Wish List: Eight top buys for our homes, from curiosity cabinets to foraged fittings

Mary Cate Smith is spellbound by a witches' brew of discoveries this Halloween

Left, the Kit is a modern wall-mounted cabinet; top right, stools, April and the Bear; below right, Forager table lamp in yew by Copperfish.

Taking a leading role in literature, mythology and even medicine, the evergreen yew tree is full of contradictions. Shakespeare’s villains used it to poison people, Pontius Pilate was rumoured to have been born under one and the anti-cancer drug Taxol is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew. On a smaller scale, Wicklow designer Eoin Shanley started collecting storm-felled pieces of the yew tree surrounding his house back in 2016 and Copperfish lighting was born.