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 however we are northwest of Lettice’s flat, in the working-class London suburb of Harlesden where Edith, Lettice’s maid, grew up. She is visiting her parents as she often does on her Wednesdays off, and today she has been helping her mother, Ada, shop for groceries and the pair have been traversing the Harlesden high street. They have visited Mr. Lovegrove the local grocer where Ada has filled her basket with some of her household staples: fresh lettuce and some delicious looking apples, some McDougall’s white milled flour, Bisto gravy powder, Bird’s Golden Raising Powder, a jar of Marmite, a jar of P.C. Flett Plum Jam, Ty-Phoo tea and some Sunlight Soap and Robin Starch, the latter two which she will use with the laundry she takes in to help supplement the family’s income. Now the pair have arrived home in Ada’s cosy kitchen.
“Oh thank you so much, Edith love.” Ada remarks gratefully with a groan as the two ladies lift the heavy basket that they have been carrying between them down the high street up onto Ada’s worn round kitchen table. “You’ve been such a help.” She drops her blue beaded handbag onto the table next to the basket where it lands with a ratting sound.
“It’s my pleasure, Mum.” Edith replies with a beaming smile.
“I don’t think I could have carried all this home on my own.” Ada continues as she rubs her lower back, stretches, and makes more groaning noises. “Your poor mum is getting old, Edith love.”
“What nonsense Mum!” Edith scoffs as she plops her own green leather handbag on the table next to her mother’s bag and then unpins her black straw cloche decorated with purple silk roses and black feathers. “I’ve seen you wash mountains of laundry before. Your arms are stronger than an ox.”
“Well,” Ada chuckles. “Maybe you’re right there, Edith love, but all the same, I don’t seem to have the stamina I used to before your dad got his promotion to Line Manager at McVities*.”
“That’s because you don’t have to work so hard to help make ends meet now, Mum.” Edith remarks ruefully. “You can be more of a lady of leisure.”
“Oh!” Ada flaps her arms dismissively at her daughter before shucking her grey coat from her shoulders and hanging it on its hook by the kitchen door. “I’ll never be one of them, Edith love. There is too much to do, keeping house for your dad, and your brother when he’s home.”
“I did say, more of a lady of leisure.” Edith points out, emphasising the words more of. She smirks. “I’d never expect you not to be busy around the house, doing chores and cooking. You wouldn’t be Mum then, at least not mine.”
“Oh, thinking of cooking, I must put your dad’s tea in the warming oven.” Ada throws her hands in the air. “I nearly forgot! Where is my head today?” She pats the crown of her floppy black velvet hat with Art Nouveau detailing before quickly unpinning it from her head and hanging it on the hook over the top of her coat.
“You’re just excited about going out up The West End tonight, Mum.” Edith laughs joyfully. “Here, I’ll unpack the groceries for you, whilst you get Dad’s tea ready.”
“Oh thanks ever so, Edith!” Ada replies gratefully. “It will be yours and my tea too, love.”
Edith begins to carefully take items out of her mother’s basket, so as not to spoil and bruise the apples, squash the lettuce leaves, or damage any of the brightly coloured packaging of the other items, placing them on the surface of the kitchen table. Meanwhile Ada snatches up her apron, throws it arounds her neck and fastens it around her waist as she hurries over to the narrow door in the corner of the kitchen that opens into a narrow pantry. She withdraws a rather worn and well used enamel lidded warming dish which she takes over towards the kitchen range which has been warming up during their visit to the Harlesden high street. Balancing the dish firmly on the palm and splayed fingers of her left hand, Ada opens the stiff door of the warming oven with a red and white gingham tea towel which she places over the handle of the oven to prevent her right hand getting burnt. Throwing the red and white checked fabric over her right shoulder, she puts her hand into the oven expertly and gauges the temperature.
“Good.” Ada says with a satisfied sigh. “Perfect to warm up your dad’s tea.”
She slides the dish in noisily and closes the door again with the aid of the tea towel, groaning at the wilful resistance of the door as she does so.
“You know, you should get old Widow Hounslow to replace that old range, Mum.” Edith remarks as she takes the jar of Marmite out of her mother’s basket and deposits it on the table next to the packet of Ty-Phoo tea.
