AC02 Alarm clock

Monocle

Issue 159

£13

Monocle’s annual Soft Power Survey ranks the major players in the gentler aspects of the diplomacy game. How does your country fare? Elsewhere, we preview a potentially pivotal year for Taiwan, shine the light on Iraq’s unlikely culture push and open the door to the best in refined retail from Hudson to Genoa.

Sigurd Persson

Chamber candle holder

£160

The 20th century Swedish silversmith and designer Sigurd Persson, who saw himself as a “creator of forms”, has left a legacy in modernist design that can be seen in the sacred silver, tableware, jewellery, glass creations and stainless steel kitchenware he created that are still treasured in Scandinavian homes today.

J Hills Standard

Irish Crystal Glass

£150

Monocle

Baby alpaca blanket

£220

Handwoven in the Peruvian Andes using 100% finest Baby Alpaca, the name given to the fibre sheared from the softest area of an adult Alpaca camelid, this blanket is lightweight but warm, perfect to tuck up with on a cold day.