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| My Isis Ceramics lampbase, vase by Alvar Aalto, Spode trinket box |
One of my favourite things in my house is my
Isis Ceramics lampbase. It's blue and white and handpainted, and I actually found it on eBay in Australia, and bought it for $20. These cost around the $600 mark new, and are hand made in Oxford, UK. I coveted anything Isis when I first went to live in London for a year in 1998. They were sold in places like the General Trading Company in Sloane Square, and I remember that Colefax and Fowler also sold pieces. When I returned home at the end of the year, I bought my mother a blue and white flower brick from the GTC as a gift. And then coveted that as well. Well, lucky me, when I found the lamp on eBay, I searched the sellers other items, and found that they also had two flower bricks up for sale. I bought them for $5. For both. I use them for flowers that have short stems, such as roses from my garden, or camellias.
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| My Isis flowerbrick with mixed roses, lambs ears, hellebores and bluebells from the garden |
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| Ginger Jars by Isis Ceramics |
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| Another view of the top of the black lacquer Secretaire in our Bedroom with the lamp. Tortiseshell tray and framed Intaglios |
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| tea caddy by Isis Ceramics |
Joe Nye, who wrote a beautiful book about entertaining "Flair" used a handpainted Isis plate for his cover photograph. I love the addition of the bamboo handled cutlery.
One thing that I would love is a whole dinner set by Isis - they will do an entire set where they handpaint scenes that are significant to you on the service. Unfortunately my Husband is a bit of a killjoy and has said no. So mean. I was excited to see though, that
Juliska, a US china company have produced a set in black and white. Unfortunately the Husband has vetoed that as well. He likes the lamp and flower brick (actually, he doesn't seem to have much of an opinion on the flower brick), but he doesn't like the service in its entirety.
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| Juliska dinner service |
