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For quality antiques visit www.TeaAntiques.comAntique of the month - Worcester Globular Teapot & Cover With Flower Finial, Beautiful Polychrome Floral Decoration, c1770
The smooth body of this beautiful teapot is delightfully
decorated with a very pretty flower bouquet on either side and single flower sprigs spaced
around these bouquets. These floral decorations are exquisitely painted by hand
and of striking colours.
More details of this item and other tea related antiques can be found by
visiting my web site at
www.TeaAntiques.com. Clouds Hill, Dorset - Home to Laurence of Arabia
In 1922, he resigned from the Colonial Office and enlists with the RAF under the name 'John Hume Ross'. Then in 1923, he resigned from the RAF and joined the Tank Corps at Bovington, Dorset, under the name T.E. Shaw. His routine life in the Tank Corps allowed him time to continue his ambition of writing. Lawrence rented the small house at Clouds Hill as a nearby retreat in which he could work on his book Seven Pillars, which he produced as 100 lavishly illustrated copies, printed on hand-made paper. He took on the responsibility of every aspect of the book's production.
His later work on Clouds Hill's decoration and re-modelling created a home
that was a cross between a tiny bungalow his parent had built for him in their
garden in Oxford and the archaeologist's house at Carchemish. For Lawrence,
Clouds Hill was a place to write, read and listen to music.
Lawrence was discharged from the RAF in 1935 and on 13th May he crashes on
his bike on his way from Bovington camp to Clouds Hill. Without regaining
consciousness, he died in hospital on 19th May 1935. Subsequently, Clouds Hill
was presented to the National Trust by his brother.
Above the book room, on the first floor is the Music Room. It was here that Lawrence would burn a log fire and pass afternoons reading and listening to music. In one corner of the room stands a wind up gramophone with an enormous sound trumpet. In this room Lawrence would offer his guests tea or maybe to join him for a tinned food dinner, eaten upon the specially low fire mantle piece.
This tranquil cottage is set in a naturalistic surrounding
with a hill to one side, this covered with pine trees, rhododendrons and purple
heathers. From the hill one gains a view over this delightful cottage which had
provided Lawrence of Arabia a perfect home in which to live and write his books.
One can still sense his presence when visiting this place today.
Clouds Hill English estate grown tea - can it be?
The Tregothnan tea is plucked from the tips of the bushes between April and October. Harvesting (or 'plucking') the tea involves taking the top two leaves and centre bud, repeated monthly during the growing season. It is these tip leaves that hold the best flavour and softness to create the perfect cup of tea. To maintain the same flavour for a brand of tea, they are usually a complex blend of different estate teas, as the quality from one estate can vary. A typical brand of tea may have around 30 different estate teas within it to maintain its reliable taste and quality. The Tregothnan estate offers several teas. They have their 'Classic Tea', which I have tried and rather enjoyed; Afternoon Tea; Green Tea and Single estate (as a limited edition).
The Classic Tea is a blend of the finest quality Assam and China type leaf teas with the home grown Tregothnan tea leaves. In my opinion, this is a relatively strong flavoured tea, that could be enjoyed at any time of the day, but would be most perfect as that early morning cuppa, when a stronger cup is often preferred.
Green Tea is also available from the Tregothnan estate; this a blend of Chinese green tea with their estate's own green tea. For green tea production the fermentation stage of the tea production is left out. Finally, for the connoisseur of tea, there is their Single estate Tea - a limited edition. This tea is from the first ever flush of English tea to be plucked from their estate tea bushes and is packed with an authentic identity label. there are very limited amounts of this tea produced each year, so it is expensive.
At the end of March, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Tregothnan estate and
was delighted to be given a tour of the estate by Jonathan Jones, the Head
Gardener, (Garden Director, pictured right), who was responsible for spearheading the tea
growing venture. In next month's Tea Clipper you can read about my visit to the
estate and my review of the tea plantation.
Tregothnan Estate For quality antiques visit www.TeaAntiques.comTo review past newsletters, just follow this link:
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My
antique of the month is this attractive and rare Worcester teapot, complete with
its original cover, beautifully decorated with 'polychrome' flowers, c1770.
This very elegant teapot is of a large 'globular' shape and of
excellent proportions. It is made of soft-paste porcelain and is typical of the
shape popular at the end of the eighteenth century.
The decoration on the domed shaped lid of the teapot continues the same
theme as that of the teapot's body decoration, with two separate main flower sprigs
with smaller ones dotted between them. The finial of the lid is of a moulded open flower, rather in the shape of
a buttercup and having a curved stem and leaves moulded onto the lid. This
charming flower finial has orange-edged petals and yellow embellished
stamens in the centre of the flower. The leaves and stem of the flower finial are painted
in green with fine black line embellishments to the leaves. This most charming finial to the lid of the pot adds such
elegance to the teapot.
Born
on 16th August 1888, Thomas Edward Lawrence was to grow up into a legend as
'Lawrence of Arabia'. He gained a First Class Honours Degree in modern history
at Oxford in 1910. As part of his interest and studying, he had visited the
Middle East to research his thesis on the architecture of the Crusader Castles.
This keen interest in the Middle east and travel took him to Syria in 1911 to
join the British Museum's excavations there of the Hittite city of Carchemish.
Here he remained as an archaeologist until 1915 and the outbreak of World War I.
He was then posted to the British Military Intelligence office in Cairo, Egypt.
