Hello everyone, I hope those of you in Britain are enjoying the Coronation weekend although sadly the sun has not been shining on King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla, nor indeed all the folk who held street parties in their neighbourhoods – such a shame, but that’s Blighty for you. We never do know what weather will turn up for any occasion, even Royal ones. I have been enjoying time at home, preparing food for two lunches, one with friends today and another with family tomorrow.
Further to last week’s post on my favourite view in my home, this got me thinking about the other aspects of the house that I really love and, as I have been in the kitchen today, I thought I would show you one of the arrangements of vintage items that is displayed in there and that I find very pleasing. Little quiz question: do you know what these items shown above are? This is a detail - the full image is shown later in the post and the items are listed. This is part of the “These are a few of my Favourite Things” series. Scroll back through the archive to see the previous posts.
You’re reading Home Truths, a newsletter from me, Susy Smith. I am many things: a parent of grown-up kids, a dog owner, a gardener and a compulsive mover of vases (I worked for years as a stylist). I am also a writer/editor and former Editor-in-Chief of British Country Living Magazine, for whom I still write a monthly column.
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They say every picture tells a story. I am inclined to think that every object also tells a story – they certainly do in my home and garden. I’ve been collecting ‘stuff’ for years – from markets, fairs, charity and junk shops and skips. Each one of these items triggers a memory - where I was and what was happening when I bought it, the friend who gave it to me, the person who made it etc. Then there are the interesting things I see and photograph when I’m out and about – a shop sign I like, a poster, an interesting building, a view, a plant, a flower. When I look back at these images, they too trigger memories. All of this together, makes up a life well lived. This series is about those objects, images and their stories.
#07 Vintage Kitchen implements
Second detail: can you recognise these items?
When my mum and dad died, each of we four siblings kept some of their belongings that we particularly liked or that had special significance for us. My mum painted, and each of us have one or more of her paintings. She was also a great baker: there were always cakes, scones or buns (I suppose we’d call them fairy cakes today) in tins in the cupboards and I loved arriving home from school to the smell of fresh baking and knowing that I could have something sweet to eat with my afternoon glass of milk.
So, I kept several of her items of baking equipment: a flour sifter, bun trays, cake tins and a cheese grater, not just because they’d been hers but also because I just liked them as “things”, but what was I to do with them I wondered? I am not a baker and so I was never going to use them, nor did I really want to just put them away in a cupboard. I decided I would add them to various other vintage utensils I have collected over the years and make a display of them on my kitchen wall. So here it is.
This wall faces the doorway into the kitchen from the snug so, as one enters, is one of the first things in view. It was just crying out to have something hanging on it. Therefore, I decided, it would be the perfect place for my collection. I thought very carefully about how I would arrange everything. I measured the wall and then created a similar space on the kitchen table and laid all the items out, moving them around until the various items seemed balanced with one another and the overall effect was what I wanted.
My lovely decorator and handyman, Steve, who I’ve written about in a former post, was the one that was actually going to have to put my plans into action, but I knew he could turn his hand to pretty much anything, so I was in no doubt that he’d be able to sort this one out. He was a bit perplexed initially, when I explained what I wanted him to do and showed him the layout of utensils on the table. He had to puzzle over it for a while to decide on the best way to actually hang the items on the wall with various screws and hooks. But as you can see, he managed it and, when I came home from work that day, there it was, my “arrangement d’objets trouvé.”
It gives me so much pleasure when I walk into my kitchen, the wirework items look particularly good against the white wall, and I do use some of the items now and again, so they are easy to unhook. Others are permanently fixed so I have more modern versions of them that I employ for cooking. Look at that potato masher on the right hand side. It has a handmade wooden handle (half of it is missing since a dog from a previous life chewed it!) with thick twisted wire making up the mashing part. I’ve never used it as it’s too fragile and I’m not sure how effective it would be.
Everything is based around the unusual pine cupboard. I bought this years ago at The Country Living Fair from one of our exhibitors, craftsman and carpenter, Steve Handley. He makes the doors for these quirky cupboards from vintage pastry, bread and chopping boards. The shell and the shelves inside are reclaimed pine and the doors are decorated with sundry old kitchen implements and there are usually words burnt into the surface. Each one is unique and I found it really hard to choose which one I most wanted. I eventually chose this one which features two vintage butter pats, three wooden spoons and two petit fours cases, with the words “butter” and “cakes”.
Displayed around it are the following:
Top row: two metal bun tins that belonged to my mum. She always made a choice of currant buns or chocolate buns with melted chocolate spread on top. Guess which one I chose! A wire, chip-frying basket and my mum’s icing-sugar sifter. She used to use this when she made a Victoria sponge to give it its signature frosting of white
On top of the cupboard: a vintage Hovis bread tin, cylindrical tins my mother used for baking English Madeleines each coated with coconut and with a glacé cherry on top, and a jelly mould
Right of the cupboard: A carpet beater, two cheese graters, one belonged to my mum, a heart shaped pastry cutter, two whisks, a ladle, an enamelled fat skimmer, a potato masher and a cooling rack
Below the cupboard: a chestnut roaster, two trivets and a pair of scissors
On the work surface there are: food boards, a fluted metal tub containing butter pats, wooden tongs and a washing up brush. Next to it a tray of “gubbins” pots for such items as twine, wire, labels etc. I don’t really keep anything in them, I just like the look of them.
So these are a few of my favourite things. I hope you like them.
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Thank you Ruth. Your china collection sounds lovely. There is something very pleasing in knowing one is continuing a tradition and thinking about all the times when dishes and utensils have been used in the past.
Beautifully displayed . We have little free wall space but our kitchen is designed around my great grandparents dinner service displayed in an old pine dresser. So we radically opted for pale grey and charcoal which in some lights looks blue and the dinner service with pattern April Border is a delicate blue / grey dated 1893 . We still use it high days and holiday but the soup bowls make for great pasta dishes every time . That way we eat from the same plates as four generations.