Founded in 1936 by Cecilia Dunbar Kilburn and Athole Hay, this London gallery (the term shop was actually their preferred term) was created as a marriage bureau for promising young designers (mostly Royal College of Art graduates) and industry. Within four years it had closed for the Second World War, and its stock and records destroyed by bombing. There is virtually no paper record, nor any photographs of the shop, but a 1979 lecture given by Cecilia Dunbar Kilburn (by then Lady Sempill) serves as a starting point to recreate the goods and ethos of the shop, which has been immortalised by a flamboyant two-colour trade card engraved by Eric Ravilious.

Lady Sempill’s lecture is reprinted in full, with a memoir by her daughter Gabriel Sempill, and an essay of about 26,000 words by myself on the artists involved with the shop and their wares, as well as the context in which the shop was conceived; it has been a fascinating effort.

The book runs to 172 pages printed in colour by Northend in Sheffield, bound in an unknown pattern taken from fabric sold in the shop.

There are 270 copies, of which 150 are standard copies and 120 are specials containing an original copy of the Ravilious trade card, with a piece of hand-printed organdie fabric from Enid Marx’s earliest days as an original and outstanding textile artist. The special copies are provided in a solander box. Both versions look outstanding.

This book is no longer available directly from the Fleece Press.

It was featured in World of Interiors - six pages in the July 2017 issue. Shortlisted for Best British Book at the British Book Design & Production Awards in November 2017.