Nancy Lancaster
Encyclopedia
Nancy Lancaster was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house
look.
, 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
. Her cousin Joyce Grenfell
was a celebrated British monologuist
and actress.
1- In restoring a house, one must first realize its period, feel its personality, and try to bring out its good points;
2- Decorating must be appropriate;
3- Scale is of prime importance, and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale;
4- In choosing a color,one must remember that it changes in different aspects;
5- Understatement is extremely important, and crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's make a room look overdone and tiresome. One should create something that fires the imagination without overemphasis;
6- I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful; a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade, because if every piece is perfect, the room becomes a museum and lifeless;
7- A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity, but it must be a delicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salad. I am better at mixing rooms than salads.
To these guidelines, Lancaster always added her magic ingredients: open fires, candle lights, and masses of flowers. She also included antiques into each of her comfortable rooms, a love of which descended from her grandparents. While she was married to Ronald Tree, he helped her decorate their house. He was mainly in charge of major pieces of furniture and paintings, but Lancaster was in complete charge of the way their house actually looked- the choice of fabrics and the arrangement of furniture. The house was covered in hundreds of yards of fabrics, which included silks, velvets, damasks, and brocades. Lancaster wanted the fabrics to get worn from the sun and obtain a life of their own.
department store fortune. He died five months later, following an operation to remove his tonsil
s.
and investor
Ronald Tree
(1897–1976), a cousin of her first husband. After moving to England in 1927, they had two sons Michael and Jeremy Tree
, and a daughter who died at birth.
At first the Trees took a 10-year repairing lease on Kelmarsh Hall
near Market Harborough
in Northamptonshire
which Nancy redecorated with help from Mrs Guy Bethell of Elden Ltd. In 1933 the Trees bought Ditchley Park
near Charlbury
in Oxfordshire
, and it was the decoration of this house which earned Nancy the reputation of having "the finest taste of almost anyone in the world." She worked on it with Lady Colefax (Mrs Bethell having died) and the French decorator Stéphane Boudin
of the Paris firm Jansen.
In November 1933 Ronald Tree became Conservative Party
member of Parliament for Harborough
. Tree was among a small group who saw the rising Nazi party in Germany as a threat to Britain, and he became a member of anti appeasement MPs (who included Eden, Duff Cooper etc.) who would meet at his house in Queen Anne's Gate. Winston Churchill
was not really part of this group, but he and his wife Clementine dined at Ditchley on numerous occasions from 1937.
On the outbreak of war, the C.I.G.S were concerned by the visibility of both Churchill's country house Chartwell
, and the Prime Ministers retreat of Chequers
when, as Churchill romantically termed it 'When the Moon is High'. Churchill had use of the Paddock bunker
in Neasden
, but only used it on one occasion for a cabinet meeting, before returning to his Cabinet War Room
bunker
in Whitehall
. However, this created additional difficulties on clear nights when a full moon
was predicted - so the authorities looked for an alternate site north of London. Tree offered Churchill use of Ditchley, which thanks to its tree coverage and no visible access road made it an ideal site which Churchill was happy with. Churchill first went to Ditchley in lieu of Chequers on 9 November 1940, accompanied by Clementine and his daughter Mary. By late 1942, America had entered the war and the security at Chequers had improved, including covering the road with turf. The last weekend Churchill attended Ditchely as his official residence was Tree's birthday on 26 September 1942. Churchill's last visit was for lunch in 1943.
Churchill gave Tree a job in the Ministry of Information, where he met American co-worker Marietta Peabody FitzGerald. Although both were married, the pair began an affair. Tree lost his seat in the 1945 election, and so both divorced in 1947, with their only child the 1960s supermodel
Penelope Tree
.
(1899–1977), a former military officer, country squire and member of Parliament who owned Kelmarsh Hall near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire
. Renowned today for its gardens, it is a popular tourist site and said to be Nancy Lancaster's favorite home of all despite their divorce after only five years in 1953. The couple had been having an affair for years prior to their marriage, and Nancy Lancaster later claimed that it was the suffocating, day-to-day intimacy caused by their marriage that made her realize why they were successful as lovers and ill-suited as husband and wife.
