On the menu today
Now look what you’ve made me go and do. This, to start with.
And this.
All I did was write about Daphne Padden, and then post images of a few menus that Dorrit Dekk had designed for P&O. The next thing I knew, MrCrownfolio had pressed a few buttons on eBay, and these popped through the letterbox a few days later.
Both are from the same August 1958 cruise of the S.S. Chusan, and the food and entertainments listed are almost as evocative as the design. Anyone for Dancing to Relayed Music, or Housie Housie in the Lounge? Or how about some Consomée Tosca, or Sweetbreads Godard? So they are wonderful things, and a bit of a bargain at just £4.99 each.
But at the same time, I am utterly appalled. We can’t start collecting anything else, who knows where it will end up? In a house stacked with piles of old leaflets, tickets and newspapers and no room for us, probably. We are both natural collectors, and until now I’ve been feeling slightly smug about managing to restrict ourselves to just posters, which are at least either on the wall or not taking up much space. And now this. Ephemera. Help.
If I’m entirely honest, it isn’t the first one either. A while ago, MrCrownfolio bought this.
It’s a Tom Eckersley menu, from the Royal Designers for Industry Dinner in 1985. We’re doomed, there’s no escape. But we will go down in great style, eating Noisettes of Lamb Shrewsbury and Caramel and Orange Salambos. Anyone care to join us?