Cravatomancy

Envoi

I have nearly reached the end of my tie collection; I was saving this one, a present from @saschaloske when I left the Sussex Language Institute, for the very last. However, the situation at work has developed in ways not necessarily to my advantage, so I may not be wearing a tie for a little while.

I have some final remarks to make, on ties unworn, on ties I no longer have, on being taught to tie a tie, and so on, but this seems a good moment to thank you for your attention, dear reader, and hope that I have diverted you in recent months.

Last week in ties: Tuesday to Friday

Tuesday's tie: a spotty effort from Pink. Odd, I thought it was from another tie-maker, but I found I was mistaken when I checked the label.

More spots on Wednesday. This isn't one I wear often, but I should.

For Thursday, a striped Liberty tie. It's one of their better modern efforts.

And for Friday, another hunting scene from Holland and Holland. It has something of the feel of a medieval tapestry

Ludgate

This is my other Old Town tie. Why is it Ludgate? I cannot tell. It's fine, but as I said, before, too small to take any knot other than a four-in-hand.

A week in ties

They call it Stormy Monday

But Tuesday's just as bad

Wednesday's worse

and Thursday's also sad

The eagle flies on Friday

And so on and so forth

The Old School Tie

I've been saving the old school tie up. Why do I wear it? Why indeed? My schooldays were by no means the happiest days of my life, and I could not be said to be sympathetic, then or now, to many of the values the place stood for. However, some of the scholarship seems to have stuck.

The standard school tie was a diagonally striped affair of purple and black. There were more elaborate ties worn by boys who had won their colours in rugby, hockey or cricket. I was not one of them. My physique was totally unsuited to rugby. Because of my height I was put in the scrum, as a tight-head prop, which I loathed. I still have the scar sustained when a scrum collapsed and another boy, wearing skinhead boots with steel plates screwed into the sole at the toe, kicked me above the eye. At hockey, a lack of hand-stick-ball co-ordination meant I was more or less useless; I sustained injuries in this sport too — it is a bad idea to give adolescent boys sticks and let them loose on a field. I did enjoy cricket, though I had no great skill, and was best as a scorer.

The tie has never won me any advantage in employment or any other aspect of life. Once a potential employer commented, 'well, you did go to a good school'. I think he meant to imply that my career had not done the school credit.

Old Town tie

This tie is by Old Town Clothing, based in Holt in Norfolk. The design is splendid (called Leadenhall their ties are named after City districts, commuter railway lines and stations) but I have to say that, while I admire the post-war aesthetic, from a practical point of view it's not that great. It won't take a knot larger than a four-in-hand and the length is ungenerous, perhaps deliberately so, to recall the days of clothes coupons.

I love it and its twin (Ludgate, to be worn later on in this journey through my tie shelves) dearly, though, and put this on as today I attend a meeting of the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JOLIS) Editorial Board. I think it strikes the right scholarly note.

I may drop into Bunhill Fields afterwards to visit William Blake's grave.

Rhinos

I think this is my last tie from the bestiary. It depicts rhinos. The horn is picked out in blue. By way of contrast, here is Dürer's Rhinoceros, image from Wikimedia Commons.

The apotheosis of Paisley

I think this is magnificent, paisley taken to god-like heights. Not everyone who saw it as a #tieoftheday was as impressed.

Pink on blue

I

This tie came to grief in the evening; I spilled gin and tonic on it.

Friday spots

Back to poor standards of photography, taken on the train without benefit of a mirror. I chose a spotted tie for a hot Friday.