Making a Compleat Gentleman

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

Collecting antiques …what do you need to know?

If you would like to become a collector, potential purchaser or, a dealer in antiques we offer FREE, An Introduction to Collecting Antiques sharing some of the considerations dealers, connoisseurs and experienced collectors make when purchasing. Take the journey…join us and the world will never look quite the same again…

Evolution of Art, Design and Style – Antiquity to Avatar

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

THE EVOLUTION ART, DESIGN & STYLE
ARTISTIC TASTE – ANTIQUITY – AVATAR
[...]

Introduction to Collecting Antiques – FREE online video presentation

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

Creating the English style

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

Favourite Books…Andrea Palladio, The Architect in his Time

Professor Bruce Boucher’s scholarly and accessible work, Andrea Palladio, The Architect in his Time was first published in 1994  in a ‘user friendly version’…to fit comfortably into a suitcase or backpack for a quick trip to Vicenza, the scene of many of Palladio’s triumphant works in architecture.
Palladio, Boucher confidently tells us, ‘is arguably the most [...]

The Flight of the Egret

There are some in our society who are blessed with great creative gifts. Imagination is surely one, however it is one thing to have the ability to form images and ideas in the mind, especially of things never seen or never experienced directly, but quite another to connect those to the totality of real things in the world in order to convey knowledge or influence our perception of them.

Women of Influence – Diane de Poitiers, enchantress

The mistresses and consorts of the Kings of France have a strong history of helping others with extraordinary talent to achieve their highest potential through patronage, of changing standards of moral or social behaviour and of dictating the design and disposition of domestic architecture and gardens

Garden Flights of Fantasy

The influence of the classic Chinese Garden was expressed in the fashion for Chinoiserie, a style preference that spread through England, Europe and Russia in the eighteenth century with pagodas, bridges and oriental follies becoming de rigeur

A Living Heritage

Author Carolyn McDowall

In the late 60’s and throughout the 70s the same scene was unfolding in most major cities in Australia, and indeed many other parts of the world. In Sydney aesthetically pleasing well-designed solidly built buildings, either domestic or commercial, were biting the dust via great swinging balls on chains. I must admit while [...]