Saturday 20^th November 2010

Actually it was last Saturday, but this Saturday too, suddenly, without explanation, I am refreshed and powerful.

Saturday is my favourite day. Lunch on a weekday is my favourite repast – after a busy morning.

On Saturdays Poor Little Rich Gays shop, renew, re-make, re-style, revive; they banish decay.  They do not accept nor give lunch, they do not gallery or tour.

Last Saturday I re-plated my home. As you know, one of my biggest regrets is that, in early life, I chose the matching-set path. If only I’d gone harlequin, by now, like the late Claude Purcell, I could have had a fabulous collection of miscellaneous glasses, plates and bowls.

But no, I plunged tragically into the narrow, bourgeois prison of the matching set.

Is it too late? Last Saturday finally I went up to the china lady in Camden Passage (that’s an antiques’ mall in London’s heart) and bought – yes, a harlequin set ….of dinner plates. £180 for eight. Two thrown in for free. While I was about it I took two cup and saucer with a fabulous strawberry pattern and another Griffin-marked Rockingham saucer, which the Gay Granny always claimed, wrongly as it turns out, were tremendously rare. This one in fact was also thrown in for free, because so chipped and cracked.

I do urge you – buy old china, please do. I don’t mean the awful blue and white striped Cornish ware from the 50s or (ugh! ugh!) Suzy Cooper, so adored by PLRG and leading food writer and stylist, Angus Willis. I mean 18^th or 19^th century, all the old names, Worcester, Derby, Wedgewood, New Hall.

Of course not all of you have the advantage of an exclusive upbringing with a Gay Mother and Gay Granny who talked of nothing but vicars and china marks. But don’t be afraid. Launch out. You can get all these joyous, hand-made, hand-painted utterly exclusive and unique minor glories for just a few pounds, so infinitely superior to modern rubbish.

It’ll be coming back – old china. Buy, buy, buy before it’s too late.

When I got back from the china shop, buoyant with purchase, I re-styled my hall shelf. It has long been lacking and the entrada is so important. I pitched out some gloopy glass vases. I was going to put the strawberry-pattern cups and saucers but they didn’t fit. Instead I’ve got a plastic Chinese soldier given me by Aunt Lavinia from the Terracotta Soldiers Exhibition, a Wedgewood dish I had anyway in stock but not in use and an uncertain modern bowl moved from elsewhere and come back to life in its new place.

Last night at Robert Nevil’s I saw a bronze of a discus thrower which would be more perfect for my hall. But he kicked up a fuss when I put it in my bag.

Poor Little Rich Gays cling on to their possessions in unexpected ways.

My New Old Harlequin Set of Dinner Plates

Strawberry Pattern Cup and Saucer

My Hall Shelf Before Re-Styling

My Hall Shelf After Re-Styling