Tuesday 24 February 2009

Urns

I like the contrast between these urns. Above is one of the blue-and-white urns on the front of T. Goode & Co in South Audley Street, Mayfair, Purveyors of Fine Porcelain to the Crowned Heads of Europe. This urn was part of the original 1875 design of the building - it is visible in this architect's perspective.
The building is also interesting because the landlord, the Duke of Westminster, forced Goode's to use the new 'Queen Anne' style, and their architect Ernest George adopted it with enthusiasm. Indeed, he spent the rest of his career covering whole areas of London with it.
At the other end of the retail spectrum is this pair of urns on a Georgian shop in Greville Street, Holborn, placed there not to demonstrate how ineffably grand the shopkeeper was but simply to inform the illiterate populace that he was a chemist.

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