Thursday, December 6, 2007

And Speaking of Elephants, Here's some Reeealy Big Elephants

There is a store in London named Thomas Goode, ltd located just south of Oxford Street and Grosvenor Square on South Audley. It's not far from the American Embassy.

Flanking the entrance and standing behind huge glass display windows are these fabulous ceramic elephants. You can find more pictures of them on the web at www.thomasgoode.co.uk. The elephants are majolica and were made for the company by Minton around 1898. They stand at about 8 feet tall. They are truly awesome.
If you go to the Goode website, you can see another view of one of the elephants and also read about the history of the company. The outside of the building is decorated with tiles and enormous Chinese-style vases set in niches high above street level. Alongside the south wall are beautiful tiles in the wall. It is quite impressive. When I worked and lived in the UK and I would pass this business often on my lunch hour and would never tire of looking at the wonderful elephants and beautiful display windows. I try to return every time I visit London. (Which hasn't been nearly enough!)

Inside, the shop and museum seems to go on and on with rooms filled with of the finest examples of ceramics to be seen anywhere. Goode still produces china wares for sale as they have since the early part of the 19th Century.

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