Many tea rooms were far from large and lavish like Lyons. Even the Provincial Lady chooses to partake of her "usual lunch of baked beans and a glass of water in a small and obscure café" in Plymouth in order to avoid a hotel lunch with the grand Lady B and having to listen to her solutions to the "servant difficulty" (which illustrate why so many young women preferred to work as Nippies.) This is The Café (Café Conte) (1937/8, Manchester Art Gallery) by (Frank) Graham Bell (1910-43) which was itself a place where impecunious artists met.

A Lady and Her Husband by Amber Reeves was published in 1914, soon after the establishment of the Lyons Corner Houses in London and the slightly earlier chain of ABC (Aerated Bread Company) tea rooms. The novel provides a fascinating insight into the world of the fictional 'Imperial' tea rooms but from the angle of employer and employees. These vast businesses employed large numbers of female staff including the waitresses, nicknamed 'Nippies' in 1926, and, in doing so, freed many from going into service (although there were still many downsides, as Amber Reeves shows).

This week on the Post we have tea shops - and tea rooms, cafes, and coffee houses. All of which played a huge role in the emancipation of women as respectable, affordable places that a working or non-working woman could go to alone or to meet friends or a man without fear of transgressing social rules. They appear in so many novels and stories, it is surprising their importance has not been written about. Or maybe it has? This is Café Scene (1939, Tate) by Edward le Bas (1904-66), a short story in itself.

There is something of a paper-cutting revival happening at the moment, and this complements the renewed interest in paper and paper arts. As a result, there are many paper-cutters, both professional and amateur, at work today. Some like Rob Ryan use digital lasers, while others such such as Tracey Bush cut with scalpels and/or scissors. Tracey is particularly known for her beautiful butterflies made with a huge variety of papers and presented in entomology boxes. This is 'Madama Butterfly' with nine Diva moths.

At the opposite end of the paper-cutting spectrum is Matisse and his huge scissors, painted papers, and exuberant but controlled style of cutting. In the last decade of his life he sat in a bed or chair and created a colourful world of plants, animals, figures and abstract shapes with just scissors - not always large ones - and paper. Matisse:The Cut-Outs, the 2014 exhibition at Tate Modern then MoMa had a huge impact, and prompted many to reconsider and re-evaluate the artistry of paper-cutting. 

Many countries have a folk tradition of paper cutting, including Switzerland where it is known as Scherenschnitt. It has been practiced there for at least five centuries, and is still popular. One of the best-known exponents is Hans-Jürgen Glatz who creates inventive and intricate paper art using a tiny pair of scissors. His pieces often feature local scenes, domestic life, and many Swiss cows as in 'Heimelig'. He also runs a hotel-restaurant with displays from his extensive historical collection, and it has become something of a destination for paper artists. 

This is called 'A Fully Cut Fairy Tale' (c1864, The Met), as per the inscription by its creator, Hans Christian Andersen, who was a superb paper-cutter. While entertaining listeners with stories, he would cut out a sheet of paper and delight his audience with a magical final reveal. This sheet was folded three times and contains masks, pierrots, ballet dancers, and swans. As well as whole scenes like this, he also created many whimsical or strange single figures; the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense has the largest collection of his paper art.