Amongst the world's leading antique houses there is one which creates for its clients delightful wonderlands which evoke such Carrollian interpretations of special worlds in the way that treasures from a rich and glorious past are presented. It is a place where expectations are most pleasantly surpassed and memories of the past are evoked in a most beguiling manner. It is a place where the White Rabbit would consult only the finest of timepieces and the Queen of Hearts would surely sit on a giltwood Regency throne fashioned by the greatest of craftsmen. As for Alice; she would truly be captivated, finding comfort and delight in this particular wonderland.

Many a passing shopper has been mesmerised by the exquisite antiques displayed behind the distinctive curved 'looking-glass' windows of 'Mallett & Son', as the elegant gilt-relief lettering above regally proclaims. Beyond the restrained facade on London's fashionable New Bond Street, one is transported to a distant world in which room after room reveals a refreshingly eclectic interpretation of the past. "You don't have to stick rigidly with one period or one type of thing", remarks Paula Hunt, my guide through these deftly arranged rooms and corridors introducing a refreshingly relaxed approach to the business of antique dealing as she escorts clients through the rich array of fine antique furniture and unusual objets Mallett have carefully assembled in their New Bond Street store. In tones as rich and polished as the pieces she surrounds herself with she continues her illuminating logic. "If everything is a piece of good quality it will feel comfortable with other pieces..."