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Sumptuous photographs by designer Ashley Hicks (who recently
photographed the interiors of Buckingham Palace) capture the
smouldering spirit of the place: from the state rooms, which house
possibly the finest collection of royal Stuart furniture in the
world, to the private apartments and gardens, to the
behind-the-scenes labyrinth of cellars and attics. Knole provides a
window onto English history. The characters who people the pages of
the book the grave Elizabethan statesman, the good-for-nothing
gadabout at the seedy Court of King James I, the dashing Cavalier,
the Restoration rake, the 3rd Duke, that magnificent and melancholy
representative of the ancien regime, the whiskery and dark-hearted
Mortimer who caused three nights of rioting in 1884 by closing the
park to visitors are all representative of their age (members of a
family described by Vita Sackville-West as a race too prodigal, too
amorous, too weak, too indolent, and too melancholy : in short, a
rotten lot, and nearly all stark staring mad. Of course, Vita s
torn legacy with the property prompted her dear friend Virginia
Woolf to pen Orlando, furthering the place s fame and glamorous
lustre. Similarly, the architectural and decorative features of the
house, so splendidly revealed by Ashley s photographs, illustrate
the different tastes of successive ages, from Thomas Sackville s
seventeenth-century makeover of a ramshackle medieval mansion to an
early twentieth-century suite of rooms designed in the Bohemian
style. Knole has never been illuminated in this way before.
David Hicks is acknowledged as one of the most important interior
designers of the late twentieth century, in the company of Albert
Hadley and Billy Baldwin. Known for his bold use of color,
eclecticism, and geometric designs in carpets and textiles, Hicks
turned English decorating on its head in the ’50s and ’60s. His
trademark use of electrifying color combinations, and mixing
antiques, modern furniture, and abstract paintings became the "in
style" for the chic of the day, including Vidal Sassoon and Helena
Rubinstein. By the ’70s, David Hicks was a brand; his company was
making wallpaper, fabrics, and linens and had outposts in eight
countries, including the U.S. where he worked with the young Mark
Hampton, and where his wallpaper was used in the White House. "My
greatest contribution as an interior designer has been to show
people how to use bold color mixtures, how to use patterned
carpets, how to light rooms, and how to mix old with new,’’ he
stated in his 1968 work, David Hicks on Living—with Taste, the
last authoritative book on his work. Written by his son Ashley
Hicks, who has unprecedented access to Hicks’s archives, personal
photos, journals, and scrapbooks, this is a vibrantly illustrated
celebration of a half century of stunning interiors.
Ashley Hicks has created a mix of manifesto, souvenir album, and
confession in this collection of noteworthy rooms featuring his own
one-of-a-kind interiors along with rooms that have inspired him.
The manifesto aspect is rather limited, since Hicks is not a great
believer in aesthetic rules or the value of so-called good taste,
but as a souvenir album, it charts Hicks s personal creative
journey of the last few years, illustrated with photographs of some
favorite historical interiors and objects that represent a mixture
of source material and inspiration. The book s twelve chapters
reveal Hicks s creative process, how he approaches different themes
in his own interiors, furniture designs, and works of art, and how
these themes can be applied to the works of others. Such subjects
as flowers, color, layers, form, pattern, and memory are presented
in the context of actual projects. Historical and recent interiors
are discussed for their decorative value notable rooms and
architecture, including the Pantheon in Rome; Emperor Maximilian s
tomb in Innsbruck; the Royal Pavilion, Brighton; and the Petit
Trianon at Versailles. Hicks has created a book for devotees of
decorating and the history of interior design.
With rare access, interior designer and artist Ashley Hicks has
photographed the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace, home of
Britain's monarch since 1837. An important representation of
Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian styles, the palace is the work of
such noted architects as John Nash. Hicks's eye brings a vibrant
take on the formal spaces, capturing the magnificent rooms
furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection. Starting at the
Grand Staircase, Hicks leads us through the opulently decorated
State Rooms, which include the White Drawing Room and the Blue
Drawing Room that both overlook the palace gardens; the Ballroom,
which is the setting for twenty investiture ceremonies each year;
and the Throne Room, used by Queen Victoria for spectacular costume
balls in the 1840s. The long, skylit Picture Gallery is hung with
important works of art in the Royal Collection by Rembrandt,
Rubens, Poussin, van Dyck, Vermeer, and Canaletto, among others.
Decorative furnishings from George IV's exotic Brighton Pavilion
lend a fanciful turn to many of the rooms. This intimate tour
through the Buckingham Palace State Rooms is a necessary addition
to the libraries of devotees of the royal family, English
architecture, decoration, and the fine arts in general.
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