Archibald Knox and Liberty of London are names inextricably linked, especially when we consider the up swell of indigenous British design at the beginning of the twentieth century.  “Advanced” design (as it was referred to at that time – we call it Modernism), stemming from the historical revivalist principles of William Morris, the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Aesthetic Movement, was starting to appeal to a wider audience. Arts and Crafts Movement designers and the Guilds were happy to provide for them. Into the centre of this expansion stepped Arthur Lasenby Liberty, a far-sighted and hard-headed businessman with a flair for sniffing out new artistic trends and capitalising upon them. By 1875 his emporium on London’s Regent Street was already brimming with Oriental metalwork and lacquer, exotic Eastern fabrics and “mediaeval” German pewterware.

He was certain he could do better by manufacturing and designing at home, and cast around for suitable designers. In his net he caught Archibald Knox, and a great partnership was born, albeit one rarely acknowledged publicly. Business was business for Liberty, and his designers were not expected to have a profile themselves. This, however, suited Knox – a man of extreme self-effacement and with a dislike of public attention. Knox was a Manxman, born in 1864. His life on the Isle of Man, a stronghold of Celtic lore, was to have the most profound effect on his life as a designer.

Time, an enemy for us all by Archibald Knox

As a child, and a budding artist, Archibald Knox was powerfully impressed by the illustrative aspect of Celtic culture: the fine carved stone crosses scattered over the island; the intricate “lacing” and colour of illuminated manuscripts such as Ireland’s ninth century Book of Kells; the entrelac sinuous twistings of ancient Celtic metalwork like the famous Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice, viewed on visits to Dublin.

Rare Liberty & Co Pendant by Archibald Knox

He was a solitary boy, but made friends with an artistic circle of much older local painters. At Douglas Grammar School, he was introduced to archaeology and the study of earlier cultures. Picking up sea-tumbled semi-precious stones on local beaches – jasper, greenstone, coral – led to his later inspiration to set these simple stones into his silverwork.

Despite its small size, the Isle of Man was fortunate to have a vigorous and “venturesomely modern” Art School in Douglas. Archibald attended from 1878, when he was 14, until 1884. He specialised in the study of the “Design of Historic Ornament”, and passed with such distinction that he remained as an Art Master until 1888.

For the next 11 years, Knox occupied himself with illustrations for articles, many written by himself, which expanded knowledge of the Isle of Man’s history and its Celtic ornament. He sketched and painted watercolour landscapes prolifically, although these charming paintings were for his eyes only. In an interesting early collaboration, Knox worked with Baillie-Scott, an English designer recently moved to Douglas, who was to gain a reputation as a major arts and crafts architect and furniture designer. This contact linked Knox to a much wider exposure to European design and, perhaps as a direct result, in 1897 he accepted a teaching post at Redhill School of Art in Surrey, on the mainland.

In the same year that he moved from his island home, Knox also began designing for the Silver Studio, run by the young Rex Silver in Hammersmith, West London. From the Silver Studio, Knox’s first designs for Cymric silverware were sold to Liberty’s.

By 1900, Knox had become the principal designer for all of  Liberty’s “Celtic Revival” metalwork and jewellery ranges. The Cymric line was for silver, and the Tudric stamp was reserved for pewter pieces, but both metals were treated by Knox in a similar manner. His characteristic knotted, entrelac, soft-edged designs (often embellished with enamels or polished stones) became one of Liberty’s mainstays. The fluidity and daring of some of these marvellous objects produces a strong, almost visceral response. These are not designs of the intellect, despite their careful and controlled planning.

It is the soul which responds, recognising the fundamental connection with Nature potently expressed through Knox’s stylised designs. His pieces become instantly recognisable after only a short association.

By 1909 it seemed that the prevailing Liberty style was on the wane, since cheap copies by other firms were detracting from its initial impact. In any case, Knox was by this time teaching full-time at Kingston School of Art. He resigned abruptly in 1912 after criticism of his teaching methods. His life then became a rather sad series of displacements – from Philadelphia, to other parts of Pennsylvania, and to New York, searching for suitable employment and never really settling.

The years of the Great War saw him back in his beloved Isle of Man, working as a censor in an Alien Detention Centre. He returned to his old school in Douglas to teach in 1920. Painting and travel to Italy consumed his spare time until his sudden death in 1933 at the age of 69. His tombstone, naturally, is of his own design – a glorious interweaving of flowing lines around a Celtic cross in the cemetery at Braddon.

© Frances Laverack 1994 – 2012

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Roman fresco with banquet scene from the Casa dei Casti Amanti (IX 12, 6-8) in Pompeii

In western society we are inheritors of a legacy from Ancient Greece and Rome that despite the passing of over 2500 years is still potent. Through their ideas the desire to capture the essence of fine living was born. Today that art of living has evolved since the development of the domus in European antiquity to a residence in America and Australia, through a diverse and special mix of peoples and their cultures.

Ancient Greek gastronomy developed out of a practice of sacrificing domestic animals to a variety of gods. Afterwards, as one would expect in a democracy, the carcasses were equally proportioned and sold at market. During the fifth century before the Christ event herbs, spices and honey were added to heighten taste.

As documented in the literature of this period, cookery was considered a very important skill, because the Greeks understood it to be one of the basic arts that sustained human life. Romans of the first century embraced Greek ideas and art forms with great passion. Roman orator Cicero [106 BC -43 BC] believed that ‘to style the presence of guests at a dinner table’ lay at the heart of Roman civilised life ‘because it implied a community of enjoyment, a convivium, or ‘living together’.

Reconstruction of the Octagonal Room - Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea

Following the decline of the Republic and ascent of the Empirical system at Rome a shared meal became a vehicle for display, ostentation, rank, hierarchy and for flattering and influencing people, in a setting they could exercise the art of conversation. Roman Emperor Nero (37-68) enjoyed fine living with great gusto. When he entered his just completed residence, the Domus Aurea (or Golden House, built in 64 AD, he is said to have proclaimed, as he gazed upon its many splendours, words to the effect, ‘now at last I can live as a human being’.

Author of a first century best seller Satyricon, Gaius Petronius (27-66 A.D.), was Nero’s advisor in all matters of luxury and extravagance (his unofficial title was arbiter elegantia). He described guests arriving at a banquet as being requested to remove their shoes at the door, have their hands washed in iced water, no mean feat prior to refrigeration, while their toenails were trimmed to the sounds of a chorus singing. Perhaps today we may consider the last just a little excessive.

We do know that Nero’s guests reclined, along with their host, on couches enjoying conversation and cuisine prepared by chefs, who achieved some fame. His vast banqueting hall revolved in harmony with the rhythms of day and night, the ceiling opening to reveal the heavens as perfume and gifts showered onto guests.

The advent of Christianity created a challenge for those at the top because by now there was a well-established tradition of fine living throughout the Roman world.

The Apostle Paul struggled to attend gatherings where rich men and their friends were served different food and drink to those of a ‘lower status’. It was a dilemma he felt he could not resolve so in the end he decided the wealthy had better eat privately.

Paul advised the Corinthians [1 Corinthians 8: 9, 10] when asked should they eat meat sacrificed to idols by suggesting they should be careful about exercising freedom of choice in case it became a ‘stumbling block to the weak’. And, that if what he ate caused his brothers to fall into sin then for his part, he would never eat meat again. Powerful words with a meditative deep inner meaning that reflect Paul’s strength of mind and purpose.

There is a huge gap of reliable documentation from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, when the demise of eating in a reclining position also came about, until about the fourteenth century in Europe. Communal living by Christian monks and nuns meant communal eating, often to strict rules of silence, with an aim of feeding the soul.

Prolonged periods of peace also meant the aristocracy gentry and merchants could establish great houses in the countryside and along with it invented the concept of ‘eating outdoors’ or, having picnics, which became something new and exciting as described by fourteenth century French nobleman Gaston Phoebus Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn (1343-1391).

He summarized his life’s achievements: “I have delighted all my days in three things. The one is arms, the next is love, and the other is hunting.” He added, “There have been far better masters of the two former than I am.” Such humility, is definitely to be applauded.

For Kings and noblemen of the fourteenth century hunting was so much more than just a sport. It was a game of chance in which the thrill of the chase was far more important than the desire to put food on the table.

An artful aristocratic diversion, the hunt ended with man proving he held power and sway over the animal kingdom. A complex event involving strategizing for success with highly valued, well trained dogs and fighting fit falcons hunts were often held on religious days.

They started with a feast for breakfast, as well as an analysis of the droppings of the potential prey to ensure it was both fit and worthy to be hunted at all. Then the hunt was on. The glorious day ended with everyone joining together in a celebratory meal and fittingly Phoebus himself died, as he should, during a bear hunt.

Fifteenth century Florentine author and philosopher Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499 revealed his thoughts about a meal that it ‘embraces all the parts of man, for it restores the limbs, renews the humours, revives the mind, refreshes the senses and sustains and sharpens reason’.

Throughout the fifteenth century in Italy dining at table was strongly symbolic of a good society one in which strong social relationships were forged, ideas exchanged and mutual respect established.

In England by the sixteenth century the head of a powerful household sat at the head of his table facing a fanciful portal crowned with trumpeters who heralded the exact moment the food, led by the marshal of the hall carrying a white staff appeared.

At the grandest banquets, a household officer on horseback emerged from underneath a screen that protected guests from draughts from the doorway and rode into the hall to announce that dinner was served. What fun.

At Hatfield House, home of the famous Cecil family, the ornately carved screen was crowned with the Cecil crest and family motto Sero Sed Serio “late, but in earnest’, surely one of the best mottos of all time.

