John English Gifts 2003

From Marilyn on 6th September 2003 and revised on 29th November 2006. Please note that photos of the event are analogue scans which accounts for the lower quality.

Breakfast at Fortnums
30th August 2003 10.30am

As our train was running late I made a couple of pleas to Stephen from our mobile - Please Hold the Pastries. This was after all the only thing husband Chris was coming for! After a quick taxi dash across a quiet Saturday for Central London we caught up. At least one other couple at our table had a fraught journey. A bit like the Dickens Event... If I didn't know about our public transport, I'd think there was a jinx on Hazle Signings!

And so it was that we settled into the quiet opulence of St James' Restaurant on the Fourth Floor of Fortnum & Mason. A calm oasis of soft green and white. And being waited on by persons in uniform! It was breakfast or elevenses depending on your point of view - or the time you got up. I lost count of quite how many scrummy cakes Chris managed to eat - and so did he! Thank you Hazle and Stephen for laying on this treat.

After ample opportunity to stuff and stare, it was time for The Talk, given by Robert Marsham who clearly relished the task. He has been at Fortnums since 1987 and is currently the Catering Manager. Many people think of Fortnums as a posh grocer. So it was fascinating to learn just how much The Story of Fortnum & Mason is interwoven with national and world events. A separate feature follows this.

Robert mentioned that Hazle might do a ceramic of Fortnum & Mason which naturally brought the story back to us. After The Talk it was time for The Tour of the Store. The forty or so collectors were split into smaller groups each with a guide who directed us to works of art and period features along the way.

In Gifts & Collectibles, we saw Russian trinket boxes with intricate hand paintings on gold and silver embossed lids. In Jewellery (photo below) we were shown an unusual "star sapphire". All sapphires are polished first and any with an inner star are cut in a dome-shape rather than faceted, which would destroy it. We also saw an "emerald-cut" diamond. A snip at £120,000. Due to one very, very small area of misting under an electron microscope, it was classified as VVS1 rather than "internally flawless". It was also colour E rather than a perfect D. That was the clincher - I decided not to buy!

Everyone's inner child enjoyed the Toy Department with its emphasis on wooden and traditional. In the Basement, Christmas already in full swing in August scared the adult in us! And finally the piece de resistance - the Food Hall on the ground floor which for many is Fortnum & Mason. Collectors planned to return here later.

The Signing
Princes Arcade
12.30pm

It was just a croissant throw to John English Gifts' temporary shop in Princes Arcade. The first hour or so was a sort of "feeding frenzy" of a far less genteel nature than Breakfast at Fortnums! Brian Pannaman had created different order forms in blue, pink and green. Trouble was neither Hazle, Stephen nor his helpers knew how to use them. Organised pandemonium... where eventually you carried your order form to Brian, holding fort in his permanent premises at the other end of the arcade, who took the money! The queue never quite stretched from one shop to the other.

From Marilyn on 28th November 2006. With no digital camera at the event, a selection of Signing Specials have been added now:

The Ceramics

Police	Pawnbroker	Wool

Police LP10
Apart from a Police Station title on the Victorian Post Office, this is the first special of this theme. Painted on Malvern, as a small town constabulary. Sadly these no longer exist.

Pawnbroker LP10
On Hay Bookshop. Hazle's second painting of the theme, with the first on Bath Chemist. The once familiar symbol of the Three Golden Balls, from the Italian Medici coat of arms, was brought to London by Lombard bankers. Positioning of the balls gives two chances to one that items at Uncle (slang from c1756) will be redeemed.

Wool Shop LP10
Again on Malvern, this Wool Shop has a pretty window of knitted garments and wools.

John English Gifts	Megawear	G Cox

John English Gifts (No 3) LP100
This third version, on London Prospect of Whitby, was launched at the event. Hazle Ceramics and Staffordshire Enamels are depicted inside the tiny window panes. The middle top floor window has the John English logo - hand painted in italic script.

Megawear LP10
On Oxford St Giles, this is part of Iona's series of zany shops from Camden Lock in London. There were other paintings including Fashion Frenzy and Boot World.

G Cox & Son LP5
Until 2003 Hazle resisted the idea of doing any specials on Marks & Spencer. Then earlier that summer she accepted two commissions for a Victorian grocer and a draper which turned out very well. This painting combines both themes.

The Story of Fortnum & Mason continues on a separate page.