‘Layered’ is word that is often used to describe the interiors that feature between the pages of House & Garden. The meaning itself is layered, for it refers not only to layers of colour and pattern, but to layers of time – which give “a sense of evolution,” explains Ben Pentreath – and to layers of stuff. That ‘stuff’ can itself bring colour and pattern, and deliver a connection to a different era, making it a high impact ingredient. And while yes, it can be something practical, such as furniture – and the joy of a layered interior is that it can easily incorporate your great-grandmother’s tallboy alongside a chintz-covered armchair you found at an antiques fair – it can also be something decorative, something that you have collected, on whatever scale or level.
For instance, you might have a pair of antique Persian tiles – or aspire to a whole room of them, in the manner of Lord Leighton’s Arab Hall. You might find an antique Chinese celadon plate at Oxfam - or buy a 355-piece Ming dynasty Tobacco Leaf dinner service at The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht (aka TEFAF), it having been painstakingly bought up piecemeal over years by Jorge Welsh, a dealer who specialises in Chinese export porcelain.
Brandon Schubert has identified a passion for collecting as being “part of the national ethos of Britain,” – and certainly if you look at the homes of House & Garden’s Top 100 interior designers, they tend to feature such decorative objects as Middle Eastern antiquities (Alidad), antique textiles (the late Robert Kime, Susan Deliss, Joanna Plant), ceramics and porcelain (Susan Deliss, Ben Pentreath, Veere Grenney) - the list is genuinely endless. So what if you want the look, but aren’t quite sure where to start?
Antiques fairs are a good source, whether TEFAF (which is on until March 19, and is renowned for having the absolute best, from a commode that once belonged to Marie Antoinette to a desk that Yves Saint Laurent once worked at) or somewhere slightly lower key, for dealers are often keen to share their knowledge. Understanding what you are buying matters - Robert Kime described his philosophy around collecting as being “open and interested; it happens very much in the moment and without a lot of second guessing,” and explained that it is about “surrounding yourself with things you love.” Here are some ideas of what to look out for:
Classical antiquities
Referring to the period between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the term ‘classical antiquities’ essentially translates into coins, early ceramics, and sculpture. The last became such an essential Grand Tour souvenir, and was collected so enthusiastically, that several of our great country houses have purpose-built sculpture galleries; witness Petworth and Chatsworth. Equally there were those who managed to fit them in without, the master in this matter being Sir John Soane, whose house on Lincoln’s Inn Field is now a museum.
Contemporary collectors point out that it’s hard not be fascinated by an object that seems to speak out from a distant past – and offers a tangible connection to that time. Additionally, classical antiquities are arguably the beginning of art as we recognise it, and as House & Garden’s Deputy Editor David Nicholls points out, “recapturing, reinterpreting and referencing ancient Mediterranean myth and empire has been an ongoing endeavour ever since, from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Picasso’s interwar ‘Classical Period’ to the 21st century ‘casual classicism’ of Marc Quinn.” Motifs from the time have become mainstays within the contemporary design lexicon, from the Greek key pattern to Egyptian scarabs.
There are several high end galleries which specialise in classical antiquities, from Charles Ede in Mayfair to Galerie Chenel in Paris – if you’re after the look for less, however, then Pentreath & Hall is an excellent source of, for instance, intaglio cases – Bridie Hall joyfully states that she sees the Sir John Soane Museum as the domestic dream, and makes her own contemporary Grand Tour souvenirs.
Arms and armour
You may think this is only relevant to those with castles – and certainly know that if you have do have an issue filling up empty space in your house, a c.1560 century suite of armour for a horse made for Emanuel Filibert, the Duke of Savoy, is going to take up quite a good chunk of square footage, especially if displayed on a life-size model horse – but armour comes in many shapes and sizes, and includes elaborately worked shields, saddlery pendants, ornamental knives, and more. Susan Deliss has hung (decommissioned) antique guns and French hunting horns in the hall of her house in France and there’s a Fijian warclub in the sitting room at Charleston Farmhouse. The attraction, explains Redmund Finer, Arms and Armour Specialist at St. James’s-based dealer Peter Finer, lies in the fact that “throughout the ages, and throughout the world, more money has been spent on defence than anything else, and that means the best technology, coupled with the best craftsmanship.”
Put it like that, and you can see why, although Peter Finer works with the V&A and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, 75 per cent of purchases are made by private clients – and “50 per cent of those are women,” says Redmund. He and his father specialise in Bronze Age to 19th century, from cultures all around the world, including East Asian, Japanese, Indian and Islamic. They’re the go-to for people looking to sell parts of their collection too – often collections that have been amassed over hundreds of years and treasured in great private homes – making it possible to buy armour that has actually been on the battlefield in whichever period of history you are most interested in (my search for Tudor threw up a late 15th or early 16th century ‘lugged hunting spear’ – of the type that Henry VIII’s mercenary troops were armed with in 1544.)
