A View on a Room

Antiques expert JUDITH MILLER takes us on a tour of her favourite room from the houses featured this issue – Helen Bromovsky’s dining room

- Judith Miller

Why it works

While the dining room retains most of its Regency architectural fixtures and fittings (echoed in French and English furniture from the period and around it), Helen has successfully integrated other decorative styles. They range from a bulbous, colourful Mexican earthenware urn, to refined Bohemian and Muranese glass; and delicate Chinese calligraphic portraits, to the broad brushstrokes of a 20th-century landscape mural; plus, my personal favourites, three chic Ottoman Collection coats.

1 CHINESE WARRIOR PICTURES

The portraits of Chinese warriors hanging on the chimney breast are of 19th or early 20th-century origin, and were hand-painted. In contrast to Western artistic conventions, traditional Chinese painting (in terms of technique) more closely resembles calligraphy: the brushes are dipped in black or coloured inks, rather than oils or gouache, and applied to paper or silk, rather than canvas.

2 FIREGUARD