Consuming Interest

Something Small

By LESLIE ADRIAN Do I sense a small silent revolution amid the tin- sel and glitter of Decem- ber's great saturnalia, an ever so slight stiffening of public feeling in the face of the shopkeeper's favourite festival?

It started with charity cards. Five years ago

they were no more than a hand-sized cloud on the horizon of Messrs. Tuck, Kaye et al. This year it has become almost non-U to send anything else (unless of course you are clever enough to draw your own). And now, in a rather different way, this benevolence is spreading to gifts.

More and more people are attracted to the idea of giving each other gifts costing only a few shillings, and sending all the money they would otherwise have spent on Christmas shopping to some philanthropic cause. The large grown-up family with whom I spent Christmas last year did just this, and as a result Oxfam were richer by £25 and none of our party felt any the poorer.

The one drawback to such a scheme is that it can be devastatingly extravagant in shopping- time. In so many gift shops and department stores shillings seem to have gone out of fashion. One great exception to this is Heal's Christmas bazaar where even pocket-money shoppers can find presents to suit their small budgets.

But on the assumption that every subscriber to the Spectator within commuting distance of Heal's is familiar with that famous `Can't-wait- to-get-it-home' feeling, I've spent my time this year scrutinising what some of London's smaller specialised shops have to offer for Christmas- craft shops, national shops or straightforward present shops-starting appropriately enough with Presents of Mayfair (19 Dover Street, WI).

In spite of their expensive address there are plenty of inexpensive presents on their well- loaded shelves. The choice is as great as the price range at Presents, and by way of justifying their name every present is gift-wrapped free of charge. I particularly liked a small angel candle- holder in frosted crystal (15s. 6d.). a miniature `mirror, mirror, on the wall' type of looking- glass set deep into a tiny gilt frame (2 gns.) and a Portuguese salad plate shaped like a cabbage leaf with the natural pink of the clay showing through the white glaze (7s. 6d.).

At the pottery shop owned by the Craftsmen Potters Association I could have found presents to please all my friends and most of my family without spending more than 30s. (The shop isn't easy to find-it's tucked away in Lowndes Court, an alley running off Carnaby Street.) I actually bought an elegant stoneware casserole the colour of a chocolate soufflé (8s. kl.) and a chunky little teapot (30s.) painted in the green and white shades of a broken wave.

Tucked away in a corner I found some en- n-

chanting mobile toys made by Wilfred Gibson in a delft-like blue-and-white porcelain-a gentle `Judy' dog swaying beatifically in a rocking chair (16s. 6d.), an engine with turning wheels that might have run away from the Bluebell Line (29s. 6d.) and a little bandstand (8s. 6d.) like the one in the Madeline cartoons. Next week, when the Craftsmen Potters open their Christmas bazaar, these and countless other lovely things will be displayed-classified by price (instead of by creator as they are for the rest of the year), starting at 5s. 6d.

The Craft Centre (16 Hay Hill, WI) covers all the crafts. Some of the work exhibited is ex- quisite enough to be trespassing into the realms of art. I fell at once for some elliptical earthen- ware platters in stained glass colours and almost enamel in texture (27s. 3d. and 29s. 6d.). A china lion and unicorn made by Stanislaus Reychan, the one shyly surveying the world through his mane, the other coyly from beneath his horn, would have been quite irresistible had they not cost four guineas each. 1 settled instead for the same craftsman's pottery mouse, a 3s. stocking present that will be much treasured by a small girl I know.

A fine stone cider jar (77s. 6d.) glazed to a deep limpid brown would almost persuade me to make my own cider-but not quite. However it would look magnificent set up in the kitchen and used for oil or vinegar.

On the other hand a most distinguished vintage would not feel out of place in the slender white glass wine decanter (30s.) delicately orna- mented with a diamond point engraving; while at 5 gns. a piece Stephan Ricard's glorious clear glass tankards-copper wheel engraved-are almost too good to use. It would be such a ter- rible strain washing them up.

