Some boxes for sale

I just love boxes - can't resist them!  So useful and pretty - perfect for storing the obvious such as hats, but for small precious objects too.

My favourite is the little green stamp box, but I also like the box with the mauve Limoges porcelain vignette - she's very elegant!

Nice little raffia and straw sewing box

a perfect starter sewing box for a child - it comes with all these bits and bobs, just as I found it.

A souvenir of Toulouse - once contained the famous Violettes de Toulouse scented goodies such as talcum powder and eau-de-parfum

 

This has a label on the top to send to a friend by post

This is a hat box, but the label has a furrier's name so I wonder if it was a fur hat that was stored here - especially for the summer, as the label suggests

It once was a brighter green but has faded with the passage of time...

This is a lidded box, again to hold a souvenir and this time from Cognac.  My guess is Cognac-filled chocolates - chocolate AND booze - nice combo!
 

It has a Limoges porcelain plaque of a very elegant Madame on the front

and my favourite, this little stamp box, with two compartments.

You can see more details here for all the items, except the green stamp box, which is here.

Have a good end-of-the-week!

 

Night attire for sale

I thought I would show a few of my favourite things I have for sale right now - night attire!  I just can't resist them - all French, and very different.

Lovely large red monogram of 'LD', decorated with flowers too
 

made from heavy linen, long sleeves, dating from around 1880
 

This man's shirt has a fine cotton collar added - for comfort, as old knobbly linen - chanvre - was very scratchy, and was uncomfortable for the poor, sensitive farmers to wear - they used to get their workmen to wear their shirts in first!

This shirt has additions and repairs - a little history in a piece of textile...
 

Now, quite different, is this satin slip, in salmon, unworn old stock.

A pretty scalloped edge and a little machine embroidery

two little pleats on the skirt, and a scalloped edge again

It comes in the original box and information sheet insert, dating from mid-late 20thc

This is an older slip - in heavy satin, with frothy cream lace added at the front hem.

It has rather pretty lace on the bust, and the slip dates from mid 20thc; this has been worn, but it is in good condition for the age
 

It came in this pretty box, which is included.

All these items are on auction this week on my Ebay page - here is the link for more information.

Have a good weekend!

Saga of the roadworks

On the left is our barn.  The diggers have removed the road surface and dug down, exposing the little foundations of the barn.  Gulp 

This is the neighbour's wall which has collapsed - the diggers went too far...

This is the front of our barn doors - hope nothing collapses here...

Well, the work outside our house goes on, and on, and on...  The noise starts at 8am stops at 12 for lunch, of course, then starts again at 2pm until around 7pm.  The diggers make our windows 'buzz'.  There is thick white dust which gets into everything, puddles of mud when it rains.

Our neighbour's garden wall collapsed yesterday and there is now a wrangle with the Mayor and the commune about who is going to pay for it to be repaired.  We all think that the company doing the work should be insured and pay for it, as their digger undermined the ground under the wall.  The Mayor refuses and says that our neighbour's have to pay as the wall was not in good condition to start off.

Incredible!

The saga continues... 

Hole in the ground, so big and sorta round...

Here is the hole that appeared a week or so ago, in the road outside our gates.  It's about a metre deep.  The works outside are pretty extensive - a new sewage and water system - but causing an awful mess. The workmen have started putting in rather nice cobblestones down the other end of the village: I hope they extend te cobbles up to or end.

In the meantime, despite the hole being plugged the same day, it is already 'dishing' and I do have my beady eye on it - don't want to be swallowed up like that poor man in US last week.  

Valentine's Day, antique French linen, & monograms

A very pretty nightdress, with palest, palest blue handmade lace trim and monogram -  I bet it sent the pulses racing all those years ago...

 and here is the twin - there are two of them, very similar but with just a subtle difference in the lace trim

 

Made from metis - linen/cotton union - warm in winter, cool in summer

 

And for him - a pure linen shirt, with a tie neckline and a red cross-stitch monogram, all handstitched of course.  Can almost imagine Mr Darcy wearing something like it.

The fabric has softened now and the red cross-stitching on the monogram is now a little faded by sunshine (remember that?) and laundering - these linen shirts must have taken hours to press.  I can only guess that they were pressed as to wear them without, it must have been like wearing corrugated cardboard!

And a most beautifully embroidered sheet - with a heart, flowers, ribbon and a pair of love-birds...

 
and the bride's monogram, lovingly embroidered in pink

and the groom's too...


Have a great week, and a lovely Valentine's Day!

A few bits of stock

A pretty antique French nightdress, embroidered in palest blue, with monogram 'RB'

 

A remnant of tweedy woollen fabric in blue, green and brown

Sage-green and white French mattress ticking, once used as a simple curtain

Beautiful pelmet, with green and blue passementerie tassels

An antique linen nightshirt with tie-neck
 

A morceau of 1930s floral cotton, a bit faded and marked but perfect for a little sewing project

'Captive Unicorn' - a 20th century wallhanging, from the series of famous tapestries at the Cloisters, New York.

A few little pieces of my fabrics - just to prove to mysef that I have returned to work and started listing the mountain of linen and textiles in my stock room.

Under house arrest...

Well, no not really - it's just we can't easily get out of the house because we are getting new drains/sewage system in our village, and now it's our turn to have the digger chew up the road outside.

Please excuse the lichen on the gates - it has been very wet this winter!  They will be re-painted when the work is done and the weather improves.
 

Doesn't it all look dismal...

Look at the road outside - the top layer has been scraped away - took them about ten minutes with a machine

They have promised that we'll be tidied up afterwards - in fact, we are supposed to be getting new pavements and if rumour has it, raised flower islands.

I just want to get out of the gates!