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Latest blog posts from 1904: The Year Everything Important Happened

Political Speech
Open to view: Ettie, The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desboroughby Richard Davenport-HinesLondon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008showing photographs of Lady Desborough and her sons Julian and Billy Grenfellas young boys, and a view of Taplow Court, the Baron Desborough's country...
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Published 12 hours ago

Manly Pursuits
William Henry Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough (1855-1945)Champion Punter on the Thamesc. 1896, a variant of the photographic portrait reproduced in Men, Women And Things, Memories of The Duke of PortlandLondon: Faber & Faber, 1937 Sometimes everything converges.  Last weekend's trip to LACMA for...
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Published 3 days ago

American Stories
THOMAS EAKINS"The Wrestlers" 1899Oil on Canvas62 x 72"Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Gift of the Cecile and Fred Bartman FoundationProvenance:The artist for the National Academy, New York, circa 1899;Deaccessioned in the 1970s by the National Academy Museum of New...
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Published 6 days ago

Going Places: Warter Priory
Warter Priory, near Pocklington, Yorkshire, postmarked 1935, at which time the property was in the possession of the Hon George Ellis Vestey, younger brother of the 2nd Baron Vestey, sold on his death to the 4th Marquess of Normanby in 1968.  In 1972 "the house was demolished, the splendid...
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Published a week ago

Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
There was snow on the mountains at the beginning of the week when this was taken, you can see it in the distance; it's gone now.  Francois Villon's poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis"of course is really asking where the beautiful women have all gone.  The refrain about where the snows of...
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Published a week ago

Decorating Advice
Herman Schrijver's clients: Ernest Simpson with his second wife Wallis and her friend the Prince of WalesVenice, 1934."All draperies must be heavily trimmed and fringed.  If you cannot afford braids and fringes don't have draperies.""Your pelmets or valances or draperies should always be at...
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Published a week ago

Odd Friends
Fort Belvedere, interior as decorated for Edward VIII, (afterward the Duke of Windsor)by Herman Schrijver (1904 - 1972)While you were watching the Oscars, I was finishing Charles Burkhart's Herman & Nancy & Ivy (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1977) which I had eagerly awaited and which had just...
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Published 2 weeks ago

More Mad Madresfield
Madresfield Court, Malvern, WorcestershireScanned from the author's extensive collection of postcard views of stately homesIn the next issue of Vanity Fair, the one after the Oscar issue with the young starlets on the cover, the one with Michael Douglas on the cover instead, there will be yet...
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Published 2 weeks ago

What Is Said, Unsaid
Alain Delon, Le Samourai, 1967Detail, television screen grab by the authorJef Costello (Delon) is a man of few words.  He says more just by looking at the bird he keeps in a cage in his apartment.  His hands tell you more than most people say out loud.  His eyes do the acting, the way he...
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Published 2 weeks ago

A Footman's CV
Carden Hall, Clutton, Cheshire, burned 1912Image: Lost Heritage - Demolished Country Houses of EnglandAs you know, many a resume and curriculum vitae these days is an unlovely thing, a history of previous employers now renamed, merged, bought, dissolved, bankrupt, closed and in some cases...
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Published 3 weeks ago

Writing and Photography, Limits of
Magnolia budding, Rustic Canyon, Sunday afternoon 21 February 2010Hobbled by the limits of what a camera can do (and what I seem able to make it do, as you can see), I throw all my faith into words.  And then I worry, possibly far too much.  I admit it.  What you think matters.So to begin...
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Published 3 weeks ago

House Beautiful
"I'm coming to get you," Bianca called to announce on Sunday.  "Lily's coming too."Possibly as a ruse to get me out and away from my research on the servant problem (see previous posts), or because we had both seen A Single Man, my dear friend and co-conspirator Bianca had decided we needed a...
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Published 3 weeks ago