The Official Wodehouse Society Drones Club Repp Stripe Silk Bow Tie x Ben Silver
$450
*book sold separately*
Discussions about creating a special TWS tie for members began back in 1993, but wasn’t until near the end of that decade that Shamim (Pongo) Mohamed designed a tie that had broad, diagonal stripes of brilliant red and black separated by narrow stripes of gold—very oojah cum spiff! Shamim engaged Ben Silver Co. to produce a supply of neckties] and bowties, all made in pure English silk. Though on the expensive side, the ties were highly sought after. They were sold to society members in 1997–98, again in 2001–02, and most recently in 2019–20.
The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British humorist P. G. Wodehouse. It is a gentlemen's club in London. Many of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members.
Various members of the club appear in stories included in the "Drones Club series", which contains stories not already included in other series. Most of the Drones Club stories star either Freddie Widgeon or Bingo Little. The club is initially introduced as a minor element in Wodehouse's 1920 novel Jill the Reckless; it subsequently appears with more prominence across many Wodehouse stories and novels. The Drones Club makes its final appearance as a setting in 1972's Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin.
The name "Drones" has been used by several real-life clubs and restaurants.
Overview
The Drones Club is in Mayfair, London, located in Dover Street, off Piccadilly. A drone being a male bee that does no work of its own and lives off the labour of others, it aptly describes the late 1920s to early 1930s stereotype of rich, idle young men, though some of the club members have jobs and even careers.
As decided by a vote of the club's members, the Drones Club tie is a striking "rich purple". A Drones Club scarf is also mentioned.
Wodehouse based the Drones Club on a combination of three real London clubs: the Bachelors' Club (which existed around the turn of the century), Buck's Club (established 1919), and a dash of the Bath Club for its swimming pool's ropes and rings. The fictional Drones barman, McGarry, has the same surname as the Buck's first bartender, a Mr McGarry (Buck's barman from 1919 to 1941, credited with creating the Buck's Fizz and Sidecar cocktails). However Evelyn Waugh declared that the Drones did not resemble any real club in 1920s London.
A real club has been based at 40 Dover Street since 1893, The Arts Club. Other gentlemen's clubs which have existed on Dover Street but are now dissolved include the Bath Club, the Junior Naval and Military Club, and the Scottish Club, as well as two mixed-sex clubs, the Albemarle Club and the Empress Club. None of these were considered among London's 'premier' clubs of the kind found on St James's Street and Pall Mall, and so their ambience often had something of the raucous informality of the fictional Drones Club.
About a dozen club members are major or secondary recurring characters in the Wodehouse stories. In addition to Bertie Wooster (Jeeves stories), Pongo Twistleton (Uncle Fred stories), Rupert Psmith (Psmith stories), and Freddie Threepwood (Blandings stories), prominent recurring drones include Bingo Little and Freddie Widgeon, plus Monty Bodkin, Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, Tuppy Glossop, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Archibald Mulliner, and the club millionaire Oofy Prosser.