The Write Stuff

Well, what with The Bard's birthday and World Book Night #2, it's been one belletristic week. Also on the subject of writing, it's been National Stationery Day... no, honestly. Keen to stress the tactile, visual or creative aspects of old-time communication in the age of email, National Stationery Day arrives alongside a 30% hike in postal prices that should ensure the letter's luxury status, and maybe seal its fate.

448th

If only the English Renaissance diet had been a little better Shakespeare would've celebrated his 448th birthday this week. Here's an illustration of Anne Hathaway's cottage from an old biscuit tin lid. The artwork is uncredited but the style (especially on the sides) puts me in mind of Edward Pond, whose illustration was an integral feature of Thameslink's old rolling stock.

,',','

Rats! I think I've got a dose of the national pastime, obsessing over the weather. It could have its own clickable category here on the right but it just wouldn't be fair to the rest.

• Façades & Faces, Osbert Lancaster, John Murray 1950

The short answer to Milly's recent question is yes... there's fewer walls to bounce off. I'd love to post some more pics of our home online, but the tiny stone yurt still needs so much attention. Here's an exterior view from 1935; a well-cropped shot of the interior; another rundhaus in Aalen, Germany; and The Round Building in Derbyshire (ostensibly a factory), designed by Michael Hopkins for David Mellor in 1990.

The latter's circularity isn't entirely void of symbolic content; it's interesting to note that, eschewing the prevalent C20 trend for Fordism, Mellor encouraged his metal workers to "rotate from task to task, increasing job satisfaction through a sense of involvement in the project as a whole".[1]

Happy Easter

Coming up short on seasonal post inspiration, I thought I'd snap some charity shop pots around a tenuous Easter theme. The eggs and birds are obvious but, just in case you're wondering, the fish is for Good Friday and that there's an Easter Bonnet... well, I did mention it was tenuous.

• Studio pottery bird jug, 1953, mark unclear, found here
• Studio pottery bird vase, unmarked, found here
• Guldkroken white bust vase, found here
• Studio pottery egg vase, mark unclear, found here
• Amateur (but characterful) fish dish, unmarked, also found here