I’VE got £100,000—surprise me.’ This might be the very best thing you could say to your craftsman of choice and, down side streets in Chelsea and in basements on Savile Row, these conversations are likely happening right now. This is the world of the ultra-bespoke makers.
Jeweller Theo Fennell opened his eponymous shop in 1982 at 177 Fulham Road. Almost 40 years later, with diamond and 18-carat gold Henry VIII brooches in his catalogue, he is an expert in bespoke work. ‘I’ve got very used to pre-guessing [what clients want],’ he notes. Life in the bespoke lane is a fantastically varied one. Where the Georgians might have commissioned full silver services complete with classical allusions, Mr Fennell’s clients can personalise their silver with emblems of their favourite hobbies. Almost nothing is off the menu: he has made personalised chess sets with the pieces ‘birds of prey, gamebirds or even, in one case, erotica—which gave a new slant to the word “pawn”’. Where his jewellery is concerned, even more doors can be opened— literally. One of Mr Fennell’s favourite bespoke pieces is the Yellow Brick Road ring, inspired by The Wizard of Oz, complete with an enamelled yellow brick road that led to a 13-carat emerald (city).
Denne historien er fra October 27, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 27, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
