Mme Caroline Testout ... The Sequel ...

... As promised, here is a further update on the lady behind the amazing rose!

Anna kindly sent me the following extract from ‘ Who Does Your Garden Grow?’ by Alex Pankhurst.

Madame Caroline Testout

Madame Caroline Testout was a late nineteenth century French couturiere from Grenoble, the proprietor of fashionable salons in London and in Paris. She regularly visited Lyons, where she purchased silks and that city happened to be an important centre for rose breeding. Hybrid Tea roses were at that time all the rage, breeders having at last been able to develop them successfully, and no rose nurseryman was more celebrated than ‘ The Wizard of Lyons’ Joseph Pernet-Ducher.

Mme Testout was obviously an astute businesswoman who understood the value of good publicity, and she went to see Perner-Ducher, asking if he could name of his new roses after her. He agreed, though not with her choice of seedling which he considered mediocre. The nursery’s reputation might suffer from producing a poor rose by the hundreds, but his customer stood firm and a deal was struck. The rose duly made its debut at the salon’s 1890 Spring fashion Show, bearing the name ‘ Madame Caroline Testout’ .

Although not strong on scent, it was an immediate success with Madame Testout’s well to do customers , and with the gardening public , for its abundant silky, rose-pink flowers. Only two years after the rose’s introduction the Royal Horticultural Society gave it an Award of Merit. Four years later the Reverend H J Pemberton, Vice President of the National Rose Society, and a successful rose breeder himself, declared ‘In my opinion it is one of the best, if not the very best, new rose of the last seven years’.

The new variety’s popularity spread to America , and it has been estimated that in the town of Portland, in Oregon , nearly half a million bushes of ‘Caroline Testout' were planted along the sidewalks. Not surprisingly, it was dubbed The Rose City.

In 1901 a climbing form of this rose appeared, and eventually became more popular than the bush rose, which is no longer commercially available.

Whether or not Caroline Testout’s dressmaking business flourished as a result of her namesake’s success is not actually recorded. And perhaps Madame Pernet-Ducher observed the rose’s popularity with mixed feelings. At any rate, only after giving ‘Caroline Testout’ to the world, her husband named one of his new roses ‘Madame Pernet-Ducher’. The semi-double flower of this rose was cream, edged with lemon, which sounds attractive. But alas, it caused not a ripple of interest, and in a few years sank without trace, as did many other new rose varieties. Life can be hard on the wives of rose breeders.

***

Well, there we are then. What an astute business woman she was, with a very determined streak by the sounds of it. No wonder I liked her from the start!!

Unless anyone finds they're related to her and can offer some inside information, I think this is probably where we draw a line under Madame Caroline Testout ... apart from making the decision as to whether I keep the tablecloth which started off the whole thing, or whether I put it on my website (still working on it, but it's progressing quite well) complete with all provenances!

Mme Caroline Testout

I need some help, please!

The reason I'm asking is this ...

When I went to Ardingly a couple of months ago I bought a 72"x105" damask cloth with a name woven in the end. I assumed that the cloth (which has never been used/washed) was commissioned by or for someone of importance, but did nothing about it at the time. The name is Caroline Testout.



I caught a couple of minutes of Gardeners' World on television on Friday evening and they mentioned a rose named ... Mme Caroline Testout. Alarm bells went off in my head and I spent the next couple of hours trying to remember whether the cloth was in one of the antiques centres or in a box here at home or in the store. When I finally found it and opened it out it is amazing. Full of roses.



Mme Caroline Testout is the name of a rose bred in 1890. Today I received an email response to a query I sent to the owner of this site who directed me to this site which states that Mme Caroline Testout was a French fashion designer. I've Googled all there is to Google about the rose (shortly before WWI 10,000 bushes were planted along the streets of Portland, Oregon earning it the nickname "The City of Roses"; it is purported to be one of the finest hybrid tea roses ever produced and was bred by Pernet-Ducher), but Madame Testout herself is a problem!

This is where you, kind bloggers, come into your own. I need to know where/when/etc. As the rose was bred in 1890 presumably Caroline was a 19th Century designer. If any of you know, or can find any information about her I'd be so grateful. In view of the above, I'm guessing that the cloth was in fact made to celebrate the introduction of the rose rather than for Caroline herself, but who knows ...

I'd also love to hear from you if you live in Portland and have a Mme Caroline Testout in your yard!

Caroline Testout ... Update

Somewhere last week I found a message on the internetty from someone talking about roses. I have absolutely no idea who or in what context or on what website now, but from that I found that in 1978 Jack Harkness wrote a book entitled "Roses" and he apparently gave a certain amount of history behind individual roses. Again, I'm not sure how I found out, but it was apparent that Caroline Testout was mentioned. So, impatient soul that I am, I searched on Abebooks immediately, found said book, ordered it and much to my pleasure it arrived today as I was ploughing through a mountain of ironing ... all stock I hasten to add, nothing as interminable as clothes ironing. (I have to tell you here that I absolutely h a t e ironing, unless it's crochet edged tablecloths or linen pillowcases!!)

Anyway, I digress ...

I'm sure the late Jack Harkness won't mind if I quote a paragraph from the section on Caroline Testout.

"... The original Caroline Testout was engaged in selling Parisian fashions through a London showroom. She bought the name of the rose as an advertisment, being not only wise in her generation, but considerably in advance of it. It is usually hinted or assumed that Pernet-Ducher was quite taken in by the sharp lady, and sold her a rose he had little expectation from; but I do not know the evidence of this. In fact it is difficult to evaluate a rose until it has been on the market three or four years, and most breeders are content to share the risks with those who buy varieties or names from them. ... "

So, there we have it: it doesn't actually say she was a designer, but she sold Parisian fashions in London; she was wise and ahead of her time, sharp and on the ball. She was no daft cookie, was she. I imagine on the strength of this that she probably commissioned the tablecloth, too. I wonder if mine was the only one, or whether the cloths, too, were part of her advertising campaign.