“What’s that?” Ada spins around and looks aghast at her daughter with wide eyes, as though the young girl has just sworn at her.
“You know as well as I, Mum, that that old penny-pinching landlady can well afford to take that old iron monster out and install a much more up-to-date gas cooker for you.”
“Don’t be so blasphemous!” Ada balks. She turns back and places a careworn hand lovingly on a part of the blacklead façade of the old kitchen range that she knows isn’t hot. “This old lady and I have been working together longer than you’ve been alive for, Edith love. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Miss Lettice has a lovely gas stove in Cavendish Mews, Mum.” Edith insists. “It’s ever so modern and easy to use. It has a thermostat so there’s no need for me to stick my hand in the oven to gauge the temperature the way you have to.”
“That’s lazy cooking, that is.” Ada scoffs with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“No it’s not, Mum.” Edith retorts. “The advertisements in the newspapers say it’s a way to ensure perfect cooking every time.” She goes on. “And because its gas, it doesn’t need coal, so it’s much cleaner.”
“What would I do with a gas stove and oven at my age, Edith love? I wouldn’t know how to use it, even if Mrs. Hounslow did install one for me. I’m too set in my ways and habits to go changing with all this new-fangled gas cookery. No!” She bangs the blacklead heartily. “I know her as well as I know the back of my own hand, Edith love. A gas stove might be alright for the likes of you, working for such a fine lady as Miss Chetwynd, but I’m content with my old girl. We rub along well together, even if we do have our differences some days. Thank you all the same.”
“Well, I still think Mrs. Hounslow is a mean old landlady, Mum. She never spends a penny she doesn’t have to on this old place to make things easier or more comfortable for you and Dad.”
“Oh Edith! Mrs. Hounslow’s a widow.”
“I know, Mum. You’re always using that as a defence for her poor behaviour. I’ve grown up hearing about how Mrs. Hounslow’s husband died a hero in the siege of Mafeking in the Boer War.” She releases an exasperated sigh as she picks up the jar of plum jam and goes to put it away. “But he left her well off with plenty of houses like this to let to the likes of you who pays more than you probably should for it, as well as a fine house of her own. I should know.” She snorts derisively. “I worked in it for long enough with no thanks, so I know how comfortably she has it, widow or not!”
“Edith!” Ada says with hurt in her voice as she withdraws the head of lettuce from her basket. “I helped you get your very first position with Mrs. Hounslow.”
“I know you did, Mum, and I’m not ungrateful to you for helping me get it.” Edith lets out another exasperated sigh as she returns to the kitchen table. “All the same, I’ve never heard or seen Mrs. Hounslow have to scrape or work hard for anything, and it breaks my heart to see you slave over that old range and blacklead it, week after week, when you could have something so much nicer that wouldn’t put old Widow Hounslow into the poor house.”
“Now, you know I won’t have a bad word said about her, Edith.” Ada wags her finger admonishingly at her daughter before reaching into her basket and withdrawing one of the lovely red apples she bought from Mr. Lovegrove’s Grocers. “She’s helped pay for many a meal in this house with her sixpences and shillings over the years. She may have even paid for this apple, since I still take in her laundry.” She holds the apple up so that it catches the diffused light which shines in weakly through the dirty kitchen window behind the lace curtains Ada made to block out the view into the dismal back courtyard and laundry.
“Well,” Edith folds her arms akimbo. “You know my opinion about you doing that.”
“I do, Edith love.” Ada says kindly in an effort to diffuse her daughter’s hot dislike of the mean spirited old woman. “And I dare say you’re right. There are probably plenty of other more deserving women in the neighbourhood who will pay me more for my services.” She takes the lettuce and puts it in a box under the kitchen trough style sink. “But she is our landlady, so I want to keep on her good side as much as I can. You should at least be grateful to her for giving us a stable roof over our heads all your life.”
“Pshaw!” Edith raises her eyes to the ceiling above. “That only leaks on occasion.”
“What’s that, that’s leaking, Edith love?” comes a jolly male voice as the door leading from the hallway to the kitchen opens and George, Edith’s father, walks in, his face bright from his brisque stroll home from the McVite and Price factory. “Hullo Ada love! Goodness is it Wednesday already, Edith? That comes around quickly doesn’t it?”
