Teapot Monument in the UK

Carole Miles in the UK has given me permission to post her photos of this Teapot Obelisk at Deene House which she took recently.
There is also more info about Deene Park here (click on the highlighted text).

What a fantastic idea! Carole said the obelisk was erected to celebrate the millennium and I really cannot think of a more peaceful and nourishing icon to honour in this way (I'm biased of course!)...at least its a symbol that everyone can identify with, rather than a huge bronze of some self-important person seeking representational immortality and only really know by a few! (I had Mariage Freres' French Breakfast Tea this morning and I'm feeling a little anti-bourgeois, even though Maison Mariage Freres is a modern bourgeois symbol!)



And a lovely detail of the teapot atop its perch!

Today's inspiration...

These amazing video art works:

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: Teacosy* Number 8; Sugarpink Colonial Cosy, 2008

I am holding a random lucky draw for this tea cosy as a special event!

Je fais un prix de cet couvre-theiere, comme une 'donation chanceuse' de Noel!

If you are interested in putting your name into the draw, please leave me a comment here in answer to this question:
Si ca vous interesse, laissez-moi ici votre reponse du question suivant:

What is your favourite tea cosy/tea drinking/tea party scene or paragraph in a film or novel?
C'est quoi votre souvenir de preference au sujet des cache-pots dans un film ou un roman?

I will then put everyone's names in a tea cosy on Monday the 22nd December and ask the Curator of Decorative Arts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Mr Peter Hughes, to draw out the winning name.
If you re-check this blog again on that Monday night, there will be the winner's name posted.
Ce lundi le 22 Decembre, je vais mettre tout vos noms dans un cache-pot en attente de la main de M. Peter Hughes (Directeur des collection des Arts Decoratifs au Musee des Beaux Arts de Tasmanie), qui va tiens un nom gagnant. Epuis je vais ecrire le nom ici le lundi soir, donc si vous reviennez voir ce blog, vous le sauriez!

Tea cosy dimensions: (interior measurements) 31cm x 24cm. So will fit a two or three-cup tea pot.
Dimensions du cache-pot: (d'interieur) 31cm x 24cm. Ce cache-pot marche avec un theiere du 2 ou 3 tasses.







Hand embroidery on silk, cotton velvet, transfer print on silk, antique needle lace, wool, hand printed linen lining by Aunty Cookie, vintage brass bits, printed hemp by Pippijoe of Melbourne.

Brodee a la main sur la soie, velours du coton, homme inprime sur la soie, dentelle vielle, laine, lin imprime par Aunty Cookie, cuivre jaune vieux, chanvre imprime par Pippijoe de Melbourne.

London Transport tea cosy

My sister gave me this tea cosy on the weekend.
She found it at the Queensland Art Gallery when she was there in the winter.
Thank you Renee!

On the trail of some family history...

So I went looking online for some information about my Grandfather, Clayvel 'Jack' Badcock, just to see what sort of a write-up he's got.
There's a great image of him on a 1930's cigarette card...



Its got me thinking a lot about the whole Australian obsession with sport(s) and how different, and in fact 'opposite' French culture is with its grand tradition of Art, Intellectualism and Beautiful Objects!
Australians seem to feel more comfortable with the humility and humble state of the human condition, always seemingly aiming for homogeny and the safety of mainstream popular culture. Why are we such an insecure culture? Why always a trend towards wanting to be someone else, or deriding our own points of origin...?

I think also it's the fact that I'm in Melbourne at the moment and it's a city which always makes me aware of the power of conservatism, even in the most multicultural of metropolitan environments! I keep seeing pairs or groups of people, men, women, kids...all dressed as each other, matching! Is life so very frightening that people here feel that safety is in wearing black, or copying Paris Hilton's latest Long-cardigan-and-slim-jeans-and-long-leather-boots-with-a-floppy-cap-and-big-shoulder-bag look?!

This brings me back to the floppy cap...the Baggy Green cricket cap my Grandfather is wearing in another of his Cigarette Card portraits (not included here). Its an iconic garment/accessory and its function is more symbolic than physical. I think of the two my Grandfather had, my cousin has one and the other is in the National Cricket Museum, if such a thing exists...I cannot remember where it is.

I have his travelling trunk from the 1938 World Tour to England via Europe and Egypt. If anyone is interested, my Grandfather made a silent film of the whole trip which is in the National Film Archives and has been put on video. Its a really fascinating documented event...and my Grandfather being the sparky provocateur he was, has spliced in shorts of the local Cataract Gorge in Launceston when it was in flood...right in the middle of the Swiss Alps!!

So I think what I'm really pondering here is how and where do I fit in to all of this...and how can it benefit the Teacosy* Revolution?!

There are aspects of my Grandfather's story that inspire me and that I wish to adopt and assimilate into the Revolution in order to keep a sense of diversity and inclusiveness, especially where sport is concerned...and yet it must not dominate the Revolution (the sport, that is!)...I will weave together a magic combination of Australian and French cultural sensibilities to create my ever growing Teacosy* Revolution Manifesto...which I really want some time to work on and get finished...life can be quite frustrating like this sometimes!

So we raise our tea cups to all the women and men in sport, and especially cricket, as they break for tea, mid-match, and enjoy the socio-cultural patina of an iconic pastime...Here's to you, Gamp*!

*Gamp was the name his first Grandchild gave Cleyvel 'Jack' Badcock, of Exton, Tasmania in the late 1960's!

A conversation over Afternoon Tea yesterday...

Yesterday friends, Sally Rees and her husband Matt came by to drop some artwork off to me, and I showed them some antique magazines from a farm auction I went to on the weekend. One magazine, a 1906 copy of 'The Australian Hen' poultry keepers magazine had this advertisement which Sally thinks is hilarious....so I thought I'd share it with you too!

I find Afternoon Tea conversations so very stimulating!
I'll write in the next post about the willow patterned enamel teapot I missed out on at auction......