Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. ~William Faulkner
I get mounds of old postcards I've collected over the years out each Christmas to reacquaint myself with. Stacks and stacks full of style, reflecting the design of the times they were posted in.
I love cards-I am getting some of them via email from fabric houses, other vendors. They are pretty and appreciated-
but- Don't you love to open the colorful envelopes in the mail? Cards from the post are really an extravagance Now, and I still do love them so.
In the New York apartment of Carroll Petrie a perfectly beautiful way to show cards off & add festively to the decorations
(from an old Town & Country)
I get many from clients in the post with photographs of their children- I am crazy over these, such fun to see the changes just in a year. I've shared this one before with permission- and today an update arrived from these two that I would love to share-but I won't. These boys are growing into men, one is now over 6 feet tall- Still they are full of Wonder, Joy & Christmas-
it is good to grow & & yet, not abandon some of that Wonder & Joy.
(captioned from the original photograph in my collection)
Lady Ashley as Ghirlandaio's Giovanna Tornabuoni
Lady Ashley as Cavallino's Saint Catherine
The sitter is Wilfred Ashley's second wife Muriel , "Molly", And she was Mrs. Ashley from 1914 (her marriage) until 1932 (when her husband was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Mount Temple). As a result of her marriage, Muriel Emily Spencer was styled as Baroness Mount Temple on 13 January 1932. Molly was his second wife, the glorious and slightly seclusive personality , Muriel Forbes-Sempill, former wife of Rear-Admiral A L O Forbes-Sempill. Her formal title wasBaroness Mount Temple. She is referred in the photographs captions as Lady Ashley and Country Life refers to her as Lady Mount Temple. I shall call her Molly. So- "Molly" with the help of architect Oliver Hill, built one of the most ravishing houses in London in the 1920s, Gayfere House, in Great Peter Street, Westminster. (with a lovely assist in tracking some information on the Lady from the AESTHETE. the Lament here.
Gayfere House built of red brick & Portland stone in the Queen Anne style. Oliver Hill's reverence for the formalities of the style and what Country Life called the "Luytensesque," created a "lighter exterior in spirit and handling."
The drawing room at Gayfere House
this image from Country Life London Interiors, John Cornforth
The walls of the Gayfere House drawing room were of green-silvered mirror glass & silver grey oak. Molly was the driving force for this modern Baroque masterpiece-sharing her passion with Hill. Country Life describes the room: 'The walls of glass- backed with small squares of green silver foil and pilasters, and panels of silver-grey oak which disguised the jib doors. These also formed shutters at night that folded over the windows, while the chimneypiece and overmantel of 18th century inspiration were carried out in engraved looking glass. Silver became a leitmotif for the decade...Oliver Hill was fascinated by the possibilities offered by the new ways in which glass was produced. Moreover, Hill had a painter's eye as well as an architect's, which enables him to respond to a very wide range of objects & materials, both hard and soft, man-made and natural, and he was always able to draw on his vivid historical memories & imagination. Thus he was a brilliant architectural decorator.'
What we now take for granted in our rooms today-here at Gayfere House- even the positioning of flowers was integral to the rooms appearance and the arrangement of them- was very new to decorating at the time. The flowers in the Country Life photographs are acknowledged as innovator Constance Spry's work. Two of the arrangements are real while the third is an arrangement of make believe ones. The sumptuously placed stems were 'in a composition reminiscent of Van Huysum or Baptiste.' (16thc. painters)
van Huysum
Jan Baptiste Bosschaert
Described by Christopher Hussey- 'the bedroom was the cool green of deep water: a bed set in a crystal alcove and resting on crystal feet, standing on a milk-white floor. The Walls and ceiling are glazed green. The bed-cover and chair of zebra- skin.' Hussey also confirms that to a large degree, Lady Mount Temple had the ideas and Hill- the ability to interpret them. ' Both parties were free to criticise and protest, though each undertook not to destroy anything original in the work of the other.' It is hardly thought that the work went terribly smooth- both were known to have their way and Hill-according to Country Life- used every trick available to get his way.
