If there's any consolation for being stuck in the traffic jams that regularly clog the far end of London's Kings Road it is Guinevere's windows. Intriguing, dramatic and at times wildly creative, the series of five room-sets might mix a 1920s steel dentist's cabinet with an 18th-century chandelier in one; Buddha heads and 19th-century French provincial furniture in another; Indian chests with gilded, Italian 18th-century mirrors; antique Chinese temple drums with mid-century Modern furniture and a Gothic tapestry. One Christmas the windows were covered in red paper that was ripped open like the wrapping of a present, to reveal a few carefully chosen and artfully mixed objects; recently the windows were painted in graffiti, in witty contrast to the antiques they contained.
Just as you can judge a book by its cover, you can judge Guinevere by its windows. They embody all of the reasons why dozens of the world's best interior designers, along with many leading lights of the creative professions, beat a path to the door of the emporium run by Marc and Kevin Weaver and Marc's wife, Heather. This may be an antique shop but, since the day it was established by Marc and Kevin's French-born mother, Geneviève, some 50 years ago, it has been much more than that, combining a deep respect for the best-quality antiques with a remarkable sense of style and originality, mixing cultures and eras with tremendous flair.
"We pushed that mixing in the beginning because we never wanted to be limited by a discipline. We never wanted to create a pastiche of another era, like a Georgian interior or a French 18th-century interior or whatever. Even ten years ago we were quite avant-garde but now this is considered mainstream," says Marc Weaver. There are very few boundaries that the Weavers won't stretch - except for one: undertaking interior design projects. "In fact we have been asked and have refused it on quite a few occasions," says Kevin. "Many of our clients are interior design professionals and we have no reason to step on their toes."
"Really," interjects Marc, "the windows have always been our way of expressing ourselves and saying 'Hey, look, you can do this with our stuff'." Clearly, the brothers derive great joy from sourcing that stuff. They go off to different parts of the world, usually independently. "You can't do well buying from the internet," insists Marc. "Online, you'll never see that something could work that you might find in the corner of some pit in Mumbai or Beijing or Paris or anywhere - Boston even. You never know what you are going to find. And that is part of what makes this place - we simply go out there and look for different things."
Many times Guinevere has been ahead of the curve. Through her passion for textiles (which she has built into a separate part of the business), Heather almost single-handedly brought antique French linens back into favour; through their love of collecting, the brothers encouraged people to buy groups of Art Deco glass boxes and vintage ivory tea caddies and to put them out on display at home - at a time when Minimalism was blanketing the world in white.
"I still like going to the Paris flea markets," says Marc, with a smile. "There are young dealers coming through who haven't had their eyes prejudiced; they have a fresh approach and, although sometimes I think, 'That wouldn't work', we have learned never to discount anything."
