Summer Scents & Sensibilities

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 Breitner the red kimono,Geesje Kwak posing

image from Hawkwood here

"Let a noise or a scent, once heard or once smelt, be heard or smelt again... & immediately the permanent & 

habitually concealed essence of things is liberated & our true self which seemed to be dead but was not altogether dead, is awakened & reanimated." PROUST

what fragrance moves you?
why?

photograph by Eugene Atget, around 1910

my perfume cabinet

fragrances 
evoke a season, a person, a moment

violets ~ 

Viola odorata

my GranMa carried a violet bouquet at her wedding, Dec. 1918
 the smell of violet, hidden in green

pour'd back into my empty soul & frame

the times when I remember to have been

Joyful & free from blame-Tennyson

in the cabinet, Napoleon Bonaparte presides

as candle by CIRE TRUDON

candle maker to the French Royals since 1643

why should we settle for one signature scent?

the scents that say summer for me-
a rose- a bouquet of violets- rows of tuberose- tobacco- lily

 my grandparents had a field of tuberose each summer 
Polianthes tuberosa

tuberose is night-flowering-the Aztecs called it bone flower

Tokyo Milk fragrances
(click on each fragrance to read the contents)
Poe's Tobacco No.1
Contemplation No.7
Waltz No.14
Ex Libris No.16

NICOTIANA

the overwhelming heady scents of a tobacco warehouse

a constant summer memory for me- en masse, or

the sweet remains of the day on my father's collar

Scents & Buddha
from diptyque- L'Ombre Dans l'Eau

 from Hermes  24, Faubourg

Madame Gres & Summer fragrance

Hermes Eau des Merveilles 

Hermes Eau de Pamplemousse Rose

summery citrus with rose notes

George Trumper Extract of West Indies Lime

a favorite of Pauline de Rothschild so says Mitchell Owens-de Rothschild expert

from the NYTIMES here

Pauline de Rothschild 

photograph here

BELLE FLEUR ~MAYAN TUBEROSE

a heady single note

 around the house, Candles, Diffusers 
in summer I prefer a single note floral, or lemon

AGRARIA~ LEMON VERBENA

CITRUSY fragrances in any form are summer favorites

inexpensive & addicting- 

VOLUSPA ~PANJORE LYCHEE

notes of lychee fruit, pear, sweet cassis

ANTICA FARMACISTA ~CASABLANCA

this- a fragrance and flower I could never fore go in the summer

Lilium Regale, drooping their heavy heads 

my own in the garden

"that was the moment I first saw the lilies. and that was the moment when, having seen them,I mentally signed the contract to buy the house...I had to possess those lilies...The lilies were a variety known as Regale, and they stood in rows of glistening white down the whole length of one side of the kitchen garden.a faint breeze was stirring, & as they nodded their heads there drifted towards us a most exquisite fragrance.never before, in any garden of the world, have I seen such lilies; their loveliness was literally dazzling;the massed array of the white blossom was like sunlit snow. nor was this shining, shimmering beauty merely the result of mass, for as I walked closer I saw that each individual blossom was a perfect specimen, with a stem that was often four feet high, bearing on its proud summit no less than a dozen blossoms." BEVERLY NICHOLS

Fumée d'Ambre Gris

John Singer Sargent

& Incense
  ESTEBAN ~CEDRE
the only one I use year round.

 Eau d' Teou

by Dissey & Piver

a label for the perfumer with Chinese figures & a dressing cabinet

my perfume cabinet is in the bedroom

 

 a rare perfume cabinet made of marquetry from the 18th century used for traveling

from the Natural History Museum in Paris

 

"Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it." Patrick Suskind



Hermes here
Diptyque here 
the Style Saloniste writes about Coup de Foudre by DelRae Roth here
Read the extraordinary post by Hawkwood about the sitter of Breitner's painting here
Rose C'est La Vie draws violets here
a Tobacco History here
Tobacco warehouse image here
the Esoteric Curiosa on the Baroness here
LUXE APOTHECARY here from Voluspa candles here
Fiquet Bailey on green here
Dissey & Piver label, 18th c. cabinet images from The Book of Perfume,by Barille & Laroze
Das Perfum by Patrick Suskind here
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the List~ in the tradition of Nancy Lancaster

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tis the season, visions of plum pudding, decking the ballroom, etc. etc....

Nancy Lancaster is legend- it took this Virginian to create the English Country House style. Though Nancy Lancaster never considered herself a designer, she simply had the most innate sense of style. Notables were drawn to the lady's sensibility, her warmth and unselfconscious elan.

In reading through articles,revisiting books in working on several posts about Nancy Lancaster- I came across the reminiscences of her grandnieces Jane Churchill and Melissa Wyndham, both designers, who spent much time in her decorated rooms. "Everything was wonderful at Haseley Court. One Christmas there were many guests my sister and I slept in what was probably the worst bedroom, at the top of the house. Most people's worst bedrooms are bleak, but Aunt Nancy's was very, very pretty, with red-and -white-checked curtains and painted Regency furniture." Churchill said , "I can still smell her house today, recall the wonderful foods, things you didn't get anywhere else."

In her address book the elegant purveyors- Asprey, Smythson of Bond Street, Lobb, Fortnum & Mason, Floris and Ardens are noted as favourites. Her bookstore was G. Heywood Hill, 10 Curzon Street- still there- selling books. Another insight from Churchill."Nancy wouldn't buy a painting because it had a big name, more likely it was because the woman had a pretty dress- like her Elizabethan portraits with those great ruffs." Signatures of the Lancaster style- painted furniture,mixed woods, masses of flowers, luxe curtains, marbleized baseboards, needlework, period antiques &  "Pairs- She loved pairs" (Trudi Ballard of Colefax and Fowler).  Nancy Lancaster would add these essential ingredients for her interiors- "a wood fire, candlelight, and cut flowers."

What would Nancy see in today's stylish world of art, design, style & fashion that would strike her?

Follow along in the famed Lancaster English Country House style- Here is your list.

for the house

"A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity but it must be a judicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salade. (I am better at room than salads)."NL

for the desk

 

for the breakfast room

"I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful, a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade because if every piece is perfect the room becomes a museum and lifeless." NL

for the tea tray

for the card table

for every room

for scent

for the dog

"[I like] to preserve simplicity rather than over-polishing. Fashions are changeable. Taste is in realizing the essence of a place" NL

  for the wardrobe

for reading

"I've always liked a formal layout and informal planting," she explained. "First get the structure right, like the bones in a face, then plant it like a crowded shoe. If you have a strong layout, you can let the plants seed themselves all over the place. Haphazard, unexpected... I like to be surprised by a garden."NL


for the garden 
 

for wrapping it ALL

SOURCES
All ANTIQUES for IN THE HOUSE available at 1st Dibs, All leather goods for THE DESK available at Smythson and at Asprey, All antiques IN THE BREAKFAST ROOM available at Colefax and Fowler, china from Charlotte Moss & Pickard, "Nancy" pattern, for THE TEA TRAY, tea set from 1st dibs, tea,preserves from Fortnum and Mason, for THE CARD TABLE, Hermes cards from 1st dibs, for EVERY ROOM, Cire trudon, diptyque, Agraria Charlotte Moss(Virginia). for SCENT, Floris, for THE DOG- all items MUNGO & MAUD, except the wicker dog bed from Hound Hill Design, for the WARDROBE train case-Asprey, all clothes-net a porter, for READING, tomfolio.com, amazon.com, for THE GARDEN,roses from Heirloom Roses, for WRAPPING IT ALL, ELUM

for more reading:

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