When just being was enough

The year was 1987. Margaret Thatcher was beginning her third term. Terence Trent D'Arby, ABC, Black, and Depeche Mode all had hits. None of us really had careers, just badly paid, but fabulous sounding jobs. Jobs that barely covered living, never mind the the necessities. The necessities being Gaultier, Johnny Moke, the odd bit of Westwood, taxis, and white shirts by Comme. White shirts by Comme that would come in very handy when waiting tables in order to pay for the necessities.


Stephen Tennant, Cecil Beaton, 1924

This was also the year that the Hon. Stephen James Napier Tennant died. The youngest son of the Scots peer, Lord Glenconner, and one of The Souls, the former Pamela Wyndham. And along with him, so too passed the last vestiges of an age, and a culture, where just being was enough.


The Wyndham Sisters (Madeline, Pamela, and Mary), by John Singer Sargent, 1897.


In the Wilderness, Stephen Tennant Modeled as St. John the Baptist for Rex Wilstler

Wilsford Manor


...the house was commissioned by Stephen Tennant's parents, Sir Edward and Lady Tennant. The architect Detmar Blow, his assistants and a dedicated band of masons and carpenters worked on the site of an older, much-altered farmhouse; in March and April 1904 the original structure was carefully dismantled in order to re-use its materials... on 16th May, the new foundation stone was laid by Sir Edward's mother-in-law, the Hon. Mrs Percy Wyndham, who had seen the building of her own house, nearby Clouds, during the 1880s.


The dining room with its cornice of pink plaster shells.


Youthful Edwardian good looks turned florid with age.






One of many ivory satin sleigh beds, this one in particular covered in silver tissue.

Stephen was the first to go all-white in the early 1930s, with the decorator Syrie Maugham. Later, he embraced a palimpsest of flock wallpapers headed by cornices of gold cake braid, not to mention straw suitcases everywhere bulging with Thai silks and carefully arranged journal pages, each written in a different-coloured ink and often containing beauty hints directed to himself: “No mascara for seven days. Rest the eyes completely.” - Emma Tennant

All images of Wilsford Manor from World of Interiors, October 1987.

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Foot fetish

Lot 469 - Pair of continental hide upholstered occasional stools, late 19th century, each with a padded circular top above a concave frieze, raised on three legs ending in hoof feet.

New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc.

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Just as one is happily going about one's business..

quietly building a collection, Hatta Byng has to go and spoil it.

I recently decided to stop taking House & Garden (UK edition) as it has been a while since anything that has graced those venerable pages has piqued my interest. That is until I saw the recent post, Object Lesson, that An Aesthete's Lament did on Thomas Wiggins's house in Epsom. Low and behold the spread was not disappointing. Except for maybe the dining room curtains. Perhaps they just didn't photograph well...

Also included in the June issue was a spread on retail legend Joseph Ettedgui's new flat. No surprises here. Seamlessly perfect and tasteful as one would expect. Just like one of his former shops. What one did not expect to see were vases by Constance Spry being highlighted. Not just in the spread but also in Hatta Byng's feature Copy That. The title says it all, don't you think?



Until now these esoteric objects have been the province of the die hard collector. Undoubtedly, every bored design dilettante from Chelsea to Notting Hell will now be in search of them. Not because they get them, but because Joseph has them. Thanks Hatta Byng. Should one of said dilettantes get in my way, let their fate be on your head. Trust me, it will make the Celine bag incident at I.Magnin look like child's play.


Mantel Vases, 1937, Constance Spry.

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Just couldn't resist this one

Saw these on Beach Bungalow 8, and naturally no one liked them. To each their own.

Of all the comments this one, left by Anonymous - 10:24 AM PDT, struck me in particular:

I actually feel ill after seeing these. One can only wonder what the person who would have this in their home or shop wish for this to convey about them?

Now, I can't help but wonder if they are in fact interested in a genuine response or if they are really just looking for some sort of validation of their opinion? Experience, and the opening line, tells me it is the latter. Regardless, here is the opinion from one who has not only sold such lamps, but also has one of these very lamps in their own house.

As difficult as some may find it to believe, there are people who recognise that the world is a less than perfect and pristine place. Rather than live in a sanitised version of the world, we embrace it in all its hideous splendour. We strive to find beauty in that hideousness. Our lives are filled with chiaroscuro. We are passionate about who we are and what we do. While one may see just two vulgar lamps made from detached feet, we see how nothing is wasted. We find beauty in that. We try to understand the need/desire to create them.

