About Magpie

I was born in Sweden and inherited my passion for jewellery and textiles from my mother, who also taught me how to recognise good quality and style.

I travelled extensively over Maghreb ( North Africa) and the Middle East, which extended my appreciation of different cultural influences.

In 1970, I settled in the beautiful town of Keswick in the English Lake District and ran my own market stall selling goods that I had made myself ( I didn’t have enough money to buy anyone else’s!).

In 1981 Maysons shop came up for auction. It was well known in photographic circles, as it was one of the pioneers of photography and printing in Victorian times.

It took well over a year to renovate the building, whilst keeping the original features, such as the counters intact, but eventually in 1983 we started trading in the downstairs of the building, and Magpie was born!

We are a company that travels worldwide in our search for inspiring and beautiful value for money goods. Ninety percent of our pieces are purchased at source and imported directly by ourselves, giving you a unique product at a very reasonable price.

We can only provide a sample selection of our products on our site, but hope it whets your appetite enough to want to come and see us. We are here to help you with all your enquiries and needs and can provide you with all the information you may require in order to help you purchase the perfect piece.

We hope this gives you an insight into our world, our products and our prices, and that you enjoy the Magpie web-site.