There’s an atmosphere of slight hysteria in the office today. It might have something to do with the arrival of a scratch ‘n’ sniff Yankee Candle press release (low-lights include  ’Strawberry Buttercream’ and ‘Tutti-Frutti’…), or perhaps it’s the news that two of the most lovely home brands, Farrow & Ball and Jo Malone, are teaming up to launch an exciting new collection next week? (We’ll keep you posted!) Then again, perhaps it’s the thought of today’s annual Cath Kidston sample sale that’s getting us all a bit over-excited. For me though, it’s bell jars that are floating my boat today…

Whether it’s ogling the gorgeous bell jar displays in London’s hippest Shoreditch shops, Comfort Station and Caravan, or staring longingly at the stunning pages of Australian stylist Sibella Court’s new book Etcetera (which has just landed on my desk. Hurrah, hurrah! Hopefully we’ll show some pics on here soon – it’s due out in April in the UK. For now, check out her shop The Society Inc for a flavour or click here for a preview…), I seem to be surrounded by glass domes filled with curious objets…and I’m hooked! This all ties in with the current vogue for dark romanticism, macabre Victoriana drama and dusty museum display cases – something we’ve discussed before. All very Darwin. All very Gothic. All very dead. Of course, you don’t have to fill your bell jar with beady-eyed taxidermy or creepy skeletons…dried hydrangeas, vintage silk ballet pumps and mercury glass candlesticks would all look lovely. Or you could always opt for a little china bird. For reasonably-priced bell jars, see yesterday’s hot shop, Dee Puddy (£22 for a large 30cm one), Hibbitt, or Crocus. If you can wait until springtime, we spotted a fab little glass bell jar in the new Sainsbury’s spring/summer 2010 collection for just £7.99! Bargainous, to be sure. Of course, garden cloche bell jars DO look a bit like boobs, and they don’t come with bases – but a glass cake plate does the trick. Vintage lab bell jars with bases are REALLY expensive, even on eBay, tragically.

Here’s a cute bell jar pic from The Guardian to add yet more fuel to my bell-jar-obsession fire! I really can’t stop thinking about bell jars. Perhaps I’m actually losing the plot. Or maybe I’m just high on ‘Tutti Frutti’ scratch ‘n’ sniff…– Ellie

ok, not Blair, but I just adore Serena’s necklace! If anyone knows where to get one like this from – write me!

A different view of an oft photographed landmark.

Pentax ME

www.christopherjonesphotography.co.uk

A Different Perspective, Brighton, UK

Here are several links to Steampunk inspired fashion and gadgets.

(Mostly for personal reference.)

Steampunk at Dragon*Con

Clockwork Couture

Topsy Turvy Design

Steampunk Workshop

Steampunk Instructables

Gentleman’s Emporium

Gypsy Moon

Louise Black Designs

Lara Corsets

Truly Victorian

Jaborwhalky Productions

Penny Dreadfully Steampunk

SteamCon

SalonCon

Steampunk electronic consumer goods are almost inevitable. One of the most charming things about the narrative is when we get an image of the protagonist using some gizmo or gadget to vanquish the enemies or solve a mysterious puzzle. An idea to be brought up in Steampunk It Up will be the transcendence of the genre as it allows for different themes, time periods, and conceptions of futuristic technologies than just the classical Victorian imagery of the genre. Many narratives and visual art presentations have amusingly blended the antiquarian and the futuristic. As we look at these particular consumer electronic goods, we can see a sort of small step away from the Victorian. It’s no mere cake decorated in a theme: now one is actually taking the technology, in this case a rather advanced piece (the laptop) and forcing it’s visual representation to an anachronistic place, but assuredly using it in the modern way.  How retro-futuristic of one. It seems like not too many true steampunk laptops exist out there, but check out some of these crazy things (are they actually pleasant to use, or is the highly designed concept not good for its general interface?):

• Intricately designed quintessential steampunk laptop, the clawed feet are sensible (for ventilation) and awesome. (Here’s a video of it in action!) Apparently it was made by someone who goes by Datamancer.
• This laptop comes with a Morse key.
• Interesting transition from laptop into portable typewriter.
• Beyond laptops, we need a steampunk laptop stand.
• And a laptop skin to go with it. (and look at that clown!)
• I don’t know enough about whatever this is to be able to identify it, but it looks weird and interesting.

