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You don’t know rack Not until you’ve seen these ones, says Matt Bielby. Ornate, elegant and tailor-made in Bath, the platedrying pals are Cath Kidson’s faves, you know
That’s a plate rack, right? For drying crockery on? Yep, if you don’t mind them dripping on whatever’s down below. Alternatively, mount yours away from the sink for groovy plate storage. Cath Kidson’s had one of these since the early ’90s, apparently; she loves it, and even used to sell them at her first London shop. What colour’s hers, then? Not sure, but it’s probably the original Art Nouveau design from the early ’70s in plain wood. These things started out as a collab back then between colourful
British inventor-adventurer Jeremy Fry and his French architect pal Didier Bertrand. I’ve heard of Jeremy, haven’t I? He’s certainly a fascinating figure: part of the Fry chocolate family, he raced tiny-engined Parsenn hillclimb cars, founded local engineering company Rotork, was mentor to James Dyson, pal to movie director Tony (Tom Jones) Richardson, owned and renovated Bath’s Theatre Royal (and was chairman of the Arnolfini over in Bristol), and was almost best man to Lord Snowdon and
Princess Margaret. At one point he lived at Widcombe Manor, perhaps Bath’s poshest house, and when he died it was at the palace he owned in India. Blimey! So what’s he doing messing around making plate racks? Initially Jez and Dids just made a dozen of them for family and friends, but years later Jeremy’s son, Cosmo, got more serious about the idea, manufacturing them in Somerset and Vietnam (an unlikely-sounding combination, but there you go) to sell at Cath
K’s. Later still, Cosmo got Carl Toms – the theatre, opera and movie designer, perhaps best known for Raquel Welch’s fur bikini in caveman-versusdinosaurs epic One Million Years BC – to come up with two complementary styles, including a Gothic version. Cosmo’s recently started making them again, alongside wall-mounted bookshelf versions, at a Bath workshop. Sound good, but I’m not much of a goth. (Well, not since my teenage years.) But that’s all right: they still offer the swirly Art Nouveau
original, plus an Arts and Crafts version too. Ready-tohang models – think readyto-wear but, you know, plate racks – come in unpainted wood or 16 different Formica colour finishes, or you can get more bespoke versions tailor-made. And if you really love the look, you can get them to do you a similarly styled bookshelf version, too.
Cosmo Fry’s plate racks cost from £495; cosmofry.com
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