Its painted decoration and a great panoply of decorative devices had been plundered from Turkish rugs and old Medieval manuscripts imposing a visual richness.

If a house during the Tudor period in England, included a Long Gallery hung with portraits of the family, famous patrons or friends it was the mark of a settled and civilized house; an Elizabethan magnate could contemplate their character or otherwise be inspired by their virtues. Owning such a house became important to practicing the art of fine living.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century the French court changed its philosophy from an ideal based on chivalry to one of refined manners.

The most influential teacher of architects in France during this period was Germain Boffrand. He revealed ‘the character of the master of a house…can be judged by the manner in which it is arranged, decorated and furnished’.

By now the art of fine living embraced a well-planned sophisticated garden as well. At Vaux le Vicomte Louis La Vau 1612-70 [architecture] Charles Le Brun 1619-90 [interiors] and Andre Le Notre 1613-1700 [gardens] spent five years building a chateau designed by the three for the glory of one, their patron and illustrious client the Minister for Finances, Nicolas Foucquet. It is at his Chateau, Vaux le Vicomte, that the French classical style was born.

Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre created this extraordinary ‘palace of the sun’ as described by the ancient Latin poet, Ovid for his patron, Apollo, The Sun King.

Here at last was the perfect place for a man of substance and his family to dwell; large, imposing, but not huge; with painted wood panelling, colourful carpets, painted illusionary ceilings, carved and gilded furniture, fabulous ceramics, superb textiles all made for the most splendid of man-made environments.  I know that when I visited to view its splendours I could have easily moved straight in. It was not over ambitious, but comfortable, cleverly disposed and in keeping with its times.

At Vaux le Vicomte Foucquet practiced the art of fine living well, eating his meat from a service that included a new fancy fangled invention called the fork, without fearing the accusation of depravity still associated with that practice only a few years earlier.

The publisher Charles de Sercy described Vaux’s gardens in 1652 as the place where ‘Foucquet made art and nature engage in a pleasant contest’. The genius of Le Notre lay not only in his invention of a new style, but in his absolute mastery of a repertoire widely used, at least in its many parts.

It was bringing them together in a controlled harmonious form that was not only pleasing but also a perfect place in which to practice the art of seduction.

Vaux was built for the enjoyment of the countryside while not giving up the pleasures of the city…something England did not emulate at this time as they concentrated on building country houses for sport and display, rather than as a place to practice the art of conversation.

The Baroque style from Vaux le Vicomte became a potent force that influenced the whole of the western world when guided by Louis XIV, he began expanding his father’s hunting lodge nearby the village of Versailles using the combined talents of Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre.

The Kings of France lived in the chateau of Versailles, which became a centre for political life from 1682 until 1789. It is today an amazing place to visit with its some 2,300 rooms and over 60 staircases. In its day it cost the equivalent price of what we would pay now for a modern city airport. It was an object of universal admiration in its time, enhancing French prestige on the world stage.

France’s appearance and way of life changed forever during the reign of Louis XIV the Sun King. Many great towns throughout France underwent metamorphosis and the landscape altered forever as Louis XIV devoted himself energetically to all his building projects. Today little remains of his other splendid palaces at Saint-Germain and Marly?

Well cursed as an extravagance when it was under construction, and accused of having ruined the nation at the time of the revolution, the chateau at Versailles stands today as a monument to French achievement and the many milestones reached in its historical and cultural journey.

Over the years since it was finished the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles has reflected many great moments in the history of the world. At the time Colbert, Louis’ 1^st Minister and master of ceremonies used it to launch the Royal Mirror Company. Its success gave considerable momentum to the glazing industry in France and increasingly the public became aware of the decor possibilities of a mirror. They enhanced the art of living well.

Despite all of the work Louis was to complete at Versailles it was always called le Chateau, (which means Gentleman’s seat) never le Palais, remaining the home of a young man, grand without being pompous, full of light, air and cheerfulness just like a large country house.

According to the Oxford Dictionary the term enlightenment means to be free of prejudice, ignorance or superstition. Grand Tourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe were busy discovering the ruins at Rome and an expansion of knowledge revealed that ancient artists and writers had been accustomed to free expression, with religion and honour paramount to society’s daily existence.

This revelation affected the social and moral values of many European societies who were travelling in ever increasing circles in ‘search of the truth’. They began striving for aesthetic perfection wanting to emulate a new ideal; classical perfection.

As a result small temples in a landscape became focal points for those wanting a place of ease and repose.

By the turn of the nineteenth interiors as described by Jane Austen in her novels, presented an image of a sublime world. China, glassware and silverware displayed the family coat of arms proving to those who sat at table with you that your lineage was not only important, but also could be traced to ancient (the inference was more important) times.

Simple white starched linens with drawn thread work were surmounted by elegant vases made of glass, filled with fresh flowers picked from the garden loosely, but consciously arranged and placed on great tables. These were made from the new rage timber, mahogany with their elegantly fluted legs inspired by the columns from a Greek classical temple.

Women’s dresses emulated Greek statuary although some, endeavouring to appear like the goddesses on Greek temples by wetting their dresses, succumbed to pneumonia… because by now death was preferable to not being seen as part of a fashionable scene involved in the art of fine living.

William Morris (1834-1896) self-professed leader of the modern movement said ‘If I were asked to say what is at once the most important product of Art, and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House’.

Building a house in the country made to appear as old and as venerable as the countryside itself, was what everyone was striving for. If you couldn’t build one you clamoured to be acquainted with those who owned a wonderful old pile. The aim was to affect an invitation to join a country house weekend where the art of pleasure was a very serious business and the art of fine living practiced with confidence and style.

‘Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality’ said English author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900. He resented social injustice and the squalor that was a direct result of the ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism of the Industrial Revolution. His influence on the next generation of artists and craftsmen who led the way toward establishing Le Style Moderne was to be profound.

The agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century removed land as the chief source of wealth in England and by 1901 the money to pay for a country house had to be made in urban centres of trade or, somewhere else in the Empire, like Australia, where the English style and way of life had been transported. World War 1 marked a great divide in the age of the moderns bringing artists face to face with an alternative; either a clean sweep or hope of a reformed society, or alternatively the retention of a privileged art in the service of an elite and moneyed class.

After WWII a focus on art and design coming together again was rejuvenated. At Sydney, the unofficial capital of Australia, a quiet revolution in the art of living well has meant that its interior designers have finally come into their own. Stunning textiles instead of paintings are appearing on the very best walls. Smart eye-catching antique carpets are teaming brilliantly with wide plank nailed timber floors.

Despite the GFC, storm and tempest, floods and fire most owners remain optimistic. Good old Petronius, with his eye for detail and best in life, would have loved the whole concept of a one stop shop and having access to a fabulous design resource like Residence Australia.

During the last decade those who have set the scene for an art of fine living have reinterpreted late nineteenth century European Modernism with great enthusiasm, making it appear all brand new.

Great interiors today are innovative, convenient, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, technology savvy and above all energy efficient. Sustainability, recycling and quiet elegance have become hallmarks of an interior that will both inspire and nurture its occupants, so that they can enjoy an art of living well.

Carolyn McDowall, ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011, 2012

*Quote by Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

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During the seventeenth century at France King Louis XIV ordered architect Louis le Vau and gardener Andre le Notre to produce a tiny pleasure pavilion in the grounds of Versailles near the artificial lake. Built to practice the arts of seduction, the so-called Trianon de Porcelaine was lavishly embellished with ceramics in the Chinese taste. It was pulled down when Louis’s mistress Mme de Montespan fell from favour. In its place the Grand Trianon was built for the King to entertain family and friends.

By the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions. Fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors, where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate cross over of cultural influences. Fans were among the earliest imports of the English and Dutch East India Companies and perfectly reflected the femininity associated with this movement, which combined flirtation with fantasy and frivolity.

On the scale of things a very few people in England or Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese, so their vivid imagination took over. When combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a design style that was very fetching. It was the European evocation of the Chinese. Our divine teapot is from from the Saxon porcelain factory Meissen, who invented European porcelain. Their Chinoiserie designs were all at once fun, fantastical and frivolous, yet quite sophisticated and enchantingly pretty.

Chinoiserie had a complete lack of pomposity and used clear bright colours, which had both amusing and fantastic qualities and displayed a preference for asymmetrical design. This aspect offered everyone a rest from the formality and relentless perfection demanded by the classical legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. It was about having fun.

In a little Salon in the Chateau de Craon the scenes painted delicately on the interior walls and ceiling in a delightful circular chamber were typical of the work of the French designer Jean Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808). Many of his designs were used on the newly popular small-scale feminine furniture and placed the emphasis on Chinoiserie as a style of luxury and refinement.

A beautiful Prussian blue vernis martin writing desk with Chinoiserie decoration was made for King Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour’s for her Chateau at Bellevue. The artist she patronized Francis Boucher delighted in rendering designs for her, including a painting of the sophisticated pleasures of the beau monde who are disported in a park as members of a pleasure seeking Parisian society.

Chippendale Frame on Painted Mirror on Chinese Wallpaper at Saltram

In England Thomas Chippendale and John Linnell both master craftsmen, were inspired by Chinese symbolism and motifs in the development of styles of chairs.

Chippendale’s mirrors in the Chinese taste were also highly sought after, their delightful whimsical decoration was delicate and had great charm.

Fabrics were imported from the East, satins and embroideries from India; painted silks from China were treated like wallpaper and lined an alcove. They were costly, but popular with those who could afford them.

Toile de Jouy

Less expensive was Toile de Jouy a cotton fabric produced in France and decorated with engraved copperplates of little vignette Chinoiserie scenes. Shops were filled with all sorts of delights for men and women of fashion to choose from as the style was taken up all over Europe.