With the holidays looming around the corner, and my Christmas List swiftly shipped out to the parents, I wanted to share a few of the items that I have asked for. I love Romantic Victorian fashion, and I love love love England, so I absolutely had to ask for these things!

these adorable Oxfords

these Pretty Floral Tights

this cute Destination Charm Necklace

I guess this goes to show you that I love Urban Outfitters

In the old days, belts weren’t for holding pants up; they were for holding your sidearm and ammo. To hold pants up, men of all classes used suspenders like these Y-back ones. Worn on the jacket layer over your favorite shirt and trousers, these suspenders come in brown, black, and tintable white.

(some) Modify/Copy/NO TRANS.
50-C.

Leave as is or alter inside text for a personal touch. Great for a wedding anniversary.

Love In Bloom Forever Yours Romance Card by mariannegilliand
Browse Forever Cards

http://twurl.nl/7mkqtn

Sure, a feller’s gotta work hard and make his way, but sometimes the occasion calls for something a bit dressier. Like church. Or courtin’ that lovely preacher’s daughter. These pinstripe trousers are a step in that direction. Made of wool in a variety of dyed colors ranging from the conservative to the, shall we say, showy, plus a tintable pair that you can adjust to whatever suits yer mood.

Now, we’re on the level here, there was a little bit of a hitch with the inseams; however, wearing the “addon” garment (included) takes right care of that.

Be looking for a matching vest, coming soon.

(Partial) Mod/Copy/NO TRANS.
50-C.

Victorian is my favorite Era… I want to live in it merely for the fashion…. but Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette reallllly ups it up a notch :] It’s one of my favorite movies simply because of how GORGEOUS it was.

A quick and dirty summary of this one, I think, so’s I don’t clog up my beautiful rant about what I thought of the book.

Years of Grace is about a young woman, Jane Ward, growing up in late-Victorian Chicago. Not a couple of words you see often paired, Victorian and Chicago, but trust me, here they fit. Jane comes from a well-to-do family; her soft-hearted father and prim mother both keep close tabs on her, and she’s allowed all the freedoms a respectable teenage girl would have had in the 1890s, which is to say, none. (She has a mild freak out when she finds herself on such wildly bohemian sprees as hanging out with two friends, one of them a boy, and cooking supper for themselves without any adult supervision, in the middle of the afternoon, at the age of 16.)

Said boy is named Andre; he has a bit better claim to bohemianism, being the son of a French civil servant with aspirations of becoming a sculptor. Jane, naturellement, falls in love with him. He does the honorable thing and—before they get past several longing looks and a smooch or two—goes to her father to ask for her hand. Jane’s mother hits the roof, goes right on through, and is last seen sailing over Lake Michigan, and even her doting father puts his grim face on. They lay down the law: Cease all contact for the next four years, and if by then you two crazy kids still keep in your breasts the eternal flame (at the ripe old ages of 21 and 23, respectively) well, then we’ll see.

Faced with the choice of eloping with her lover or being entirely cut off from him for the next four years….Jane basically never considers eloping with her lover and meekly accepts being cut off from him for the next four years. They part tearfully, and Jane grows a smallish pair and forces her mother to let her attend Bryn Mawr, in order to get out of the house and further her intellectual development, in that order.

Jane loves Brynn Mawr, flitting though some of her classes but digging up on poetry and history and generally being all stimulated and whatnot. She also enjoys rooming with one of her best friends from back home, Agnes, a whip-smart but regrettably plain girl who comes from a much poorer family than Jane’s. But at the close of her second year at college, Jane’s older sister gets married and moves out of the house. Jane’s mother, lonely and anxious that Jane should make her debut and hook up with a young man of the non-French, non-artistic, non-starving kind, asks her not to go back for her third. And Jane agrees.

