Fake 74

Turning the pages of the RHS magazine yesterday evening, I came across this fake, a cod image of an idyllic garden of a long time ago. With a long time ago being effected by the use of a style of image used in the 1920's and 1930's, before photographic mass production reached the dizzy heights it has attained since.

An improbably good looking housewife playing in her border.

An improbably large lawn, being sturdily mowed by the handsome husband. Or perhaps there is supposed to be a hint of the Mellors about him? Particularly given that the garden is large enough to be the property of a rich man, rich enough to be unlikely to want to mow his own lawn. With a wife far too busy with her bridge and her other activities to have time to do more than play at gardening.

Also playing to the suburban fantasy of aspiring to a house and garden a good deal grander and larger than one is ever likely to have in real life. A fantasy often exploited by people selling kitchen units.

PS: I have often thought that it must have been a real pain to have been a gardener or cook in domestic service. That is to say, if one was any good at it, it must have been a real pain to have some bit of fluff continually interfering, decorative though she may have been.