Christmas wouldn't be the same without the annual designer Christmas tree put up by London firm Collyer-Bristow, now in its ninth year.

Created by London-based Spanish artist Silvia Ilardia, this year's tree is made of textiles, foam and metal.

Ms Ilardia recently graduated from the sculpture department of Wimbledon College of Art, and we're told takes her inspiration from nature, particularly plants, insects and rare animals that live in the sea.

The firm - which famously has its own art gallery attached to its offices - is building a fair old collection of these trees, and senior partner Roger Woolfe is cooking up a plan for them.

'We are looking forward to a selling exhibition of an entire forest, well perhaps copse, of trees in a few years time,' he confides to Obiter, 'when I shall be able to retire on the proceeds.'

[This article refers to images that appear in the printed edition, see [2003] Gazette, 19 December, 8]