‘A set of clues to who they are’: artists and authors on

Fascinated by the objects on his mum’s fireplace and what they say about her, Orlando Gili embarked on a project to capture creatives’ collections

A mantelpiece is a place like no other. A snapshot of daily life in a home, it is solemn and esoteric, like a roadside shrine. The things that anchor us – the face of a beloved, a pebble from a favourite beach, pretty china out of reach of little hands – jostle for space with the fleeting joys of party invites and supermarket flowers. Pretty things, special things and funny things are strung together, like charms on a bracelet. Your own mantelpiece is a walk down memory lane that you can take from your sofa. Someone else’s is a set of clues to who they are.

For photographer Orlando Gili, the lure of the mantelpiece began, appropriately, at home. See the one below with the jug of parsley leaves beside mustard and marmalade pots? That’s his mum’s house. “A mantelpiece is a still life, but with so much personality it is also a portrait of the person, or people, whose house this is,” says Gili. His favourite mantelpieces are “a jumble of sentiment and appreciation of design. They belong to people with rich hinterlands.”