“Hullo Dad!” Edith beams.
“Oh nothing’s leaking, love.” Ada assures George as she allows herself to be embraced and then kissed on the cheek lovingly by her husband. “Edith and I were just having a disagreement.”
“A disagreement?” George looks in concern between his wife and daughter before stepping over to his beloved child and embracing her lovingly and kissing her on the cheek as well. “What are my two favourite girls arguing over? Not me I hope?” he chortles good naturedly.
“No Dad,” Edith replies, hugging her father pleasurably in return. “Old Widow Hounslow, as a matter of fact.”
“What?” George scoffs. “That old harridan? Why are you two even wasting a single valuable breath on her?”
“Oh, you’re as bad as Edith, George!” Ada pulls the tea towel off her shoulder and flicks it at her husband. “No wonder she takes against her so with you talking about Mrs. Hounslow that way.”
“I’m only speaking the truth, Ada love.” George replies knowingly. “She’s a piece of work and that’s a fact.”
“See Mum!” Edith replies in a justified tone.
“And speaking of the truth, I hope that’s my tea I can smell in the oven.” George remarks, making a show of sniffing the air about him appreciatively, which is starting to fill with the aroma of warming meat and vegetables.
“Course it is, George.” Ada says. “But it’s not quite hot enough yet. Even with Edith’s help with the shopping today, I’m afraid it was a large one this week, and we came back a bit later than I’d planned.”
“Gossiping with Mrs. Chapman, I’ll wager.” George replies jokingly with a cheeky smile and a wink at his daughter before settling comfortably into his high backed Windsor chair by the warm range.
“I’ll give you gossiping, George Watsford!” Ada replies, knowing her husband’s humour well and not taking him seriously. She gentle nudges his work boot clad foot against the flagstones with her own boot toe. “I have a good mind to feed that delicious smelling tea to the neighbour’s mouser** after a remark like that!”
“Perce wouldn’t like it.” George replies with a smile, not missing a beat since he has heard his wife’s jokingly idle threat many a time before. “So best you give it to one who will appreciate it.”
“I’ll keep half of it myself and give the rest to Edith then.” Ada laughs. “She appreciates it every bit as much as you do, George.”
“Mum’s been telling everyone that will listen to her that you’re taking her up The West End tonight, Dad.” Edith says excitedly, turning back from the large dark wooden Welsh dresser where she has just put the packet of Ty-Phoo Tea and the jar of Marmite on the first shelf.
“Has she now?” George asks, screwing up his eye as he looks to his wife, who busies herself filling the big kettle with water from the small kitchen sink to boil and make tea with.
“And why shouldn’t I, George?” Ada defends as she walks past her husband and puts the kettle over the range hob.
“Well, it’s not like your loving husband hasn’t taken you to the pictures before.” he replies.
“That’s true,” Ada retorts as she pulls the Brown Betty*** teapot across the worn surface of her kitchen table and lifts the lid. “Whilst you’re over there, pass me the tea cannister and a teaspoon will you, Edith love.” she requests of her daughter. She turns back and addresses her husband again. “However, it isn’t every day that my husband takes me to see a Buster Keaton**** premier at The Tivoli***** up The Strand.” She smiles with satisfaction before turning back to the table and starts adding spoonfuls of tealeaves from her cannister to the glazed brown pot. “And that, I think is worth crowing over.” Her smile turns a little guilty. “Even just a little bit.”
“More than a little bit,” giggles Edith. “Mum told Mrs. Chapman and Mrs. Lovegrove, and Miss Phipps and Mrs. Whitehead from down the Royal Oak******* whom we ran into on the street.”
“Edith!” Ada gasps. “You make me sound like the biggest gossiper in Harlesden!”
“Well, you just said yourself that going to see the premier of ‘Three Ages’******** at the Tivoli was newsworthy,” Edith replies. “So why shouldn’t you share it, Mum?”
“Exactly!” agrees George enthusiastically. “News will get around that there is much to be jealous of Mrs. George Watsford when her husband takes her to the fanciest new picture theatre in London’s West End.”
