St. Scholastica's Day LASSCO eNewsletter
St. Scholastica? We'll come to her at the end. Her festival falls on 10th February, and it is best known for a riot in Oxford about bad wine ... in 1355.
Here at LASSCO Three Pigeons, near Oxford, 657 years later, we're serving good wine and great food in amongst our fabulous shop selling architectural antiques ... and no one is revolting - far from it, we're getting great reviews! So here's what's new at LASSCO Three Pigeons:
In the Spotlight this month:
We’ve just acquired a fabulous ship’s search-light. This imposing lamp is of robust construction; it's hardy enough to weather Cape Horn. It still has a concave reflector plate and adjustable focus. Its previous owner had it uplighting his garden frontage in West London.
 
If you need to throw light into the roof of your medieval barn or, if you like shooting things from the terrace after dinner, or perhaps summoning Batman – this is the lamp for you. Details here (these links do give prices!).
Also in focus:
The Fleetwood Telescope
This is a monster! And, having naval connections, it comes with a good yarn. In the 1930’s this telescope was to be seen - on a clear weekend - on the Esplanade at Fleetwood, Lancashire. For a small charge you could have a go at spotting what was passing in the shipping lanes of the Irish Sea; Fleetwood is on a Lancashire promontory just north of Blackpool.
  After the war it was bought by an airman and brought to Oxfordshire. The RAF pilot was a keen astronomer and had the lens re-ground, turning what was a good telescope into a very good one.
This is not the finely-polished collectable table-telescope of the hobby-ist. This is a utilitarian brute made by Ottway & Sons – telescope makers to the Admiralty. It probably dates to around 1900. It’s big, it’s burly and if you’ve got a view to behold - or planets to examine - it’ll look great on your balcony. Take a closer look at it here.
The Three Pigeons are Tweeting:
At LASSCO Three Pigeons we’ve been tweeting our breaking news for the last few weeks and have had a lot of fun with it. Whilst Twitter isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for a shop such as ours - with a succession of unique objects passing through - it is proving a great way of telling the world what is coming in. If you're a tweeter make sure you “Follow” @LASSCO3pigeons and you’ll be first to hear about our acquisitions. Exclusive Twitter Special Offers have been mooted!
Here are some examples of recent tweets and as you can see, you'll be the first to know what we've found:
The Facebookers among you get a more considered overview of what we're up to - so we'd love you to be our Friend.
You'll find the LASSCO Three Pigeons page here
Marble Workshop
Telescopes and social media are all very well but our bread-and-butter is the finding, restoring and selling of fabulous fireplaces - marble, stone, iron and wood. The ever changing fleet of marble chimneypieces at LASSCO Three Pigeons has been bolstered with two notable additions.
 
Firstly this Louis XVI griotte marble chimneypiece (above) with gilt-bronze mounts. It will be a glorious focal point to an intimate drawing room, study or bedroom. Griotte, French for a Morello cherry, is an old trade name given to this distinctive marble. It is deep cherry-red in colour, often flecked with small dashes of purple and spots and streaks of white which are formed by Goniatite fossils. Full details about the fireplace here.
Secondly, a George III style chimneypiece (above) made in Edwardian times using some elements from an 18th Century fireplace. We found the dis-assembled chimneypiece stacked behind the shed of a former "Eastenders" star! Having previously salvaged and stock-piled panels of Verde Antico from the marble dado of the Duveen galleries at Tate Britain we used some of the marble to bring the damaged Eastender's fireplace back to life. The resultant fireplace is now better than the original ever was! Full details here. Or you can see all of the stock of fireplaces on display at The Three Pigeons here.
As well as the stacks of marble cladding from the walls of the Duveen Galleries we even have one of the marble doorcases available (pictured below left) - details here. it comes complete with the carved and dated "Duveen" dedication. The marble doorcase on the right is from Old Broad Street in The City of London - details here.
LASSCO Coffee Shop
Now with three log fires burning through the winter our diners have been clamouring for the prime hearthside spots for their lunch. Some of those lunches last for hours! Saturdays are certainly getting busy. During the week, more visitors are enjoying the Free Wi-fi and delicious coffee to fuel their work and have meetings. Behind any urn or marble column there's quite often to be found a happy, huddled worker with a laptop - tapping away and enjoying the music!
You can always find the current menu here and Chef Sam and team look forward to looking after you. I can report that this month the Rabbit Casserole must be experienced - washed down with a glass of good red wine.
St. Scolastica Day - 10th February
So why would we be careful to only serve good wine on 10th February?
It was up the road in Oxford, on 10th February 1355, that long-standing rivalry between "town and gown" exploded into violence. Steve Roud in "The English Year" (Penguin 2006) tells the story:
"Some students objected to being served 'bad wine' in the Swindlestock Tavern by breaking the vessel over the landlord's head." ... Please don't try this in The Three Pigeons... "The landlord summoned help from the neighbours, the students mobilised their forces, and a pitched battle raged for several days. The townsmen were victorious, ransacking the university buildings and killing over sixty students."
"The King expressed his wrath by depriving the town of various priveleges, such as control of bread, ale and wine sold in the neighbourhood and jurisdiction over both criminal and civil cases [involving students], bestowing them instead upon the university." Wikipedia finishes the story: "Annually thereafter, on February 10th, the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed, a total of 5 s. 3 d.."
The penance ended 470 years later(!), in 1825 when the mayor of the time refused to take part.
It was not until six hundred years had passed (SIX HUNDRED YEARS!) that the hatchet was finally and formally buried when, on 10th February 1955, at a commemoration of the events of 1355, the Mayor was given an honorary degree and the Vice-Chancellor was made an Honorary Freeman."
So here's to St. Scholastica (480-543 A.D.) on her festival day tomorrow (10th) ... she is invoked against storms and rain - snow isn't mentioned.
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