Pot dealer
I was particularly annoyed to receive last week a duplicated letter from Lord Harlech, the former David Ormsby-Gore, written in his capacity as chairman of the European Movement inviting me to buy a cup and saucer for about £120. This letter had the same heading as the invitation to the Hampton Court Palace banquet held, by permission of the Queen, to celebrate the Common Market. Accompanying this trade circular (for that was what it amounted to) was a glossy brochure outlining the splendours of the commemorative cup and saucer. The invitation to purchase came from York, quaintly described as the second city of England. The crockery was made by Spode, which is nowadays an English subsidiary of an American company. Judged by the brochure, the cups and saucers were, I thought, rather nasty, tasteless objects of the sort that might well appeal to collectors rather than to connoisseurs. Continentals too are being asked to buy them. I did not know that the European Movement was quite so mercenary.
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