“And that will make you look like someone to aspire to amongst your workmates.” Ada laughs.
“Just so.” He joins in her laughter.
“I must confess, even I’m a bit jealous, Mum. Frank and I usually see pictures before you two,” Edith says with a sigh as she sits down at the table in her usual high backed ladderback chair. “But of course being the premier tonight, we haven’t seen it yet.”
“I could have wrangled tickets for you and Frank if you’d wanted, you know Edith.” George pipes up.
“Oh I’m sure you could have, Dad. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to go, but you know I only have Wednesdays off until four o’clock. What time are you and Mum going?”
“Six.”
“There you go, then. I’ll be preparing Miss Lettice’s dinner. She’ll be back from Ascot by that time. She’s been visiting a client up there today.” Edith pauses for a moment, takes a deep breath before launching into what she has been wanting to ask her mother ever since she arrived this morning, but hasn’t had an opportunity to raise. It seems an opportune moment to raise the topic whilst her father is at home as well. “Thinking of Frank, I wanted to ask you something, Mum and Dad?”
Ada pauses with the steaming kettle in her hands, just about to pour, whilst George looks across the table to his daughter.
“What is it about Frank, Edith love?” George asks with concern. “Is everything alright.”
“Oh it’s nothing to worry about, Dad!” Edith quickly assures her parents, who both release sighs of relief at her utterance. “No, but I was just wondering…” She pauses again.
“What were you wondering, Edith love?” Ada encourages her daughter, pouring hot water into the Brown Betty as she asks.
“Well, I just wondered whether, now that you’ve met Frank, and I’ve met Frank’s grandmother, whether it wasn’t high time that you met each other.”
“What a capital idea!” George exclaims, sitting forward in his chair, clapping his hands in delight.
“Hhhmmm,” her mother remarks, pursing her lips as she considers Edith’s suggestion. “That’s probably a good idea, considering you two are serious about one another.”
“Yes, Ada love, we should get to know Frank’s granny, especially as she’s his only close living relation.”
Edith releases a pent-up sigh she didn’t realise that she had been holding onto.
“Yes, your dad is right,” Ada goes on. “That would be capital. Have you spoken with Mrs. Leadbetter about it and asked her?”
“Mrs. McTavish, you mean, Mum.” Edith corrects.
“McTavish?” George queries. “But that’s not Frank’s surname.”
“And it’s Scottish.” Ada notes as she replaces the kettle back on the range’s hob.
“Mrs. McTavish is Frank’s maternal grandmother, which is why she isn’t a Leadbetter,” Edith elucidates with a smile. “And yes, she is Scottish, Mum. Frank is asking her this week when he visits her, and he and I will chat when we next see one another.”
“What were you thinking we’d do, Edith love?” Ada asks.
“Well, if it isn’t too much to ask, Mum, since Mrs. McTavish is a bit older and may not be up to hosting you and Dad, would you would consider doing a Sunday lunch for her here, like you did when Frank came over?” She looks at her mother, whose eyebrows are arched and her mouth screwed up in contemplation as her tongue pokes the inside of her right cheek thoughtfully. “I mean, it doesn’t have to be a grand Sunday roast. Mrs. McTavish is quite partial to stew and dumplings. Her teeth aren’t as good as they used to be, she tells me.”
“I’ll say yes,” George answers happily. “But then again,” He looks to his wife. “I’m not the cook, so it’s your choice, Ada love.”
Ada arranges her collection of beloved mismatched china cups and saucers and doesn’t answer straight away. “I dare say I could manage a nice hearty beef stew with some of my extra large and soft suet dumplings.” she says with a smile.
“And your cherry pie for dessert, Mum?” Edith asks hopefully. “Frank does love your cherry pie.”
“I don’t see why not.” Ada replies after a moment’s deliberation.
“Oh thank you Mum!” Edith leaps up from her seat and flings her arms joyfully around her mother’s neck as she kisses her cheek. “You’re an absolute brick!”
Ada chuckles. “There you go again with that new-fangled talk of yours that I don’t understand, but I dare say that’s a compliment, judging by your reaction.”
