Tea.  How Could I Forget Tea?

Tea is not usually deemed a huge interior design influence, but for the English perhaps it is.  Whole ceremonies have grown up around it from childhood far into adulthood.  Special foods are prepared, special china is purchased, all as part of the tea time event.  Tea shops abound in England.  And, I, for one, love it all.  Since I really like the aroma of coffee but not its bitter taste, tea has always been my caffeine choice.  Whether it be iced or hot, it's always comforting and delicious.  So, today's posting is all about tea and the beautiful china, snowy linens and the tasty tidbits that accompany it.

It all starts in childhood.

Children and Gardens, by Gertrude Jekyll

These little ones look so angelic, but the tiny one to the right is having a big spill.

Having Tea by Tricia Foley

Even though the scan below shows the fold, I had to include it because of the fireplace and Tasha's beautiful antique china.  After Beatrix Potter, Tasha Tudor is my favorite illustrator of children's books. I know she's American, but the English transported tea culture to the colonies.  Right?

Sweet heart-shaped jam sandwiches for children's teas.

The tea rituals continue into adolescence as seen in these photos of St. Edmund's college and prep school in Canterbury England.  First, tea and cricket. (The photos below are from Cote Ouest, Autumn 1997)

Then, five-o'clock-tea-and-biscuits for the boys.

Tea in lovely china with a biscuit on the side in front of a miniature of St. Edmund's chapel.

So English - teak bench,  a tie striped with St. Edmund's colors, a thermos and cup of tea, a book, crumpets.  All is well.

Not only the students at St. Edmund's enjoy their tea, but also the gardener there.

Tea and flowers, an English icon.

A tradition so firmly entrenched continues well into adulthood typified in the following image of the Dowager Countess overlooking Downton Abbey with tea firmly by her side.  (Downton Abbey is a PBS series not to be missed.  Besides viewing it on TV, I own the DVD's and have watched them at least three times.  I'm such a "Brit-ophile.")

Such an important tea tradition demands beautiful china to accompany it.  Meredith Etherington-Smith's
dining room table in London is an example of such beauty.  She herself is a lifelong collector of beautiful china.

Set with Style, by Caroline Clifton-Mogg

Her London dining room again.  So beautifully English.

China close-up.

Blue and white china - always a favorite.  Here we see part of Tasha Tudor's collection.  (From Heirloom Crafts by Tasha Tudor and Tovah Martin)  Why do we women love our china so much?  Look at Ethrington-Smith's collection above, look at Ann Wyeth McCoy's collection from an earlier post.  Could it all stem from our early tea parties?

More blue and white. (linesfromlinderhof.com)

Williams Sonoma's book, Entertaining (with these photos by Quentin Bacon), even instructs us how to make tea in blue and white.

Tricia Foley writes an entire book about Having Tea. It's a delightful book from which I chose the following images.  Only some of the china is blue and white, but that's OK.

In England.

In Set in Style, Clifton-Mogg devotes several pages to Tricia Foley's Long island home and her teas there.  While I will discuss Foley in later postings - my white period, her love of tea seems appropriate here.  Foley writes, "I usually serve three pots of tea - one black, one green, and then an infusion of some description.  There are usually cucumber sandwiches, Cheddar with chutney, and one with herbs and garden sprigs.  The bread is really thin -- sometimes there is shortbread too.  Yes, I make it an occasion -- I think if you ask people to tea, you should do it properly."  Wow!  At my house you get tea and cookies, but in my Long Island fantasy house I'd serve everything else.

See, she serves cookies too.

I love her style and I know she's American, not English.  But, her tea aesthetic is so English.

Lastly, wouldn't you love to join me for tea in this very pretty English garden?

I may have gotten a bit carried away in this posting.  As I warmed to my topic and revisited all these fabulous books, it was fun for me, like seeing old friends.  If you like tea, these books are delightful.  Heck, even if you don't like tea, they're great "tablescape" inspiration.  

More to the point, dear reader, do you think tea is an English design aesthetic?  I think so.  Or, maybe I just enjoyed too many tea parties as a child.

