Discovery

Well, they are not Fornasetti after all. Did a bit of Googling and if you go to www.rennart.co.uk there are some cushion covers for £50 each, (unlike a Fornasetti umbrella stand for around £3,000). Described as fifties material, cotton barkcloth, 'assorted guardsmen'. Obviously no grand maker, which I suspected as barkcloth is not that fantastic. Having said that it has lasted well from the fifties, so can't be too bad. If the design had been Fornasetti it would have been printed on linen. My mother was a purchaser of furnishing fabric at that time, and one bought either linen, linen union for chairs, or silk or the real favourite, glazed chintz for curtains. In fact Dorothy and Julian had a point, as Fornasetti had a design called 'dandies' which consisted of men, including soldiers which were very similar indeed but drawn with much more detail, and may in fact have been designed after my fifties 'guardsmen'.

We live and learn, though I would like to know who designed them. And I will always like them - they are so camp.