Arthur Parkinson is best known as a gardener and author of his best selling books, Planting a Paradise: A year of pots and pollinators, The Pottery Garden, Chicken Boy and The Flower Yard. His instagram is a marvel, featuring his beloved chickens, fabulous blooms, his garden and exquisite floral decorations. Admired for his flamboyant, yet practical approach to gardening he is as on trend today as when he first appeared on the gardening scene.
Parkinson has designed and finely illustrated a new mug which features the aptly named, beautiful Burford Brown hens and their chocolate coloured eggs. Made from bone china, it’s the perfect mug for all who appreciate Arthur’s idiosyncratic style.
“I wanted to suddenly do a mug I really like ceramics so I paid at huge expense for a Scottish company who do lithography onto ceramics to do a line of these mugs. I love Burford Garden company and the fact that Burford was once the native homeland of the black and red necked Burford Brown hens who lay the most incredible dark brown eggs, I thought I want to do a product that celebrates this. If you want real Burford Browns then you have to order them from Philip Lee-Woolf who is still based closed to Burford and rears his hens with huge dedication, these are the real McCoy Burford Browns. They are strong, large and hardy hens that really do lay a lot of their iconic brown eggs in good numbers if they are well looked after’, explained Parkinson.
Always a step ahead, with an eye for all things en vogue, Burford Garden Company (BGC) will be exclusively selling Parkinson’s charming mug. According to BGC, with this mug Arthur hopes to encourage others to join him in respecting his much loved feathered friends.
The mugs are available online and in the store, where you will find them in good company. “I love that they are sold alongside boxes of Cacklebean eggs, which are laid by very happy hens indeed just up the road in Stow on the Wold”, added Parkinson passionately.