After several months at home, Jane meets a young fellow named Stephen, from an old Boston family, newly arrived in Chicago to be trained up as a banker. Stephen’s making calf-eyes at her almost immediately, but Jane stiff-arms him for months as she waits for her 21st birthday to roll around, as she’s still carrying a torch for Andre. The pressure’s getting pretty intense for her to get hitched, however, as the Spanish-American War has broken out and Stephen’s signed up with the Rough Riders, and is pulling the ol’ faithful, “Perhaps, if I live,” routine. Her faith is not proved foolish however, as shortly after her birthday, a letter indeed arrives from her old flame.

It contents are less pleasing than its existence. Andre writes that he’s a bit nervous and ambivalent, as he not sure she still cares for him, but he would very much like to see her. But his sculpting career is actually going quite well at the moment, and he’s just been awarded a prestigious prize which comes along with a fellowship. He plans to accept, and as a result, he may not be able to get to America for many months. Kthxbai.

Jane, who’s left a doleful Stephen at the bottom of the stairs in his doughboy uniform in order to read the letter, throws a hissy. Basically, she’d been carrying this romantic ideal in her head that Andre’d drop everything for her, and when he choose his work over their reunion she decided upon the instant that she’s been a fool, and writes back a sniffy letter telling him don’t bother thanks, she’s going to marry Stephen instead.

And so she does. She then had three kids, two girls and a boy, and for the next fifteen years or so leads the quiet life of the wealthy wife of a staid banker. Stifled and bored, something finally comes along to break up the monotony: On a visit to her old friend Anges, now living in New York, Jane meets Agnes’s husband, Jimmy Trent, a n’er-do-well composer/critic who just happens to be planning an extended stay in Chicago to take a temporary post as a reviewer for a big paper there.

After a prolonged tête-à-tête on the train back, Jane begins to feel a little fluttery over Jimmy, and he mounts an earnest campaign for her heart and/or pants. He’s over the house all the time, charms the kids, hell, he even gets along with her husband. When he finally makes his pass, however, Jane gives him the boot immediately, horrified at the idea of disgracing her family. He mopes off to Europe (abandoning Agnes, and his daughter) and eventually ends up drafted into the German army and killed at the front early in WWI. Jane sheds a few tears and forgets ‘im.

That brief spark of romance is the last she is to have; while Jane remains our protagonist, the action now shifts to the younger generation, Jane’s kids and their cousins and friends, seen through Jane’s eyes. Her eldest daughter marries her first cousin, another young soldier about to be posted to the front. A few years go by, she has a few kids, and here things begin to take a turn.

A series of deliberate parallels are set up between Jane’s generation and that of her children, with her eldest daughter standing in for her, and her younger kids mimicking the lives of their aunt and uncle, Stephen’s sibling. Except when Jane’s daughter grows bored with her marriage and falls for a new man, she decides to chuck it all, divorce her husband, move to Europe and marry the new guy. And when her other two kids unexpectedly come into an inheritance, they seize their chance to break free of Jane and her set, with the son, rather Niles Crane-ishly, buying a town house on Beacon Hill and getting into antiquing while her daughter buys a farm, starting a dog-breeding business together with a “friend” with whom she also shares a pied-a-terre in the city where they can entertain their musical theater friends. While wearing bobbed hair and men’s silk pajamas.

Jane frets about all of these developments. She’s disappointed in her son’s decision to move away, confounded by her younger daughter’s smart set friends, and disappointed and ashamed of her eldest daughter’s decision to divorce. And though she knows it’s her and not them who are out of temper with the times, she worries that none of them will end up happy. As she has, pretty much, with Stephen. Bored, but happy.

Her acceptance of her fate and approval of her own decision is sealed by a reunion with Andre in the book’s final pages, when she travels to Paris to witness her daughter’s second marriage. For Andre, though he remembers her fondly, has grown old and cynical during his own unhappy marriage to a younger woman, and tells her ruefully that maybe it was better that they never got together, since they’d inevitably have wearied of each other. Jane takes his assessment as confirmation that she was right to write him off years ago, and rides back to Stephen, comforted, conventional, and safe as she was when she started the book.