Most of us start this journey by acquiring these things. These things that others find distasteful — so offensive to their delicate sensibilities. Initially we are drawn to them because they are bizarre. Later, we fall in love with them because they signify to the world how we are not like you.

Baudelair said it best, In art, only the bizarre is beautiful.

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And another thing

Diana Vreeland

Let's face it, if I only posted things that tickled me posts would be few and far between. So here is one on sidewalk etiquette that everyone under 35 seems to be oblivious to. There is no excuse for not knowing and practising this simple display of common courtesy.

1. The man walks on the outside of the pavement. Always.
2. When walking abreast while approaching other people, the man drops behind his companion.

Simple.

The Tony Awards - Coco

Now, who knew Katharine Hepburn played the role of Gabrielle Chanel in the Broadway production of Coco?

I remember laughing at another decorator once

Once in particular, that is, for asking for chamomile tea after dinner. Far too fey for our company. I asked him what on earth would be next, knitted cushion covers? While one adores the personal touch, one also abhors the loving hands of home.


Grace Kelly in High Society.

There is indeed a vast difference between artisanal and craft. Just a little something to bear in mind. The wrong crafted accessoire can take one from High Society to The Country Girl faster than one can say Etsy.


Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby in The Country Girl.

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The panicle of the London Season

Chelsea is upon us again; undoubtedly my favourite signifier of the London Season. This year marks the return of Arabella Lennox-Boyd. Lady Lennox-Boyd is a veteran landscape designer of thirty years, a five-time Chelsea gold medalist, and is arguably one of Britain's best garden designers.


The Daily Telegraph Garden by Arabella Lennox-Boyd.

Roman by birth and English by design. She has a wonderful understanding of the need for structure, which she softens and enlivens with an assured use of colour and planting.


Gresgarth Hall, the Lennox-Boyd's country house in Cumbria.

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If one knows one is likely to shake the baby

'tis best not to pick up the baby in the first place...

Well, it seems to be official. I have stopped smoking. Not through design or desire, it just happened. Just when I had found the perfect Orrefors ashtray, too. Damn.
For the moment, all I can liken it to is the difference between using a telescopic rifle, and using a sawn-off shotgun.
With a cigarette, it was ready, aim, and fire. Kill shot.
Without a cigarette, all those words swirling in the ether are given life rapidly, rabidly, and indiscriminately. Carnage.
Anyone want to make book on an early Glorious Twelfth?



Alan Bennett's - The Loneliness of the Non-Smoker

Somehow we have managed to skip spring

And have gone straight into summer. I for one hate summer. For so many reasons. Not least of all because all and sundry feel at liberty to:

1. Put their ugly (and more oft than not, this is an insult to ugly) trotters into a pair of flip flops, or, my all time favourite, a pair of Birkenstocks.
2. Wear unconsrtucted and all too unflattering "summer" clothes.
3. Eat as they walk along.

One could understand if this were a seaside resort or one of those summer towns. It's not. It's L O N D O N. This is probably just a reflection of my very colonial upbringing, but it all just a bit too shanty town for me.

Flogging's too good for them.


Woman with parasol in the village of Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe.
Why is this degree of self respect and respect for others so elusive to those who reside it what is considered to be the developed world?

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Get misunderstood

The dreamy song Get Misunderstood from the Troublemakers. Dialogue is from La Naissance de l'amour.

Things that I know for sure

Shug was right about the colour purple.



There will be Iris Garden Grace,



and Iris Violet Reprise bordering our pond.



And, this year, there will be a wildflower meadow with purple Cosmos behind said pond.

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Mr and Mrs

Vache Paysage, 2006.


Hippopotame II (bar)
Bronze, iron, copper and wood.


Rhinocrétaire
François-Xavier Lalanne.


Grand Sphinx, 1999.


Banbiloba, 2005.


Pomme de Ben, h: 48 x w: 36.2 x d: 33.5 in.


Les Grandes Berces, 2000.


Gingko Guéridon II, 2007.


Banc Crocodile, 2005.
Claude Lalanne.
All images from JGM. Galerie

The husband and wife team of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne have been creating some of the 20Th Century's most original furnitures for over forty years. They are the personification of what the decorative arts can and should be. His pieces are monumental, allegorical, yet lighthearted. Hers are organic, poetic, and dream like.
François-Xavier Lalanne's credo, The supreme art is the art of living.

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Fête du Muguet

Convallaria majalis 'Fortins' Giant'


This elegant majolica ribbon plate has a yellow background with raised white lily-of-the-valley. The center of the plate has a flower shape made of green leaves.