“Don’t be obtuse, Ada.” George mutters from his chair. “You know you’ve made the girl happy.”
“When Mum?”
“Well, you have a chat with Frank, when you see him next.” Ada replies, patting her daughter calmingly on the back. “And find out what Mrs. McTavish says. Then you can send me a postcard********* with details as to her response between now and next Wednesday. That will give me a chance to have a think and we can chat about it next Wednesday. How does that sound?”
“Oh that sounds perfect, Mum!” Edith sighs.
“Good! Now, you pour the tea, Edith love. I’m going to serve up tea for us. It smells like it’s ready.”
“About time,” murmurs George. “I’m starving.”
*McVitie's (Originally McVitie and Price) is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie and Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites in the city before completing the St. Andrews Biscuit Works factory on Robertson Avenue in the Gorgie district in 1888. The company also established one in Glasgow and two large manufacturing plants south of the border, in Heaton Chapel, Stockport, and Harlesden, London (where Edith’s father works). McVitie and Price's first major biscuit was the McVitie's Digestive, created in 1892 by a new young employee at the company named Alexander Grant, who later became the managing director of the company. The biscuit was given its name because it was thought that its high baking soda content served as an aid to food digestion. The McVitie's Chocolate Homewheat Digestive was created in 1925. Although not their core operation, McVitie's were commissioned in 1893 to create a wedding cake for the royal wedding between the Duke of York and Princess Mary, who subsequently became King George V and Queen Mary. This cake was over two metres high and cost one hundred and forty guineas. It was viewed by 14,000 and was a wonderful publicity for the company. They received many commissions for royal wedding cakes and christening cakes, including the wedding cake for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip and Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Under United Biscuits McVitie's holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.
**A mouser is an animal that catches mice, usually a cat, but sometimes also a small terrier.
***A Brown Betty is a type of teapot, round and with a manganese brown glaze known as Rockingham glaze. In the Victorian era, when tea was at its peak of popularity, tea brewed in the Brown Betty was considered excellent. This was attributed to the design of the pot which allowed the tea leaves more freedom to swirl around as the water was poured into the pot, releasing more flavour with less bitterness.
****Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American actor, comedian, and director. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". He was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas in 1895. In February 1917, he met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. Joe Keaton disapproved of films. During his first meeting with Arbuckle, he was asked to jump in and start acting. Keaton was such a natural in his first film, The Butcher Boy, he was hired on the spot. After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. He made a series of 19 two-reel comedies. He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), and The Cameraman (1928), remain highly regarded. His career declined when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic independence. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award in 1959. Late in his career, Keaton made cameos in Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, Chaplin's Limelight, Samuel Beckett's Film and the Twilight Zone episode "Once Upon a Time". He died of lung cancer in 1966, at the age of seventy.
*****Several years after the end of the Great War, the Strand road widening had been completed and a site formerly occupied by the Louis XIV style Tivoli Theatre of Varieties became available to build a cinema. Theatre architect Bertie Crewe and the architectural firm Gunton & Gunton designed the new Tivoli Theatre. It opened on the 6th September 1923 with music hall artiste Little Tich and others appearing on the stage, before the main feature film Ramon Novarro in "Where the Pavement Ends". A deal had been done with Loew’s Inc., for the Tivoli Theatre to present exclusive runs of MGM films concurrent with their American release. The exterior of the building was imposing, but quite plain, and was treated in white Portland stone. Inside the auditorium, the seating was provided for 906 in the stalls, 637 in the circle and 572 in the balcony. The Tivoli Theatre became the first London cinema to screen proper sound films when in 1925 DeForrest Phonofilm shorts were screened. Also in 1925, it was taken over by MGM/Loew’s and became their showcase theatre. Ramon Novarro in "Ben Hur" was a big hit at the Tivoli Theatre, showing twice daily, it attracted audiences of 1,200,000 during its showcase premiere run in 1926. As newer cinemas opened around the Leicester Square area, the Tivoli Theatre gradually lost ground to screening first run films and closed on 25th June 1938. It re-opened in August 1938 as a second-run weekly change house. Closed ‘indefinitely’ from 30th September 1939 due to the beginning of World War II, it suffered severe bomb damage in 1941, and its basements were used as an air raid shelter. It was repaired and reopened on 22nd February 1943 with a premiere run of Tommy Handley in "It’s That Man Again". First run films then continued, sometimes playing concurrent with the New Gallery Cinema on Regent Street. From the early-1950’s it was linked with the Astoria Theatre, Charing Cross Road, playing pre-release ABC release films. The Tivoli Theatre was closed by the Rank Organisation on 29th September 1956 with John Mills in "The Baby and the Battleship" and Peggie Castle in "Oklahoma Woman". It was sold to Montague Burton and was demolished.
