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Hello! So this is me, this is Bath,
this is Constance - say hello, Constance -
and we've brought you to Bath! There are lots of places we could take you in Bath
There's the Pump Room, and the Fashion Museum, and
there's a great vintage clothes store...
But we're gonna take you to the best place in Bath to go
Bath's best kept secret - let's cross this road - and...
that is a little store called Antique Textiles!
And, ah...
you're cheating, because you don't have to walk up this hill!
So this is Antique Textiles of Bath, and this is
Joanna Proops, who owns the shop! Would you like to show us around?
"Yes, of course." ...And tell us all about it - it looks like antique lighting *and* antique textiles?
"Yes, the lighting is all restored, and
is re-wired...
and our textiles are ALL old textiles, no reproductions whatsoever."
Right! So show us a few of your favorite things.
Difficult to choose, I know!
"Well, my lovely waistcoats..." Oh yes... "If I can put the light on... I think we have all the lights on actually..."
This one's my favourite...
"...my Georgian waistcoats, there's another one that's..." That looks sort of, 1790s maybe?
"Earlier than that, I think, and there's that beautiful one there... "
And this one is fabulous, yes. "Absolutely perfect..."
I know quite a few gentlemen who wouldn't mind one like that...
"And this small one that's just come in... that one there..."
That's gorgeous.
"And do we need a stepladder? Let's get this out of the way for you..."
You've got some beautiful lace collars here...
"The lace, they're Maltese, Irish,..."
"...and Brussels, and..."
"I think that's Carrickmacross..."
Yes...
"...early English whitework..."
Yes... at the top, here? "Yes." Oh, that's gorgeous...
Mm-hmm...
"We have a table here that is..."
"...all, um..."
"...quite old pieces..."
"...18th and 19th century...." Yes... you've got some wonderful metalwork here...
"Yes, there's that..."
"Turkish embroideries..." Turkish? Wow...
Looks like quite a few ecclesiastical embroideries?
"Not a lot, not a lot..."
"and what's that? ....yes..."
"An Ottoman runner, that is, had to look it up just to see what it was..."
"a long length of lovely fabrics, we have..."
I'm a sucker for red and gold...
"On there we have some really lovely, lovely quilts..."
Yes, the quilts are amazing, yes... "...and they go back to about 1800..."
"...these quilts may be a bit earlier... and..."
"...the patchwork quilts, but they're the silk patchwork..."
"...and I've got a really beautiful collection of those..."
"...all different conditions..."
"...some are excellent and some are not..."
"Come down further and you've got table covers and toiles..."
"Not a lot of toiles because they're getting very difficult to get hold of"
"More toiles underneaths, with..."
"Ones of sets of curtains, so..."
"...whatever's there, there's one, there's another one in store..."
"They're all textiles there..."
"...that are for upholstery..."
"...and then below there, there are loads and loads and loads..."
"...of wonderful tapestries!" Oh, fantastic! I didn't even see those!
Always something else to discover in here!
"I can't hang those out because I wouldn't have a room big enough for them, you know, and I've also got some..."
"...very very..."
"...a pair of wonderful large handstitched tapestries..."
A fabulous kimono there... "Yes, that's a wedding kimono..."
"...and it's about the newest thing I've got in the shop."
"I wouldn't do it normally, but..."
"...it was so magnificent; I think it's about 1950."
"...and it's never been worn, it's still got its, um..."
"These are Durham quilts..."
"...all hand-stitched..."
"...a set of four crewelwork curtains..."
"...and they're real crewelwork, they're not the reproduction..."
Beautiful...
"...table covers..."
"That's VERY early..."
"...crewelwork..."
"...but it's wonderful, it's been appliqued, it's probably about..."
"...late 16th century..."
Gorgeous!
...just...
...beautiful!
...and show us the trims and the ribbons!
"Trims and ribbons are here..."
"Lots of bullion trim, which are really from a collection of my own; I'm gradually..."
"...feeding them into the shop, because you can't buy them really now, they're getting so difficult..."
"...but they are really quite lovely, look..."
"I mean that's an early... it's about nineteen hun- 1800, actually..."
