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A HORSELESS CARRIAGE OF CURIOSITIES

Lovers of the obscure and the unusual were given a treat this summer as “Hendrick’s Horseless Carriage of Curiosities” toured Britain in a carnival of the unconventional. Starting in Edinburgh in July, then on to Manchester in August and finishing in London in October, the carriage acted as a magnet for fans of the fantastical. Visitors were enticed to furnish this travelling museum with their most treasured eccentrica in exchange for cocktails on the lawn and a quick round of croquet.
 
Scotland and the North set the bar high with a hefty haul of oddities (though anecdotal evidence suggested that Edinburgh’s weird stuff was more wonderful than Manchester’s), but over 2,000 curious visitors visited in the capital, bringing with them some of the choicest pieces to complete a “comprehensive and utterly compelling collection of what Britain finds odd”.

Inter-city competition aside, the ultimate goal was to impress one's host, the impeccably groomed “agitator of the absurd” and cad-about-town, David Piper. Those who brought the most bizarre bits were invited to a dinner party held inside a fully restored late-19th century railway carriage, an intimate space stacked with curio and unfathomable steam-powered devices. Drinks were served by a delightfully named gin-master, Louis Xavier Lewis-Smith (pictured), and the banquet was created by Bombas and Parr, famed jelly mongers, who say their next project will be the Architectural Punch Bowl, a punch bowl so large you can row a boat across it. Between courses Piper regaled guests with his sparkling innuendo, poetry (on roses and cucumbers), and his table-top tickle machine.

Sugared rose petals, quails (and their eggs, with chilli and 24-carat gold) followed by cucumber and Bergamot ice cream (served with gin-jelly) made up the more restrained courses of a feast that began with the unexpected and then turned magically surreal before coffee was served. An after-dinner history lesson, leaching session and a quick turn about the park on a penny-farthing finished off the evening in the style to which one had become accustomed.

~ CAROLINE CARTER