There are other dealers/ suppliers too, including Armoury Antiques on Dartmoor, The Lanes Armoury in East Sussex, and Nicholas Wells, by appointment in Mayfair, who specialises in Islamic Arms and Armour.
Islamic art
To clarify, Islamic art does not only refer to art created in the service of the Muslim faith, but to all art and architecture – taking in ceramics, textiles, tiles and more – produced from the 7th century onwards by both Muslims and non-Muslims within territory inhabited or ruled by culturally Islamic populations. In other words, it’s a broad definition spanning some 1400 years and covering many countries and a host of disciplines. On top of that, it developed from many sources, including early Christian art, Byzantine and Central Asian styles.
Much Islamic art is rich in pattern and colour – which partly stems from the prohibition of idolatry in the Muslim faith, and the belief that the creation of living forms is God’s prerogative – and you only have to look at Lord Leighton’s Arab Hall, where the walls are encased in exceptional underglazed tiles from the Near East (Iznik, Damascus and Persia) and the windows shrouded in mashrabiya (lattice screens), to understand why it appeals to so many.
But it’s no longer possible to leave Istanbul with 16th century tiles in your suitcase, as Leighton did – in fact, it’s illegal to take anything over 100 years old out of Turkey and most other countries in the region. Fortunately, there are alternative means of securing treasure. Kent Antiques, based in South Kensington, specialises in Islamic works of art dating from the 13th to the 19th century, “all of which were already in Europe or the US,” explains Melis Keskiner, and there are the auction houses (Alidad was formerly director of the Islamic Art department at Sotheby’s). For those with a budget that lends itself less towards antiques, Susan Deliss often has kilims that are between and 70 and 90 years old, and can facilitate finding the best quality contemporary tiles, “which, in terms of colour, craftsmanship and beauty, are on a par with antique tiles – they simply don’t yet have the patina of age, though that will come.”
Antique tapestries (and other textiles)
“Per square foot, textiles are the easiest way to dress a wall,” points out Susan Deliss – and that holds true whether it’s an antique suzani, which originate from nomadic tribes in Tajikstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries, or an antique northern European tapestry, as hangs in the Robert Kime-decorated garden room at Clarence House.
Besides being a means of pictorial representation, tapestries had a secondary benefit as draft excluders – a highly valuable quality in pre-centrally heated castles - and in the 15th and 16th centuries the Medicis, the Dukes of Burgundy, the Hapsburgs and the English royal family all imported tapestries from what was then the epicentre, the city of Brussels. Then, in 1662, Louis XIV established a manufactory at Gobelins to supply the French palaces. Often woven with gold thread as well as silk and wool, there aren’t as many that have survived to today as there might have been – a lot were burnt during the French Revolution so that the gold might be recovered.
If you’re in the market for an antique tapestry now, Belgium is again one of the best places to go, specifically to De Wit Fine Tapestries in Mechelen, a short distance from Brussels, which holds a wide variety of tapestries from different periods and origins; they are also a world leader in restoration and conservation. There are less esteemed examples available on Ebay – alternatively, if it’s textiles that you’re after more than tapestries, Susan Deliss and Katharine Pole are both excellent sources.
Porcelain and ceramics
If you’ve read Edmund de Waal’s fascinating book, The White Road, you’ll know all about the history of porcelain, its origins in China, and the fact that it wasn’t until the late 17th and 18th century that porcelain was produced in any quantity in Europe. That said, the actual intricacies of Chinese porcelain are too great to be fully explored in one publication, for size and shape of object or vessel, style of decoration and type of glaze vary according to both area and era.
Noone can argue that porcelain isn’t a particularly attractive addition to any interior, whether vast ginger jars, or plates hung on a wall – though it does come with a side of danger. “There’s an interesting tension between its being eternal, and being ephemeral,” says Benedict Foley, who collects 18th century British porcelain. “It could exist as it is for another thousand years – or you might drop it.”
At the top end are the auction houses and Jorge Welsh Works of Art on Kensington Church Street – the gallery’s expertise is in 15th – 19th century Chinese porcelain, with an emphasis on the objects specifically made for export. But, for the more open minded, there is a huge variety to the prices of antique and vintage porcelain, and it can be readily found everywhere from junk shops to decorative fairs (there are more antique objects made of earthenware, stoneware or porcelain than any other material in the world) – and there’s a lot to be said for British porcelain and ceramics, too.
