, but kept their discovery secret until after the sale. Because the true value of the property was not realized until after the purchase, legal wrangling ensued for the next two years with attempts to prove fraud and decide rightful ownership. In April 1881, the Supreme Court of Virginia nullified the purchase by the cave discoverers. William T. Biedler of Baltimore (Buracker's in-law and major creditor) then sold the property to The Luray Cave and Hotel Company, a subsidiary of the Shenandoah Railroad Company. (The SRC became the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company in April 1881.) David Kagery of Luray and George Marshall of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, purchased the property in July 1890 and in October of that year the tract was sold to the Valley Land and Improvement Company. Under bankruptcy proceedings in 1893, the property was bought by Luray Caverns Company, owned by J. Kemp Bartlett of Baltimore.

 

Despite the legal disputes, rumors of the caverns' impressive formations spread quickly. Professor Jerome J. Collins, the Arctic explorer, postponed his departure on an ill-fated North Pole expedition to visit the caverns. The Smithsonian Institution sent a delegation of nine scientists to investigate. The next edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica devoted an unprecedented page and a half to the cave's wonders and Alexander J. Brand, Jr., a correspondent for the New York Times, was the first professional travel writer to visit and popularize the caverns.

Limair Sanatorium

In 1901, the cool, supposedly pure air of Luray Caverns was forced through the rooms of the Limair Sanatorium, erected on the summit of Cave Hill by Colonel Theodore Clay Northcott, former president of the Luray Caverns Corporation. The Colonel billed the sanatorium as the first air-conditioned home in the United States. On the hottest day in summer, the interior of the house was kept at a cool and comfortable 70 °F (21 °C). By sinking a shaft five feet (1.5 m) in diameter down to a cavern chamber and installing a 42-inch (1,100 mm) fan powered by a five horsepower (3.7 kW) electric motor, Northcott's system could change out the air through the entire house about every four minutes. Tests made over successive years by means of culture media and sterile plates were considered to have demonstrated the "perfect bacteriologic purity" of the air, purportedly a benefit to those suffering various respiratory illnesses. This "purity" was explained by a natural filtration process with air drawn into the caverns through myriad rocky crevices, then further cleansing by air floating over the transparent springs and pools, the product finally being supplied to the inmates of the sanatorium.The "Limair" burned down in the early 1900s but was subsequently rebuilt as a brick building. The Luray Caverns Corporation, which was chartered by Northcott, purchased the caverns in February 1905 and continues to hold the property today

 

from Wikipedia