A Clearer, but Sometimes "Separated" England

I may have mentioned before that my children are my harshest critics.  Yesterday, my daughter mentioned that she checked in on the blog and the pictures were blurry.  All of you were nice enough not to tell me how blurry the photos were, but my children tell the unvarnished, brutal truth.  Also today, my son who helps me join two pages of magazines into one complained that the result looked cobbled and amateurish.  (He insists that I need photo shop.  I insist that it is too much money.)  Hope today's blog will be clearer for everyone and not appear too unprofessional, especially for we-all-know-who .

Undaunted, I visit some lovely English hall ways and staircases.  Only the English seem to have homes large enough to accommodate these beauties, again from English Country Homes By Mary Gilliatt (1986).

Not to offend my bird-lover friends, but if I could have "photoshopped-out" the birdcage I would have.  Otherwise this is a great hall way.

So beautiful, so English.

Less grand, but no less charming.  I'm a real sucker for brick floors.

Also a sucker for leaded glass windows.

I would consider this room a den, but Gillatt explains it as a "living hall...very much a feature of grand houses in the nineteenth century."  Inviting - whatever we name it.

The master of all that he surveys.

Also a sucker for paintings and tall case clocks and wide-board wood floors.

I know all of these images are not about kitchens, but they are very English and very beautiful.  I just had to include them.

Onto an article that I tore out of a magazine long ago.  My apologies to whichever magazine published these beautiful pictures because I never noted its name. It is the home of Jonathan Vickers, a quirky individual and collector of - well, you will see.  His home in Kent is named the Old Vickarage, perhaps a play on his name.  Vickers, like Stanley Falconer from an earlier posting, also worked as a designer with the Colefax and Fowler firm.  Later in his life, when he partnered in an antique business, he still remained friends with John Fowler.

The dining room above, formerly the kitchen, still retains the black leaded stove.  The table is stained with a green varnish - a bit "quirky."

Below is a collection of his creamware jelly moulds.  Enjoy these photos - unfortunately they are about as kitchen-y as I get today.  The lemon and banana are Chinese carved ivory.

More of his blue and white collection.  The article mentions an anecdote about a night that Vickers entertained - one of the guests commented on how beautiful a piece of his china was, and Vickers generously gave it to her.  The next day, he asked for it back.

Below is Vickers's sitting room, the walls of which are painted with a trailing design of Kentish hops.
(This is the kind of joining of separate images that drives my son crazy.)

The landing in the Old Vicarage.

Very Colefax and Fowler.

Vickers's Chinese bedroom.

Another of those separations that annoy my son, but until I buy photoshop, he's going to have to just get over it!  Hope you can enlarge the smaller images on your computers.  The bedroom on the top left is so sweet.  Actually, I love all these rooms.

Thus ends the home images of Jonathan Vickers.  Sadly, he died young and the contents of most of his rooms have been dispersed.  "Such is the ephemeral nature of interior decoration."

Onto the last home for today, a very British one with a very contemporary feel.  All photos are from House and Garden, May 2006.  See what you think. 

The exterior is very beautifully what you might expect in Sussex, England.  (Adore the name "Sussex")

But inside, it reminds me of my posting on Lauren Sara's home from "Still in Pennsylvania but forward Twenty Years."  See what you think.

Unlike Sara, this owner uses few antiques in her home.  Only the beams reveal the age of the house.

Eleanora Cunietti, one of the home's designers.

Gatehouse of the home.  Through it, we see a glimpse of a "well-tended" garden.

Again only the beams reveal its age.

And finally, my favorite room in the house - the kitchen, of course.  Don't you just love the chandelier?

Another chapter on England's influence on my aesthetic ends, but more is to come.  And you thought my Pennsylvania influence was endless!
Till next time,
b