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 her drawing room, which has taken on a festive air with a smart Christmas tree, expertly decorated by Lettice taking pride of place in the middle of the room. A collection of gaily wrapped Christmas gifts sit beneath its boughs, awaiting either for the arrival of their intended at Lettice’s invitation or to be taken to their intended by her. A garland drapes elegantly over the fireplace, the mantle of which is decorated with brightly coloured cards in the latest Art Deco style.
Lettice rises from her black japanned Art Deco tub armchair and goes to walk to the green baize door that leads from the dining room into the service area of her flat. She stops suddenly, remembering what Wanetta Ward said about her maid’s feelings about Wanetta walking unannounced into her kitchen, and thinks. Walking over to the fireplace, she depresses the servants’ bell, which she can hear ring in the kitchen.
Edith, Lettice’s maid, walks through the door, steps across the dining room and appears before her mistress. “Yes Miss?” she asks, making a bob curtsey.
“Edith, I’d like to have a word with you.” Lettice replies. Then, without further ado, she bends down and starts fossicking through the gifts beneath the Christmas tree.
“With me, Miss?” Edith suddenly looks perplexed down at her mistress’s derrière, clad in a deep blue serge skirt, as she moves parcels wrapped in brightly coloured festive metallic paper about.
“Yes,” Lettice glances up at her maid. “Oh, do sit down, won’t you Edith? I can’t have you standing about, cluttering up the place.”
The maid looks at what she calls the guest’s chair rather nervously. She feels awkward sitting down in her mistress’ presence on her white upholstered tub armchair, dressed in her black moiré uniform and lace frilled apron and cuffs. However, she knows better than to argue with her somewhat eccentric employer. “Yes Miss.” she sighs resignedly. She feels a blush warming her skin as it rises from her collar bones, up her neck and throat and to her cheeks as she timidly perches.
The maid watches her mistress continue her search.
“Ah!” Lettice’s triumphant cry is somewhat muffled as she calls from beneath the bauble decorated boughs surrounded by gaily wrapped gifts. “There it is!”
“What is, Miss?” Edith asks squinting to see what Lettice has. Feeling redundant perched on the edge of the armchair, she adds, “Can I be of any assistance, Miss?”
“No. No, Edith.” Lettice resumes her seat, placing a beautifully pink foil paper wrapped gift with a card tied expertly to it with silver satin ribbons on her lap.
“Then, pardon me for asking, Miss, but I do have a few things still to do before you and I go home for Christmas.” She looks hopefully at Lettice. “You said you wanted a word?”
“I actually have two words for you, Edith!” Lettice replies with a beaming smile, as she deposits the gift on the table and settles herself back in her tub armchair. “Merry Christmas!”
“For me, Miss?” Edith says in disbelief, her eyes widening with shock at the beautifully wrapped parcel between them.
“Yes, Edith,” Lettice replies with a sweeping gesture of her elegant manicured hand.
“Oh Miss!” Edith gasps. “I… I don’t know what to say?”
“That’s what you said, last year, however you still managed a polite thank you.” Lettice replies with a benevolent smile, smoothing down her dress.
“Oh yes!” Edith blushes. “Where are my manners?” She rises, drops a bob curtsey and then sinks back down onto the seat again, sitting almost imperceptibly more comfortably upon it. “Thank you, Miss.” Edith replies humbly as she withdraws the card from the satin bow of her gift.
Inside the envelope is nestled a rather sentimental and old fashioned card of Father Christmas, quite unlike anything Lettice has on her own mantlepiece, but a card greatly to Edith’s taste.
“This is your second year of working for me, Edith,” Lettice begins as Edith opens the card and reads it. “And once again you’ve been a real brick! I couldn’t have held such a wonderful soirée for Dickie and Margot without your help, and I know you hated talking to the Duchess of Whitby on the telephone.”
“Oh I wouldn’t say hate, Miss.” the maid defends.
“Edith,” Lettice looks her directly in the eye and says matter-of-factly. “If I hated talking to her on the telephone, I can only imagine what fear she must have struck into you with her icy tones, that nasty old trout!”
Edith bows her head but doesn’t reply, instead toying with the satin ribbon, gently working its soft presence through her careworn fingers.
“Well don’t just play with your gift, Edith, open it!” Lettice’s palpable excitement charges the air.
“Oh, it’s so beautiful. It’s almost too beautiful to unwrap, Miss.”
“Nonsense! Now don’t be a spoil sport! I thought long and hard about this gift for you, and I think it is perfect. However,” she adds tempering her tone. “I just want to be sure.”
Edith carefully unwraps the bow from the present and places the discarded ribbon on the green brocade stool next to her. The crisp sound of the foil wrapping tearing fills the air about the two women. Beneath the pretty metallic pink Edith finds a box prettily decorated with a still life of roses in a vase.
“Oh Miss!” Edith gasps.
“Well don’t stop there!” Lettice laughs. “Open it up. I was going to have them put it into a nice Art Deco patterned box, but I thought this was perhaps a little more you.”
“Oh, it is! The box on its own is enough of a present, Miss.” She runs her hands lovingly over the brightly painted surface
“Well, you may think that Edith, but I don’t. Keep going!”
Edith removes the box lid and finds it filled with a froth of bright blue tissue paper. Peeling back the layers she discovers the eau-de-nil Bakelite* mirror first, and then the hairbrush, followed by the shoehorn, the lidded box and then the frame.
“Oh Miss, I… I really don’t know what to say.” the maid says, holding the frame between her hands, looking down at its smart, slightly curved shape.
