(Above photo - Flappers having a swell time relieved to have survived the 1918 Spanish Flu )

At the turn of 2019 to 2020 I jokingly - as we specialise in and sell a lot of art deco furniture and statues - referenced that the Roaring Twenties had begun. One year later it looks like my predictions (made before the onset of Covid-19) have slightly come true as various media outlets - including The Guardian - reported on the findings of Yale professor and social epidemiologist Dr Nicholas Christaki.

In his book 'Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live', Christaki makes various predictions including - hopefully, after mass vaccinations are implemented putting a stop to the spread of Covid-19 - humans will be desperate for fun, social interactions and travel. “In 2024, all of those [pandemic trends] will be reversed,” he said. “People will relentlessly seek out social interactions.” That could include “sexual licentiousness”, liberal spending, and a “reverse of religiosity”.

(Above photo - Decorate your Roaring Twenties party with some art deco bronzes )

Having been cooped up for so long in lockdowns and having normal freedoms that we take for granted restricted - socialising, live music, travelling easily, drinking in pubs, seeing family and relatives - once we 'get back to normal' and can safely do these things again, people will, excuse my language 'lose their shit'. The parallels with the original Roaring Twenties over a 100 years ago run deeper. In 1918 there was a flu pandemic (also known as Spanish flu with a global death toll in the region of 50 million) - after this naturally subsided it lead to the exuberance of the 1920s, which are often viewed as a hedonistic and abundant era. It was the decade that gave us jazz music, dance crazes such as the Charlston, the rise of the flapper, the start of mass travel via steam boats and jet air planes and the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt in 1922. Creatively and aesthetically it also birthed the art deco movement with it's sleek, streamlined and symmetrical design ethos which is also very much relevant today.

Let s dance the Charleston

(Above photo - Let's dance the Charleston )

At the time of writing, it does seem flippant to be looking forward in such a manner. After all, we are very much not out of the woods. Numbers are still rising, hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, health services are pushed to the limit and many people have lost their jobs and are suffering economic hardship. But there are glimmers of hope that 2021 has to see some improvement once vaccinations are adminstered on a wide scale and the curves are flattened. We live in hope.

So we are officially putting it out there - we are on the cusp of better times. The Roaring Twenties are offically ahead of us.