This week on eBay UK I see a cigarette box just like Bertie Wooster's (played by Hugh Laurie) in the excellent TV series Jeeves & Wooster. This is a vintage laquered brass Faux crocodile skin Marcovitch cigarette box and it matches the one seen in the screen capture from the show above.
CLICK HERE to buy it on eBay UK.
Jeeves in the Kitchen: Brown Betty Teapot
When Jeeves serves tea to Bertie it is usually from a silver tea pot and fine bone China. When Jeeves has his own tea in the kitchen it is brewed in a brown betty teapot and poured into plain white tea cups as seen in the foreground of the screen capture here.
The teapot used on the Jeeves and Wooster set appears to be a Price Bros. teapot similar to the one below.
This is a circa 1930s teapot by Price Brothers with a motled/marbled glaze and two beige marbled bands at the top marked Price Bros Made in England. I see a similar one on eBay uk this week: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brown-VINTAGE-Striped-PRICE-BROTHERS-Teapot-Made-In-ENGLAND-/263223522878
Bertie Wooster’s Glass Bowl
In this screen capture from Jeeves and Wooster we see an interesting glass bowl on the coffee table on the set of the Bertie Wooster flat. This glass bowl is seen on the table throughout the series. Recently I decided to search for one on eBay and found one very like it
It is a Davidson cloud bowl: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=davidson+cloud+bowl&_sacat=70031
6 o’clock at the Wooster Flat
At 6 o'clock it's time for whiskey and soda served by Jeeves at Bertie Wooster's flat.
Details:
Libbey Duratuff Cortado / Gibraltar Rocks Glass 4.5 OZ- Small silver Platter : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-Small-Silver-Plated-Tray-Platter-c1900-Thomas-Wilkinson-Sons/282614291430
- Marcovitch Cigarette Box: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-unusual-vintage-brass-crocodile-skin-Marcovitch-cigarette-box/172832023150
Jeeves in the Kitchen: Swan Percolator
Jeeves, played by Stephen Fry, in the Jeeves and Wooster series is seen above in a scene located in Bertie Wooster's flat. Spotted on the shelf in the background appears to be a Swan electric percolator appropriate to the era.
Swan coffee percolator was made by Bulpitt & Sons Birmingham cat. no. CH475.
Above is a similar percolator seen on eBay uk:
Click here for more details on the eBay listing
Bertie Wooster Makes Tea
In the tv series Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie (played by Hugh Laurie) discovers the challenges of tea making while Jeeves (Stephen Fry) is away. He wisely refers to Mrs Beeton's book of Household Management for guidance. Trying to fill the whistling tea kettle with water without removing the stopper was the first hurdle to overcome. Fortunately Jeeves arrived back in time to complete the task
Bertie puts his feet up after his exersions while Jeeves takes over the tea making. Tea is served in Royal Worcester Raffles China cups from a set that is used in Berties flat throughout the series.
Above is a vew of the page Bertie is reading in Mrs Beetons book and some similar items for a Jeeves and Wooster themed kitchen found on eBay:
Jeeves and Wooster: Butlers Tray
Bertram Wooster likes his cup of tea- in the afternoon he favors Earl Grey tea. In the Wooster residence tea is usually served by Jeeves from a silver tea pot and bone china cups.
In the above scene from the Jeeves and Wooster TV series tea is being served by Jeeves, played by Stephen Fry, on a wooden butler's tray. On top of the tray is what appears to be a Madeira style embroidered linen placemat.
Below is a solid mahogany butlers tray with brass side rails that looks like the one used on the show.
See it on eBay here : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Butlers-Solid-Mahogany-Veneered-Tray-With-Solid-Brass-Handles/191963769486
Below is a similar looking silverplate tea service in the Art Deco style as seen on eBay recently:
Jeeves and Wooster: A Visit to Ditteridge Hall
In the first episode of Jeeves and Wooster, the TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (based on "Jeeves Takes Charge" by P.G. Wodehouse), Bertie and Jeeves pay a visit to Ditteridge Hall. Above is a view of Bertie having his morning cup of tea while Jeeves prepares the bath and fills Bertie's shaving mug.