In the Green Salon at Drottingholm and in the Oranienbaum, the summer palace of the Czars of Russia Chinoiserie reigned supreme. Catherine the Great remodelled an enfilade of rooms so that her guests could stroll through a sequence of Chinoiserie interiors.

A love of things oriental fitted into both the French and English garden genres at this time. There is a Chinese Tent preserved at Boughton House, which is a unique example of a collapsible garden pavilion made of oilskin, produced in London in the mid eighteenth century. It was also used in the garden of the London house of the Montague Douglas Scott family and can be seen in that place in a painting by Venetian artist Canaletto entitled View of the Thames.

Surprise was the key to the success of Chinoiserie pavilions and follies. On your journey your pulse would quicken as you came across some delightful building in which, unlike the house you lived in that had to conform to a conventional life style and its demands, you could allow your imagination to run free and create a total fantasy. The love affair with the exotic orient with its tales of a Forbidden City and exotic splendour provided a focus for tales of the fantastic. In an ancient Chinese Garden one of the most important characteristics to observe was the laying out of paths in curves and counter curves with circular moon gates.

Rare example of Chinese enamelling on a Royal Worcester white blank plate by Chinese artist Po Hing, courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern Sydney

The Chinese House at Harristown in County Kildare in Ireland was built before 1738 for the garden at Stowe in Buckinghamshire. It is one of the earliest such pavilions in Great Britain. It was taken away in 1751 to Wooton House nearby until the 1950’s when it was taken across the Irish Sea to County Kildare.

Chinese enameling on porcelain eventually became so desirable in 1870 the Royal Worcester factory brought to Britain a Chinese enameller called Po Hing to England so that he could complete an especially commissioned dinner service for them. Po Hing was Cantonese and painted the tableware in his native style.

Now and then a plate from this service turns up on the international antique market. They are a reminder of time when the east was still a mystery to many and confirmed the idea that it was not only exotic but also difficult to access.

Unlike other styles that deteriorated to be replaced by another, Chinoiserie has never really left us. The western fascination for the east and its abiding images has endured although it continues to change to suit fashionable trends and politically correct poses.

These days it is more about a focus on food and the merriment enjoyed as it is shared in a mingling of the various traditions of a peaceful western multicultural society.

Plant hunter Robert Fortune recorded in his 1847 publication Wanderings in China ‘but the curtain, which had been drawn around the celestial country for ages, has now been rent asunder; and instead of viewing an enchanted fairyland, we find, after all, that China is just like other countries…’

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011 – 2012

I went to dine
With a friend of mine
Who dined off porcelain plates
Of a kind so rare
That it stirred your hair
To think of their possible fates

For some were Ming
and others were Ch’ing
(Whatever those names may be)
And the food was divine
And the wine, the wine
Intoxicated me.

There were ices – those
Were of famille rose,
and coffee of famille noire,
and a choice dessert
of famille verte
Preceded a choice cigar.

But alas for the end
Of dinner and friend
For he happened his eyes to raise
As I started to rub
The burning stub
On a bit of his finest glaze.

He was perfectly nice,
But as cold as ice,
As he rang for my coat and hat,
For Ming is a thing,
And so is Ch’ing,
That mustn’t be used for that.

This delightful poem signed S.D.C. was found on a scrap of paper in a book on second hand glass….

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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New Zealand designer, David Trubridge's Float Bed Designed for Dreaming

Since ancient times men and women have had a very real need for sleep, love and dreams. Over the centuries the bed gradually became the most important piece of furniture in the house, and a very real symbol of rank, wealth and power through its association with fertility. The idea of ‘ making a bed ‘ evolved from the early Saxon tradition of filling sacks with hay, and it is a term we have used ever since.

The whole idea of occupying a single chamber to sleep in became a reality during the so-called middle ages, a period in history that spans from the fifth, to the end of the fifteenth century. It was a luxury enjoyed only by a privileged few. The main ‘ chamber’ was about receiving guests, conducting business, as well as a hundred and one other activities, which included sleeping in a set up similar to our modern idea for ‘open plan living’. People traveling in regions previously frequented by outlaws and marauding tribes sought shelter in great castles where sleep became a communal affair – the sharing of rooms, or beds, recognized as a mark of political esteem or as a symbol of arms laid to rest.

Detail late nineteenth century wool embroidery on a linen bed curtain

By the sixteenth century producing an heir to carry on the family name, increase its wealth and uphold its traditions was of increasing importance, as was the obligation for offering hospitality. During this time the bed gained a great deal in importance and as privacy became an issue long curtains, suspended from hooks on the ceiling,  protected occupants from the gaze of others or servants who bedded down on straw pallets nearby.

Curtains aided warmth and repelled horrendous draughts in vast stone former strongholds struggling to become noble dwellings, rather than just bastions of defence. Textiles were an expensive commodity and bed curtains a ‘luxury item’ and very prestigious.  If fabric covered the whole bed it was a symbol of absolute nobility and wealth. Early bed hangings were often made of wool, embroidered with flame or crewel stitch with heavy tapestries also popular. Canopies evolved, attached to the ceiling, enabling curtains to be suspended underneath. During the day they were tied up or ‘bagged’ out of the way.

Infamous Great Bed of Ware, now restored

During the sixteenth century Diane de Poitiers the famous mistress of Henry II of France associated herself with Diana, the Roman goddess of women and childbirth. The crescent moon was her symbol, intertwined with the initials of her famous lover, decorated the wooden paneling on her bedchamber’s walls. Diane, like all well educated women of her time, knew to heighten her desirability by contrasting the whiteness of her skin against the black satin sheets on which she lay.

Next to Diane de Poitiers bed was the symbol for her lover, King Henri II in the panelling.

Sixteenth century beds had four posts to support a wooden canopy with a headboard and footboard, elaborately carved, our ancestors lavishing great funds on this piece of furniture that nurtured life from conception to birth through life and finally, death.

Many a sixteenth and seventeenth century man embarked on a ‘business trip’ leaving his wife behind, to enjoy the spectacular orgies held in the Great Bed of Ware. Originally housed in the White Hart Inn in Ware, England it could accommodate some 15 people including on the pull out beds hidden underneath the great bed.

A high degree of comfort and convenience would become a priority in grander homes during the seventeenth century and the bedchamber was often used to receive guests. Some bedchambers gained a close stool ensuite and mirrors, with glass now being able to made in larger pieces, were becoming an essential requirement for any lady of style.

From the beginning of the Renaissance to the French Revolution the bedchamber and the bed flourished along with the fortunes of Central Europe.

Seventeenth century Dutch Bedchamber, note the interior close stool in its own recess with a door - very avante garde

In the seventeenth century Louis XIV, The Sun King led the way. From 1701 his bedchamber occupied the exact centre of the chateau as he was the Sun King, and around him everything revolved. He devised ceremonies and elaborate rituals to keep his nobles at court, out of mischief and well entertained, so they could not plot against him. In his bedchamber he held his famous state rising and retiring ceremonies.

The bed was designed to stand out from the centre of the wall, which became known as the aristocratic position. It was placed behind a balustrade where the King could only be attended by men of noble blood. The elaborate hangings were changed from winter to summer and it was here you presented petitions and ask for jobs or favours.  The crowd approached the great man hopefully via the official path progressing along the axis of honour (the enfilade), which could take days to achieve.

More than often, those he really wanted to talk to intimately were quietly brought up the backstairs into the privacy of his closet, a small room off the bedchamber, where favours were generally secured. At Versailles a gilded carving above Louis’ bed represented “France watching over the King in his slumber” and in 1715 he, who had made the bedchamber ‘the sanctuary of royalty’, finally died”.

The great tradition of State Beds in England was established late in the seventeenth century when Charles II returned from an exile spent at the courts of France and Holland. The bedchamber gained additional furniture with chairs and stools upholstered ensuite, a mirror, table and stand, often in walnut, marquetry or lacquer.

Looks like a lover has fled the seventeenth century bedchamber after a confrontation with a husband?

The Melville Bed designed by Daniel Marot, upholstered by Francis Lapiere London 1700 Oak, pine. The bed was an extraordinary commission, made in 1700 for George, 1st Earl of Melville for the Apartment of State at his new Palace. V & A Museum, London

The Melville Bed is one of the most spectacular exhibits at the V & A Museum at London.

Designed by French Huguenot Daniel Marot, the son of a distinguished French architect and engraver it still retains its original luxury hangings of crimson Genoa velvet, backed by ivory Chinese silk damask linings embroidered with crimson silk trimmings

Marot had left for Holland a year before Louis XIV revoked the continually controversial Edict of Nantes. He had worked in the French royal drawing office in his youth and because he was in Holland when the Edict of Nantes was revoked he was exiled from his homeland and so could not return.

He settled, entering the service of William of Orange in 1686 and becoming his Master of Works responsible for the decoration of the Palace at Het Loo, bringing his knowledge of Parisian design and decoration in the most advanced form. He went to England with William and Mary when they accepted the invitation to rule jointly on the throne of England after James II had fled the country in 1688. At first beds were brought over from France, but within a short time Marot had appointed upholders and manufacturers to fulfill his design commissions.

Marot’s genius lay in his ability to view a complete interior and demonstrate how unity of design could be applied to the decoration of a room as a whole, and he was one of the first designers to do so. His work in England was to have  a profound effect on the history of interior design.

The Canopy at Hardwick Hall, note the Oak Tree to the right and left of the coat of arms. It signifies the strength and endurance of the indomnitable, Bess of Hardwick

Beautiful English needlework used for hangings were masterpieces of the upholsterer’s art, as at the first English Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole’s house, Houghton Hall and at Hardwick Hall the embroideries on the canopy of the State Bed were among the finest in the country.

