In the tv series Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie (played by Hugh Laurie) discovers the challenges of tea making while Jeeves (Stephen Fry) is away. He wisely refers to Mrs Beeton's book of Household Management for guidance. Trying to fill the whistling tea kettle with water without removing the stopper was the first hurdle to overcome. Fortunately Jeeves arrived back in time to complete the task
Bertie puts his feet up after his exersions while Jeeves takes over the tea making. Tea is served in Royal Worcester Raffles China cups from a set that is used in Berties flat throughout the series.
Royal Worcester Raffles Cup and Saucer
Above is a vew of the page Bertie is reading in Mrs Beetons book and some similar items for a Jeeves and Wooster themed kitchen found on eBay:
Bertram Wooster likes his cup of tea- in the afternoon he favors Earl Grey tea. In the Wooster residence tea is usually served by Jeeves from a silver tea pot and bone china cups.
Tea is served at Bertie Wooster's Flat in a scene from the TV series Jeeves and Wooster
In the above scene from the Jeeves and Wooster TV series tea is being served by Jeeves, played by Stephen Fry, on a wooden butler's tray. On top of the tray is what appears to be a Madeira style embroidered linen placemat.
Below is a solid mahogany butlers tray with brass side rails that looks like the one used on the show.
In the first episode of Jeeves and Wooster, the TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (based on "Jeeves Takes Charge" by P.G. Wodehouse), Bertie and Jeeves pay a visit to Ditteridge Hall. Above is a view of Bertie having his morning cup of tea while Jeeves prepares the bath and fills Bertie's shaving mug.
Jeeves attends to his morning duties
The props used in the scene are most appropriate for a gentleman visiting the country seat of the Glossop family - the scene was filmed at Englefield House, Berkshire.
Spode Sheffield Cup and Saucer
Bertie Wooster takes his morning tea from a Spode Sheffield Cup and Saucer.
Aloysius with Ben Whishaw in the film adaptation of Brideshead Revisted
Aloysius the bear with Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte, and Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder, in the acclaimed television adaptation of the novel (1981)
Similar model Teddy Bear, Ideal Novelty and Toy Co c.1910 (V&A Museum of childhood)
Aloysius, and in particular his representation in the acclaimed television adaptation of the novel (1981), is credited with having triggered the late-twentieth-century teddy bear renaissance. He was depicted by a teddy bear named Delicatessen, who was owned by the actor Peter Bull.
Delicatessen aka Aloysius in the Brideshead Revisited TV series
The original Archibald Ormsby-Gore (left), better known as Archie, was John Betjeman's teddy-bear, and the inspiration for Aloysius, in Brideshead. He was his lifelong companion together with an elephant known as Jumbo(right) .
John Betjeman brought his bear with him when he went up to university at Oxford in the 1920s, and as a result Archie became the model for Aloysius, Sebastian Flyte's bear in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
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ARCHIBALD
The bear that sits above my bed
A doleful bear he is to see;
From out his drooping pear-shaped head
His woollen eyes look into me.
He has no mouth, but seems to say:
'They'll burn you on the Judgement Day.'
Those woollen eyes, the things they've seen
Those flannel ears, the things they've heard -
Among horse-chestnut fans of green,
The fluting of an April bird,
And quarrelling downstairs until
Doors slammed at Thirty One West Hill.
The dreaded evening keyhole scratch
Announcing some return below
The nursery landing's lifted latch,
The punishment to undergo
Still I could smooth those half-moon ears
And wet that forehead with my tears.
Whatever rush to catch a train,
Whatever joy there was to share
Of sounding sea-board, rainbowed rain,
Or seaweed-scented Cornish air,
Sharing the laughs, you still were there,
You ugly, unrepentant bear.
When nine, I hid you in a loft
And dared not let you share my bed;
More aged now he is to see,
His woollen eyes have thinner thread,
But still he seems to say to me,
In double-doom notes, like a knell:
'You're half a century nearer Hell.'
Self-pity shrouds me in a mist,
And drowns me in my self-esteem.
The freckled faces I have kissed
Float by me in a guilty dream.
The only constant, sitting there,
Patient and hairless, is a bear.
And if an analyst one day
Of school of Adler, Jung or Freud
Should take this aged bear away,
Then, oh my God, the dreadful void!
its draughty darkness could but be
Eternity, Eternity.
John Betjeman
Note: Archibald Ormsby-Gore, better known as Archie, was John Betjeman'teddy-bear.
Together with an elephant known as Jumbo, he was a lifelong companion.
Betjeman brought his bear with him when he went up to university at Oxford in the 1920s, and as a result Archie became the model for Aloysius, Sebastian Flyte's bear in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
In the 1940s, Betjeman also wrote an illustrated a story for his children, entitled 'Archie and the Strict Baptists', in which the bear's sojourns at the family's successive homes in Uffington and Farnborough are fictionalised. Archie is here described as a member of the Strict Baptist denomination, riding a hedgehog to chapel, and enjoying amateur archaeology, digging up molehills, "which, he considered, were the graves of baby Druids".
Archie and Jumbo were in Betjeman's arms when he died in 1984.
Lady Violet on Downton Abbey seated next to her decorative Papier Mache table. This table appears throughout the series as a key piece of furniture in the Dowager Lady Violet's drawing room. Her servant bell is usually seen on this table which she uses to great effect to both summon servants and dismiss guests as the whim takes her.
English Victorian Paper Mache Tilt Top Table
Here is a similar table seen on eBay this week - click on the picture to view the detais - just the conversation piece to impress your guests. You can be sure the Dowager Countess would approve.
The holiday season is a great time for displaying Department 56 village collectibles and Downton Abbey fans who missed out on the now retired Downton Abbey pieces from Dept 56 can still find them for sale on the secondary market. The pieces are carefully designed as we can see from the Video clip below.
If you ever wondered about the lamp on the table in Mrs Hughes sitting room you may be interested to know that it is a called a Pullman lamp. Pullman lamps were commonly seen on Pullman railway carriages in in the Edwardian era. The picture on the right above is an example of a similar brass tripod Pullman table lamp and is an original antique from the era . I see more like it on eBay occasionally. Click here to see the current selection.
Lady Violed on Downton Abbey with vintage perfume bottle,
A vintage Grossmith Phul-Nana perfume bottle with original box is offered on eBay this week :http://www.ebay.com/itm/PHUL-NANA-GROSSMITH-ART-NOUVEAU-ANTIQUE-FLOWERS-GLASS-PERFUME-SCENT-BOTTLE-BOX-/232105110727. The Dowager Lady Violet was seen holding one like it in a scene from Downton Abbey. I the scene Lady Edith is visiting Lady Violet following the episode where she has been jilted at the altar. She delivers the perfume to Lady Violet from her shopping trip and Lady Violet remarks on the price:"A guinea? for a bottle of scent? Did he have a mask and a gun?"
The household wants indicatior is a much wanted Downton Abbey related collector item and this is one that is on eBay currently - click picture above to go straight to the listing on eBay.
Recent news about the Downton Abbey movie is sure to please fans and to heat up the demand for vintage collectibles again: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/19/downton-abbey-movie-maggie-smith
English Majolica Sardine Dish seen on Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey, the PBS series, was set in the Edwardian era, however many of the original antique props were from previous eras such as this Victorian Sardine dish, which is appropriate considering that household items in such a great house would have accumulated over years. Continue reading Downton Abbey Props: Sardine Dish→
