Exciting Update

Many months ago, May 2010 to be exact we went to our local car boot and discovered something rather special.  A local house clearance man who stands at our car boot most weeks always has a wonderful array of treasures, some are a little expensive but you can usually find a gem amongst them.  We discovered an old battered leather attache case covered in mildew but with the most beautiful brass lock.  It had a name on it and to be honest we didn't really take much notice but just bought it to clean up as I love old leather.

When we cleaned it up at home we could read the name more clearly and hubby put the name into Google.  After a bit of searching it came up with Anthony Piers De Tabley Daniell Major Royal Engineers.  Trying to hunt down any more information was difficult and the subsequent months turned up nothing more.  We knew he was someone significant in World War Two and had been awarded the DSO, MC and was an OBE.

Then out of the blue two nights ago I received an Email from a very nice man informing me he was a friend of Colonel Daniell and unfortunately the Colonel had only died on the 17th of November this year, so only a few weeks back.  His friend had seen my original blog post on the case back in May of 2010, and was so pleased we had found it and treasured it.  We really had no idea Colonel Daniell was still alive and living in a Shropshire village until the ripe old age of 98!  How we would have loved to have met him and how did he come to be parted from his attaché case he had used for important documents all those years ago during the War.  Now what to do with the case!  We will be looking into the possibility of donating the case to The Royal Engineers Museum as it was never an option to sell it.  I love it and to part with it will be very hard but I feel in a funny kind of way it isn't mine to keep any more.

Another exciting update is that of my antique needlepoint rug which has now at last been hung on the wall.  I stitched a sleeve on to the back of it for the pole to pass through and voilà here it is hanging at last.  Thank you Hen for the tip on how to hang it properly.  That wall in the dining room has been waiting for the right thing to come along.

Finally, I have just purchased what looks to be a very early quilt and I am absolutely thrilled with it.  The cottons look to be very late 18th or early 19th century, and the sheen on the chintz is still fabulous.  There is some damage to a small number of the hexagons but the beautiful floral chintz border is perfect.  Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.  Now it is the countdown to Christmas, I've still got too much to do as Mum and John are spending the Christmas holidays with us.  It will be our first Christmas together for ages as they have always had Nan to look after and she was never able to travel from Devon to see us as the journey was too taxing for her.  I will admit it feels a bit strange to have no Nan and I think Mum and John are a bit lost at the moment without her.

Have a lovely week and take care in the terrible weather.

Jo xx