At an auction last week a lot of letters from Diana, Princess of Wales were sold. Among them a thank-you letter following the birth of her son Harry seems especially poignant, with its description of how much his older brother seemed to love him:
Wednesday 31 July 2024
Tuesday 16 July 2024
The Uncaring Society
It appears it is not only the makers of butter dishes who can't be bothered any more. After posting about my suspicion that there is less and less thought given to ensuring things are made as beautiful as possible nowadays, I saw this:
I am not going to argue that even older British pillar-boxes are the most beautiful things ever made, but I do believe there was a bit more decorative grace on display in those made in an earlier era. If you search on Instagram, you will find many examples. There is also this nice blogpost, which shows you a George VIII (v rare) pillar-box in Gibraltar:
Sunday 14 July 2024
A Tale of Two Butterdishes
For years, I've thought this article by James Meek was the best exposition of the way in which greed has made things worse in daily life and become the thing that creates change but no positive progress. But now I wonder if our two butter dishes demonstrate the story better.
Although perhaps they are a symptom of something that may be even more dangerous for a civilisation: the waning of craftsmanship - and tangible evidence that fewer and fewer people take pleasure in taking pains.