The props used in the scene are most appropriate for a gentleman visiting the country seat of the Glossop family - the scene was filmed at Englefield House, Berkshire.
Bertie Wooster takes his morning tea from a Spode Sheffield Cup and Saucer.
There is a shaving mug set on Amazon that looks quite like the one Bertie Wooster uses at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0Z2NGY
Click here to see examples of Spode Sheffield on eBay
Aloysius, The Brideshead Bear
Aloysius the bear with Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte, and Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder, in the acclaimed television adaptation of the novel (1981)
Aloysius, and in particular his representation in the acclaimed television adaptation of the novel (1981), is credited with having triggered the late-twentieth-century teddy bear renaissance. He was depicted by a teddy bear named Delicatessen, who was owned by the actor Peter Bull.
The inspiration for Aloysius was Archibald Ormsby-Gore, the beloved teddy bear of John Betjeman, Evelyn Waugh's friend at Oxford.
The original Archibald Ormsby-Gore (left), better known as Archie, was John Betjeman's teddy-bear, and the inspiration for Aloysius, in Brideshead. He was his lifelong companion together with an elephant known as Jumbo(right) .
John Betjeman brought his bear with him when he went up to university at Oxford in the 1920s, and as a result Archie became the model for Aloysius, Sebastian Flyte's bear in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
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ARCHIBALD
The bear that sits above my bed
A doleful bear he is to see;
From out his drooping pear-shaped head
His woollen eyes look into me.
He has no mouth, but seems to say:
'They'll burn you on the Judgement Day.'
Those woollen eyes, the things they've seen
Those flannel ears, the things they've heard -
Among horse-chestnut fans of green,
The fluting of an April bird,
And quarrelling downstairs until
Doors slammed at Thirty One West Hill.
The dreaded evening keyhole scratch
Announcing some return below
The nursery landing's lifted latch,
The punishment to undergo
Still I could smooth those half-moon ears
And wet that forehead with my tears.
Whatever rush to catch a train,
Whatever joy there was to share
Of sounding sea-board, rainbowed rain,
Or seaweed-scented Cornish air,
Sharing the laughs, you still were there,
You ugly, unrepentant bear.
When nine, I hid you in a loft
And dared not let you share my bed;
More aged now he is to see,
His woollen eyes have thinner thread,
But still he seems to say to me,
In double-doom notes, like a knell:
'You're half a century nearer Hell.'
Self-pity shrouds me in a mist,
And drowns me in my self-esteem.
The freckled faces I have kissed
Float by me in a guilty dream.
The only constant, sitting there,
Patient and hairless, is a bear.
And if an analyst one day
Of school of Adler, Jung or Freud
Should take this aged bear away,
Then, oh my God, the dreadful void!
its draughty darkness could but be
Eternity, Eternity.
John Betjeman
Note: Archibald Ormsby-Gore, better known as Archie, was John Betjeman'teddy-bear.
Together with an elephant known as Jumbo, he was a lifelong companion.
Betjeman brought his bear with him when he went up to university at Oxford in the 1920s, and as a result Archie became the model for Aloysius, Sebastian Flyte's bear in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
In the 1940s, Betjeman also wrote an illustrated a story for his children, entitled 'Archie and the Strict Baptists', in which the bear's sojourns at the family's successive homes in Uffington and Farnborough are fictionalised. Archie is here described as a member of the Strict Baptist denomination, riding a hedgehog to chapel, and enjoying amateur archaeology, digging up molehills, "which, he considered, were the graves of baby Druids".
Archie and Jumbo were in Betjeman's arms when he died in 1984.
Downton Abbey: Lady Violet Style Paper Mache Table
Lady Violet on Downton Abbey seated next to her decorative Papier Mache table. This table appears throughout the series as a key piece of furniture in the Dowager Lady Violet's drawing room. Her servant bell is usually seen on this table which she uses to great effect to both summon servants and dismiss guests as the whim takes her.
Here is a similar table seen on eBay this week - click on the picture to view the detais - just the conversation piece to impress your guests. You can be sure the Dowager Countess would approve.