In 1950 she was forced to sell her beloved Mirador, and so in 1954 Nancy bought Haseley Court near Oxford. She renovated and decorated the house with the help of her business partner, John Fowler (1906–1977). They also created the famous Yellow room at Avery Row, Mayfair one of the finest rooms in London. After a fire in 1971 she sold the main house at Haseley and moved into the Coach House where she lived for the rest of her life. The garden she created at Haseley was particularly famous for its sense of style. The renowned British interior designer David Hicks (1929–1998) called Nancy Lancaster "the most influential English gardener since Gertrude Jekyll
." Referred to as the doyenne of interior decorators (something she never was, nor ever claimed to be) and smart gardeners, she together with John Fowler created much of the English country house look.
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
look.
Biography
Born Nancy Keene Perkins at her maternal grandfather's farm, Mirador, in GreenwoodGreenwood, Virginia
Greenwood is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia. It is home to the . The Greenwood Community Center, which has the area's only Roller Skating rink. Greenwood has a post office with ZIP code 22943...
, near Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, and brought up in Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
and New York City, she was the elder daughter of Thomas Moncure Perkins, a Virginia cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
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
Gibson Girl
The Gibson Girl was the personification of a feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen-and-ink-illustrated stories created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States.Some people argue that the...
artist Charles Dana Gibson
Charles Dana Gibson
Charles Dana Gibson was an American graphic artist, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century....
. Her cousin Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
was a celebrated British monologuist
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
and actress.
Design Theory
Lancaster's innate taste was only complimented by John Fowler's (her decorator partner) sense of color and knowledge of historic interiors. Although she always believed that a room should never look "decorated', she created this list of 7 rules to follow to make a room look "comfortable":1- In restoring a house, one must first realize its period, feel its personality, and try to bring out its good points;
2- Decorating must be appropriate;
3- Scale is of prime importance, and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale;
4- In choosing a color,one must remember that it changes in different aspects;
5- Understatement is extremely important, and crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's make a room look overdone and tiresome. One should create something that fires the imagination without overemphasis;
6- I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful; a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade, because if every piece is perfect, the room becomes a museum and lifeless;
7- A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity, but it must be a delicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salad. I am better at mixing rooms than salads.
To these guidelines, Lancaster always added her magic ingredients: open fires, candle lights, and masses of flowers. She also included antiques into each of her comfortable rooms, a love of which descended from her grandparents. While she was married to Ronald Tree, he helped her decorate their house. He was mainly in charge of major pieces of furniture and paintings, but Lancaster was in complete charge of the way their house actually looked- the choice of fabrics and the arrangement of furniture. The house was covered in hundreds of yards of fabrics, which included silks, velvets, damasks, and brocades. Lancaster wanted the fabrics to get worn from the sun and obtain a life of their own.
First marriage
She was first married, in 1917, to Henry Field, an heir to the Marshall FieldMarshall Field
Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...
department store fortune. He died five months later, following an operation to remove his tonsil
Tonsil
Palatine tonsils, occasionally called the faucial tonsils, are the tonsils that can be seen on the left and right sides at the back of the throat....
s.
Second marriage
In 1920 she married bisexual journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
Ronald Tree
Ronald Tree
Arthur Ronald Lambert Field Tree , was an American-born British journalist, investor and Conservative Member of Parliament for the Harborough constituency in Leicestershire.-Biography:...
(1897–1976), a cousin of her first husband. After moving to England in 1927, they had two sons Michael and Jeremy Tree
Jeremy Tree
Arthur Jeremy Tree, was a British Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.-Background:Born into a prominent London, England family, Tree was always known by his middle name, Jeremy. His father was Ronald Tree, an American-born British journalist, investor and Conservative Member of Parliament for the...
, and a daughter who died at birth.
At first the Trees took a 10-year repairing lease on Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England is an elegant, 18th century country house about south of Market Harborough and miles north of Northampton....
near Market Harborough
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
which Nancy redecorated with help from Mrs Guy Bethell of Elden Ltd. In 1933 the Trees bought Ditchley Park
Ditchley
Ditchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...
near Charlbury
Charlbury
Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in West Oxfordshire. It is on the edge of the Wychwood forest and the Cotswolds.-Place name:The origin of the town's toponym is obscure...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, and it was the decoration of this house which earned Nancy the reputation of having "the finest taste of almost anyone in the world." She worked on it with Lady Colefax (Mrs Bethell having died) and the French decorator Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...
of the Paris firm Jansen.