Hollywood Santa - check out those pearly whites!

I’m doing some research today on early 20th century Christmas postcards before I start posting them on eBay. Turns out the jolly, red-suited, chubby-cheeked modern Santa Claus we all know and love is really a product of the Coca Cola company — created for a 1920s advertising campaign and popular ever since.  Prior to that, images of Santa were quite varied.  He was skinny, fat, tall, short, and wore suits of many colors, not just red.  Most of these old images are very charming and quaint, but some are funny and even a little bit strange by today’s standards.   Here are a few of my favorites:

Stamps, postmen, writing technology ( Victorian laptop!) and beautiful copperplate handwritten letters, Newquay Zoo's archive collection of Victorian life, Darwin's 200th Birthday launch weekend, February 2009, Newquay Zoo

24th November 1859 - 150 years ago this week, Darwin’s world-changing  book On The Origin Of Species is sold out , a bestseller in its first week. To commemorate this book and as part of , 200 copies of Charles Darwin: A Celebration in Stamps arrive from the printers to Edinburgh Zoo and Newquay Zoo. Watch this space for more news about this publication, designed for educational use in schools.

Meanwhile you could spend a whole lesson looking at the objects in the photo and how they have changed, evolved, been redesigned, updated (or in the case of the hand written love poem, not!)

Here are working concept sketches for our next two releases.

Adantine

Adantine is a display face in late Victorian decorative style, gently oblique and with a sense of refined movement, all capitals of a single height but with subtle distinctions between the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ case glyphs.  It offers an air of delicate distinction combined with legibility.

Corvone

Corvone takes us to the heady days of the 30s and the heights of Art deco.   It’s heavy, forceful and clear and yet has a subtle sense of fun.  It lets you shout loudly in a refined sort of way!

Designed by J.T.Rochhead,  who also designed the Wallace Monument in Stirling, the Royal Arch was built in 1852 to celebrate the visit of Queen Victoria to Dundee.  Situated on the banks of the River Tay at King William IV Docks, this triumphal arch in the Anglo-Norman style  was flanked by two smaller side arches, and surmounted by two central turrets.  The arch was 80 feet across and costed somewhere between £2,270.00 and £3,000.00 (£250-300,000  today) , and typical of much of the  architecture at the time it was funded by public subscription and harbour trustees.

Rochhead’s structure replaced an earlier wooden arch, designed by harbour engineer James Leslie, that had been erected for the Royal visit on the 11^th September 1844.

The arch was eventually demolished in 1964 ,  as part of the land reclamation scheme, and to make way for the construction of the Tay Road Bridge.  The arch was dynamited and the remains were thrown into both the King William IV and the Earl Grey Docks. Afterwards, the docks were land filled to accommodate the slip roads for the new Tay Road Bridge.  Much of Dundee in the 1960s and 1970s  experienced unsympathetic modernisation, with much of the old town being destroyed to make way for the unlamented Overgate centre, which itself was refurbished in the late 1990s.

The arch is almost indefensible as a practical structure, serving no more use than any of the other follies built in the period which remain scattered across the British Isles.  However as piece of whimsy and a statement of municipal intent it is every bit as striking as current works of public art such as Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North or Mark Wallinger’s ‘White Horse’. Despite the  excellent redevelopment work taking place in Dundee at the moment I can’t help feel that the city is a little duller without it.

New windows (11) and door fitted to a property over hundred years old, old sash windows and boxes removed.

Inside all window areas restored back to their original victorian effect using ogee architrive and upv architrive with 5″ window sills added and painted.

Each of these gorgeous and inspirational books was first borrowed from the library, but I couldn’t figure out how I’d ever live without them, so I bought them!

If you love knitted lace, you’ll be absolutely inspired by the authors’ insights and gorgeous photos and patterns.

Victorian Lace Today - Jane Sowerby – 2006.  This big paperback offers historical information as well as beautifully photographed works of craft.  There are lots of patterns of scarves and shawls modeled in beautiful architectural and garden settings.

