Quite often on our antiques-hunting jaunts around England we are reminded of our personal history and roots. We love to re-acquaint ourselves with ancestral landscapes and people.
Hiya Keziah...Good Day Dora May!
Our trip to the IACF Newbury Antiques Fair took us on a journey, via the Midlands, down to the Home Counties which hold fond childhood memories for me. We stopped on the way at Compton Verney, country house home to several spell-binding collections of art. We were especially keen to see the Folk Art - we have a particular affection for our lowlier ancestors and their customs - the ag. labs., the shepherds, the carters and other country folk.
Our trip also included flying visits to the estates on which they toiled; Basildon Park near Reading and The Vyne, just down the road near Basingstoke...
Outside Basildon Park - pausing for thought before facing the ubiquitous Halloween witches.
Oops - and there's another!
One room has been transformed into a magical shell grotto in this neglected Georgian mansion, rescued in the 1950s.
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The sun shone on us at The Vyne, a house dating from Tudor times.
We thought that this fluted wooden dado was purely decorative until told that it was a rack of truncheons, for use against anti-Corn Law protesters in the 1840s. Mr N. said he would very much like to see a display of their own weaponry, used against the constables and their masters...
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The Reading Museum of English Rural Life was another must for us on this trip into the past.
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I nailed my colours to the mast when I browsed at the Newbury antiques fair - no jewels or finery for me, this time.
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Goodbye River Thames.
Farewell to Wallingford's antiques shops.
What a clever slogan!
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Love your smock, you just need a pitchfork like the young lad in the first picture!
ReplyDeleteThe three tippling gentlemen reminded me of the same picture (just a print) I bought at a Folk Art museum years ago....I sold it... now wish I had kept it! So quirky...
Julie x