Making a Compleat Gentleman

West Wycombe Manor was set in a beautiful Park and the perfect setting for a man of means who also enjoyed the good life. Its colonaded west front is highly unusual, for a climate like England recalling perhaps many happy times spent lazing in the loggia of an Italian Palazzo. While smaller than most of his friends country houses today it is a perfect film set for eighteenth century period films because it encapsulates and reflects in architecture the society of a time when young men of privilege went in passionate pursuit of civilised life. Is it the perfect Temple to Taste of a Compleat Gentleman?

Evolution of Art, Design and Style – Antiquity to Avatar

‘Just as a palate can be educated to appreciate fine wine so too can both the eye and the ear be educated to distinguish the rare from the ordinary, the exquisite from the mundane’. Pare Keiha, Associate Professor, Dean – Tumuaki AUT, Auckland NZ

THE EVOLUTION ART, DESIGN & STYLE
ARTISTIC TASTE – ANTIQUITY – AVATAR
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Introduction to Collecting Antiques – FREE online video presentation

Collecting aesthetically pleasing items is quite normal and fulfills a deep emotional need within us all. You can become “hooked” on the search for that special piece, forgotten, unappreciated and unloved.
If you would like to become a collector, potential purchaser or, a dealer in antiques we offer FREE, An Introduction to Collecting Antiques sharing some [...]

Enjoy a holiday hunt…recycle grandly

Forming collections is a matter for the heart, not the head, and often it needs some inspiration or significant event to trigger off what for many of us becomes a lifelong, and very emotional obsession.

Women of Influence – Angelica Kauffmann

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none…Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790

author Carolyn McDowall
As far as women are concerned the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century was inappropriately named. This was a period when the role of women, especially in a professional sphere, took a retrograde [...]

Creating a Wonderful Room – English Style

author Carolyn McDowall
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works…Steve Jobs
The English style of interior has remained popular for over a century because it looks good, makes people feel comfortable, is wonderful to live with, nurtures your family and friends and is great for entertaining from four [...]

Creating the English style

interior that looked like it had evolved naturally over time…what constituted an ‘old money’ look.

Colour Considerations

People can have the Model T in any colour – so long as it’s black…Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Author Carolyn McDowall
All cultures on earth have particular perceptions of and about colour, which in its evolution has come to symbolize many things collectively and individually. It also has many variants so we could say it is neither [...]

Sleeping Stylishly

We spend at least one third of our lives in bed. Every culture is steeped in customs superstitions and folklore surrounding this unique piece of furniture. But what about the bedroom? When did the bed gain a room of its own? How was it decorated? Where can we begin to relate its story?