The answer is obviously ‘Scrumpie-pup’…or maybe you???     

window to the secret garden

In this instance, it’s more about what kind of magical mirror you are looking into and right now I want to tell you about our magical garden mirror, which can look like a window on to the ’secret garden’ .  Now then, if you are sitting comfortably, then I shall begin…..

Once upon a time, in the land of the woodman, a cratfsman traveller passed through, offering his wares.  Amongst candlesticks, ornaments and various stone like artefacts lay a wonderful mirror.  ‘Kind Sir’ …(as I addressed my new friend Julian)…may I look into this fine mirror??’  Julian sighed, supposing I was about to ‘check the hair’, whilst in reality I was trying to see who was on the other side!!  Imagine my surprise, when I saw…….oh no…I cannot let you into the secret!…you will have to look for yourselves!!  ‘I shall take it!’ I cried….’as it is indeed a very fine mirror!’.  Later, hung on the wall in my woodman’s cottage, it seemed to sparkle and speak, letting slip many secrets about the world ‘on the other side’.  Many months passed before Julian passed my way again.  He told me of new magic that he had worked and showed me another mirror which could survive the intemperent weather, sit in my garden and provide a window to yet another world……….. ‘I shall take it!’ I cried…’and many more like it…if you can fashion them!’  Julian nodded, as he is a man of deed rather than word and returned some weeks later with a fine selection of mirrors, each of which told a different story!

So…there you have it…we can now offer you Julian’s ‘magic mirrors’.  They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, in the gothic style, fashined from moulds taken from ancient buildings…for indoors they are made of plaster and for outdoors from a mixture of stone chips, cement and resin.  Both are cunningly hand finished to give the appearance of aged Cotswold stone.

This particular garden mirror is one that Julian developed ‘just for us’!  It measures 42″ high by 19″ wide and costs £265 for outdoors and just £235 for indoors…and at the moment we will send it out to you ‘on the house’!  Please call to find out about the other styles and sizes that are available.

Soon, these will be available via our ‘on line accessories shop’……………www.scrumpie.co.uk…….this will ‘go live soon’…but in the meantime please call : 01993 813887 to enjoy ‘a view of the secret garden’ or ‘a view of ‘the big indoors’ to enjoy Julian’s magic!!

Scrumpie loves them!!!

See you soon                                                                                                                       Chris

Gate leg coffee table, Scrumpie, traditional upholstered armchair in a mad, mad world...

Hello again…it’s been a while…too long really…but there’s always something to be getting on with, which keeps me from ‘the blog’!  Another photo shoot with Scrumpie-pup has produced some great results and although the crop has gone wrong on this photo, in uploading onto the website, I hope you enoy the image.

Scrumps is 18 months old now and a joy (when she is not tearing the contents of the waste bin to shreds, stealing customers’ gloves etc.).  We are about to take our ‘Good Citizen’ bronze test, so watch this space.

Why is it a mad, mad world???  Read on to find out… although I am sure you all have your own, entirely relevant answer, probably better than mine….ah yes…and to find out about the ‘gate leg coffee table’…business is business, after all….

(small intermission for opening red wine)

“As we enter a new decade in a world where values have literally been turned on their head, we believe more and more in the importance of surrounding yourself with things that have longevity and simply make you feel good!  We believe our furniture is special and will do just that, for you…”

The paragraph above is taken from our new brochure supplement, about to be published…please e mail if you would like a copy!  The world does seem to ‘have been turned on its head’!!!  There are so many strange ‘goings on’ and we now seem to be in the thrall of the ‘big election’…..is it really possible that Gordon will get to stay at No 10 after all the events of the past two years??? …are the ‘team in waiting’ really ‘up to the mark’???  Will Vince get to be Chancellor somehow??? 

All these and more questions will be answered soon…but in the meantime, lets spare a thought for the people of Haiti…..Iraq…..Afghanistan……our troops…..our children……a woman whose car can be pushed down a Motorway infront of a speeding truck for over a minute without the driver of the truck noticing anything untoward (check out Youtube - Clio driver)….

£1,000 fines for putting out the wrong bin on the right day, or the right bin on the wrong day….£££ spent at Cheltenham races….£££ given for Sport Relief when everyone is feeling the pinch (amazing!!)….the news that the recession is ‘over’ ???…. the news that we are going to have a ‘double dip’???…that house prices are going to fall again???…that the housing market has firmed up and is looking positive???…that global warming is entirely unconnected to current practices???…that we all have to change our ways, otherwise we are doomed???…

It’s all a bit confusing and a lot ‘mad’….so , before I take ‘the Scrumpie-pup’ out for a late evening stroll, I shall try and concentrate on ‘the here and now’ which is to tell you about our lovely gate leg coffee table…..

in fact I will simply copy the lovely Rachel’s press release:

As with the entire collection, each piece is hand made in this

country, using English timber from sustainable sources. Every table is completely unique due to the hand planning, finishing and the specific selection of the oak timbers at the beginning of the making process. This table can also be made to any size, in a variety of finishes.”

There you have it…available to view in our showrooms, obviously… where you are always welcome to browse and enjoy and where you will always be made welcome by ourselves and Scrumpie.  

