Great Grass appears in Homes & Antiques - May 2013

H&A Discovering antiques

Carryoldonsport ,

After the exertions of last year’s Olympics, the gentler charms of traditional garden games are sweeping the nation this summer. An intrigued Ellie Tennant discovers where to find the best vintage buys styling Kiera Buckley-Jones Photographs Rachel Whiting

Boxed German skittles, early 20th century, £130, The Swan. Vintage croquet set (with frame and carrying handle), £145, Woody’s Antiques. ‘Party’ bunting, £22.50 per 5.5m; Jubilee flags, £10 for three, all Deckchair Stripes. 13cm terracotta pots, £1.15 each; 20cm terracotta camellia pots, £16 each; 50cm Chelsea trough, £28.50, all The Chelsea Gardener. 1930s boater hat, £20, The Swan. Cake stand, find similar at Dibor. Rainbow stripe lambswool throw, £95, Deckchair Stripes. Melamine cups and saucers, £24 for set of four, Pimpernel & Partners. 1950s large blue tin, Thermos flask and plates, from Brexton ‘Summer Blooms’ collection, £75, My Picnic Days. Small 1960s tin lunchbox, £22, Pimpernel & Partners. Stripy ‘Grasse’ cushion, from £26, RE. 1950s parasol, £29, The Swan. 1960s Brexton four-person hamper, £55, My Picnic Days. Pink ‘Karting’ cushion (top), £24; ‘Boules’ cushion, £24, both Deckchair Stripes. Plants, from a selection, B&Q. 25mm ‘Natural Premium’ artificial grass with wonder yarn, £21.99 per m, Great Grass May 2013 H&A 85

H&A Discovering antiques

i above Pair of bowls in original metal case with owner’s initials, c1900, £195, Rob Hall Antiques. Bowls (on ground), from set of eight Jaques lawn balls, c1920, £280, Henry Gregory. ‘Arc en Ciel’ folding table and four chairs, £427, The Chelsea Gardener. ‘London’ tablecloth, £82, Etoile. Basket, find similar at Store. Vintage gnome, £25 per pair, Milly and Dottie’s Emporium.

Bunting; pots; planters; blanket, all as before below Edwardian table croquet game, £30; skittles with faces, £45, all Nostalgia Games Pressed glass jug, £39; pressed glass tumbler, £7, both RE

t is a sunny afternoon in Victoria Park, east London, and 28-year-old Miranda Garret is sipping Pimm’s from a plastic cup. At first glance, in her vintage dress and Converse All Star trainers, she looks like any other local. But Miranda is at the forefront of a revolution – a croquet revolution. Inspired by an article she found in an 1868 edition of Harper’s Bazaar, Miranda decided it was an outrage that croquet was no longer played by young people.

‘I contacted the Croquet Association and they were jolly obliging, sending me shiny new equipment and a coach to show us how to play,’ she says. That was three years ago. Today, she is the self-styled queen of Croquet East, where her committed ‘ball bashers’ play every Saturday throughout the summer, and Miranda teaches the game at festivals up and down the country, ‘reclaiming croquet from the dusty shelf of retirement options’.

Miranda is also fascinated by the racy side of the sport.

‘In Edwardian times,’ she says, ‘they defined croquet as “contact and competition between the sexes sublimated into an elegant, highly formalised ritual, occurring in a deceptively wholesome garden setting… an exquisite game, at which the stakes are soft glances and wreathing smiles, and where hearts are lost and won”. How romantic!’

Croquet was associated with courtship because it was the first game that women and men could play together.

In his 1863 book Croquet, Captain Mayne Reid refers to the ‘spooning’ of ‘croquetters’ and ‘coquettes’ and, more recently, historian Robert Lewis has explored the notorious ‘flirting croquet belles’ who employed their ‘sumptuous skirts to advantage in moving the ball’.

the name of the game Although the exact origins of the game are not known (it is thought to have arrived in Britain in the 1850s having first been played in France and then Ireland), one thing’s for sure: it was an instant hit – even Queen Victoria was hooked. After World War I though, popularity declined.

‘There were many factors,’ says Elizabeth Larsson, manager of The Croquet Association. ‘Taxation was crippling, petrol was rationed, there were fewer croquet lawns to play on – it fell out of fashion. But the game is growing again. Six years ago, we had 143 clubs. Today we have 187 and counting.’

