"I saw you coming"

There's a tiny little antique shop in Notting Hill Gate which you could quite easily walk past and not notice.

I recently spotted the busts of Chairman Mao in the window and (more interestingly) a pair of book ends modelled on Chinese gymnasts.

I don't generally buy decorative items but these intrigued me. I had an upper price limit I was prepared to pay, so stepped inside the shop.

Inside was old, dusty and smelt of house clearance. There was a youngish man showing two Chinese nationals inside a display case and an old man doing his book keeping by hand.

I enquired about the bookends. They were double what I was prepared to pay, but moreover there was one word he used which ended any possibility of a deal. He said "Cultural Revolution style". That word meant they were reproductions and not original. Shame.