Wow, really? "Yes, it's a nice early one, but it's been put away,..."
"...and never been used... obviously ribbons..."
"...lots of trims..."
"...and they're all old ones, there's nothing new there at all..."
*mumbles* "I must just rush off, I'm worried about my dog and the door open..."
"Lovely piece of crewelwork hanging from there, and then..."
"...here, well they're all..."
"...fabrics for..."
"...mattress covers, they used to be, now people use them for making cushions, you know..."
"...all different sorts..."
Wonderful stuff... we do like stripes!
"And materials there for covering stools and there's actually..."
"...a little pile of quite early white voile, and things like that..."
"...late eighteenth, nineteenth century..."
Not easy to get nice stuff now... "...piles of tablecloths,..."
"... big, big ones, big damask ones, and napkins..."
"...net curtains..." A beautiful dress up here...
"Yes..."
"More, sort of, large tablecloths there..."
"We've got quite a big selection of..." And you've got this lovely bodice here...
...we have to look at the inside here...
"Yes, it's a beauty, the way it's been..." I love it when they bound the seams like that, and...
...made it a feature...
...gorgeous lace on it too...
"Small Chinese robe at the back, difficult to see but really quite nice..."
"Christening robes, that's from..."
"...one of the big houses, big titled houses nearby..."
"...and that is a wonderful christening gown, look at that..."
"...totally, totally hand made..."
"...and in perfect condition..."
"Paisley shawls, all sorts, a lovely, lovely net curtain..."
That *is* gorgeous, yes...
"That's nice, early piece of... "
"needlework, probably late sixteenth,..."
"...seventeenth century; but it's been appliqued onto silk."
"Good for covering stools, or even framing..."
"We have paisley shawls up there, there's more in the front..."
"Ecclesiastical coat, but really that is a proper coat because it's half circular..."
"...and wonderful embroidery..."
"And this is lovely..." That's beautiful, yes, love that...
"That's about..."
"...it's about 1700..."
"And that is just decorative? Is it a wall covering? "It's a wall covering, but it's on a frame..."
"I really don't recommend it's taken off the frame because it's been there a long while."
"Not the easiest thing to ship..."
"And then this lovely pair of early, early cushions..."
"...probably about 1690, the cushion fabric,..."
"...but it's been made up later..."
"These are all eighteenth century fabrics..."
"There's lots of ginghams, French ginghams, over there..."
Yes, oh I see, yes...
Now, these eighteenth-century silks,...
How much is there in a piece, generally?
"They're really fragments, but..."
"...they're good sized fragments..."
"...let's see if we can get one that's really..." We costumers spend a lot of energy trying to find...
...silks that look eighteenth-century enough to make our dresses out of, I mean there...
wouldn't be enough, I mean I don't expect there to be enough here, but...
"I'm trying to find a really nice one to get out..."
"...to have a look at..."
"This is an early..."
"Very early eighteenth century... a fair size, isn't it!"
Yes, I don't expect for a minute that you'd have enough to make a dress out of,
and I'd be too scared to cut into it if you did!
"That's why it's that shape, they *were* dresses..."
Oh, they're pieces.. of course it is! "There's the shape, there's the side..." "No, but this is from a cope..."
"...and it was made into a cope from..."
"...a proper ballgown..."
"Probably an open fronted gown, you know?" Originally a ballgown, and then cut up and made into a cope...
"Yes, I just sold..."
"a lovely cope that was 18th century..."
"Then again you've got rolls of 18th century fabrics there... not rolls..."
"...about a yard..." Pieces that are rolled up!
"I have to do that, otherwise it cracks, and..."
"...it spoils it... and then underneath there's loads of French fabrics..."
"They're about the latest that we deal in..."
"..and they go from nineteen-sort-of-hundred, 1890 to about 1940."
Wonderful...
"They're fairly modern fabrics at the bottom there, that people use for backing cushions and things..."
I love, just the colors,
these reds and golds and greens, it's very 18th century type colours...
"A lot of those were used as wallpap-"
"...as wall hangings, and you've still got the..."
"...the things on it there, and when, um..."
"...one of the big castles..."