While croquet was by far the most popular garden game among Victorians and Edwardians, they also loved quoits, 86 H&A May 2013

Skittles (on left), £25, vintage market. French skittles (on wooden base), 1940, €245, Maintenant at Etsy. Vintage bowls score board, £145, Lassco. Large Jaques croquet set on stand, c1950, £395, Henry Gregory. Deckchair in vintage ‘Waltzing’ canvas, £85, Deckchair Stripes. Vintage ‘Carnation’ Jacob’s biscuit tin, £7, Milly and Dottie’s Emporium. Small pink diamond mat, £12, RE. Gardening book, £15 for three, Pimpernel & Partners.

Multi-coloured cotton bunting (in summer house), £13 per 5m, The Cotton Bunting Company at Not on the High Street. Cup; picnic blanket; cushion; bunting (outside); pots; planters; hamper; hat; artificial grass, all as before

H&A Discovering antiques

‘Skittles are the most sought-after items, either for use or display as statement sculptural pieces’

Croquet set, £25 to hire, The Very Vintage Hire Company. Folding artist’s stool, £56, Pimpernel & Partners. Bunting; pots, both as before

Give it a go The National Quoits Championship will be held on 13th-14th July at Beamish Museum, County Durham (0191 370 4000; beamish.org.uk) ● Croquet East will be teaching croquet at various summer festivals, including End of the Road, The Secret Garden Party, Wilderness Festival, and Wyndstock (croqueteast.co.uk) ● London wine merchant Corney & Barrow runs a lunchtime croquet league for city workers and has a croquet lawn for hire (020 7265 2508; candbcroquetleague.com) ●

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ou can buy new outdoor Y games at gardengames.co.uk or antique examples at avintagegarden.co.uk ● Hire a garden game for a party from The Very Vintage Hire Company (07814 116634; veryvintagehire.co.uk) ● Find a local croquet club to join via The Croquet Association (01242 242318; croquet.org.uk) ● Take a croquet course at The Croquet Academy in Brighton (thecroquetacademy.com) ● You can play garden games at two National Trust properties: Emmetts Garden in Kent and Sunnycroft in Shropshire (nationaltrust.org.uk) ●

lawn bowling and skittles – all of which are experiencing a revival today. The old French boules game pétanque is proving popular, too: the East Kent Coastal Pétanque League reports a 50 per cent increase in the number of teams playing in the last five years, while in Paris last year, 37,000 people played on a pop-up beach beside the Seine. This revival of traditional games brings with it an increase in the demand for vintage sporting goods. ‘Skittles are the most sought-after,’ says antiques dealer Rob Hall.

‘Customers either want something they can use without fear of devaluing it entirely or statement sculptural pieces that they can display.’

Rob doesn’t favour particular brands as there is often no maker’s mark. ‘Skittles, for example, can be provincial and primitive. I look for items that have aesthetic appeal. As with furniture, good colour and patina is the benchmark.’

Prices vary, but he currently has an early 20th-century croquet set for £245, a set of skittles for £290 and a pair of 1900 bowling balls in a metal carry case (engraved with the owner’s initials) for £195. He always avoids items with missing pieces: ‘Replacements are not easy to find and a mismatched croquet mallet or skittle spoils the look.’

Louise Allen, of antique garden ephemera and tools retailer Garden & Wood, agrees. ‘Before you buy a game, always make sure it has all its pieces,’ she advises. ‘I love finding a complete game in its original labelled box with instructions.’ Antiques seller Henry Gregory believes lawn balls (which he sells from £35 each) are popular because of their ‘alternative uses’. ‘If they’re too delicate to play with, you can use them as book ends or door stops,’ he says.

Henry has found ‘all sorts’ over the years, including a 1920s game called Clock Golf, which involves players hitting a ball around large cast-iron numbers that are placed in the ground, running from one to 12. ‘Some customers want something a bit different and others want a game from an established brand such as Jaques,’ he adds.

