Antiques

Antiques are hand crafted, recycled heirlooms. If you are thinking about adding a new piece of furniture to your home, why not consider purchasing one. Imagine owning some thing that belonged to a special family member or a world-renowned personality.
I had the good fortune to see Agatha Christie’s writing desk in the showroom of my friend Barry Cotton. It brought back memories of holidays in Devon, where Agatha spent her summers and London, were I was born.
Agatha’s desk, which is for sale through Barry Cotton Antiques, http://www.barrycottonantiques.com could tell quite a story.

img 0551 300x225 Antiques are hand crafted, recycled heirlooms
Agatha Christie has become synonymous throughout the world with England. Her quintessential “English” characters offer a charming view of a bygone era when people sat down to tea in the afternoon, tended roses in their gardens and where village life provided all the scandal one could ever want to hear!
The richness of the settings in Christie’s novels add to the great enjoyment when reading her novels and she drew on real places when writing her stories. Many are set in Devon where she grew up; Burgh Island, just off the coast is said to be the setting for And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun. Her beloved Greenway was to provide the basis for Dead Man’s Folly, Ordeal by Innocence and Five Little Pigs.

Agatha Christie loved nothing better than escaping with her family to Greenway, their Devon holiday home. An appeal was launched to raise £5.4 million (around $11 million) to help pay for major restoration work to the house. Now that it is open to the public visitors have the opportunity to view the many personal collections and mementoes of this best-loved mystery writer and her family.
Agatha Christie’s family gave Greenway to the English National Trust in 2000. However, as the retirement home of her daughter and son-in-law, Rosalind and Anthony Hicks, the house remained closed to the public. Visitors have for several years been able to enjoy the beautiful woodland garden, with its romantic pathways that lead down to the Dart estuary. Following the recent deaths of Rosalind and Anthony, the house passed to the Trust, along with the generous gift from Agatha Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, of the majority of the contents.

The major restoration project to the house and construction of new visitor facilities are complete and the National Trust now presents Greenway, as it was when Agatha Christie described it as “the loveliest place in the world.”
A visit to Greenway will take visitors, all of whom will be encouraged to arrive by green transport, on a 1950s holiday, painting an intimate portrait of Agatha Christie not only as a writer, but as a mother, wife and hostess. Overlaying her own collections are those of Rosalind and Anthony, who made Greenway their permanent home from the early 1970s.
The vision for Greenway is clear: there will be no gimmicks, no ‘Miss Marple Museum’ or room stewards dressed as Poirot – this was a much-loved family home. In addition to the rooms open to daily visitors, part of the house will be available as a holiday apartment, continuing Greenway’s legacy as a holiday retreat. It will feel as if Agatha Christie and her family have never left. This is a true measure of a home.