*******Located at 95 High Street, Harlesden, the Royal Oak Tavern and Railway Hotel, as it was originally known, was built circa 1880 when Harlesden was at its boom as a smart middle-class London suburb, replacing a building on the site from 1757. The two-storey building featured Venetian blinds and a huge gaslight outside. This in turn was replaced by today’s 1892 re-build. Designed in the baroque style, it is four-storeys in height, built of red brick with stone banding and features a lot of ornate stone detailing. The Royal Oak still features its original 1892 tiles in the hallway, which depicts a Parliamentarian trooper hunting for King Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. King Charles hid in an oak tree, hence the name Royal Oak. Between 1914 and 1926, the pub was licenced by Mr. George Whitehead (thus Ada’s conversation with Mr. Whitehead’s wife in the street).
********’Three Ages’ is a 1923 black-and-white American feature-length silent comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy and Wallace Beery. The first feature Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in, Keaton structured the film like three inter-cut short films. While Keaton was a proven success in the short film medium, he had yet to prove himself as a feature-length star. Had the project flopped, the film would have been broken into three short films, each covering one of the ages. Three plots in three different historical periods—prehistoric times, Ancient Rome, and modern times (the Roaring Twenties)—are intercut to prove the point that man's love for woman has not significantly changed throughout history. In all three plots, characters played by the small and slight Buster Keaton and handsome bruiser Wallace Beery compete for the attention of the same woman, played by Margaret Leahy. Each plot follows similar "arcs" in the story line in which Keaton's character works for his beloved's attention and eventually wins her over.
*********One hundred years ago, postcards were the most common and easiest way to communicate with loved ones not only across countries whilst on holidays, but across neighbourhoods on a daily basis ‘de leurs jours’ with the minutiae of life on them. This is because unlike today where mail is delivered on a daily basis or , there were several deliveries done a day. At the height of the postcard mania in 1903, London residents could have as many as twelve separate visits from the mailman. This means that people in the early Twentieth Century amassed vast collections of picture postcards which today are highly collectible depending upon their theme.
This cluttered, yet cheerful domestic scene is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Inside Ada’s basket and on the table around it there are various foods and cleaning agents which would have been household names in the 1920s, and some of which are still known today including Marmite, Ty-Phoo Tea, Bisto Gravy Powder, Bird’s Golden Raising Powder, P.C. Flett & Co Plum Jam, Robin Starch and Sunlight Soap. All these items are 1:12 size artisan miniatures made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, with great attention to detail paid to their labels and the shapes of their jars and cans.
Marmite is a food spread made from yeast extract which although considered remarkably English, was in fact invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig although it was originally made in the United Kingdom. It is a by-product of beer brewing and is currently produced by British company Unilever. The product is notable as a vegan source of B vitamins, including supplemental vitamin B. Marmite is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, salty, powerful flavour. This distinctive taste is represented in the marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." Such is its prominence in British popular culture that the product's name is often used as a metaphor for something that is an acquired taste or tends to polarise opinion.
In 1863, William Sumner published A Popular Treatise on Tea as a by-product of the first trade missions to China from London. In 1870, William and his son John Sumner founded a pharmacy/grocery business in Birmingham. William's grandson, John Sumner Jr. (born in 1856), took over the running of the business in the 1900s. Following comments from his sister on the calming effects of tea fannings, in 1903, John Jr. decided to create a new tea that he could sell in his shop. He set his own criteria for the new brand. The name had to be distinctive and unlike others, it had to be a name that would trip off the tongue and it had to be one that would be protected by registration. The name Typhoo comes from the Mandarin Chinese word for “doctor”. Typhoo began making tea bags in 1967. In 1978, production was moved from Birmingham to Moreton on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside. The Moreton site is also the location of Burton's Foods and Manor Bakeries factories. Typhoo has been owned since July 2021 by British private-equity firm Zetland Capital. It was previously owned by Apeejay Surrendra Group of India.
