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"View Slideshow\n\nClich\u00E9s are clich\u00E9s for a reason: They tend to be true. Take the old saw by Samuel Johnson: \"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.\" No statement was ever more accurate, at least as it pertains to London's most irresistible luxury-goods shops. They may induce envy but never boredom.\n\nAfter buying a London pied-\u00E0-terre in the elegant Mayfair district, the American interior designer Carleton Varney became an indefatigable shopper in the neighborhood. With equal enthusiasm he explores such venerable purveyors as Thomas Goode &amp;amp; Co. and newcomer Edi B Fine Linens.\n\nThe famous 18th-century engraved maps of Paris by Turgot and Bretez are the backdrop for an unusual piece: a small 18th-century Russian table.\n\nThomas Goode, on South Audley Street, has been selling fine bone china, crystal and silver since 1827, 10 years before Queen Victoria came to the throne. It has supplied bespoke china services to royal houses in Europe and Russia and still has three warrants from the British crown. The company even carries the china pattern Prince Charles uses in his own homes, a draw for Varney, who has acquired two demitasses from the collection.\n\nThis luxurious emporium has new porcelain patterns from Meissen, Royal Copenhagen, Herend and KPM, as well as European crystal and English silver. The paneled chairman's room is the setting for its display of antique silver, china and crystal.\n\nA few doors up is Edi B Fine Linens, a supplier of top-quality linens for bed, bath and table. Owners Edi Bavagnoli and Roberto Chietera have installed tall white cases to show a range of 600-thread-count cottons in sherbet colors. Edi B specializes in custom work, including embroidered bed linens and satin damask comforters with appliqu\u00E9d borders. Varney takes full advantage of the shop's wares and services. \"They do things you can't get in New York. I outfit my clients' entire houses there.\"\n\nA. Pash Sons is a chockablock silver shop. Gleaming under the antique Osler crystal chandeliers are wonderful examples of English silver: an ornate epergne made in Sheffield about 1904, a candelabrum made by Mortimer and Hunt in 1839, a pair of tureens by Charles Reilly George Storer from 1834 and lots of picture frames. \"Most of my clients have the basics,\" notes Varney. \"I tend to go to Pash for special accessories that have to do with entertaining.\"\n\nWhether searching for an antique carpet or planning a custom commission, the designer always visits Mansour, which features a large collection of Oriental and European rugs. This gallery is a family affair, with Mansour Soleimani and his sons Benhour and Benjamin Soleimani all sharing responsibilities. Recent offerings include a Turkish piece, signed \"Hereke,\" in eggplant and green; a 130-year-old Sultanabad carpet in pomegranate red, soft blue and cream; and an antique tapestry made in Brussels.\n\n\"Purdey's appeals to my sense of touch and has the scent of yesterday.\"\n\nWhen he needs to find a piece that \"won't get lost in a room,\" Varney heads up Mount Street to Pelham Galleries, a shop founded in 1928 that shows its fine Continental and English antiques on French parquetry floors. One corner boasts a pair of refined giltwood sofas designed by Robert Adam in 1780 for a house in Mayfair. Behind them, on a red velvet panel, hangs a splendid large French carved giltwood mirror from about 1660.\n\nThe famous 18th-century engraved maps of Paris by Turgot and Bretez, mounted on canvas, are the backdrop for another unusual piece: a small round 18th-century Russian occasional table in kingwood, purpleheart and satinwood with gilt-bronze mounts. A coastal scene, possibly an imaginary landscape, is beautifully painted on the top.\n\nOwner Alan Rubin, an accomplished harpsichordist, can often be seen in the gallery playing a double-manual mahogany harpsichord made in 1789 by Abraham and Joseph Kirckman, of London.\n\nOccupying a different niche in the Mayfair luxury spectrum is James Purdey Sons, one of the city's oldest and most famous shops for sporting clothing and accessories. Here, within its paneled walls, continued from page 56 one finds corduroys and cashmere sweaters, walking sticks with carved duck heads and china platters with hunting motifs, as well as patchwork quilts made of sporting ties and cashmere throws with their own leather carrying straps. \"Purdey's appeals to my sense of touch and has the scent of yesterday,\" says Varney.\n\nIn Mayfair, merchants don't shout about their wares; they whisper\u2014and smart shoppers, both novices and cognoscenti, like Carleton Varney, listen."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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