Valentine's Gift Guide 2014: Last minute ideas from Fig and Sparrow

Stevie Mackenzie-Smith

Left it to the last minute? Panic not, it’s gifts a-go-go at Fig and Sparrow.

Where last minute birthday gifts and “honestly, I didn’t forget” moments are concerned, Fig and Sparrow is one of our faithful go-tos. Hotfoot it there on a lunch break and you’ll leave with something uncompromisingly lovely wrapped in tissue paper. With this in mind, and with a certain heart-shaped celebration just around the corner, we asked owners Jan and Emily to put together their pick of last minute Valentine’s gifts for friends, lovers and romantic creatures.

Je t’aime…moi non plus? Local designer Nicola Rowlands gives a couple of terriers the Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin treatment with a tongue-in-cheek cushion (£36, above). Everybody loves a mug… and at F&S there’s the Jansen variety in postbox red or Blossom & Bill designs by Anglo-Scandi brand Isak (both £10, above) and if you’re feeling flush (what price love, eh?), throw in a Forlife loose leaf teapot in red for good measure (£24, above).

Salford-based studio Mr PS always hits the nail on the head where easy-on-the-eye screen prints are concerned. The Northern Quarter Hankie is its latest item; a sweet new commission from Fig & Sparrow that maps the area’s streets (£8, above). Fir & Wren’s bicycle brooch, meanwhile, is the gift of choice for those into their wheels (£15, above). Or get your lover what they really, really want: a hastily inkjet-printed portrait of their fantasy other (Clooney/Binoche/Elba/delete as applicable), pop it in a Nkuku antique brass and glass standing frame (£18, above) and allow them to bask in their celebrity of choice’s adoring gaze. Buying for more of a Valentine’s traditionalist? You’ll be better off with a Wild Fig soy wax hand-poured candle from Kew Gardens (£20, above) and one of the cynicism-free locally made cards that declare “Hey Good Looking!” and “You’re the one for me!” And that’s it: Valentine’s Day , sorted.

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
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