Till next time,

b

Elements of English Style

What is it I like so much about the English design aesthetic?  Can I define it?  British design elements include much of what I also loved in Pennsylvania: early antiques, beautiful gardens, fireplaces when ever possible, kitchens used for cooking (not just for "show"), beloved pets and animals, warm lighting, faded fabrics.  All these elements contribute to the warmth and coziness that affected me long ago and that still do today as I revisit them in some of my favorite books and magazines.  Seeing these images again as I blog about them is like revisiting old friends.  Come meet some with me.

Here the way the light shines through the leaded window, the antique rocker and its pillow, the fireplace and its paneling speak so much to"English-ness."
               (This and the following images are from English Country Interiors, by Hugh Lander, 1989)

Note the aged beam over the hearth and sweet cupboard to the right.

While this room lacks a fireplace, it has a great clock and great lighting.  Could the desk could have been a sight for the penning of Jane Eyre or Emma?  Sunlight streams into the room behind and onto the beautiful tile floors.

I always wanted to paint this room - with the cat peering up the stair case.  What does he see, we wonder, and what is beyond the partially opened door?  Such an intriguing room with great stone floors.

Here the room's spareness is as important as the period pieces in it.

Light from the deep window highlights the blue and white transfer ware china and the very beautiful cupboard door.

This kitchen may not appeal to "kitchens-must-be-white" people, but I love the antique cupboard and stove, the stone wall, and even the cabbage and leeks on the table.

Dark I know, but the perhaps Heathcliff lived here.  Certainly the cat on the early settle looks warm and comfortable.

And now onto the restored Oxfordshire coach house of Anne and Hugh Millais which appeared in Cote Ouest's, Autumn 1995 issue. Since I organize my saved cooking and deorating magazines by the month, I put each of them on my reading pile and peruse them again as the year progresses.  When October appears on the calendar, this magazine appears on my reading pile, and it never fails to delight me, perhaps because it has so many of the English elements discussed above.

Think these are horse people?

I believe this is Hugh Millais and his horse peering in at Anne.

Why can't my mud room be leathery and tweedy and "spaniel-y?"  The mudroom of my English fantasy house will be.

For several years I tried to duplicate this charming bouquet of dried orange slices.  I just know it has that citrusy fragrance so great around the holidays.  When my orange slices rotted instead of dried, I gave up, but my fantasy English house will have just such a bouquet.

The Millais's very English drawing room.

And most fabulous of all - their kitchen complete with a tweed jacket on the chair.  It's a kitchen to live in and to cook in, not just to look at.  I've been waiting a long time to show you this one.  Hope you love it too.

Anne and Hugh are a successful design team, evidenced by their special work room.

Guest room.

To find out more about this restored coach house and the couple who restored it, I googled Anne and Hugh Millais and sadly discovered Hugh had died in 2009.   Further googling led me to the website of photographer, Andreas von Einsiedel (einsiedel.com), and to the images below of the Millais home watermarked for protection, but so beautiful still.

I think I love Hugh.  He looks like such a kind man who loves to cook and who loves his animals! Hope you enjoyed pictures of his lovely home.  I love it for so many reasons but their kitchen especially speaks to me.

Now to a brief view of English gardens for Loi and all we garden lovers.  The first images are from Clive Nichols's photographs of Nicole Vesian's garden in France.  OK, so they are not of English an garden, but this garden is so beautiful and Clive Nichols is so English.

Vesian's garden has that serenity that boxwoods and stone and no flowers can give.

The next two gardens are English and are also so serene.

The English Cottage Garden by Jane Taylor and Andrew Lawson

The English Cottage Garden by Jane Taylor and Andrew Lawson

Whew!!  This was a long post, especially so because I accidentally deleted it twice when it was almost complete each time.  Grrrr.  (Ever happen to anyone else out there?)  I hope I was able to show you what I believe to be elements so common to English decor. Now, dear reader, it is time to stand, go outside and work on our own gardens on this very sunny day.  Enjoy yours.

Till next time in England,

b