The Craft Centre is half exhibition, half shop and wholly entrancing. Their Christmas collec- tion opened last Monday.

Most of the year the Parkway Gallery in Cam- den Town (58 Parkway, NW1) is a dangerous

place to visit-it is so seductively easy to wander in just to look, and come out an hour later richer by one of Harry Gordon's paintings and poorer by £15 or £20. But at Christmas time the large- scale pictures take second place to his miniatures (mostly of London), which he sells already framed for a guinea each. There is also a gay display of sweater jewellery (from 6s. upwards) and an arresting collection of wood carvings, ceramics and slipware. And as usual the chalk portraits of children, done to order by Tammo de Jongh for five guineas.

Work to order of a rather different sort is the glass engraving in which Ansons of Dover Street specialise. From 21s. for a sweeping hand-en- graved initial (plus the cost of the glass, of course) up to as many pounds-and more-for an intri- cate design, a glass thus decorated is (as the Americans would say) a highly 'personalised' pre- sent. It is also a solution to the awful problem of giving to someone who seems to have everything. The awful problem at Primavera (149 Sloane Street, SW1) is that you want to buy almost everything you can see-for yourself. Amidst a glitter of glass and an enchantment of sin° stocking toys there is a concourse of lovely objects conjured out of wood and wool, One and straw, clay, metal and cotton. I came away actually wearing a string of small olive wood beads (16s.) and carrying another in my basket as a present. The unpredictable con volutions of the olive grain makes such a strik• ing contrast with the symmetry of the beads themselves. Rising proudly above all the surrounding woodand ceramics stood a collection of handsome and extremely heavy glass goblets from Spain. Pc°. portioned to suit a long candle-lit refectory table, or simply someone who likes a lot to drink: they cost only 13s. for the goblet and 6s. 6d. and 8s. 9d. respectively for sherry and wine glasses'

A miniature poncho from Peru, in Fattier

Christmas red and made of wool, would delight any woman who has ever sat shivering rn her little black dress (low-cut and sleeveless, like a.5 not) in other people's underheated houses. 11,. sombre Madras cotton cravat (15s.) also strnea, me as particularly sensible. Once tied it stays tied -unlike its slippery silk (or pseudo-silk) counter' part which glides loose with every twitch of the adam's apple. (I'm assured incidently on the best possible authority that these cravats are all the rage with teenage girls just now.)

The most tempting piece of nonsense in the

shop is a Sam Smith unicorn-a retiring llnyleis of a creature caught in a pose that suggests be, understudying the name part in L'Apres-ni; d'un frame. I hope I can bring myself to give away when Christmas comes.

On the other side of Sloane Street, celebrating

their first Christmas in their elegant new premise( is London's smallest and most exclusive dePari'd ment store, the General Trading CompatzY, Atic for anyone who finds pleasure in cooking the most alluring department of all is likely to be pine-faced hall housing the kitchen accessnr A pair of translucent storage jars in amber bubble glass (24s.), a deep staved teak choPPledog board (79s.) or a set of small spice pots holl°Wfor out of a big bamboo cane would be a tonic d 3 any kitchen. A hip-high rolling pin (70S.) ati4eat heavy stainless steel chopper (45s. 6d.) rePte- 3 the aggressive side of the baiterie de cuisrfr cos6 cluster of copperware and a miscellany' 01 . seroles its glamour.

coots Among all the countless ways of giving Pre-.000 at Christmas there are a few which enable 'ce, to get double value for your money. For instance if you buy one of the Wedgwood 13,36' decorated with wild animals from the Kraig National Park, you are contributing a gnittig the World Wildlife Fund as well as lt-iie another name off your Christmas list. (While

in

to the fund at 2 Caxton Street, SW1)- everything bought at that boutique fantasilii;or 25 Holland Street (better known as the 14°0,10 bound Craftsmen) helps the disabled Oe°17,sle,tice. created these enchanting toys. Monkeys and pandas and penguins, kangas and roos, toys for are soft, safe and cheap-and destined surely the top of somebody's Christmas stocking.