Bess of Hardwick outlasted four husbands, becoming wealthier on each occasion. Her bed hangings were embroidered with all manner of flora and fauna, including the oak tree, a symbol of her own personal fortitude and strength.

Now bed bugs are not usually associated with the Age of Elegance, however, they plagued Europe for centuries. In the seventeenth century authorities suggested linen overalls should be worn over the clothes in bed and undergarments made lice proof by lining them with taffeta!

Samuel Pepys, the English diarist recorded ‘ he had found a bed, good but lousy’, which sounds rather odd, and poor Lord Herbert lamented ‘he saw hundreds of bugs on their march home, full of prey’, as he had been bitten ‘on a very tender part, which I shall forbear mentioning and which we Brittons think the best part of the bullock to make steak of’.

During the eighteenth century seasoned travelers on their Grand Tour of Europe sent their servants ahead to attend to such matters. Bed pests did not have any respect for rank. Bug men abounded, and a certain Mr. Tiffin secured precedence over all others through his advertisement in Bell’s Weekly Messenger of 1814

May the Destroyers of Peace
Be Destroyed by Us
Tiffin and Son
Bug-Destroyers to her Majesty

An eighteenth century French bedchamber from a detailed painted picture on porcelain

‘I mostly find the bugs in the bedsteads’, he said, ‘but if left unmolested, they get numerous and climb to the tops of the rooms, they’re very high minded and prefer lofty places’.

The formal layout of houses with the main bedchamber at the end of a succession for rooms was breaking down by the middle of the eighteenth century. The increasing desire for families to seek privacy away from the public gaze, the introduction of a room for dining in, were factors in altering the structure of how houses were laid out.

In France by the mid eighteenth century a luxurious bedchamber featured superb parquetry flooring and gilded mirrors whose candles were disposed on the frames to refract the light.

The Bed had gained silk hangings with the addition of ‘tie backs’ as well as huge pillows and bolsters for comfort.

The bed would also feature a counterpane (bedspread) . Young mothers received their friends following the birth of a child and they brought the traditional French gift of cone paper packages filled with delicious, delicate confectionary (dragées).

Scottish architect Robert Adam completed his Grand Tour and introduced his neoclassical taste into England on his return in 1758, setting up shop in London. The neoclassical movement has been likened to a new Renaissance particularly in terms of house layout and decoration. Instead of living life on one level important reception rooms moved down to the ground floor with bedchambers remaining on the first level. His predecessors would not have understood the term ‘going up to bed’.

Bedchamber Nostell Priory with original furniture by Thomas Chippendale

Cabinet Bed designed by Scottish Architect Robert Adam made by Thomas Chippendale for Actor David Garri

Adam and Yorkshire cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale were an eighteenth century phenomenon. They worked in many houses together and the bedchambers were embellished with beautiful Chinese wallpapers, festoons, garlands of flowers and classical motifs, with furniture and furnishings becoming lighter and more elegant.

The bedchamber at Nostell Priory originally decorated by Adam and furnished with polished or painted timber and upholstered furniture by Chippendale has had its original hangings replaced.

Nostell Priory in Norfolk is home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of furniture by Thomas Chippendale in the world, all of which was made especially for the house.  A floor of bedchambers not ever seen before have, in 2009, been handed over to the trust for viewing from 2010.

Adam also designed a piece of furniture that looks like a bookcase, but originally was made to contain a bed, which folded up inside.  Attributed to Chippendale’s workshop it was later converted into a wardrobe. A folding bed allowed a bedroom to be used as an extra living room during the day.

This bed is part of a group of furniture preserved because it belonged to the celebrated actor David Garrick (1717-1779). It was made for the guest bedroom at his country villa at Hampton, Middlesex.

Josephine's Bedroom at château de Malmaison

The room also contained armchairs, a sofa, a dressing-table and a wardrobe, all painted blue and white to match with blue silk upholstery and curtains. Contemporary Americans admired furniture designed by Chippendale and Neoclassical architect Robert Adam’s designs as well as the French idea of changing hangings from winter to summer and they were all taken up with great alacrity becoming part of an ongoing tradition.

Early in the nineteenth century, during the reign of Napoleon as Emperor of France, the severity of the Empire style was softened by the use of exquisite silks, sheer and opaque fabrics.

Empress Josephine had official architects Charles Percier and Pierre Leonard Fontaine design a magnificent bedchamber in her country house at Malmaison, after she had been put aside by Napoleon so he could marry again in order to gain an heir.

Her bedchamber was a triumph. The bed was raised on a dais for maximum effect, an eagle atop the canopy.

The walls hung with drapery, tent style, with slender gilded columns holding up the richly embossed ceiling painted with clouds and using Napoleons’ preferred colours – Scarlet red, for blood perhaps? and Gold, undoubtedly for Glory!

Bedchamber of Juliette Recamier

The Empire style of Napoleon and Josephine was enormously influenced in its early stages by a beautiful young woman who moved in elite circles Madame Juliette Recamier (1777 – 1849).

Contemporary descriptions tell us, ‘walked like a goddess on the clouds and her voice thrilled the senses’. She dressed in a cloud of diaphanous white mousseline, never wore diamonds only pearls, and appealed to romantic sensibility, wearing crowns of real pansies and cornflowers on her head and posies on her gown. Juliette was married at 15 to the wealthy banker Jacques Recamier.

In 1798 he bought a house for her on the rue deu Mont-Blanc, which he employed the architect Berthaut to furnish in the Greek Style.

Juliette insisted on having flowers everywhere, even on the stairs, and would greet invited guests with a charming smile and invite them to see her famous bedroom.

The bed itself was raised on a dais, and declared the most beautiful in Paris, against its background of mirrored walls, draped as it was in a froth of transparent gauze, a white vapor falling from the ceiling, surrounded by vases and candelabra, and an artificial rose tree.

Her bathroom was described as ‘rich and choice’, the bath itself hidden under a red stuffed top when not in use.

After 1830 in Europe cities became overcrowded with little or no suitable restraints on birth control. Coupled with advances in medical practice survival for large families was ensured and elaborate beds once again stood in the main chamber being used for a whole range of family activities

Early Oak Bed in Kelmscott Manor designed and worked by May Morris, daughter of William Morris, Morris & Co Embroiderers. The Bedcover was embroidered by Jane Morris, William Morris's wife

In Victorian England increasing industrial wealth meant country houses expanded.

William Morris La Belle Iseult 1851

Self-contained bedchambers accommodated guests at weekend parties with clever hostesses arranging their occupation to suit the games played ‘ after dark’.

Walter Scott’s tales of Knights of the Round Table had every late nineteenth century woman panting at the thought of Sir Galahad arriving on his white charger to carry her off!

Love was considered superior to sex, conducted on a higher plane involving much talk of the ‘passion of the soul’.

Arts and Crafts Designer William Morris, leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, depicted his wife Janey Burden, as Le Belle Iseaut in 1858 in her bedchamber, her bed in disarray, its bed hangings ‘ bagged’ as in the middle ages.

Janey became, like all the other women of her age, guardian angels of the hearth and upholders of the sacred values of the Victorian home. Her husband William’s ideal of womanhood exemplified the treasured image shared by most men for that of a medieval damozel at work upon the hangings for her castle bedchamber.

Mae West

The aesthetic movement towards the end of the nineteenth century in Europe and England preached beautiful surroundings, promoted spiritual and mental health.

The rose motif and white paint became popular with followers of Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who was a very influential designer during this period, especially in Germany and Austria.

It also became fashionable for the modern women to assert themselves and become involved directly in the decoration of their homes; a display of taste as important as dressing well and looking beautiful.

In America following World War One Hollywood movie stars became guardians of our morals. They were required to keep one foot firmly on the floor during scenes taking place in what was now known as the bedroom.

Popular star Mae West, fearful of the damaging effects of sunlight and fresh air on her beauty, kept her blinds permanently drawn, the air conditioner humming and those lucky enough to come up to see her sometime discovered that her mirrored’ boudoir revealed all!

Contemporary Zen Bedroom courtesy Robertsons Furniture

The bedchamber or bedroom today is a comfortable and familiar friend, one in which the most significant thresholds of our experiences are crossed, enveloping us in its warmth and security.

It provides a place in which we are free to consider the consequences of our days while we progressively plan for the happiness of all our tomorrows.

‘ and so to Bed, pray, wish us all good rest!
Sleep tight, oh, and don’t let the bed bugs bite!’

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

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1. Women of Influence, Marquise de Pompadour
2. Love Jewellery – Rome to Renaissance
3. Love Jewellery – Romantics to Retro

Among the cargoes brought into the port of Marseilles in Provence during the mid seventeenth century by the Compagnie des Indes Orientales were desirable cotton prints from India.  They consisted of dazzling patterns and striking colours, which captured the imagination. Quickly they gained an enviable reputation for being colourfast, which made them appear almost miraculous. The colours included red from madder (garance plant) and blue (indigo plant) and they became generically known as ‘indiennes’ because of their origin. These light, vibrant prints became enormously popular and quite the Vogue at Paris and at the court of Louis XIV. Aristocrats and artists turned them into all manner of fashionable apparel.

Famous playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622 – 1673) known as Moliere, starred as the foolish hero in a production of his play for the King Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in 1670 at the court of Versailles dressed in the popular prints worn upside down. It was a great lark. The result of this craze at court seriously jeopardized the growing silk and wool textile industries of France and it became so serious that in 1686 King Louis XIV through his Arts & Industry Minister Louvois, was forced to ban the import of the much sought after cottons from India. Banning the product only further fueled the fire of demand and smuggling became the order of the day.

