The Last Days of the Empire

Hey. how's this for an ironic design statement. As the glory days of the American Empire are waning (more cars were sold in China last month than in the USA for the first time; this will be a marker in the history classes of future generations) Williams-Sonoma is offering a selection of home decorating items in the British Colonial style. Think Caribbean colonial rather than the Raj, with the exception of this elephant table, pineapples and botanical prints, breezy lemon and palm tree greens. I'm not sure if the white ceramic animal trend is over yet, it's here, there and everywhere at the moment, but I have kind of a hankering for a grape-bearing elephant.