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Review
Martin Wood has studied far and wide for his excellent new book on this remarkable person and the result is the best title on taste and design published this year (Financial Times )
This book is a rare treat, fluently written and superbly illustrated, with a strong emphasis on gardens (Daily Telegraph )
knocks the hundreds of books on interiors and gardens for six. Her vivid personality - charming, stylish, wilful, rich and funny - comes through the pages via her achievements in decoration and gardening (Spectator )
This book is a rare treat, fluently written and superbly illustrated, with a strong emphasis on gardens (Daily Telegraph )
knocks the hundreds of books on interiors and gardens for six. Her vivid personality - charming, stylish, wilful, rich and funny - comes through the pages via her achievements in decoration and gardening (Spectator )
The Daily Telegraph, November 20 2005
'a rare treat, fluently written and superbly illustrated, with a strong emphasis on gardens.'
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
It had always been Nancy's dream that one day Mirador would be hers. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It had always been Nancy's dream that one day Mirador would be hers. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
An American who typified the essential British taste: quite a laugh! But true....
Did you love Country House Style ? Yes you do... then this book is a must for you.
The interior design schemes of Nancy Lancaster (1897-1994) is known as 'The Country House Style'. She was a noted 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, the influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.
The three times married Nancy was born a Keene Perkins at her maternal grandfather's farm, Mirador, in Greenwood, near Charlottesville, Virginia, and brought up in Richmond and New York City, she was the elder daughter of Thomas Moncure Perkins, a Virginia cotton broker, and his wife, Elizabeth Langhorne. Nancy Lancaster was also a niece of Nancy Astor, the British politician, and of Irene Gibson, the wife of the Gibson Girl artist Charles Dana Gibson.
Rich and well connected in the upper crusts of society she created her homes in this wonderful country house style.
This marvelous books tells you the story of her life and her creative work. Houses and gardens, style, taste a world gone. read this book slowly, let it sink in. Every page is worthwhile doing this.
I just love the country house style: in a rapidly changing times it represents a timeless, elegant, but relaxed and unchanging look. I just loved the book, the fotos, the descriptions and stories.
I am positive that you will enjow this book!!!!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
An American who typified the essential British taste: quite a laugh! But true...
Did you love Country House Style ? Yes you do... then this book is a must for you.
The interior design schemes of Nancy Lancaster (1897-1994) is known as 'The Country House Style'. She was a noted 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, the influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.
The three times married Nancy was born a Keene Perkins at her maternal grandfather's farm, Mirador, in Greenwood, near Charlottesville, Virginia, and brought up in Richmond and New York City, she was the elder daughter of Thomas Moncure Perkins, a Virginia cotton broker, and his wife, Elizabeth Langhorne. Nancy Lancaster was also a niece of Nancy Astor, the British politician, and of Irene Gibson, the wife of the Gibson Girl artist Charles Dana Gibson.
Rich and well connected in the upper crusts of society she created her homes in this wonderful country house style.
This marvelous books tells you the story of her life and her creative work. Houses and gardens, style, taste a world gone. read this book slowly, let it sink in. Every page is worthwhile doing this.
I just love the country house style: in a rapidly changing times it represents a timeless, elegant, but relaxed and unchanging look. I just loved the book, the fotos, the descriptions and stories.
I am positive that you will enjow this book!!!!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
18 reviews
115 of 116 people found the following review helpful
GORGEOUS VOLUME - WARM DESIGNS
9 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
Seldom has a volume contained such a plethora of beauty as does "Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style." Author Martin Wood, a textile and garden designer and interior decorator, has paid a tribute to Lancaster that is as handsome as the subject herself. With 208 pages and over 200 illustrations he charts the course which resulted in her creation of the style known as English country house as well as her purchase of the prestigious British design firm Colefax and Fowler.
Born into an influential Virginia family in a cottage on her grandfather's estate in 1897, Lancaster never forgot that estate, Mirador, nor her southern roots. Her first marriage was to Henry Field, grandson of Marshall Field. What should have been an idyllic pairing ended far too soon when he died of blood poisoning at the age of 22. His death affected Lancaster greatly, and she suffered from periods of depression throughout her life.