It was much the same over in England where the instant popularity of cottons from India, called chintz resulted in a depression and even riots in the silk and linen weaving trades.

All was blamed on Queen Mary (1650 – 1702) who had a perchance for colourful printed fabrics.  The trade was damaging English manufactory and so the English Parliament passed an act in 1720 to restrain and prohibit the use of them as well. (It forbade ‘the Use and Warings in Apparel of imported chintz, and also its use or Wear in or about any Bed, Chair, Cushion or other Household furniture‘.)

The passion for these fabrics caused local manufacturers to take notice and the first recorded manufacture of copies using carved wooden blocks to print from in France was at Marseilles in 1656.

Some of the Grand Seigneurs and Grandes Dames at court decided that they should grab an opportunity to fund production of an all new local product. However the quality was not nearly as good as the imported.

In the eighteenth century the ever expanding markets for trade in textiles from both the Middle and Far East contributed greatly to the success of many western economies during the eighteenth century.

The invention in 1733 of the ‘flying shuttle’, the ‘spinning Jenny’ in 1765 and the chain loom in 1768 made their presence felt. Industrial weaving and spinning centers improved greatly at this time, and mechanization led to a fall in prices and expansion of English and French textiles onto the world market.’

France had to remain competitive.

The late eighteenth and up until the mid nineteenth century, was the golden age for Provencal fabric design and manufacture.

Antoine de Beaulieu a young employee of the Compagnie des Indes finally committed industrial espionage to discover that metallic salts, called mordants were the key to the process. They combined with the dyes to form an insoluble compound on natural fibres.

From 1758 Mme de Pompadour, the powerful mistress of Louis XV campaigned for a free trade in these materials. By the second half of the eighteenth century, France’s production was at last becoming competitive and Louis lifted the ban in 1759.

Because the cotton fabric was so light it brought about a revolution in European clothing. Its washability made it also very suitable for bed hangings, bed curtains and bedspreads.

By 1785 at Tarascon one company dominated the area with its production of superbly printed cottons. Working from a library of print designs, from dainty to dramatic, with fruits, florals, paisleys and geometrics

The traditions associated with the company we know as Souleiado was started in the 18th century by Monsieur Jourdan.

He produced large scarves for ladies (mouchoirs) in three varieties. They were brightly coloured scarves for girls and young woman, grisailles, in muted greys for women  “of a certain age”, with deuils, or sombre toned squares for old women and widows.

The fabric’s manufacture had three elements. The base cloth, which was high quality cotton of over 150 threads per square inch.

The graceful block based prints were a mélange of naiveté and sophistication. And their colours reflected the flora of the regions in France in which they were manufactured.

Under Louis XVI (1754-1793) and again following the Revolution, the most popular of the prints were produced on a bronze coloured base. This was then covered with flowers, vines and herbs.

Together with the other fabrics – lawns and batistes the cotton fabrics used in the new French Empire period were meant to project an image of a taste for harmonious simplicity and new ideals of democracy.

Napoleon, Josephine and her ladies in the garden at Malmaison by Jean Louis Victor Viger du Vigneau

In the early nineteenth century designs became more stylized and during the reign of Napoleon 1, petite designs came into vogue. Enchanted he bought baskets full for Josephine and the ladies of the court. At this time the fabrics preferred were geometric, and many today still have a surprising contemporary look.

In 1818 one of the Avignon craftsmen printers, Leonard Quinche formed a partnership with two men from Tarascon to build a mill at St. Etienne du Gre near Tarascon. This mill was 140 years later to become known as Les Olivades.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the arrival and acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and England provoked massive change, and the cotton industry suffered a further decline.

This resulted in a lot of small producers selling out or joining larger companies. Great collections of the precious carved wooden print blocks were burned as detritus of another age. Only in areas such as lower Provence did a few companies manage to survive.

Following World War II these lovely prints started to once again re-appear internationally. The designs were transferred from the few remaining old carved blocks onto copper plates, complete with imperfections – a charming touch.

Traditions established so long ago with the indiennes still continue today in a blending of time honoured techniques and modern manufacturing methods. Provencal fabrics remain distinct and harmonious, conveying  a warm welcoming feeling.

Today chemical dyes replace the original vegetable dyes, but the colourful pastiche of shades and pattern really work well when mixed together with other fabrics, particularly en masse, and they combine brilliantly in all decors. Their rich earthy colours look particularly attractive when combined with the dark patina of antique wood in a colourful house in Provence. In its interior there is little effort to make everything ‘match’ or even maintain a continuity of periods.

What is to be admired is that the French mix what they like with what they need and with what the family has handed down with a sense of great style in a look that is both eclectic and cohesive.

Tres chic!

Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh

Related posts:

1. French Country Style – Provence and joi de vivre
2. French Country Style – Provence is c’est magnifique!
3. English Country Style – Understated Georgian Grace

Selection of fine antiques courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern Australia

According to antique dealers, their associations and the tax man however, it is not really that simple at all. For nearly half a century, following World War II, many believed an antique had to be 100 years old to be of any value. The 100 rule idea came about because in the early 1950’s the newly formed international Customs Co-operation Council at Brussels defined an antique as 100 years of age to exempt old furniture and objects over that age from tax when they were being exported and imported. The Description and Coding System they established was widely adopted across the western world, including America and Australia. Gradually as it became standard practice to exempt furniture and objects over 100 years old from tax, a general perception emerged that for anything (even architecture) to be considered of any merit or value it had to be more than a 100 years old.

In England however it remained very different. Up until the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century, the term antique meant those goods made prior to 1830. This is because 1830, the death of George IV was the date in England that producing a piece of furniture, or a lovely object by hand, was considered to have ended at London.

Simply superb eighteenth century Meissen Porcelain teapot from Saxony

Hand manufacturing meant quality materials, wonderful workmanship, unique and custom made features, with special attention to detailing and techniques like marquetry, parquetry, inlay and stringing. Then the industrial age took over producing furniture and objects by machine so that a greater number of people in the rapidly expanding middle classes across the western world could enjoy the same designs, which were now made affordable. However the major English antiques and art trade association exhibitions and fairs upheld the date 1830 as defining an antique rigidly for over a 100 years. Many dealers, collectors and connoisseurs fought valiantly to keep the date and reason in play for as long as feasibly possible.

Watch our You Tube Video What is An Antique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVn__dWxx9w

Lyre back chair by master craftsman Thomas Chippendale - a quality piece of fine furniture, of fine proportion, beautifully rendered and amazingly, designed to sit on

However, in the last 20 years of the 20th century it all broke down, as examples of fine furniture, paintings, sculpture and beautiful objects made prior to 1830 began the move into museums or major collections supported by sponsors.

Trade associations also were placed in a position where they needed to also recognize dealers who were trading in fine art deco furniture of the 20′s and 30′s, which was certainly not 100 years old, but certainly of brilliant design and craftsmanship. A great example of the reason why is highlighted by wonderful furniture produced by eighteenth century master English craftsman and cabinetmaker extraordinaire Thomas Chippendale.

Today he has become internationally renowned. Originally an eighteenth century village master craftsman, who designed and made furniture for his clients in his own workshop at Otley in rural Yorkshire, Chippendale was a progressive and ambitious chap. Clever too. He moved into the town (London) opposite a place where successful men of business, and lords and ladies met, to enjoy a daily outing, some business and the rage new fashionable drink coffee.  Sound familiar?

He hung a chair, of his own design, outside the shop, which was in a fashionable part of the town. He wanted to be noticed and was soon successful. But did he last longer than fashion dictates? Yes, he did. He gained a great client list, because he offered a quality product, of excellent design, made from the latest and best materials, including the new rage timber mahogany. And, he also understood about servicing his clients. He called himself an ‘upholder’ and, as well as furniture of his own design, he provided everything they needed for the art of living.

He sold beautiful textiles and soft furnishings that complimented his own passionately produced product. He was flexible too, as a progressive chap should be. He often produced furniture to designs by his  successful colleague neoclassical Scottish architect Robert Adam, who was for a time, ‘all the rage’ as well. Today many owners of great English country houses are thrilled their ancestors had the foresight to hang onto pieces originally made by Thomas Chippendale, rather than consign them to the ashes for the sake of fashion. They were so well built too they just wouldn’t wear out!

Thomas Chippendale, it seems, wanted to be remembered for his innovative creative ideas. So in 1754 he published The Gentleman & Cabinet Maker’s Director, a book full of all his designs for all sorts of furniture and furnishings, including some simply fabulous mirrors. With it he proved he was adaptable to all sorts of stylistic trends. His designs accommodated the frivolous Rococo and its love of asymmetry, the delightfully whimsical Chinoiserie – the European evocation of the Chinese taste and, the Neo Classical style whose symmetrical perfection was very pleasing. You name it, he could design it and make it. And, it was always fabulous. But now the really clever part. He allowed others who subscribed to his Director to use his designs copyright free.

Mirror, in the Chinese taste, by Thomas Chippendale

Clever bed in a closet by eighteenth century neo-classical Scottish architect Robert Adam

Today the designs of Thomas Chippendale have been copied and adapted for over 200 years. Lots of manufacturers and cabinetmakers have purchased his book, which has had, since his death many editions. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture have been made using his patterns and today they still grace homes around the world, especially in America. In places like Washington, Boston and New York for a hundred years after his death they absolutely loved his designs and adapted them for local use, such as the fabulous bed in a wardrobe he made for Robert Adam. What a sensible piece of furniture in any age.

