Pretty as a Pitcher!

Please excuse the cheesy title of this post but believe me it could have been much worse.  I was initially toying with the idea of going with 'Pitcher This!'  and then I though what about  'Nice Jugs!' so you see what I mean!

Anyway, you have probably guessed that the subject of this week's post is pitchers and jugs and here are a few that I have had in the past and some more that are patiently sitting on the shelf of my office waiting for a new home.   

The first example is this barbotine (French majolica) pitcher in the form of a duck by the maker St. Clément.  I often see them when I'm out and about so I finally gave in and decided to buy one.  He was pretty mucky when I found him and he looked a bit unloved so being the former owner of a little duck that looks quite similar (Claude who has moved to the duckpond in our local park in Cognac along with his buddy Jacques) I just couldn't resist.

Click here to link to his listing on my Etsy Shop

A real favourite of mine are enamel pitchers and jugs and I buy them whenever I can because they are equally decorative inside the home or out in the garden and have a great shabby-chic/vintage look that's still so popular.  This particular one I have kept for myself because there were some pin hole pricks in the side that I missed when I purchased it.  Luckily a bit of clear silicone has solved this problem but having found another one in better condition I put that one up for sale in it's place. 

This little jug is another example of barbotine and is from the Art Nouveau/Belle Epoque period.  At present it is still waiting for a new owner on my Etsy shop.

Click here to link to it's listing on my Etsy Shop

This little pitcher has beautiful pale duck egg blue enamel and would look great on the table filled with flowers in a country or shaker style kitchen.

Click here to link to it's listing on my Etsy shop

This one I sold some time ago.  I secretly wanted to keep it after filling it with lilacs and photographing it so I was genuinely sad to see it go!

This last little fellow is from the same maker as the duck (St. Clement) but completely different in style.  Modelled as an owl with a lovely bright yellow glaze I don't think it will be long before he finds a new home.

Click here to link to his listing on my Etsy Shop

Travelling Through Time!

One subject I know very little about is clocks and timepieces but being a bit of a 'dabbler' the fact that I have no expertise in this field hasn't stopped me from making a few purchases over the years. Here are a few of the little alarm clocks that have passed through my life and my Etsy shop.

This lovely vintage wall clock is surprisingly still with me but I'm enjoying having it on display in my office while it waits for a new owner.

Click on photo to see listing

One clock that we bought to keep for ourselves is this pretty little French mantle clock.  It's made from marble and has the most delightful little chime.  It can be a temperamental from time to time but if we remember to keep it wound up it's fine.  

My husband, Spike, is half Swiss and has very fond childhood memories of spending his holidays in the home of his Uncles in the mountains of Switzerland and ever since then he has nursed the dream of one day being the proud owner of a cuckoo clock.  

This dream of his is something that I have tried to avoid for many years because cuckoo clocks are really not my truc and I am very particular about what items make it over the threshold of our home.

However, a while back at a brocante market I foolishly pointed one out to Spike that I had spied tucked away in a box behind the stall.  When his face lit up I could see immediately that it was love at first sight and I was in trouble.  I grilled the seller in the hope that he would crack and tell me that it wasn't working.  A trick we employ with smaller clocks is to shake them to see if they begin to tick but obviously the mechanism is different and you can't go grabbing a large cuckoo clock and start shaking it up and down anyway (although at one point I was sorely tempted!).  

The next straw that I frantically grasped at was that it would be priced way out of our reach but being the end of the day I think the old guy was glad to get rid of it.  He offered the clock at such an annoyingly low price we couldn't say no and I suppose there's not much call for cuckoo clocks in the South West of France (I also personally believe that the vendor was a cruel, cruel, vindictive man because I made it perfectly clear that I wasn't keen!).

I immediately made Spike agree, as a condition of purchase, that it would live in his workshop (I was trying to sell the man-cave thing) and that's where it is at the moment (although worryingly this space will one day be our kitchen so I'm not out of the woods, or should that be Black Forest, yet!). Thankfully after all the trauma the clock does actually work and the little cuckoo can be heard reverberating around the house from the basement so we always know what time it is wherever we are (even in the wee small hours... guests beware!).

All this being said I have over time rather begrudgingly grown quite fond of it (at least it's an old and relatively tasteful example of a cuckoo clock - I can't believe I just said that!).

Moving swiftly on... here's our latest acquisition to join the noisy gang of clocks we seem to be amassing.

It's a Napoléon III 'Oeil de Boeuf' clock.  OK, I know it's a funny looking thing but when we saw it a couple of weeks ago we just loved the old lump and it has a really soft mellow tone when it chimes (please try to ignore the plasterboard backdrop!).

My ambition one day is to own a long case clock but I would go back to England to buy one because I find the French ones a bit odd looking compared to their British counterparts (or is it just me?).

    

French

English

I would particularly like one with a sun/moon dial in a honey-coloured burr walnut case but that's one ambition really is going to take some time!

A Tailor Made Château

Last weekend we visited a brocante that was just a little more special than the ones we attend. Generally in car parks, fields, villages or town squares I was especially keen to visit this particular one because it was being held in the grounds of a château.  My hope was that it would be a cross between The Antiques Roadshow and a summer garden party and I wasn't disappointed.

It was a bit of a chilly and overcast start to the day but it soon warmed up

The story behind Le Château de la Mercerie (translated as The Castle of Haberdashery) is very out of the ordinary because this grandiose façade is an illusion.  In 1924 two brothers, Alphonse and Raymond Réthoré, made their fortune from the textile industry and proceeded to purchase a modest manor (if there is such a thing).  Inspired by Versailles they then constructed an imposing and magnificent structure on the side.  Over the years they collected architectural treasures including paintings by Italian Masters, sculptures, delft tiles to create vast murals and, like Versailles, they commissioned a mirrored gallery. 

The château or folly that can be seen today was finally completed in 1970 only to fall into disrepair over the subsequent years. Luckily the local residents have taken up the baton to save this treasure and have been busy fund raising with this annual brocante being just one of many events held in the grounds.

The brother's additions to the original building are very long and virtually impossible to photograph in entirety so here is a photo I found that shows the whole thing

A work in progress as a new roof to one of the turrets is under construction.  If you had ever wondered how they made them well wonder no more.  I don't know why but I suddenly fancy an ice cream!

From this side you can see the original manor house

A beautiful view over the Charentaise countryside from behind the façade

I did a bit of treasure hunting myself that day (soon to be put on my Etsy shop) and thoroughly enjoyed having such a splendid backdrop to do a bit of haggling.