"It's difficult, you don't mention names, one of the big castles..."
"...in fact, it belonged to..."
"...to the Queen... was burnt down, one of the rooms was really badly burnt..."
"...they had to come because I had pieces of the fabric where they could..."
"...reconstruct the pattern again."
"And this is my Chinese table, bits and pieces..."
I love this one particularly with the swans and fishes...
"That, I don't think is Chinese..."
"Somebody's sure to tell you that..."
"Somebody's sure to say that it isn't, I know it's not actually...."
"...it's probably a little bit nearer..."
"...not much though..." These are gorgeous, just the intricacy of that embroidery...
...is just incredible...
"He's nice." Yes, what's the story of the lion?
"It's a woolwork picture, but it's in super condition."
"It's signed, in the corner there..."
Oh yes!
"I could probably pull this aside, and you'll be able to get a better picture..."
Oh yes, there he is!
"And we're back to... samplers"
Yes
"You can't see that many here, but..."
"There are loads in front of the counter."
"Lovely pictures of the young Victoria, which actually..."
"...makes them much more saleable than old, grumpy Victoria...."
"...at a later date, dressed in black."
Wonderful.
"That's really... I only bought that yesterday,..."
"...but it's Chinese - no, it's Japanese, wall hanging"
A wall hanging, yes, I love the irises...
"And the little English robes..."
...like the christening dresses...
"And that is delightful, that's a little boy's, probably a pageboy..."
"...and his hat, and his sporran."
"All to size."
We have baskets of lace down here...
"Baskets of lace, yes, masses of lace, this is all just small pieces..."
I love rooting through all these baskets down here...
...I always find something wonderful...
"I'm always replenishing because I've got loads in store."
"And it's a question of just refilling, you know."
"Cabinets full of Brussels and..."
"Honiton, and..."
"...really good quality, those." Yes, the good stuff
...behind the glass, these little Chinese shoes are fabulous...
"Bonnets above... not many bonnets actually, I keep selling them but don't keep buying them,..."
"...that's the problem..."
And this wonderful wedding dress down here...
And a wedding veil, yes... I was looking under the hem of this dress...
...and recognizing some things I've done on some
of my dresses, I've made a couple of Edwardian dresses...
I was just looking at these gathered trims on the edge...
and the pinking on the trim here...
"They're usually actually falling to pieces but that seems to be in quite nice condition..."
"I hate to say it, but the dog's been sitting on that..."
And why don't you show us what you've got behind the counter? There's all sorts of wonderful things there...
"Wedding veils, ribbons, bell pulls,..."
"Red Indian beadwork..."
Yes...
"...beaded bags..."
"Don't emphasise the fans, because most of the fans are broken, unfortunately..."
"They've been broken since being here."
"I've never bought a broken fan in my life..." They're just fragile, aren't they...
"People don't handle them properly..."
And parasols at the bottom...
"We do actually have a drawer full of very, very early laces..."
Yes - really?
"16th and 17th century..." Would you show us some of those?
"Well, they're in there... they're not very pretty..."
I know people who would love to see them anyway!
"Only small amounts,..."
"That's 16th century, reticella..."
"Engageantes... but they're a bit later actually..." Yes, that's more your 18th century kind of thing...
"Yes, I've put them in there for safety, actually, because they were getting lost..."
"...and [?]..."
"...but they're all different fabrics, this is really [?] lace..."
"... that is very early..." The green is fantastic... "Yes it is,..."
"...it's very unusual..."
So there we are! So they look wonderful, thank you very much.
"Ok..."
"...there's actually masses underneath here, you know, all different sorts, different types..."
Wonderful...
"But, um... what else?"
"A lot of samplers,..."
"...in tiers all the way through there..."
Constance, why don't you show us your favorite thing over there?
Constance is a big goth... if anybody watching this knows Trystan,
Constance is Trystan's British equivalent. "I'm not going to open it, but look at how it looks lovely like this..."
"...and when you hold it this way..." Yes, it looks fantastic that way too.
Isn't that gorgeous? "Somebody's coming to look at a chandelier, I'm afraid..."
Alright, well,...
Thank you very much indeed!