IN August 1778, Mrs Philip Lybbe Powys, née Caroline Girle (1738–1817), visited Ditchley Park and wrote in her journal that: ‘A bed-chamber with hangings, bed, and furniture of crimson and yellow velvet is shown as a great curiosity, but I think ugly. The pattern is all pagoda.’ Echoing the words of the housekeeper who had conducted the tour, she added: ‘It [the velvet] was a present of Admiral Lee, my Lord’s brother, who had taken it taken out of the loom in China, and the loom broke that no one else might have the same.’
Lybbe Powys’s critical comment on the design was hardly surprising in an age when the delicate patterns of neo-Classicism had superseded the bold colours and curvaceous lines of the Rococo. She was viewing a room furnished in about 1740 that was still—as we know from an inventory of 1772 —complete with wall hang- ings, a bed with mahogany posts, two festoon window curtains, five maho- gany armchairs and two stools. All were hung or covered with ‘Rich figured Genoa Velvet’, a cut and uncut patterned velvet on a satin ground. As John Cornforth has observed, ‘the effect must have been overpowering’.
Ditchley Park is well known to readers of COUNTRY LIFE, the house having been the subject of numerous articles since the first one was published on October 22, 1904. It is, therefore, fitting that new analysis, prompted by the recent conservation of the velvet wall hangings by Zenzie Tinker Conservation, should be recorded in these pages.
Denne historien er fra October 04, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 04, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning