Tuesday 28th November The first  of this year’s mistletoe auctions in Tenbury Wells – the crowds are out in force as usual – and I spend 30 minutes just trying to park.  The Auction Yard – now under the ownership and management of William Chase (best known for Tyrrells Potato Chips [don’t call them crisps]) has been revamped a bit – and the stock is laid out at the back of the site.  Tyrrells are […]

Monday 27th November –  and a trip to London for a meeting about Orchards with Sustain: ‘the alliance for better food and farming’  to discuss the national Leader+ funded (an EU-fund) orchards project.  This is a 2 year project – which, after a few hiccups on the match funding, is now well-underway.  The meeting was a chance for reps from various orchard and fruit groups to get together and chat, and hear updates from the […]

Saturday 25th November – and the Tenbury Wells Mistletoe Festival 2006 has now begun – the Christmas lights were turned on yesterday followed by the 1930s dinner-dance event. So what’s in the Saturday papers about it?  Not a lot in most, though there is a quarter-page in the Daily Telegraph, majoring on the threats to the mistletoe auction site.  This is the piece that I mentioned a few weeks ago – with the photographer in […]

I’ve just taken delivery of a pewter beaker and saucer, with mistletoe motif on both.  They’ve come, via Ebay, from France.  I’ve seen similar items before, but this is the first I’ve actually handled.   But what are they?  What is this strange object for?            Some beakers (probably more accurately ‘tellers’) I’ve seen like this are German, and I assumed this one was too, as the vendor described illegible lettering […]

A TEME delivery – 50 boxes of mistletoe from Tenbury to Hungerford.         Now I’ve had a fair bit of mistletoe in the car before – but never this much – all seats folded down, even some in the front passenger footwell.          Delivery was to a wholesaler – where I was suitably impressed by the vast numbers of Christmas trees being packed for onward travel – there were […]

I’ve been too busy for audio editing – but do have lots of material to upload – so there’ll be some podcasting soon.

New York, New York! – it’s a wonderful town!  Or so I’m told – I’ve never been, but did make a virtual trip over to monitor some more mistletoe art nouveau auctions on Friday.   I had my eye on five items, all 1920s Lalique designs, and all (to me) unaffordable.  But an interesting set, and a curious comparison to those in the Bonhams auction in London on Wednesday.   There were three Lalique Gui […]

A quick review of other mistletoe AN stuff – there’s a lot of silverware out there and these examples have all been taken from recent Ebay auctions.   Cigar, cigarette and vesta (match) boxes are a popular mistletoe item – and as with the glassware they’re nearly all French or German.  These examples are both French vesta-boxes.                  Note the mix of realism and fakery; the leaves are […]

A real live auction today, a change from that virtual Ebay stuff – at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London.   This afternoon’s sale was titled Design 1860-1945, and included three items of mistletoe interest, all from the 1920s (correction! – 4 items, one from c 1910 – listed at the end…)   The first mistletoe lot was No: 276 `Boule de Gui‘ by Edgar Brandt.  This was officially described as ‘A Cast Metal Paperweight, circa […]

Mistletoe and art nouveau – not a well-known combination in Britain – but big in continental Europe.  The form of the plant, the branching pattern and curves of the leaves were perfect for this type of imagery.  When linked to the special place mistletoe has in continental traditions, it is easy to see how mistletoe became a popular subject.  This week’s blogs will be looking at examples, and at a couple of live auctions in […]