STILL LIFE 54 Candlemaker Row Edinburgh EH1 2QE and Little Red Book website shopping and lifestyle小红

STILL LIFE

54 Candlemaker Row

Edinburgh

EH1 2QE

Little Red Book website shopping and lifestyle

小红书网站购物和生活方式

Xiǎo hóng shū wǎngzhàn gòuwù hé shēnghuó fāngshì

我在爱丁堡的古玩店“Still Life”在四十年后已经关门了。 两年多前，一位年轻的中国游客喜欢了这家商店，并在小红书上发表了博客，吸引了很多喜欢我精选的老式英国古玩的中国购物者来到 Still Life。 这些受过高等教育的年轻人是令人愉快的顾客，我与他们进行了许多有趣的对话。

我很感谢他们所有人，但我现在已经 70 岁了，是时候离开商店了。

Wǒ zài àidīngbǎo de gǔwàn diàn “Still Life” zài sìshí nián hòu yǐjīng guānménle. Liǎng nián duō qián, yī wèi niánqīng de zhōngguó yóukè xǐhuānle zhè jiā shāngdiàn, bìng zài xiǎo hóng shū shàng fābiǎole bókè, xīyǐnle hěnduō xǐhuān wǒ jīng xuǎn de lǎoshì yīngguó gǔwàn de zhōngguó gòuwù zhě lái dào Still Life. Zhèxiē shòuguò gāoděng jiàoyù de niánqīng rén shì lìng rén yúkuài de gùkè, wǒ yǔ tāmen jìnxíngle xǔduō yǒuqù de duìhuà.

Wǒ hěn gǎnxiè tāmen suǒyǒu rén, dàn wǒ xiànzài yǐjīng 70 suìle, shì shíhòu líkāi shāngdiànle. My Edinburgh curio shop, Still Life, has now closed after forty years. More than two years ago, a young Chinese visitor liked the shop and blogged about it on The Little Red Book and drew a lot a Chinese shoppers to Still Life who loved my selection of old-fashioned British curios. These highly-educated youngsters were delightful customers and I had many interesting conversations with them.

I am grateful to them all but I am now 70 years old and it became time to leave the shop.

A rare Mid-Century toy-maker's collage

This is a cut and painted paper look inside a Victorian house by the noted craft toy artist, Yootha Rose. Rose worked for, amongst others, the Royal Family and a selection of her work is in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum in London. It is framed and glazed and shown in situ with some unrelated items sharing the shelf.

Locks of hair from Countess Spencer, Princess Diana's ancestor

Four locks of hair from Margaret Georgiana, Countess Spencer (1737 – 1814) ancestrix of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. From a box of photographs and miscellanea, a job lot,  in the extensive sale of property from the Howard Family, Earls of Carlisle held by Thomson Roddick Callan in Carlisle in December, 2022. There was a massive amount of material from this estate sold in 87 lots, some of which went very high in price, but these locks of hair were placed by the cataloguers in a mixed lot.  I purchased them from a bookseller who bought a number of the miscellaneous minor lots. The value and interest of such material is subjective but when I was shown them my reaction was, "wow!" and I could not not buy them.

The locks are stated on the antique envelope to be those of Margaret Georgiana Spencer, Countess Spencer. In 1754, she married John Spencer, a wealthy Whig businessman. The Spencers were ennobled in 1765. The King and the Prince of Wales are both descended from Margaret Georgiana by shared and different lines of descent. 

Locks of hair were articles of gift exchange among the living in eighteenth century English high society and are not considered to be "human remains".

 The first Lady Spencer was known as a philanthropist among her contemporaries. Her daughter, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, heroine of the tv drama, "The Duchess", lived at Chiswick House: one of the wrappers in this lot might be a billet doux to or from one of her lovers (there are no names used to address or sign off the note). The billet doux is on laid paper and has a watermark which has, unfortunately for legibility, been cut in two. The Chiswick House website discussed the love tokens of "The Duchess" on a page marking "Pride" a few years ago. 

The first Lady Spencer's granddaughter, Lady Morpeth, afterwards Countess of Carlisle, was given these tokens of memory and affection at Chiswick House.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was portrayed by the finest painters of her day and her resemblance to the Late Princess Diana has been widely noted.

I photographed the locks under electric light.

PROVENANCE:-

"Thomson Roddick Callan 15th Dec 2022 at 11:30am PHOTOGRAPHY, DRAWINGS & EPHEMERA. Lots 1 to 87 comprise a collection of mainly Victorian photographs in albums and loose; also lantern slides, drawings, sketches, testimonials & other Howard family related items (my Bold).

 i.e. the family and descendants of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle..." - The sale catalogue introduction.

Thence to the bookseller I bought these "Howard family related items" from.