“Do you like them?” Lettice asks hopefully, her fingers steepled before her in anticipation.
“Like them?” Edith gasps. “I think they are most beautiful and stylish things I’ve ever laid eyes on!” Edith stands again. “Thank you, Miss.” She drops another quick bob curtsey.
“Oh I’m so pleased.” Lettice claps her hands in delight. “When I saw your picture of Bert on Armistice Day, I knew you needed a better home for him than the inner pocket of your handbag.”
“I don’t know what my Mum will say,” Edith begins.
“Well, she doesn’t need to know, does she?” Lettice interrupts. “It’s the only photo you have of him, so you best take good care of it and put it safely in the frame.” She looks at her delighted maid holding the frame for a moment. “And maybe one day there might be a new photograph of someone else to go in there, but for now, put Bert in there.”
“That’s very generous of you, Miss.”
“Not at all Edith,” Lettice flaps the compliment away with a languid hand. “You deserve it for being a brick of a maid. I’m only pleased that you like it!”
“Oh I do, Miss! I like it ever so much!”
“And you can always take the brush, mirror, and I think there’s still a comb in the box,” Lettice cranes her neck and peers into the crumpled blue tissue spilling from the box where she can see the eau-de-nil Bakelite tray peeking out. “When you go home to stay for Christmas. I’m sure your mother would appreciate seeing some of the gift I’ve given you. Just don’t mention the frame.” She smiles in a conspiring way. “That can be our little secret.” She taps the side of her nose with her finger.
“Yes Miss.”
“And is your brother going to be home for Christmas this year too?”
“Yes he is Miss!” Edith gushes. “His ship docks in Southampton just before Christmas. Mum got a postcard from Melbourne just the other week. He’s been a saloon steward on a ship that sailed all the way to Australia! Can you believe it, Miss?”
Lettice smiles indulgently at her wide eyed maid as she replies, “Goodness, that is a very long journey isn’t it? Well, it sounds like you will have a lovely Christmas with everyone reunited.”
“Merry Christmas, Miss.”
“Merry Christmas, Edith.”
Edith settles ever so slightly further back into the cushions of the tub chair and admires her beautiful new dressing table set.
*Bakelite, was the first plastic made from synthetic components. Patented on December 7, 1909, the creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewellery, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms. A plethora of items were manufactured using Bakelite in the 1920s and 1930s.
This upper-class Mayfair drawing room may look very real to you, but it is in fact made up of pieces from my 1:12 miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The eau-de-nil dressing table set, which has been made with incredible detail to make it as realistic as possible is a Chrysnbon Miniature set. The mirror even contains a real piece of reflective mirror. Judy Berman founded Chrysnbon Miniatures in the 1970’s. She created affordable miniature furniture kits patterned off of her own full-size antiques collection. She then added a complete line of accessories to compliment the furniture. The style of furniture and accessories reflect the turn-of-the-century furnishings of a typical early American home. At the time, collectible miniatures were expensive because they were mostly individually crafted.
British artisan Ken Blythe was famous in miniature collectors’ circles mostly for the miniature books that he made: all being authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. However, he did not make books exclusively. He also made other small pieces like the brightly decorated box, which is actually a memory box and came filled with miniature cards, keepsakes and even legible letters in envelopes! To create something so authentic to a life sized original in such detail and so clearly, really does make these 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 and through his estate courtesy of the generosity of his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The Christmas card on the table is just one of twelve handmade traditional style Christmas cards that arrived in their own Christmas box from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop in Essex.
The Christmas wrapping is actually foil from a small chocolate egg I ate during Easter 2021, but I think it does the job of pretending to be Christmas paper.
The elegantly decorated Christmas tree is a hand-made 1:12 size artisan miniature made by an artist in America. The presents beneath it come from various miniature specialist stockists in England.
The 1:12 miniature garland over the Art Deco fireplace was hand-made by Karen Lady Bug Miniatures in England and the 1;12 Art Deco card selection on the mantle came from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature store in England.
The Elite Styles magazine from 1921 sitting on the lower tray of the black japanned coffee table was made by hand by Petite Gite Miniatures in the United States.
Lettice’s drawing room is furnished with beautiful J.B.M. miniatures. The Art Deco tub chairs are of black japanned wood and have removable cushions, just like their life sized examples. To the left of the fireplace is a Hepplewhite drop-drawer bureau and chair of black japanned wood which has been hand painted with chinoiserie designs, even down the legs and inside the bureau. The chair set has a rattan seat, which has also been hand woven. To the right of the fireplace is a Chippendale cabinet which has also been decorated with chinoiserie designs. It also features very ornate metalwork hinges and locks.
On the top of the Hepplewhite bureau stand three real miniature photos in frames including an Edwardian silver frame, a Victorian brass frame and an Art Deco blue Bakelite and glass frame.
The fireplace is a 1:12 miniature resin Art Deco fireplace which is flanked by brass accessories including an ash brush with real bristles.
On the left hand side of the mantle, behind the cards, you can just glimpse the turquoise coloured top of an Art Deco metal clock hand painted with wonderful detail by British miniature artisan Victoria Fasken.
In the middle of the mantle is a miniature artisan hand painted Art Deco statue on a “marble” plinth. Made by Warwick Miniatures in England, it is a 1:12 copy of the “Theban Dancer” sculpture created by Claire-Jeanne-Roberte Colinet in 1925.
The carpet beneath the furniture is a copy of a popular 1920s style Chinese silk rug, and the geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.