The Ornamental Hermit stocks a variety of Curiosities, Antiquarian Goods, Religious Artifacts, Folk Art, Handwritten & Photographic Ephemera and much more.
The main drive for creating this business was a desire to pair up curious and one of a kind items with individuals who want to start their own collection but don’t know where to start; by offering affordable works with unique social histories. So I’ve tapped into my background in Archives, Documentary Photography, Art History, Museums, and Image Libraries to hunt down treasure!
Can’t find what your looking for? We also offer a service where we source items for clients, contact us to find out more.
About Ornamental Hermits
Strolling through the gardens of a country estate in Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century Europe you might well find a wizened old Hermit perched within a grotto. They are of course awaiting your arrival so they may begin their recitations, but this is not the party trick, for they themselves are the party trick of the landed gentry. If you desire to delve further into their world, turn to the pages of Our Saviour Edith Sitwell's English Eccentrics.
About the Founder
Hannah Saunders (b. Peterborough, 1993) is an Artist, Writer and Medieval Art Historian based in Hay-on-Wye. She has previously worked for The National Archives, The Witt & Conway Image Libraries, Peterborough Museum, The British Journal of Photography, Metal and BBC Cambridgeshire. Saunders completed her BA in Documentary Photography at Newport and her MA in The Supernatural Middle-Ages at The Courtauld. In January 2020 she undertook a Jerwood funded Residency at The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society where she explored women’s participation in antiquarian circles and created a micro oral history archive on the subject. Now this research is informing her first novel, an eighteenth-century folk horror based in the Lincolnshire Fens and the creation of The Ornamental Hermit.
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @theornamentalhermit
Facebook: www.facebook.com/theornamentalhermit
Logo by Sue Shields.