High Tea at Ninety

Concept and palette were locked two weeks out: english garden tea in rose and china blue, built around tea rose, china blue, porcelain. Florals — david austin roses, lily of the valley, mint — were prepared in our studio the day before.

The family lent us ninety years of heirloom china — cataloguing, transporting and returning every saucer intact was its own project plan.

She recognised her grandmother’s teapot at the head of the table and told stories for an hour; the china went home without a chip.