During his time there, he became somewhat of an expert in the Arab provinces of
the Turkish Empire. It was he who sought to promote schemes for a rebellion. In
1916, the Emir of Mecca took up arms against the Turks, which started the Arab
Revolt. Travelling to Hejaz, Lawrence set forth on an intelligence gathering
mission to find ways to offer effective support. His successes in this led him
to have a long term liaison post with the Arab leaders. From this, he was later
to be instrumental in the campaigns which resulted in the capture of Damascus in
1918. Returning to England, he was personally committed to the long political
campaign for Arab self-determination. He believed that one of his own personal
triumphs was the political settlement reached at the Cairo conference in 1922.
As advisor to Winston Churchill, then Secretary of state for the Colonies, he
was successful in arguing for self government in both Iraq and Jordan. His works
took their toll on Lawrence who after writing his book 'Seven Pillars of
Wisdom', an account of his experiences during the Arab campaigns, he was drained
and on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.
Built
in 1808, Clouds Hill cottage was half ruined when Lawrence took it over and had
for many years only been used by passing tramps. He made it water tight and then
to fund its restoration, he sold a gold dagger which had been made for him
during the Mecca war. As part of the changes to the cottage, he moved a
partition wall on the first floor and put in a large window. This gave him the
perfect room in which to work on his book in good light.
In
1925, he is transferred to RAF Cranwell. He then bought a fifth Brough superior
motorcycle 'Boanerges'. Then in 1926 he is posted to India, where he writes 'The
Mint' before returning to England in 1929 and completes the purchase of Clouds
Hill. During 1930 he works on high-speed seaplane tenders, followed by the
supervising of the over haul of fast-target boats.
During
his life, Laurence
did not serve alcohol at Clouds Hill to his guests, amongst whom were ex-RAF
colleagues and famous writers of the day. Instead, he would serve them tea from
a teaset of his own design. He threw the first cup and saucer at his local
pottery, Sibley pottery, Wareham, they then copied it to make a complete teaset
for him. A replica of this very set is displayed at Clouds Hill today. The
thickly potted pieces are covered in a thick, dark lustre glaze. Not the type of
teaset designed for that delicate afternoon tea, but one that fitted the odd
lifestyle of Laurence and his home.
Laurence
was a clever designer of many things around his cottage. This included a special
reading chair, which he had in his book room. During daylight hours Lawrence
would read his books laying on his bed, with light coming through the window
behind the bed. However, in the dark, he would sit at his special reading chair.
This had a leather covered wooden frame and had a sheep's fleece seat and back
cushions for comfort. The wide flat arms provided room for two candles with
plenty of room for his cup of tea. Also, a tray shelf could be placed across the
arms and a reading stand placed for his book.
The book room also served as his bedroom.
The bed, to Lawrence's design, is a
wide low leather covered bed which backed against a three mullioned window for
light. This room had previously been a kitchen, but Lawrence felt that he did
not need a kitchen at Clouds Hill. He preferred to eat at a Café in Bovington or
to eat from prepared tinned food. Shelves around this room contained books of
English prose and poetry amongst other fine books, many by contemporary writers.
There were also books written in Greek, Latin and French - all languages that
Lawrence could read. There many were books personally inscribed to him by the
authors, including Winston Churchill, Thomas Hardy, Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells
to name but a few.
At
the other end of the cottage to the music room, was what is known as the Bunk
Room. This room had only been decorated in the last few weeks of Lawrence's life
at Clouds Hill in 1935. With very little in the way of storage space in the tiny
cottage, he made a bunk-bed with storage drawers underneath. In order to provide
damp proof walls, he lined them with an aluminium foil. Then just days before he
was killed by his motorcycle crash, he fitted the porthole window above the bed
to allow extra ventilation in the room. This is a real ship's porthole taken from
HMS Tiger which was in the breakers yard.
Below
the Bunk Room on the ground floor was the bathroom. Lawrence enjoyed taking a
good hot bath and he saw the hot water system at Clouds Hill as one of the most
important benefits made from the profit of his books. Today it appears much as
it did in a black and white picture of it, with cork tiles stuck on the wall and
a large steel shaving bowl on a wooden shelf across the bath.
Is
it possible that here in England we can grow our own tea? A few years ago, I
reported that tea plants (Camellia Sinensis) were being grown at the Eden
Project gardens in Cornwall. Well further to that, I can now report that there is
an estate in Cornwall that is now producing and selling its own grown tea!
The
Tregothnan garden near Truro have, after seven years of trials, established a
tea plantation. The private estate, which employs a team of gardeners, has been been
growing all kinds of rare plants and trees, including Magnolias and varieties of
camellias. Indeed, they were the first garden in England to grow ornamental
Camellias out doors over 200 years ago! It has been found that the tea plant
does well on the estate and now they produce a relatively small amount of high
quality tea for sale, available from specialist outlets.
I
was fortunate to have been given a gift of a tin of the Classic Tea, from Asako
Stewart, of Infuse tea, a lover and expert of teas. I was very pleased with the
results of making a pot of this tea for afternoon tea, had with a home-made
chocolate sponge cake, filled with gooseberry jam and topped with dark
chocolate. I was a bit worried that this tea might be a bit delicate in its
nature to be suitable with this rich cake. However, I was pleased to
find that the Classic Tea had a very deep, bright colour, with a complex and
quite intense flavour. It coped admirably with the chocolate cake, and actually
complimented it well.
For
the afternoon tea, Tregothnan have produced an Afternoon Tea which has the best
Darjeeling tea blended with their own estate tea, giving a tea with a lighter
colour and flavour ideal to accompany sandwiches and cakes mid-afternoon.
If you would like to find out more about this fascinating tea plantation at
Tregothnan, then visit their web site, which also allows you to buy on line at