A Gathering of Lace - Meg Swansen, editor – 2008.  Another big, beautiful paperback full of photos and patterns.  Thirty-four artisans contributed to this book.

Knit Stitches – Leisure Arts Little Books -1998 – available at Joanne’s.  Starting a bit ’smaller’ and more basic to learning lace knitting techniques, this small and cheap book provides 26 stitches, of which several are lace and can be applied to scarves, shawls, bookmarks, doilies, etc.

Kitchen Bright Dishcloths – Leisure Arts – available at Joanne’s.  Oddly enough, when I think about it, I think I really got into lace when knitting lots of dishcloths, when I started (again) to knit.  Very fun place to begin!  You can assess patterns, techniques, and yarns/fibers in an easy and most likely useful/utilitarian way.

EYOLA TARCOTSIRA OCTETTE

EYOLA designs are clearly inspired by the Victorian era with great use of bold jewel colors. Everything in this collection is rich and full. My personal favorite is the lengthy black long sleeve dress with a split down the front. I love something black and sleek with strong detailing.  The blue dress is beautifully vibrant and the red dress is perfectly dramatic.

georgeiidiningchairs241

Originally uploaded by canonburyantiques

Regal set of chairs hand crafted in England. Lots of dining tables to match. Canonbury Antiques

Since the holidays are fast approaching, I decided to look for some wonderful happy people illustrations to share.  The copyright free images I chose this week are from vintage Charles Dickens.  I have a set of books that are a collection of Dickens works.  The books are “The Anniversary Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, February 7, 1812″.  They were published in 1911 by P.F. Collier & Son of New York.

All of the illustrations I’m showing here are from Pickwick Papers Part I.  Because this is a collection,  the illustrations are done by a variety of  artists.  I’m going to present them in the order that they appear in the book.

The style in this illustration is distinctly different from the first.  I am not familiar enough with the history of the illustrations or illustrating in general to  state any facts.  I can share my observations.  It is unsigned by the artist and appears, with the cross-hatching, to be specifically designed for printing.

 When I saw the illustration above of Mr. Pickwick, I immediately pulled this book out.  I was specifically looking for some characters that made me happy.   With the demolished picnic set in front of him and his hand resting on a jug of spirits(?), he is the picture of contentment.

  The previous 3 illustrations are from a pre-1923 copyright book.  They should be copyright-free.  All the images have been uploaded to my flickr page.  They have been attributed to Creative Commons.  If you click on the image, you will be taken to the image on my flickr page where you can chose the size of image to download for free.

The Rogue in any other terms would be a real scoundrel, however the newest Victorian outfit from M’Lady Fashions is nothing but pure charm. Designer  Lea Demina brings us a very unique outfit called The Rogue. Styled after the late Victorian era that gave us the dapper gentleman. The outfit is styled so well that no ajustments were necessary to make this outfit fit. The designer gives us a silk shirt with a very textured brocade vest and a beautiful ruffle tie to bring it all together.

The Rogue!

She finishes the shirt with beautiful textured ruffles for the cuffs. The pants and jacket are both textured to give it that vintage appeal. The Designer however doesn’t stop there, she has added a beautifully styled hat and walking stick to finish off the outfit.

The dashing Beau!

 

 I have chosen a pair of the designers newest shoes called Dapper Strut. They remind me of the old shoe coverings called spats.

Dapper Strut!

This designer has included quality with style that is perfect to wear anytime of day or night. I suggest you save the address and drop in and see for yourself. The dashing beau brummell give this outfit a thumbs up!

M’lady Fashions  Lace (19, 65, 23)

Outfit  ~ The Rogue

Skin ~ SaWoDe  ~ Romeo- Tan

Shape ~ Killer- Maverick

ello Smexies =)

Thursdays one of those days when i feel a bit more generous than usual lol So this time i decided to move a higher priced dress to the happy hyper thursday section (items UNDER 51 L) FOR THIS WEEK ONLY Check the pic out .. hope u like it =) Each of these are 50 L only for this week )

If u like it , tp to the HYPER CULTURE mainstore now!

much <3

Crissy!