The beautiful Molly, reviving the old masters in tableau, appears to sit placidly while who knows what thoughts may have swirled in her head-perhaps a bed swathed in zebra at Gayfere House along with the nagging thought that Mr. Hill was working his own plans for the same in impala.
all the Gayfere House images are from the Country Life Archives here or LONDON INTERIORS from the Archives of Country Life.
the tableau photographs are from my own collection.
one of my own photographs- Pupils from Miss Scrimgeour's* Riding School- 1932, gallop along the sands at Selsey. She- by this time in her 70's ran one of the finest and largest riding schools in the country attracting pupils for all over Britain. 'Miss S. must be the oldest woman in the country teaching children to ride and regularly takes about 40 pupils across the firm sands for morning exercise. She breeds all the ponies herself and always wears a sou'wester.'(Fox Sept.14th.32.)
all of these old postcards go to a certain "Miss"- a collector of "ladies of the theatr"e & referred to as "Girlie"- "Tootsie"and later "Old Girlie "-so the years went by. -passing from 1906 through the first World War with cards printed in Prussia-London- Berlin. They are mailed from Cape of Good Hope,South Africa and from within spots in the UK. I think from the lines in some of the posts the South Africa connection is an Uncle or Brother.
It doesn't tell us much, however- I was taken with the ladies and a few of the notes. The cards collected slow after 1918, but the collector did add one news clipping hand dated 11/11/47: it records the sailing of well known British actress, Miss Zena Dare to South Africa, where she would appear in IVOR NOVELLO'S Perchance to Dream-opening in Johannesburg for a six-week run and will then go to Capetown. "I was last in South Africa in 1928-9 when I took my own company on a seven months' tour of the Union and Rhodesia. I have many friends in South Africa whom I am looking forward to meeting again." Was our Girlie there for the performance?
sent 1908
" dear Scottie
how is it that I get no answer from you.
I remain your young friend-K.M xxxx"
(a suitor?)
sent 1913
My Dear Girlie
know (sp) doubt you will Be thinking me a nice one for not writing
to you to answer your news- know & welcome letter
But shall write you a long letter on Tuesday night.
Have Been t busy lately t write. Hoping this pc finds you in
the Best of Health. With love from Tommy
sent 1908
Dear Girlie I have not received any letter from you yet-we are all well.
yet we are had a very nice Picnic on Monday the 9th
So I remain yours, Love TB
(Gladys Cooper portrayed Maxim de Winter's sister in Rebecca! and Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady- movies.)
sent 1914
Dear Miss Buitendacht
I believe you collect post cards. so hope this one will find its way into your album.
Have those Goolies broken into any more houses since I left. If they break into your place,
just give me a shout. I hope you dont mind sending you a p.c.
Kindest regards to all at Ivy Cottage Yrs sincerely, C Rothmar
(a little romance?)
sent 1914
dear Dorothy I hope this will find you quite well many thanks for your letter
which I am glad to say that I received quite safe. I will close now
with my Best love from your loving Friend. W.H.G.Gingell
the housing of these post cards was undeniably worthless and beyond hope of repair- the contents however held priceless dreams and I got them for a song-
Mornings- I many times will pop out with The Dog to coax her along- She is coquettish that way- Loves to be begged, that one.
the 7 a.m. grass is quite wet- but no rain, humidity already pressing in-not yet oppressive, but getting there.
walking along the pavers to the grass- (Zetta- The Dog)- still sitting on the porch- Waiting-for-I know not what. Stopping, stooping, spotting errant grass, weeds, unidentified green-I pluck the intruders. Better. Much better. Zetta is now sauntering along in- that when I want to I will- way. I have reached her paddock and continue my task along the- work in progress-flower beds. Five minutes of this each morning- Humoring a dog and weeding- Keeps things in precarious equilibrium. Keeps the undesirables out.
& then they come. Today is the first day I have suffered. really suffered, attacked. Some I sense immediately- invading pale flesh- Damn Damn Damn maniacal Mosquitoes- they make my Summer Life a living Hell tortured, plagued since I was a small child they feast. It is Summer I am getting the Itch.
if you've not heard about Alabama Chanin- sit down suga! Natalie Chanin is an original- and You know I love originals. She has a honest to goodness Unique fashion label Alabama Chanin that uses the natural resources of skilled hands and the most exquisitely nimble fingers in Alabama.
The designs of Chanin can be for the home or the body. I find her made by hand clothing to be reminiscent of a few special-mostly simple things my great great grandmother made-and somehow- were saved, even after a fire destroyed the attics and other parts of the old Victorian. There were tiny delicate stitches of cotton thread on real natural fabric-cotton, linen.
one of my own heirloom nightgowns
The Alabama Chanin fabrics are all natural-organic, recycled or new, all combined to become works of art -like the applique on organic cotton jersey above (here).Natalie Chanin's artisans are her neighbors in and around Florence Alabama and there work can be one of a kind or limited editions- "Grown to Sewn"
feast on Alabama Chanin' Indigo Summer Denim Collection at their website-
Natalie Chanin at left image from here Alabama Chanin's site here the 2 large images of the Alabama Chanin dresses are from style.com here the Alabama Chanine Journal here top photo-from my collection .