More news soon, about our planned ‘on line’ shop for some of our lovely accessories (www.scrumpie.co.uk) -opening June 2010- and about our 10th anniversary celebration, later in 2010, of being on our current site.  …..where do the years go??

In the meantime….take a deep breath, hold hard and smile…..it might be ‘mad’ out there, but…. the future is bright…the future is real…the future is wood…..and some…..

Until next time..

Chris

and what is a ‘cricket table’ you might ask!…..                                                                                               

"hmmm...time for a glass of 'big red'.....nice cricket table!"

A table to put your TV on while you watch our brave boys trying to regain the small pot with ashes in it???

A table for your wine and strawberries as you relax in the park and try to understand the strange signalling of men in white coats, surrounded by eleven souls who seem to have an issue with two others who are waving weapons of wood in the air???

A table for your ‘best friend’ (Scrumpie-pup) to sip wine from??? (see photo!)

Well…the answer is yes to all these and more….

In general terms, a ‘cricket table’ refers to an occasional table with a round top, set on top of 3 angled legs, usually with an under tier set between the legs.

Sounds quite painful, but actually, cricket tables can be charming and useful. 

As you might imagine from the name, it is a quintessentially English piece of furniture which first appeared in the early sixteen hundreds – ok …you can find examples that were probably made in Scotland, Ireland or Wales (or maybe the Caribbean!) and in reality, the three legged table or stool concept was probably developed by early caveman, as three legged forms can stand on uneven ground.  Anyway…cricket and Englishness, tea and cucumber sandwiches seem to go hand in hand, ball in glove or something like that.

So why is it called a ‘cricket’ table and which came first??…the game or the table?  There is some history of a cricket like game being played by Edward l in 1300, but the game did not establish itself in anything like its present form until the seventeen hundreds.

Assuming the table was named after the game, there is obviously an association between the three stumps and the three wickets. Indeed, the first examples of ‘cricket’ tables had turned legs…but at the end of the day it’s all conjecture really.

If explaining what a ‘cricket table’ is….how much more difficult to explain the game.  I owe thanks to ‘Britain Express’ for the following explanation:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in, goes out, and when he’s out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.

When they are all out the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that’s the end of the game.

Howzat?

The Design of The Real Wood Furniture Company Cricket Table 

Our ‘cricket’ table is a mixture of designs, based on a classic English table, borrowed from a collector of such tables, but also drawing influence from early Chinese furniture in the form of a round 3 leg occasional table dating from the early part of the 19^th century, purchased from the original importer, which now resides in my sitting room!  It is one of my favourite pieces.  It has no under tier, but the typical Chinese triangulated stretchers united by a ‘puzzle’ joint and acutely angled legs.  China has a timber very closely related to English elm, called ‘Jumo’.  This timber was often used in the making of furniture during the Qing dynasty  (1644-1911) and my table is one such.  As is often the case with Chinese furniture, the heights of their pieces differ from the parameters that define the ‘design map’ of English furniture and it’s not always the case that their furniture is lower than we might expect.  Certain chairs (seat height) and tables are much higher than we might anticipate them to be.  In this case though, the height of my occasional table is lower than that of most cricket tables.  Although we can make our table to any size, we think we have hit a ‘perfect proportion’ at

24” diameter and 24” height, with a relatively steeply angled leg.  We are making them from English oak with beautifully figured burr oak, two piece tops.

Anyone for cricket?? Over and out…. 

Chris

Scrumpie-pup sleeps

It’s a very hot Monday and time to write my very first ‘blog’ for The Real Wood site…quite exciting…ok, so I am 2 or 3 years behind the times and should probably be ‘twittering’ or fiddling with Face Book, but I am not!

Well, for my first blog, I am going to take you back in time……. And then tell you about something new….

If you have ever visited our lovely showrooms in Woodstock, it will be odds on that you have been greeted (as well as by ourselves, I hope) by a friendly canine.

You will see from our website and brochure that ‘Billie-dog’ features ‘large’….and what a lovely and faithful dog she was! I use the past tense and regretfully have to report, for those of you who don’t know, that Billie passed on to the great furniture shop in the sky, in April 2007. After much grieving and a respectful period without the patter of furry feet, 8 week old ‘Scrumpie-pup’ was collected from a nice family in Abingdon at the end of September 2008 and installed in her new domain. (‘The king is dead, long live the king’…or I suppose in this instance…‘the queen is dead, long live the queen’ is more apt.)

I will update with more photos of our new ‘boss’ as the weeks go by. She is, I hope, almost fully grown now, but it seems appropriate to start the ball rolling with a ‘ball of fluff’ photo, surely guaranteed to melt all but the hardest of hearts!

‘And what of the furniture business??’ …you might ask. We have some exciting new additions to our furniture collection, (photos to follow shortly), a completely new lay out to the showrooms and the opening of ‘The Sculpture Garden’ on Saturday July 4^th. We are starting with pieces by some talented emerging artists, including :

Michael Harris, Sophie Thompson, Richard Fox and Linzi Evans. Their work incorporates the use of many recycled and new materials, including, steel, stone, wire, wood etc., providing us with an eclectic mix of visual and tactile delights.

You are welcome to join us on the 4^th (for a glass of something) or at any time thereafter to wander ‘The Sculpture Garden’ which sits directly at the back of our showrooms. Sit a while, relax, look…listen and enjoy.

See you soon!

Chris