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Luftfahrt: Montgolfiere über Versailles

Mind over matters

Some of you may already know about Stephen Wiltshire, a savant with the most extraordinary talent for detailed drawing from memory, usually of architectural phenomena.

Images from stephenwiltshire.co.uk

On a wing and a chaise

The much discussed topic in this household as to whether to re-cover or replace the wing chairs in the main bedroom has finally been concluded. The wing chairs and their footstools have been given a new home with some nice neighbours, and they have been replaced by these chaises.

The chaises are covered in a raspberry coloured polycotton mix, and they are accompanied by cushions in candy stripes. The wing chairs have certainly served their purpose, and were orginally made to my order more than twenty years ago, during which time they have been re-covered five times, and travelled from Hong Kong to Edinburgh to Bangkok. Could they perhaps be the world's best-travelled wing chairs? Their new owners work at the Raffles Design Institute, so it is conceivable that they may end up being re-covered again as a project for a student in interior design.

Whilst I am sad to see them go, my tendency to be almost horizontal during my television viewing, means that the new design is much more suitable. This change has also meant other changes, as is usual. The Georgian galleried tables that were used with the wing chairs have now been transferred to the sitting room, replacing the pair of perspex tables that housed an obelisk in one and an armillary in the other. These perspex tables are now either side of the chaises, handy for those essentials, like cocktails, TV remotes, DVDs and reading glasses.

The new scheme is much more minimalist, and will doubtless take time to get used to. Since these original pictures were taken, when the room was first decorated, there has been a rearrangement of pictures, so that there is a grouping of architectural prints above the bed, and a large oil painting by the Thai artist Mitree Parahom, which was partially obscured by the wing chairs. It may be that it will be changed with the other large oil painting in the hallway. Like most decorators, I find schemes need to be bedded down, (pun intended, as it's a bedroom), and changing ideas is an exercise I find quite enjoyable.

Through a glass darkly

A friend and neighbour recently asked my advice about one of the options available from Surface View, a company that for me provides very exciting images to fill up wall space that I no longer have. As readers will know, I am very keen on architectural prints, and Surface View provides a decent selection from which to choose. The excitement for me is the drama that can be created by the enlarged version of these images, and all at affordable prices. Beware, the site is quite slow, and once you get going, it does take a while to understand the navigation. My preferences are for the Architecture prints under the V&A tab, which include this C18th Design for a Window by Sir William Chambers.

Voila

Given the interest shown by myself and others in the Etienne Turgot map of Paris, discussed here, and here, it is not surprising that the Danish company Ferm Living has produced this Voila wallpaper from an old map of Paris. I'm not sure if the original map was Turgot's, but the definition appears less clear than that previously discussed. Excuse the added pieces in the picture I've scanned, but it's from House & Garden's Decorator's Notebook, and the rope is the cord of a lamp they featured too.

I don't think I'd bother with that.

Wherefore art...

Italian Hand-Colored Engravings of Architectural Rosettes, 18th c., after Carlo Antonini (Italian, born c. 1740), each sight 9 in. x 7 in., attractively matted and framed, (2 of 8), sold for USD950.

...thou Romeo?

Juliet:

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo:

[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Juliet:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy:

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot,

Nor arm nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O be some other name!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

and for thy name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself.

Romeo And Juliet Act 2, scene 2, 33–49

OK, it's been an unproductive week, interspersed with high drama, which jangles the nerves. Not quite the war of the roses, but a war of colours, and perhaps, as in Romeo & Juliet, a discord between clans, gangs or groups. 

Time to escape the mayhem with a trip down memory lane, assuming the airport and access thereto isn't overun by a (red, yellow, pink or rainbow) coloured mob. Yes, we have them all.

Gallery in motion

It's been a day of pairs. Four to be exact. If I knew anything about poker, I might have said that was a good hand, but clearly it isn't, and I don't.

