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| Peter's Reconstructed 1920s Grocer Shop, credit to ukfilmlocation.com |
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It's been far too long but Mrs Treaton has decided to dust off the blog and crank it back into life! Three reasons have converged to relight this fire, let me tell you about them. Firstly, I have just watched and marvelled at
Episode 6 of 'Collectaholics' where Peter (an unexpectedly youthful, contemporary looking, man) has recreated an Edwardian home and even better, GROCERS SHOP!!, in his adorable Nottingham cottage.
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| Peter's Shop Window, credit as before |
Clearly a genuine labour of love in all stages from the meticulous research, enthusiastic seeking out of objects and beautiful presentation. I almost cried when I saw it, both at the wonderfulness of it and the evidence that there are others out there far more dedicated to pursuing their passion for history, historical objects and fake foods. If Mr Treaton ever tires of my strange fake food collecting ways, I think
I'd like to live with the fabulous Peter. This
2 minute clip gives you the essence
(but the whole programme/ Collectaholics series is brilliant, well worth
watching). The shop is all kinds of fake food/ history geek heaven!
It's given me ideas for my study (currently a mess of cardboard boxes, paint tins, books and all sorts of paperwork), a very long-term project but one that would add a framework/ purpose to my collecting.
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| Museum of London, plenty of fake food delights |
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| Harry Potter Studios, magical fake food wonders |
In addition to this tv inspiration, over the last year I've been on a number of outings where the fake food on display has amazed and delighted me.
Plas Mawr in Conwy (North Wales) deserves a blog post on it's own (possibly the next one), while equally, a National Trust house in the Lake District thrilled me with it's long, heavily laden table of fake dishes (more pics to follow on this one too). I always take lots of photos of fake food I see out and about but even I realise there's probably a limited general interest in these pics. I've sneaked some particularly realistic cakey ones onto Instagram etc but sadly a lot go unrecorded/ unmentioned! I've realised I already have a place for these on this peculiar blog! Maybe they'll even reach some like-mindedly loony others?
Also influential was February's mini break in London. My lovely friend Louise has been to both the
Museum of London and the Harry Potter Studio Tour several times but she's a generous gal happy to merrily potter around both once again.The Museum of London has much to recommend it, with the Roman pantry and kitchens and the little lane of Victorian shops as particular highlights. There was a Carr's biscuit display case that I fell in love with, prop scones that I admired more than is normal in the Victorian grocers, and gorgeous cakes in the old Lyons Teahouse display. The
Harry Potter Studios Tour offered more magical delights such as pumpkins, huge pies (unpictured but glimpsed in a gloriously overstuffed props cage) and a chocolate deserts table groaning with realistically gooey confections.
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| Fake cakery by Mamacaz18 via ebay |
More recently, a chance sighting of delectable looking fake fondant fancies in an Anglesey antiques shop led to my first ebay purchase of extremely realistic looking cakes by an amazing prop food maker,
Mamacaz18 Although the cheerful antiques shop owner was understandably unwilling to part with the cakes, he did direct me to the maker and a fortnight later I'm now the rather proud owner of this astonishing set of tea time treats.
Brilliantly, there's a lot of fake foodery, especially tropical fruits, about at the moment. Pineapples are bang on trend, you can spot them everywhere in various mediums and watermelons aren't far behind. On this theme, the colourful, downloadable fruits and ice creams by
Mr Printables are fun, cheery sights (pictured is my attempt to carefully cut them out & stick together) and they're completely free! Also affordable are the plastic fruit and vegetables which have appeared in legendary local hardware shop Stermat, apparently they have a large selection. My lovely mother-in-law recently brought me the impressive fruits below, then a friend brought me a sweet surprise present of one of their red peppers and very realistic corn on cob to add to my slowly growing collection. Evidently, being known as a fake food obsessive is paying off even if it does seem slightly odd/ unfathomable!
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| Paper Fruit (downloads) by Mr Printables |
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| Plastic Fruit from Stermat |