In November 1933 Ronald Tree became Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
member of Parliament for Harborough
Harborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Harborough is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
. Tree was among a small group who saw the rising Nazi party in Germany as a threat to Britain, and he became a member of anti appeasement MPs (who included Eden, Duff Cooper etc.) who would meet at his house in Queen Anne's Gate. Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
was not really part of this group, but he and his wife Clementine dined at Ditchley on numerous occasions from 1937.
On the outbreak of war, the C.I.G.S were concerned by the visibility of both Churchill's country house Chartwell
Chartwell
Chartwell was the principal adult home of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill and his wife Clementine bought the property, located two miles south of Westerham, Kent, England, in 1922...
, and the Prime Ministers retreat of Chequers
Chequers
Chequers, or Chequers Court, is a country house near Ellesborough, to the south of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills...
when, as Churchill romantically termed it 'When the Moon is High'. Churchill had use of the Paddock bunker
Paddock (war rooms)
Paddock is the codeword for an alternative Cabinet War Room bunker for Winston Churchill's World War II government located in Dollis Hill, North West London under the Post Office Research Station. It was constructed in 1939 but only rarely used during the war, with only two meetings of the War...
in Neasden
Neasden
Neasden is an area in northwest London, UK. It forms part of the London Borough of Brent.-History:The area was recorded as Neasdun in 939 AD and the name is derived from the Old English nēos = 'nose' and dūn = 'hill'. It means 'the nose-shaped hill' referring to a well-defined landmark of this area...
, but only used it on one occasion for a cabinet meeting, before returning to his Cabinet War Room
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum. The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical...
bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
. However, this created additional difficulties on clear nights when a full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
was predicted - so the authorities looked for an alternate site north of London. Tree offered Churchill use of Ditchley, which thanks to its tree coverage and no visible access road made it an ideal site which Churchill was happy with. Churchill first went to Ditchley in lieu of Chequers on 9 November 1940, accompanied by Clementine and his daughter Mary. By late 1942, America had entered the war and the security at Chequers had improved, including covering the road with turf. The last weekend Churchill attended Ditchely as his official residence was Tree's birthday on 26 September 1942. Churchill's last visit was for lunch in 1943.
Churchill gave Tree a job in the Ministry of Information, where he met American co-worker Marietta Peabody FitzGerald. Although both were married, the pair began an affair. Tree lost his seat in the 1945 election, and so both divorced in 1947, with their only child the 1960s supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
Penelope Tree
Penelope Tree
Penelope Tree is an Anglo-American former fashion model prominent in swinging sixties London.-Life and career:She was the only child of Marietta Peabody Tree, a socialite and Democratic political activist, and Ronald Tree, a bisexual journalist, investor and MP. Tree is a great-granddaughter of...
.
Third marriage
She married, thirdly, in 1948, Lieutenant Colonel Claude LancasterClaude Lancaster
Claude Granville Lancaster was a British army officer, company director and Conservative Party politician....
(1899–1977), a former military officer, country squire and member of Parliament who owned Kelmarsh Hall near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. Renowned today for its gardens, it is a popular tourist site and said to be Nancy Lancaster's favorite home of all despite their divorce after only five years in 1953. The couple had been having an affair for years prior to their marriage, and Nancy Lancaster later claimed that it was the suffocating, day-to-day intimacy caused by their marriage that made her realize why they were successful as lovers and ill-suited as husband and wife.
In 1950 she was forced to sell her beloved Mirador, and so in 1954 Nancy bought Haseley Court near Oxford. She renovated and decorated the house with the help of her business partner, John Fowler (1906–1977). They also created the famous Yellow room at Avery Row, Mayfair one of the finest rooms in London. After a fire in 1971 she sold the main house at Haseley and moved into the Coach House where she lived for the rest of her life. The garden she created at Haseley was particularly famous for its sense of style. The renowned British interior designer David Hicks (1929–1998) called Nancy Lancaster "the most influential English gardener since Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
." Referred to as the doyenne of interior decorators (something she never was, nor ever claimed to be) and smart gardeners, she together with John Fowler created much of the English country house look.