Her original dream was to transform Mirador, which she did magnificently by turning a narrow hallway into a breathtaking rotunda and transforming what had once been a first floor guest room into an expansive drawing room. She searched for old chintzes to use throughout, which gave the mansion a stately lived in look. As she was to say, "Understatement is extremely important and crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's make a room look overdone and tiresome." This was to be her stylistic credo throughout her life.
Lancaster's future, including the acquisition of Colefax and Fowler, would find her creating designs for her homes and gardens in England - Kelmarsh Hall, Ditchley Park and Haseley Court.
Martin Wood more than ably presents the life and style of this remarkably creative woman, while the archival photographs by such artists as Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst are sheer delight.
- Gail Cooke
Born into an influential Virginia family in a cottage on her grandfather's estate in 1897, Lancaster never forgot that estate, Mirador, nor her southern roots. Her first marriage was to Henry Field, grandson of Marshall Field. What should have been an idyllic pairing ended far too soon when he died of blood poisoning at the age of 22. His death affected Lancaster greatly, and she suffered from periods of depression throughout her life.
Her original dream was to transform Mirador, which she did magnificently by turning a narrow hallway into a breathtaking rotunda and transforming what had once been a first floor guest room into an expansive drawing room. She searched for old chintzes to use throughout, which gave the mansion a stately lived in look. As she was to say, "Understatement is extremely important and crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's make a room look overdone and tiresome." This was to be her stylistic credo throughout her life.
Lancaster's future, including the acquisition of Colefax and Fowler, would find her creating designs for her homes and gardens in England - Kelmarsh Hall, Ditchley Park and Haseley Court.
Martin Wood more than ably presents the life and style of this remarkably creative woman, while the archival photographs by such artists as Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst are sheer delight.
- Gail Cooke
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Adrift in the Cozy, Comfortable, Tasteful English Tradition!
9 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
Martin Wood is an excellent biographer and chronicler of style and in this richly illustrated monograph on Nancy Lancaster he makes use of his own credentials as a garden designer and interior designer to praise the virtues of a lady few of us know.
Nancy Lancaster gained her reputation as a gardener and designer of gardens whose only clear rival has been Gertrude Jekyll. But Martin Wood increases her stature by naming her the creator of the English country house style. His writing style is fluid, humorous, tender and informative, giving all the biographical data about Lancaster's heritage, youth, and life in a manner that makes what seems to be a picture essay become a page-turner novel!
Lancaster devoted herself to recreating the English Country atmosphere, though she was a born and bred American. Her own various homes as well as those of people who engaged her expertise demonstrate how even the most modest dwelling can breed the charm of the English Country house. Her gardens are like dream sequences out of Arthur Rackham and her taste in balancing room space with the gracious furniture and window treatments and light is impeccable. The Book is filled with some very lush photography that takes the time to scrutinize her concepts as well as pleasure the eye over her accomplishments. This is far more than a design book. This is a book about a life and how it extended into creating a personal world of quiet dignity and beauty. Grady Harp, April 06
Nancy Lancaster gained her reputation as a gardener and designer of gardens whose only clear rival has been Gertrude Jekyll. But Martin Wood increases her stature by naming her the creator of the English country house style. His writing style is fluid, humorous, tender and informative, giving all the biographical data about Lancaster's heritage, youth, and life in a manner that makes what seems to be a picture essay become a page-turner novel!
Lancaster devoted herself to recreating the English Country atmosphere, though she was a born and bred American. Her own various homes as well as those of people who engaged her expertise demonstrate how even the most modest dwelling can breed the charm of the English Country house. Her gardens are like dream sequences out of Arthur Rackham and her taste in balancing room space with the gracious furniture and window treatments and light is impeccable. The Book is filled with some very lush photography that takes the time to scrutinize her concepts as well as pleasure the eye over her accomplishments. This is far more than a design book. This is a book about a life and how it extended into creating a personal world of quiet dignity and beauty. Grady Harp, April 06
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style
30 Jan 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I liked the combination of biography and interior design strategies/methods as developed by Nancy Lancaster. I felt the book was well researched and logically developed. I like the English country house look of softend and aged elegance so was somewhat prejudiced in favor of the book even before I read it. I had not realized before I read this book that Nancy Lancaster was originally an American from Virgina. I liked the premise that what she was doing was simply relying on an English heritage as passed on during the colonial and Federal/Regency eras in Virginia and England. I would highly recommend this book to any one who likes interior design or southern American style.
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