The two new acquisitions, (atop) have been placed in the hallway as you enter the sitting/dining room. Two other pairs of architectural prints, and a pair of ink drawings now line the corridor leading to the bedrooms, the larger of which has further architectural prints. They are all (11 of them) framed in the same antiqued silver finish, to give them uniformity, despite the variance in image, and size.

Any future picture buying will certainly have to cease. There seriously isn't anymore wall space. But I suppose they could be stored...oops.

Cartography around the world

This map has taken on a life of itself. Fellow blogger Little Augury has written about it here, and this follows Pigtown Design's, The Blue Remembered Hills', and Pat's Addition's posts, and and...

A river runs through it

Thanks to the very kind endeavours of Meg at Pigtown Design, I was able to get my copy shop to paste together 6 of the 25 images of the Michel Etienne Turgot C18th map of Paris, and this has now replaced the silk fabric with its multicoloured dragonflies, that used to be in the window panel of my guest loo.

The angle at which I have to take the photograph, (to avoid the wall of mirror that faces you as you enter the loo), means that my shot doesn't perhaps give you the impact that this new effect produces.

But I have to say, I'm very pleased with the result. And very grateful to Meg for her computer and Photoshop skills.

And now a river really does run through my loo. The Seine.

Magna carta

The Conran Shop in London is selling a portfolio of 25 sheets of card of a map of Paris, originally published by Etienne Turgot in 1739. These can be pieced together to make a dramatic picture measuring 260 x 160cm. I'm thinking I might apply them to a row of built wardrobes in the bedroom in which I have a series of framed architectural prints.

But perhaps I'll need to take a course in architecture, or cartography before I produce anything too silly, because of course the cupboards are not the same size.

Missing "rubble"

On a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia we had a full two days of temple visiting. One in our party declared at the end of it, that he'd had enough of looking at "a bunch of old rubble".

I suppose you either enjoy these things, or you don't. Personally I do, and I'm missing seeing beautiful neoclassical ruins, such as those depicted by Francesco Piranesi: various Roman capitals compared with Greek examples, from Julien-David Le Roy's "Les Ruines des Plus Beaux Monuments de la Grece" (1758): probably Plate 17 of "Della Magnificenza ed Architettura de' Romani" (1761), (2) conjoined leaves, engraved by Francesco Piranesi, 22" x 57.75" (sheet).

Moving pictures

Preparation for the arrival of two pictures currently at the framers, mentioned here, has necessitated changes elsewhere. Firstly the acquisition of a large oil painting by Mitree Parahom meant taking down the three architectural prints, and removing the wall brackets. And so these were stored for about two years.

Now other architectural prints will be moved to join those now newly hung above the bed, so that this bedroom will become predominantly a print room, (picture-wise), giving more impact to the phenomenon.

The black and white of the C18th prints, with their antiqued silver framing complements the mauves of the Jim Thompson silk fabrics used for the headboard, valance, and the curtains. The new height created by this line also changes the ambiance of the room dramatically; the length has diminished, and it now seems wider, and despite the formality, more intimate.

Picture hanging is a time-consuming and painstaking business, if you adopt the symmetrical and structured approach. Of the three above the bed, which are framed in exactly the same frame size, the variance of the hanging wire, (in centimetres and millimetres), means that measuring is key. When the distance from the ceiling to the floor can vary, this too adds to the nail-biting experience.

Happily everything worked out correctly first time round. It has not always been so!

Showcase

If this room looks like a showroom that's because it partly is. The owner is a dealer in essentially neoclassical pieces, displayed enticingly on the Mies van der Rohe table, which is paired with Le Corbusier armchairs. Bathed in the light afforded by the loft's large windows is a Biedermeier daybed, which mixes so easily with the modernity of the armchairs. And then another favourite, the architectural prints hanging above the dark lacquered Chinese screen, with its gold painting, capturing the golden hues of the entire room.

My only complaint, (and yes, I do have one), is that it would all come together much better with a rug of some description, which would define the sitting area and the dining area, (the latter with its Knoll 'Saarinen" table and Hoffman dining chairs).

Oh, and I would hang the blinds in a linear row, because I like things to be symmetrical. Of course.