how the other half lives

spent a lovely day at Waddesdon Manor yesterday - the drive there and back was full of glorious autumn colour and light - Waddesdon was built by the UK branch of the Rothschild family as their country huse, for entertaining and impressing important and notable people - it is full of extremely expensive furnishing and objects, mostly french - not my cup of tea but i went for a couple of the exhibitions they had

this year i have been taking more notice of antique embroidery and textiles - a recent TV programme on Opus Anglicanum was much more interesting than i had anticipated - work of this type is not seen much in this country as much of it was destroyed during the Reformation - although jewish some of the rothschilds took an interest in christian religious textiles and managed to collect some fine examples which are rarely exhibited, so off i went - not sure if this display alone would have made the long schlep around the house worthwhile BUT

... the displays of folded linen by Joan Sallas really were splendid! my photos don't do the work justice but here are a few anyway:

the exploding crockery light fitting was a genius touch!







although served in less grand surroundings, afternoon tea with dinky sandwiches and bijou cakes was well worth the wait and the journey - i'll have to make a really good excuse for a return visit