Thélème Club
Unknown maker
Thélème Club napkins, c. 1937
Original map by Philip Gough
Screen-print on linen, 54cm x 54cm
Museum no: L.33
This napkin is one of a series privately produced by an unknown maker in the 1930s for the members of London’s infamous Thélème Club. The print shows public lavatories marked alongside popular tourist attractions such as London Zoo and Westminster Abbey.
The toilets are charmingly represented by what appears to be jousting tents, perhaps intended to invoke a suggestion of two knights coming together wielding their erect lances. Similarly, two lavatory attendants, brandishing toilet brushes, are seen reclining in the foreground.The preservation of this napkin may be due to its potentially scandalous nature. It survived the club's bombing during the Blitz in April 1941, thought to be stored securely in a concealed safe in the walls of the club’s wine cellar, only made available to 'special' members.
The Thélème napkin has been in the Keeper’s collection since the late 1940s and was donated anonymously by a former club staff member.
KEEPER’S NOTES: This bona varding, swishing Molly will not fail to turn your oysters up.
A cross-dressing milkman who regularly visited the city's many molly houses, Gabriel was convicted and hanged for the act of sodomy in 1726. Gabriel’s close friend, the potter Thomas Tyler, created the original work in tribute to his life and spirit.
The figurine of Gabriel is now lovingly remade by third-generation makers in Stoke-on-Trent. It portrays Gabriel in classic Rococo style, imitating delicate pastoral designs favoured by the famous Bow Porcelain Factory. Assembled by hand and decorated using traditional techniques, each piece is unique in its finishing.
*Limited edition
READ GABRIEL'S STORY