Square Cachepot, c.1870



Diorissimo
No list about classic perfumes embodying the yearning for spring would be complete without Diorissimo by Dior. Composed by master-perfumer Edmond Roudnitska in 1956 it remains a central reference as the lily-of-the-valley fragrance that has come to embody the very spirit of spring for generations of wearers -
The Scented Salamander

On May Day in France it is tradition to give loved ones a nosegay of muguet for good luck. When not in France, one need not be too literal as muguet can be quite difficult to find.

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Señor Strack, porqué no México?

Sunstone - fragment

by Octavio Paz

willow of crystal, a poplar of water,
a pillar of fountain by the wind drawn over,
tree that is firmly rooted and that dances,
turning course of a river that goes curving,
advances and retreats, goes roundabout,
arriving forever:
the calm course of a star
or the spring, appearing without urgency,
water behind a stillness of closed eyelids
flowing all night and pouring out prophecies,
a single presence in the procession of waves
wave over wave until all is overlapped,
in a green sovereignty without decline
a bright hallucination of many wings
when they all open at the height of the sky...

Piedra del Sol




The book, Chic by Accident by Emmanuel Picault, forward by Philippe Strack.

Chic by Accident is no accident, but a carefully chosen selection of Mexican design of the 20th century, and just about anything else we find of great style.. Great style indeed. Everything, from the papier mache skull (I have always loved the imagery of El Dia de los Muertos) to the furnitures of Don Shoemaker, is visually striking to say the least.

It is all that and more--a furniture and object store in la colonia Roma, at the heart of the starkly divided Mexico City, and the home of the exceptional antique dealer and design mastermind Emmanuel Picault. - artbook.com

Chic by Accident could not have been created anywhere else but in México. Nowhere else has that particular blend of severity, history, and passion. Que maravillosa!

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Receipt for a cerulean room

Take one French 1930s oil on canvas by Andre L'Hote (1885-1962), Flower Still Life and Vase.


Add cerulean blue oil glazed walls, colour concentrated at the centre fading to the edges, to match the sample of French porcelain. Moldings and ceiling to match the picture's frame - old plaster white dragged over an antique pine. Floor in a cerused antique oak parquet.

Add curtains in Robert Allen's Natural Linen Moire (top), and roman blinds in Robert Allen's Brilliance (bottom).




Add a 1920s Ebony de Macassar Desk by Dominique.


Take two chromed metal framed fauteils with seats and backrests formed by three black leather bound cylinders. An unusual "1960" design by Reinaldo Leiro and Arnoldo Gaite, and reupholster in Robert Allen's Abstract Velvet.




Take an unusual French wrought iron tripod table with circular hand hammered metal top in the manner of Edgar Brandt.


And add a heavy Scandinavian crystal ice bucket with sterling silver grape form handles. Signed Stromberg Hyttan.


Or substitute one Mexican sterling silver bowl in the style of Georg Jensen. With grape and scroll design throughout.


And serve with an Eastlake ebonized tete -a-tete, circa 1880, for garnish.

Stripped and reupholstered in Robert Allen's Baldelli Park.



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Every room needs a little black

Among the many inventions of modern times for diffusing the luxuries, and even the conveniences of life, there are few which have greater claims to our admiration than paper mache. Whether it meets the eye in the shape of furniture, or in articles of domestic utility, its beauty and agreeableness are equally striking and effective. Nor is it less so when applied to ornamental purposes - The World In Its Workshops, by James Ward, 1851.


Victorian papier mache chair with painted, gilded, and mother of pearl decoration.


English mid-19th century Étagère,
Black lacquered, painted, and gilded wood and papier mache inlaid with mother-of-pearl.


Superb Ex French Exhibition Victorian (1840-1860) papier mache tilt top table, the shaped oval top finely worked in inlay stained and painted mother of pearl in the form of a basket of flowers, pierced shaped apron with gilt decoration.


A Victorian papier mache and mother of pearl tilt top occasional table.


A Victorian black lacquer and gilt decorated octagonal papier mache work table, circa 1870, incorporating mother of pearl decoration.

The technique for making papier mache can be traced back to the 2nd century AD in China.
The process for making papier mache furniture was achieved either by pasting multiple layers of paper over shaped cores, or by pressing paper pulp between dies or molds to form a variety of shapes. Once dried, the resulting raw material could be carved and polished. Papier mache was intended to be japanned and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, glass, or stones.

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The Devil Wears Prada

While the interiors industry is certainly gentler than the fashion industry, it is governed buy the same principles.
Lumpy nondescript blue sweater or lumpy nondescript blue cushion, it's all the same.

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