By the late nineteenth century the Chinese were also manufacturing pieces designed by Chippendale, as well as the two other English drawing masters who had followed his lead and published Directors. They were Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite. They then shipped them to England, to America and to Australia as part of the China Trade.

Now here’s the thing. All these pieces, according to the tax man and the 100 year rule, are now antique too! But are they as valuable as the pieces made by Chippendale in his workshop or others in workshops during his lifetime?

I have a thing for early eighteenth century porcelain, like this delightful modernist teapot with a silver spout protector

Well no is the answer. Seems Thomas Chippendale, either wittingly or unwillingly, turned out to be a wise old chap as well. With original documentation attached many of his pieces today are worth into the millions of dollars in economic terms. The rest are graded down from that, according to quality, age, timber used, condition etc, all those things that add up to make an antique valuable. They can also only be said to be made ‘in the style of Thomas Chippendale’.

The works of Thomas Chippendale reflect the evolution of humankind spiritually, socially and culturally. For the country houses and museums around the world who own them today their value is in many ways priceless. Each year they, together with the other wonderful pieces by individual artists and designers from each generation, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors world wide. Chippendale’s story certainly proves the theory about the power of one! And then there is all the people over the years who have benefited from his skill, ingenuity, innovation, creativity and above all generosity.

A collection of antiques in a stone cottage designed for living

So what happened next. Well again its really simple. In England, where the whole concept of antiques had been invented, in the last 10 years of the 20th and first 10 years of this century they fell back on the ’100 year rule’, because most of the baby boomer and x generation customers coming along already believed an antique was 100 years old. It is only recently that the lines have become blurred again as much memory is lost during major generational change.

So how do you, or would you classify an antique in 2010? Well the British Antiques Dealers Association, according to their website, still requires its members to adhere to the 100 year rule. They call it the ‘centenary date’. However if you are checking the websites of other major International Antiques Associations you will probably search hard and not find a date mentioned. You can take what you will from that. Hypothetically at least, let’s forget the tax man. Perhaps he needs to update his own system based on best advice.

Is it time a new word for goods being recycled from another era was invented? What about ‘classic’. That means of renowned excellence in any era and culture. Well I am one who doesn’t believe it would work in the long term. This is because a lot of people seem to perceive classic as being boring. Its original ideals are based on the perceived perfection achieved by the ancient Greeks in art and architecture. And after a time for many, living up to perfection can seem very wearying.

But wait, perhaps it’s already happened. InLondon some of its best known dealers stepped outside of their association fair and exhibited their best antiques alongside modern iconic fashion items the growing number of celebrities love. The exhibition was  Masterpiece, London and it is now an annual event.

All the goods on display are certainly fabulous and many are design icons. They were available to be collected by anyone at all really, as long as they had the ready necessary. These days that’s a great many more people than ever before. And, it was so successful it is now an annual event.

Beautiful Bugatti, the boys at Top Gear would love this!

Collecting is, and has become an amazing phenomenon. Yet it is still often misrepresented by out of date journalists as being the hobby of only a select few or the rich and famous. Now that is rubbish. Collecting is a pleasure indulged in by a vast number of people from different backgrounds and all walks of life. It just takes place on many different scales of economy.

The good thing for collectors is that today there is an ever expanding number of categories to collect in. It can be a beautiful Bugatti – love to see the Top Gear boys do a London to Brighton race (like in the old Dirk Bogarde movie Genevieve) in some old beauties such as this one

It can also be a simple fashion item: recently a Ferragamo handbag made out of timber and beautifully finished like a piece of fine furniture, which I purchased when traveling in the early 80′s was whisked away by a family member who has caught the collecting disease.

From this, and from watching the many thousands of people who appear on the Australian ABC Collectors or the BBC’ and America’s various shows for collectors, I have deduced the most important aspect of collecting is, for the majority of people, an emotional connection. This is almost impossible for anyone to define, let alone explain or understand.

Courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern at Sydney

We are all fascinated, it seems, by the stories attached to the incredible world of antiques and art, which reflect the growth of humankind.

So, what’s next? Collecting things from the past and keeping them, like us moving forward, makes good sense and good business in a world that needs to recycle goods to aid its sustainability.

An Antique, a Classic, a Masterpiece or a Collectible, whatever you want to call it, something worth restoring, conserving, preserving and collecting should have an aesthetic that pleases the eye, engages the spirit and connects with the soul. It also needs to be made from quality materials and finely and lovingly finished. On top of all the rest if it challenges the mind, like a great work of sculptural art, then for me that is the icing on the cake.

Antiques are definitely more than a load of old tat. Carolyn McDowall, 2010, 2011

PS. Want to know more?

I have attached a PDF: INTRODUCTION TO ANTIQUES for you to download. Cheers!

Related posts:

1. Antique & Art Dealers Association Show at Sydney in Spring
2. The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel
3. EVOLUTION OF ART, DESIGN & STYLE
   Course Outline

Tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X from Renaissance artist Raphael are displayed at ground level on the walls of the sensationally fresco covered Sistine Chapel, works by Michealangelo Buonorotti in Vatican city

But do they know about the four splendid tapestries, often found hanging on the lower walls of the chapel during great pontifical, or liturgical services? They were designed by his colleague and one of the Italian Renaissance’s favourite artists Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known simply as Raphael (c1483 – 1520). The tapestries had a historic state visit to London in September 2010. They were sent by the present Pope to be exhibited at the V & A Museum.

The four were commissioned in 1515 from Raphael especially for the Sistine Chapel. This was the first time in 500 years that the tapestries had hung alongside the original cartoons that Raphael had painted for the weavers so they could  complete this fabulous series of sensational textiles. There are ten in existence, but some scholars speculate that originally sixteen may have been planned.

From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries in Europe most rulers or heads of important families were continually on the move. Tapestries were a way of having instant decor. They added prestige to any setting and practically helped with draughts in stone castles or chateaux, which were evolving with extended periods of peace from places of refuge into being country houses. Their narrative subjects were very attractive and they usually featured scenes from mythology, from the Bible, or of hunting and court life. At the time these were manufactured, weaving was considered the most important art form and expression of cultural development. They demonstrated the wealth and status of the ruling families of Italy, Europe and England and, had the advantage of being easily transportable.

The tapestries made for the Sistine Chapel to Raphael’s designs were woven between 1516 and 1521, They are of wool, which has been intertwined with silk and gilt metal wrapped thread. They were made in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst at Brussels the main centre for tapestry production in Europe at that time. It would have been no mean feat. The weavers would have been constantly challenged working to Raphael’s painted cartoons, without the benefit of being able to enter into any sort of dialogue with the artist himself who had no part in their production. The technical difficulties were mind boggling and the finished tapestries are a tribute to the level of expertise,  experience and considerable skill the weavers had attained.

One of the reasons Raphael gained the commission is that he had successfully designed the grotesque style painted decoration for architect Donato Bramante’s Gallery in the Vatican Palace . The painting of the walls and vaults of the loggia were completed by pupils under his supervision and are a highpoint of Renaissance art. He proved, through his attention to detail an ability to produce a design that could be transmitted to another medium. The tapestries exist because of one man, Pope Leo X (1475 – 1521) who commissioned them. He knew the richness of these amazing textiles would compliment, and not be overwhelmed by the painted glory perfected by Michelangelo when completing his ‘art above’.

Paul Preaching at Athens (Acts 17: 16-34) In this section of a cartoon Paul preaches before the judicial council of Athens. It also deals with the theme of idolatry, as the listeners stand in front of a pagan statue. V & A Museum London

Born into the famous Medici family at Florence, whose patronage of the arts at Florence the cradle of the Renaissance world, Leo X was already celebrated as a prince of peace and acknowledged as connoisseur of music when he ascended the papal throne. His classical education had been thorough and included poetry, literature and music alongside theology, philosophy and the ancients.

His love of culture and the arts did not conflict with his worship. And, his interest in the humanities meant that he sought to actively combine, in religious harmony, the past and present while helping to plan the future of the church at Rome.

Part of his role as Pope and leader of the Christian church, as the sun rose on the fifteenth century, was to encourage his countries cultural development. As tapestry was considered societies most prestigious art form it is no surprise he chose to hang them in the Sistine chapel. The tapestries illustrate scenes from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul long regarded as the founders of the Christian Church. They were at the source of the Pope’s authority and power.

The Raphael Cartoons were design drawings made up of a mosaic of hundreds of sheets of paper glued together which was then fixed to the wall. Raphael and his assistants would have painted them in situ. Then they would then have been rolled for transport to Brussels to Pietr Van Aelst’s studio where they would have been cut up into strips for use by the tapestry weavers.

In this cartoon Christ tells Peter to cast his net into the water whereupon he and his fellow apostles make a miraculous catch. The story refers to Peter's role as "fisher of men", who converts others to Christianity. It also demonstrates his humility as he kneels before Christ to acknowledge His divinity, and confess his own sinfulness. V & A Museum

The tapestries have had a turbulent history. They were pawned to pay for Pope Leo X’s funeral and recovered for the coronation of Hadrian VI (1522-3). They were stolen during the Sack of Rome in 1527, and after many adventures returned to the papal collection between 1544 and 1554. They were looted again during a French occupation of Rome in 1798 and purchased by a second hand dealer very cheaply. They were bought back again in 1808 and restored to the Vatican collection.

As part of the journey associated with every aspect of the design commission, the cartoons arrived in England after King Charles I paid £300 in 1623 to obtain them.He bought them as designs for tapestries and as painters by his time were being recognized for their individual talents, they would have proved a good investment for the crown.