hall of fame Jaques of London set up shop in 1795 and is the oldest manufacturer of games in the world. Today, thankfully, the family firm no longer sells false teeth made of hippopotamus ivory (as advertised on its 1816 business card) but it does still sell a myriad of garden games – from quoits and skittles to badminton sets – and UK sales are up 30 per cent this year. Eighth generation ‘games maker’

top shelf Lawn clock game, £85, Garden & Wood. French coloured skittles and ball, c1930, £29, The Swan. Vintage white skittles and ball, £11, Number Twelve. Vintage Chad Valley quoits game (on wall), £25, Steptoe & Daughter at Brackley Antique Cellar. Flags, as before bottom shelf Vintage French wooden skittles, €55, French Country Living at Etsy. Small vintage French wooden skittles, €87, Abby in France at Etsy. French clown skittles, c1930, £29, The Swan. 1930s-40s croquet set (includes top box, hoops, balls and mallets), £250-£300, Jaques. Middle box: Slazenger croquet set, 1930s-40s, £495, Henry Gregory. Bottom box, 1930s-40s, £250-£300, Jaques. Basket, £4, vintage market. Lantern, find similar at Garden Trading. Radio, find similar at Focus on the Past. Folding table and chairs, as before. Vintage deckchair, £20, Pimpernel & Partners. Stool; lawn clock game and box, all as before

H&A Discovering antiques

‘Like an oak table, a wooden game gets better with age.

Croquet sets that are 100 years old look so appealing’

Joe Jaques runs the company today with his cousin Emmett Jaques and has inherited an archive of around 30 beautiful vintage croquet sets, dating back to 1880.

‘Like an oak table, a wooden game gets better with age.

Croquet sets that are 100 years old look so appealing,’ he says. ‘They’re becoming very collectable.’

If you fancy starting your own collection, a vintage Jaques croquet set in its original pine box with rope carry handles and maker’s mark will cost around £195 on eBay but, be warned, you’ll need plenty of space. ‘Our archive is spread between five or six houses – collecting garden games is a bulky business,’ says Joe. Collecting the paraphernalia associated with games – books, leaflets and photos – is much more practical space-wise. ‘The title every serious collector wants to get their hands on is 1914’s Croquet by Lord Tollemache,’ says Elizabeth Larsson. ‘It contains tips that are still helpful today.’ Barter Books in Northumberland (barterbooks.co.uk) has a first edition for £186.

above Boxed ‘Croquet De Luxe’ croquet set by John Jaques, 1930, containing four sprung hoop clips, four balls, six cast-iron competition hoops, two posts, four sprung hoop clips, eight corner pegs and four metal corner posts, £1,250, Manfred Schotten Antiques.

Artificial grass, as before right Set of nine French bowling pin skittles, 1940s, €245, Maintenant at Etsy

family fun

FIND OUT MORE WHat to read ● Croquet by Captain Mayne Reid (reprinted by Ulan Press) ● L awn Games by John R Tunis (Read Books) ● Tag, Toss & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games by Paul Tukey and Victoria Rowell (Storey Publishing) WHERE TO BUY ● H enry Gregory, 82 Portobello Road, London, W11 2QD (020 7792 9221; henrygregoryantiques.com) ● M anfred Schotten Antiques, 109 High Street, Burford, Oxfordshire,

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OX18 4RG (01993 822302; sportsantiques.co.uk) ● N ostalgia Games (01843 602526; nostalgiagames.net) ● N umber Twelve (number twelveinteriors.co.uk) ● Rob Hall (07581 061251; robhallantiques.co.uk) ● Steptoe & Daughter at Brackley Antique Cellar, Drayman’s Walk, Brackley, NN13 6BE (01280 841841; brackleyantiquecellar.co.uk) ● The Swan, High Street, Tetsworth, OX9 7AB (01844 281777; theswan.co.uk) ● Woody’s Antiques (07771 613766; woodys-antiques.com)

But why, in an age of digital entertainment, are simple games proving so popular? ‘Perhaps in tough economic times, there’s an increase in family values as we appreciate what we have,’ says Joe Jaques. Miranda Garret believes a combination of the fashion for all things vintage and a proliferation of wet summers is responsible: ‘On the rare occasions when the weather is good, people are desperate to take advantage of it.’ Meanwhile, many retailers say the recession means more of us are seeking cheap entertainment at home.

However, croquet player Eugene Chang feels there are subtler influences at work: ‘The image of garden games being sports for the old and privileged is changing and the growth of social media allows niche sports to be publicised to a wider audience,’ he says. ‘You can play these traditional games for as little or as long as you like, without much equipment. So they suit those of us with hectic schedules and they’re sociable, too.’

One afternoon a few years ago, Richard Hillier, the landlord of the Horse & Groom in Ramsgate, discovered a vintage set of boules in his beer cellar. He has been playing pétanque with regulars ever since and his pub now has three teams. ‘The real appeal of garden games is that anybody can play,’ he says. ‘Our youngest player is 18 and our oldest is 75.

You can’t get much more inclusive than that.’