I would have loved to have met her. Another time, another place ...

Now I have to decide whether I should keep the cloth a while longer in the hope of having enough time to research her even further (I don't have enough time as it is) or whether to use the provenance, take a leaf out of her book, and sell this amazing cloth to a rose grower and recoup some of the money Caroline paid out to have the rose named after her!!! Whatever I decide, she certainly chose the right rose. Whatever the grower thought at the time, it turned out to be a rose of particular excellence and can still be found today, 117 years after its introduction. The girl done good!

BUT ... wait a minute ... how spooky is this? I was just waiting for the photo to upload and saw I had an email ... from ANNA who has just left a message on my original post. She has even more information ... so watch this space. Thank you, Anna! Yes please, I would love to receive the additional information. Please email so I can reply to you direct! It's quite exciting, isn't it, and does rather answer the question I posed in the previous paragraph. She's not going anywhere for the time being!

Caroline Testout Revisited ... and The Cheese Room

Remember Caroline Testout? These are all my posts relating to the purchase of the tablecloth bearing her name and the follow-up information about her.

You may recall that I bought the rose from Peter Beales as a bare-rooted bush last autumn. Well, here she is in all her glory.

The perfume is very fresh, not a really heady, intense old-fashioned rose scent, but beautiful for all that. The individual flowers are incredibly heavy and droop down almost as soon as they begin to open, so catching one to photograph isn't easy. It could be that I haven't looked after her very well, and not fed her sufficiently (at all), resulting in her stems being rather less than sturdy. I have to say that she has had to fend for herself rather more than be nurtured, and so top marks to her. She obviously has a determined streak as we have been rewarded with several blooms, and she has also fought off an attack by this caterpillar. Pauley looked it up and told me what it was before seeing it off, but I'm afraid I've forgotten. It's yesterday's news and I have other thoughts occupying my mind at the moment.

And here, for your delectation, are a few "before" photos of what will become known as "The Cheese Room" at Dairy House. Work begins on Monday and with a lot of luck and a fair wind as they say, we hope to have it up and running in about a month's time. We're having a reallocation of space for a few dealers, and once we've sorted that I shall know what space I have available to rent out to new dealers. This new ground floor area is fully allocated, and there's quite a buzz of excitement as you can imagine. Hopefully everyone will be happy with the end result, but as you can see ... there's a fair way to go yet!! All it needs is a little vision ... and some elbow grease!

One month gone ...

Where has that time gone? One whole month of my online shop and I've had lots of visitors and numerous sales, so thank you all for your part in that. I had hoped to list a lot more items during August, but what with one thing and another I'm sure I only had 3 weeks in the month. However ... I managed to add a few watercolours this morning and began drafting some write-ups for other items which I hope to add during the week.

I did the Giant Flea Market at Shepton last weekend, didn't do the usual raindance and found that in fact I sold even more than ever despite the good weather! There were hundreds of outside pitches so I wasn't too hopeful of people coming inside with any money left in their pockets, but I was delighted with my takings at the end of the day - to the extent that I bought 2 huge bags of vintage French fabric oddments (sorry, camera battery on charge at the moment, but I'll post some photos eventually!), and then struggled to squash them and everything else in the car to go home. What I hadn't thought of when I loaded the car on the Saturday before the fair was that Niki was going to bring me a box of threads I'd left with her the week before, and a friend was bringing a huge box of embroidery cotton cones which she'd been sorting through for me. Those and the 2 rubbish sacks of fabric almost meant having to leave something behind, but with a lot of pushing and shoving, emptying bags and squashing eiderdowns and curtains and blankets in anyhow, I finally managed to close all the doors - and then had to make a space behind the steering wheel for me!

P and I are off to London tomorrow to deliver a mannequin and hopefully bring back a couple of wasp-waisted ones. I'm hoping to get to Petticoat Lane or Brick Lane Market as well, but I'm not sure what time we'll have.

It was nice to see Niki and Maggie and Clare and Kelly. Niki brought me a little prezzie which was a lovely surprise. Remember Caroline Testout - well, Niki put something in my hand ... a Wills's Cigarette Card from the Roses series. And yes, it is "Caroline Testout (Hybrid Tea) Without doubt a good scented Hybrid Tea rose. Its well-formed globular flowers are produced freely and continuously throughout the season. In growth it is vigorous, and will thrive in almost any soil and situation. Prune to three 'eyes'. An excellent bedding rose. Introduced in 1890." She's popping up everywhere, isn't she. I wonder where we'll find her next! Which reminds me, she is in a current rose catalogue so I MUST order one! And in case I didn't tell you, I'm DEFINITELY going to keep the cloth now. It's just too interesting to let go.

Have a nice weekend, what's left of it. No doubt a lot of you are getting back into back to school mode. I'm so glad I don't have to add that to my agenda!!

Searching ...

You're all so good at coming up with suggestions and help when I'm looking for information, so do you think you could do it again, please? My mannequin customer (you'll remember them if you've been following!!) has me on another mission: VINTAGE UNION JACK BUNTING and other FLAGS. I'm already checking Ebay but am in need of 'quantity'!

I have to say a big thank you to Anna for sending me some information on Caroline Testout. More on that later.

By the way, I've been tagged so I'll be back later or tomorrow with some amazing facts you didn't know about me! Can you cope with the suspense?