It was at the end of the seventeenth century when they were framed as paintings in their own right. It was Queen Victoria who sent them along to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1865 and they have been in the public domain ever since.

Originally they had woven borders showing scenes from Leo’s life, also believed to have been designed by Raphael. However the cartoons for these did not survive. As Mark Evans who has produced the splendidly detailed and scholarly catalogue for the exhibition held at London in 2010 said ‘despite the toll of time those who have the good fortune to admire these beautiful tapestries five centuries after their creation can confirm the challenge to make them was triumphantly met”.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

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Paris by 1720 was a city of narrow, noisy filthy and smelly streets surrounding the houses of wealthy owners accessed through alleyways, which were a public theatre where behaviour was shaped by inescapable promiscuity. In the great outdoors the design of the day was all about creating a scene where the art of pleasure could be conducted. A gardener was not expected to spend hours pruning so everything was controlled. He was encouraged to allow trees and shrubs to throw out sinuous arching graceful branches and to let old clipped hedges soften through purposeful neglect. Bright pretty flowers were meant to provide bursts of colour, and each were a deliberate aspect of its essential element, for that of delight and surprise. As women did not wear undergarments you can understand the look of pleasure on the face of the unknown nobleman who is celebrating the considerable charms of his mistress in The Swing, painted by French painter Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806). He perfectly captured the mood of a new independent, rich, less discreetly immoral society who were clamouring for novelty and having fun.

A new decorative style emerged and became known as Rococo, as it writhed and wriggled its way into interiors all over France, Europe and England. The word Rococo derives from the word Rocaille, the name for the shell work and rockwork popular in garden grottoes during the reign of Louis XIV the Sun King.

The new style was delicately elegant, with a distinct preference for asymmetry. It was all about movement and above else it conveyed a mood and atmosphere of fancy, frivolity and fun. Many of its designs were sophisticated and enchantingly pretty. A great deal of gold was required to highlight its use of bright clear colours. This is the period when the art of pleasure first became a serious business.

Salon Hotel Soubise

During the seventeenth century the people’s allegiance had been to their sovereign and nation first, themselves and family secondary or last. Louis XIV, the Sun King, practiced the divine right of kings decisively at Versailles. The strict disciplines of order he imposed was reflected in the symmetrical disposition of architecture, interiors and contrived landscaping style.

When he died shortly before his 77th birthday on September 1715 Philippe, Duc d’Orleans became Regent over his grandson the future Louis XV, who was five years of age. As soon as possible the Duke removed the French court and seat of government from Versailles to his residence the Palais Royale at Paris. From there he presided over a peace in Europe that he helped bring about, which enabled Europe’s economies all to become buoyant. He commissioned Parisian craftsmen to provide new and lavish surroundings and he set an example for that of a pleasure seeking lifestyle.

Architectural decoration in polychrome marble and gilt bronze gave way to painted and gilded paneled rooms whose design incorporated mirrors, chandeliers, sinuous lines, swags of flowers, gold, gold and even more gold with cute cupids, clasps and c and s scrolls. Following his marriage in 1732 The Prince de Rohan commissioned German architect Germaine Boffrand (1667-1754) to design the lovely Hotel de Soubise. It is a rare rococo style survival because the French have always had a predilection for changing fashion. Its beautiful boiserie, or paneled walls were composed of softly flowing sensuous shapes, which seemed to have no fixed points at all flowing rhythmically, just like the music of the times.

The Rococo style manifested itself in the decoration of intimate, luxurious, harmonious interiors that were a perfect setting for the enjoyment of a circle of intimate friends. Poetry reading aloud questioned established mores, engendering intellectual discussion among friends and it became extremely fashionable. Le Petite Dejeneur c1739 painted by artist Francois Boucher depicts a family sharing breakfast in a rococo styled room in a middle class house. The furnishings are tasteful, but not really luxurious. The caned chairs are ready made, the carved console table installed with its rococo style panelling. The fashionable tea table was purchased from a marchand-mercier, a dealer in elegant accessories and trifles. There is a look of care on the faces of the parents and the scene is one of delightful rococo informality pleasing to behold. After centuries of treating children as miniature adults, the aristocracy and haute bourgeouise were now rapidly changing their attitudes towards children. Essays expounding the nature and nurturing of children were being taken seriously.

Working class children between the ages of ten and sixteen however still lived an adult existence. They were apprenticed early, obliged to help their parents with routine chores and knew the rhythms, constraints and rigors of a working life.

Although not yet independent they belonged as much to the neighborhood as to their parents serving as a link by delivering messages in the area where they lived. In this way neighbors, artisans, merchants, curates, policemen all kept an eye on youngster’s growing up. Raising children was a community concern.

Chinoiserie by Francois Boucher

Francois Boucher was a designer for the Beauvais Tapestry Factory from 1734. He was also supervisor of the Gobelins tapestry factory, where for some 15 years tapestries were produced, mainly from his designs. His paintings and drawings and the designs after them had a strong influence on the decorative arts throughout Europe

Le Jardin Chinois is one of five pieces produced from cartoons by him. The lady at her toilette is found in an exotic setting and this delightful scene was printed on textiles and reproduced in marquetry. The use of tapestries on walls continued but was a far cry from the days when they were a textile, which was portable, and draped like one. Now they became part of the wall fixed onto battens.

When Louis XV ascended the throne unlike his grandfather he had to share the limelight with his nobles and take notice of the thoughts and wishes of the bourgeoisie, or middle class. They were gaining an education, questioning established ideas of thought. In this milieu women gained a voice presiding over the art of conversation and manners in their influential salons. Louis XV officially met his most impressive middle class mistress at a magnificent costume ball held in the Galerie des Glaces in February 1745 to celebrate the wedding of his son to Maria Teresa, daughter of Phillip V of Spain.

From the age of nine, when a fortune teller told her she would reign over the heart of a king, Jean Antoinette Poisson was known to her family as Reinette They married her off advantageously at seventeen and she promised her husband she would never leave him except for the King. At the ball one of eight cleverly contrived yew tress was the king in fancy dress. Madame d’Etioles appeared dressed as the Roman goddess of the hunt Diana and dropped her handkerchief as a single yew tree approached. Although the scene was contrived, he feigned being charmed and picked it up signalling his choice to everyone.

The Kings mistress had enormous power at court and no one would believe a member of the bourgeoisie could learn its political intricacies. But carry them off she did and when her husband was told he fainted dead away.

Louis gave Jeanne the title Marquise de Pompadour, with the deeds to an estate of this name bearing her own coat of arms – three castles on an azure blue ground. He removed the court from Paris to Versailles where as his acknowledged mistress she lived for twenty years influencing all the arts at France and the continuing use of the delightful Rococo style.

From the moment of her arrival she directed and inspired everyone and everything including the delightful decoration and colours of Sevres porcelain. She was the patron of many artists including her favourite painter Francois Boucher whose many images depict her as a sophisticated lady of impeccable style.

Her patronage of the fashionable style of her day ensured that it was an exercise of intellect and so much more than a sinuous line,, When her brother Abel became Louis’ Minister for the Arts he remarked that not one of her portraits was like her, so she remains an enigma to history in that respect. A painting with her brother depicts them discussing a model of the Petite Trianon a delightful pavilion to be built in the grounds of Versailles for her and the King. It reveals in its architecture that she knew, before she tragically died aged 44 on the 15^th April 1764 that an increasing interest in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome as well as advances in science would mean the emergence of a new, more serious but simply elegant classical style.

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

* Claude Terrail

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Australia's first Government House

Australia is by world standards, a young western democracy colonized by the English at the edge of Asia in the days of so-called eighteenth century European enlightenment. At the time the English parliament were seeking a place to send an ever expanding, embarrassing community of petty thieves and criminals, which included many children endeavouring to survive the injustices of the industrial age.

Our indigenous Fauna is unique, Koala's are both cute and cool

The evolution of Australia is told in the stories of its indigenous people, who inhabited the land from a time of dreaming when the heady scent of wattle and eucalyptus filled the cool night air. It is told against the backdrop of a wide brown land, whose raging rivers in full flood revitalize the earth. It is told by the sunlight bouncing off the iron roofs of buildings, such as the first house built for the first English governor, Captain Arthur Phillip. He laid the foundation stone within four months of sailing into Port Jackson on January 26 1788 with the first fleet. It had six rooms and overlooked a safe harbour anchorage, a freshwater stream and makeshift huts and tents. You might be inclined to think it was not really very sophisticated, but against a background of a natural environment its indigenous inhabitants had never disturbed, at the time, it was an assertion of culture in the colonies.

Joseph Banks by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1773

For better or worse in Australia awe inherited the imposition of European cultures on this land of great, and often violent contrast. Producing an adequate food supply in unfamiliar soil and a harsh climate was the major preoccupation for many and it was hardship that initially provoked ingenuity and creativity, not culture or fashion. Botanist Joseph Banks advised Governor Phillip concerning the introduction of economic plants to the colony of New South Wales. Plant and seeds were placed in land set aside for ‘farm and garden’ and the Governor reported to London about ‘a farm of nine acres in corn’, known from 1792 as the Governor’s Farm. These seminal beds were essential for the colony’s first survival but eventually were moved to the Hawkesbury River and other areas opening up through exploration.

In 1810 Government House Sydney was put into a complete state of repair to welcome Governor Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth. As soon as Macquarie arrived he set in motion an ambitious program, including public works, improving roads, encouraging exploration and the creation of the colony’s first bank. In his own way, and that of his time, Macquarie endeavoured to empathize and work with the indigenous population. As many of his contemporaries he would have believed his ideas of civilization were correct.