The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder, which rapidly became a bestseller in Britain. It was added to gravies to give a richer taste and aroma. Invented by Messrs Roberts and Patterson, it was named "Bisto" because it "Browns, Seasons and Thickens in One". Bisto Gravy is still a household name in Britain and Ireland today, and the brand is currently owned by Premier Foods.
Bird’s were best known for making custard and Bird’s Custard is still a common household name, although they produced other desserts beyond custard, including the blancmange. They also made Bird’s Golden Raising Powder – their brand of baking powder. Bird’s Custard was first formulated and first cooked by Alfred Bird in 1837 at his chemist shop in Birmingham. He developed the recipe because his wife was allergic to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. The Birds continued to serve real custard to dinner guests, until one evening when the egg-free custard was served instead, either by accident or design. The dessert was so well received by the other diners that Alfred Bird put the recipe into wider production. John Monkhouse (1862–1938) was a prosperous Methodist businessman who co-founded Monk and Glass, which made custard powder and jelly. Monk and Glass custard was made in Clerkenwell and sold in the home market, and exported to the Empire and to America. They acquired by its rival Bird’s Custard in the early Twentieth Century.
P.C. Flett and Company was established in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands by Peter Copeland Flett. He had inherited a small family owned ironmongers in Albert Street Kirkwall, which he inherited from his maternal family. He had a shed in the back of the shop where he made ginger ale, lemonade, jams and preserves from local produce. By the 1920s they had an office in Liverpool, and travelling representatives selling jams and preserves around Great Britain. I am not sure when the business ceased trading.
Before the invention of aerosol spray starch, the product of choice in many homes of all classes was Robin starch. Robin Starch was a stiff white powder like cornflour to which water had to be added. When you made up the solution, it was gloopy, sticky with powdery lumps, just like wallpaper paste or grout. The garment was immersed evenly in that mixture and then it had to be smoothed out. All the stubborn starchy lumps had to be dissolved until they were eliminated – a metal spoon was good for bashing at the lumps to break them down. Robins Starch was produced by Reckitt and Sons who were a leading British manufacturer of household products, notably starch, black lead, laundry blue, and household polish.
Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight.
Also in Ada’s basket are some very lifelike looking fruit and vegetables. The apples are made of polymer clay are made by a 1:12 miniature specialist in Germany. The leaves of lettuce are artisan made of very thin sheets of clay and are beautifully detailed. I acquired them from an auction house some twenty years ago as part of a lot made up of miniature artisan food.
Ada’s beaded handbag is also a 1:12 artisan miniature. Hand crocheted, it is interwoven with antique blue glass beads that are two millimetres in diameter. The beads of the handle are three millimetres in length.
Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel, including Ada’s tan soft leather handbag seen resting against her basket at the right of the picture.
Edith’s black dyed straw hat with purple roses and black feathers was made by an unknown artisan. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. This hat is part of a larger collection I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
In the foreground on the table are non-matching teacups, saucers and sugar bowl, all of which have come from different miniature stockists both in Australia and the United Kingdom. The Brown Betty teapot came from The Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom.
In the background you can see Ada’s dark Welsh dresser cluttered with household items. Like Ada’s table, the Windsor chair and the ladderback chair to the left of the photo, I have had the dresser since I was a child. The shelves of the dresser have different patterned crockery and silver pots on them which have come from different miniature stockists both in Australia and the United Kingdom. There are also some rather worn and beaten looking enamelled cannisters and a bread tin in the typical domestic Art Deco design and kitchen colours of the 1920s, cream and green. Aged on purpose, these artisan pieces I recently acquired from The Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The large kitchen range in the background is a 1:12 miniature replica of the coal fed Phoenix Kitchen Range. A mid-Victorian model, it has hinged opening doors, hanging bars above the stove and a little bass hot water tap (used in the days before plumbed hot water).