Macquarie organized a school for Aboriginal children, a farm for their parents to work at George’s Head, a village at Elizabeth Bay for the tribe that formerly lived on the lands the new town of Sydney occupied, and arranged that a sort of durbar would be held annually at Parramatta, to keep everyone happy. He established a string of townships around Sydney and within two decades of settlement they contained a fine array of buildings, a number of which still stand today.

No one was keener on, or more capable of improvements in buildings or their gardens within, or without the government domain than the Governor and his wife Elizabeth. They saw themselves as arbiters of taste, although their supporters, predominantly solid merchants and emancipists had no such aspirations. They wanted solid houses and warehouses to affirm their status.

The Governor and his wife valued the scenic qualities of the Domain area, whose land overlooked Port Jackson, and it was declared a Botanical garden in 1816.

Sited on the first piece of land in Australia brought under cultivation it is today one of the most gloriously sited botanical gardens in the world.

The intelligent and compassionate Elizabeth was a gently born Scotswoman who bravely accompanied her husband on many adventures while she was here. She took a keen interest in the welfare of women convicts and of the indigenous peoples, as well as gardening and agriculture.

They were shared with pioneer’s wife Elizabeth McArthur and together they are attributed with pioneering hay-making in the colony. She brought from England a collection of books on architecture, which proved useful to her husband and his chosen convict architect Francis Greenway. She was also instrumental in planning a road that encircled the Government Domain to the point which, like the road, was named after her.

Not many colonists had an appreciation for the Gothick style, which was enjoying a revival in the England they had left. Its pointed arches and gargoyles had become involved in a romantic ‘cult of the picturesque’. Fortunately Francis Greenway, appointed by Macquarie to assist public work initiatives, could accommodate the Macquarie’s architectural style preferences. His buildings were informed by an extensive knowledge of the ancient buildings of England.

To the left and right entering Sydney Cove were built the very picturesque Fort Macquarie (on the site where the opera house is now) and the Dawes Point Battery, which had dubious defence capabilities. Both were part of a setting for a new Government House, one imperial in scale, but Gothick in style. The first building completed, the Governor’s stables (now the Conservatorium of Music) enjoyed views to the west over the town, and over the harbor to the lighthouse on the eastern horizon. They certainly would not have shamed a substantial estate back home.

Elizabeth Macquarie designed Parramatta church’s towers. Her participation in architectural affairs was a natural extension of the female artistic role which was finally, and patronizingly defined in 1831 by the Foreign Quarterly Review. It suggested women study architecture ‘not in order that they may be able to draw columns, for that is merely the means, not the end of the pursuit, but that they may thereby cultivate their tastes, and ground it on something less baseless and sifting than mere feminine liking and disliking’. Scottish botanist, designer and editor John Claudius Loudon, whose Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm, Villa Architecture sold well in Sydney and Hobart in Tasmania, agreed. ‘If the study of landscape drawing by ladies, has led to the improvement of landscape gardening, why should not the study of architectural drawing, on their part, lead to the improvement of domestic architecture’. Why not indeed! This might all seem a bit silly and perhaps trifling issues to us today, but at the time it was an extraordinary manifesto of a maturing culture in the colonies.

In the years between the arrival and departure of the Macquarie’s in 1821 New South Wales changed a great deal, especially in its architectural tastes and the attitudes, fashions and passions of its people, who now included many free settlers moving forward to a new life in a new land.

In format all early colonial bungalows were single storied with a wide shade inducing verandah (Elizabeth Farm).

Loudon in his 1833 edition of The Encyclopedia expressed the importance of association for the people of the colonies. The various elements of Gothic design were meant to arouse an emotional, rather than intellectual response in the viewer – to conjure up moods and associations rather than replicate medieval objects precisely.

It may appear quite odd to a resident in Britain, that a British emigrant to Van Diemen’s Land should wish to build his dwelling in the form of an English church tower but it was all about feeling insecure in a brand new land, feelings that can hardly be conceived by those who have never experienced them. And so it was that Gothic houses would be seen among those sent to establish the penal colony as ideal. They were enduring the hardships of being so far from home while, at the same time, attempting to establish their own identity and it’s easy to understand how and why such a fashion would take hold.

But the Gothic was not the solution for former naval Captain Piper, who was appointed a magistrate by Governor Macquarie. He built his villa in a style that eclipsed the Governor’s house. And, for four brief years before her husband’s fortunes declined, the house’s namesake, Henrietta, entertained all of Sydney’s polite society there.

The 1830’s in New South Wales are often referred to as ‘the golden decade’. This is when the aspirations of pastoral landholders and merchants resulted in public buildings and mansions being rendered in the ‘classical’ style.  Alexander MacLeay, Colonial Secretary under Governors Darling and Bourke embraced horticulture and botany.

Secretary of the Linnean Society (1798-1825) in England a variety of Bocconia was named Macleaya cordata in his honour. He built his country house Brownlow Hill on 1500 acres of land near Camden, which he obtained by grant in 1827.

Elegant Italian urns formalized a generous drive overhung with Chinese elms (Ulmus parvifolia) contributing significantly to the romantic atmosphere, which still pervades this historic garden. His son George inherited it in 1848 but he sold it off in 1875 to the family who have lived there ever since.

McLeay’s city house at Elizabeth Bay was renowned for its rare plants. Its steeply sloping site combined elements of the landscape and picturesque movements advocated by English nineteenth century garden guru Humphrey Repton. ‘From the first commencement Mr. Macleay never suffered a tree of any kind to be destroyed, until he saw the necessity of doing so. He gained the advantage of embellishment from his native trees and harmonized them with the foreign trees now growing. His botanic, flower, landscape, fruit and kitchen gardens are all on the first scale…and he has also planned a vineyard of considerable extent upon terraces, which has answered every expectation’. Today only a small overgrown fragment of the garden survives but detailed descriptions of it keep its place in the evolution of gardens in Australia’.

John Claudius Loudon’s four significant books on horticulture, gardening and domestic architecture were available in New South Wales and Tasmania heralding the arrival of the Victorian Age. The cult of the picturesque had encouraged every point of the garden to have some ornament or architectural feature. The new gardenesque style, promoted by Loudon, featured individual plants in an endeavor to showcase botanical differences.

According to the ‘gardenesque school’ Loudon said ‘all the trees and shrubs planted are arranged in regard to their kinds and dimensions and they are planted at first at, or as they grow thinned out to, such distances apart as may best display the natural form and habit of each’.

A riot of color went hand in hand with carpet bedding and a pursuit of botanical triumphs. By the 1840’s New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land saw years of economic depression and drought as the first Australian pastoral boom passed. It was the discovery of gold and resultant flood of fortune seekers that sent the colonial economy into boom again.

As in England, in Australia a grand country estate represented the pinnacle of material and social achievement. Homestead portraits were commissioned by the owner of the property to adorn his parlour. Greek houses gave way to Italianate style villas. Tiled colonnades, columned pergolas and balustrade terraces linked house to garden.

Grander examples were mansions with palace facades, surmounted by loggia topped towers that overlooked terraces and flights of steps complete with cast cement balustrading, urns and statuary. It was not uncommon to find Venus, Napoleon, or Captain Cook lurking about in the bushes.

These were the boom years of the Industrial Revolution and grand houses like Melbourne’s Rippon Lea, epitomize the extravagance of the era. Its architecture of polychrome brickwork was set off by magnificent wide lawns that swept down to a two-acre lake where a fine bridge, made of iron, has been cast to give an appearance of timber. Much of the charm of Rippon Lea lies in the sensitivity, which has been shown for the garden’s historic origins.

The Botanical gardens in Brisbane, on the river, and the gardens of the Brisbane Acclimatization Society, were established by the 1880’s. They were widely known for their enlightened research and generous policy of distribution. Many plants were recognized as being suitable for subtropical gardening in Brisbane. One of the most spectacular would have to be the Bougainvillea, which could be trained over any style of framework built as a support.

In April 1884 Oxford educated lawyer and ornithologist John Cotton and his wife and nine children constructed a larger house of sawn timber in the Australian countryside. He, like many others, benefited from the changes and the culture in the colonies the Macquarie’s had established. ‘We have now been resident in our new house five weeks and find in it every comfort that we would enjoy in the same style of house in England, and perhaps more, there being no rent or taxes to pay. We have a comfortable sitting room 18ft x 16ft with a brick chimney where there is a cheerful fire of logs constantly kept up unless the mildness of the weather should prevent our replenishing it. We have the piano here, which sounds remarkably well, in our wooden house, and the walls are ornamented with a few pictures. My books are arranged on shelves in recesses each side of the fireplace and they will continue to afford a source of amusement and study’. Within one hundred years of settlement life in the colony became very civilized and culture in the colonies, a reality.

In Australia, our aesthetic choices, like or dislikes were formed through associational interpretation and imagery. Living in the bush for many today still remains a romantic ideal, much like country life in great country houses in England, or villas in Rome, while most people cling to a quarter acre suburban block. Half city, half bush, house and garden style today reflects individuality. This is made feasible by the modern car and American roadway system. It is formed through an interplay of international influences and our own complex multi-culturalism.

Australia today enjoys a robust cultural life, applying its creativity to generate innovative solutions in the fields of medical research, science, design, the arts, resource management and sustainable urban living for all its peoples. It is a multicultural land of opportunity, one whose layers of diversity embolden everyone. Its pioneering spirit is ever present and an ever increasing mix of culturally different people is constantly adding to its layers of diversity.

In Australia today our art, design, music and style are constantly being re-interpreted, distilled and decanted into something quite unique.

Carolyn McDowall 2010, 2011

Photograph Brisbane 150 courtesy ABC Printing and BCC Council, Brisbane Australia.

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