The Billiard Room...

Just off the foyer one can retreat to the billiard room for a post supper dram and a gently competitive game of pool, snooker or billiards.

The green silk walls complement the green of the table, and the leather club chairs. Elsewhere the mahogany paneling provides a masculine club ambiance. The architrave to the left of the mantelpiece, which balances that of the door on the right (the entrance to the Gold Drawing Room) will serve as a frame for a cue rack and accessory hooks.

On the south wall between the two windows hangs an oil painting of galleons at sea. Below this is a little bookcase with pewter stags on top. We have some splendid coffee table type books for the case so guests can flick through them if they wish to retreat into the room for a cup of tea or coffee and some quiet time.

The space on the wall above the painting is reserved for a stag's head, but only one that I have shot myself and not one off the shelf as it were. I have a policy (vermin aside), that I won't kill an animal unless I am going to eat it. So, unless I shoot the stag myself and fill the freezer up with venison (thus rendering the head nothing more than a byproduct) the space will have to stay empty.

For a change of scenery, tomorrow we are going to venture outside and take a look at the portico, front door and the loggia. We look forward to seeing you then.

The Gold Drawing Room...

Welcome back to the tour. Day 10 continues with The Gold Drawing room. This is one of the 3 rooms which has silk upholstered walls. We are very pleased with this room, and can't wait to start to use it for publicity shots. We have a friend who has put us in touch with an advertising agency who are always on the look out for new and unique venues for photoshoots. I'm sure Willowbrook fits the bill.

Below: Vases of Stock and Delphinium flank the marble fireplace. In front of the fireplace sits a vintage fireguard. I plan to have it reupholstered in the same silk as the walls soon.

On one wall is a large Chippendale styled cabinet.

On the other wall a bay window overlooking the front courtyard, with a console and large bust of Apollo.

Two smaller cabinets to match the larger one will arrive soon and will go on the walls on either side of this alcove.

Between the French doors on the western wall hangs an oil painting after Claude Lorraine. Below it is a small mantel clock, a gift from Peter when I was 22. It has a lovely sonorous Westminster chime.

Please tune in again tomorrow when we retreat into that most masculine of rooms, the Billiard Room.

Almost There....

Peter has sent me lots of photos of the fast paced work that has occurred over the past week in order to allow us to move in by Christmas, even if there is ongoing external work. Here they are lifting all the plinths and balustrades up to the top terrace ready to be installed next week. We still have to find a design for the urns to go on top of them (as the last post on Chiswick House demonstrated, one can never have too many urns!).

While they had the crane there they also lifted up some of the heavier items of furniture which we would never get up the staircase or in the lift.

Peter has started to put together some of the furniture. This is the Chinese bed in the Blenheim Suite The chinoiserie wallpaper gets hung this week, and then the sconces will be fitted and the room will be finished.

Below: The balloon chair in matching silk and the Chinese mirror.

Unpacking the bedside tables for the Master Suite...

The skeleton of the kitchen being assembled. We have been told it will be finished in time to cook Christmas dinner.

The balustrades for the landing upstairs...

 They have to be this close together to ensure silly people don't fall through them!

Below: The oak floor being laid in the ballroom.

The red silk upholstery being put on the dining room walls...

Peter and our friend Dirk have also been getting some of our furniture out of storage. Items like this dining table, which came from Westminster Abbey, have not been out of storage since we packed up our home in London and shipped them to NZ seven years ago! 

Unpacking boxes of things we haven't seen for this long really will be like Christmas. I get home on the 20th, so there will be a lot of late night interior decorating going on before our international guests arrive on the 23rd. Never mind, I pulled together our London apartment in time for a house warming in 24 hours, and we have had 7 years to plan for this moment. Believe me, I know where every single piece of furniture, every vase and every painting is going. All I will need is a strong pot of coffee...

Field of the Cloth of Gold...

Possibly not as grand as the 1520 summit between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France (shown above), known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold (as Henry had spent millions of pounds in today's equivalent of fine gold cloth for marquees and tents and clothing), but none the less this is what I was reminded of when we were unraveling our precious wall upholstery in the middle of a farm paddock to ensure the carpet we have chosen worked with the wall fabric...

Above and Below: The gold silk for the drawing room, with "Golden Buff" coloured carpet...

Alas, the previous carpet we chose is no longer in production, so we decided we would lay more marble down in the common areas instead, but we still needed carpet for the private areas such as drawing rooms and bedrooms. We wanted to choose a colour that we could use in multiple spaces. The golden buff didn't really work with the gold silk (too much brown and gold in one room)...

But it did work with the curtains for the Brideshead suite...

And surprisingly worked very well with the Berry and Gold velvet damask for the Chatsworth suite...

Much better than the originally chosen red carpets would have...

It also worked well with the two-tone gold velvet damask for the master suite...

Other choices we had entertained were Honey (top left), Delta Sunset (top right), and Casting Rod (bottom right). These are shown below on a based unpolished marble.... 

We decided we needed a lighter colour to go with the gold, but one which was not too white (it had to look warm, not cold). We settled on "Blondie" ...

Below: Blondie (centre), Pearl (left - too white) and Golden Buff (right - too dark)...

A Goldielocks moment, this colour was "just right"...

The Great Country Estates of Britain Series: Holkham Hall Revisited 5 of 5

This is the last post in the Holkham Hall Revisited pictorial series, and I think we have saved the best for last. These rooms are simply stunning. We start with the drawing room.

The Drawing Room

This gorgeous state room forms part of the enfilade of the piano nobile. It contains various works of art including eleven paintings and several busts of classical figures in history, such as Pythagorus, Zino, Faustina (Marcus Aurelius'wife) and Carneades (above the doors in the over mantels).

One can see the following in the photo above: On the centre of the east wall (left) there is a portrait of Thomas  Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, in the robes of the order of Bath, painted by Jonathan Richardson. On the centre of the west wall (right) there is a portrait of the Sir Edward Coke (founder of the family's fortunes) painted by Marcus Geerhaerts the younger. Above the four doors are landscapes by van Bloeman...

The focal point of the room is Pietro da Pietri's Madonna in gloria...

The busts on the chimney-piece are copies of Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla.

On the lower left of the fireplace is Gaspard Poussin's The Storm, Whilst on the right side of the fireplace is Claude Lorraine's Apollo flaying Marsyas...

In enfilade style we move to the South Dining Room, which again contains 11 paintings and busts in each over-mantel. 

The centrepiece is Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Coke of Norfolk.

Beautiful chairs upholstered en suite to match the walls.

Below: Naked Venus in the style of Titian (left upper wall). Hondecoeter's bird painting (right upper wall). Below each of these is a stormy landscape by Gaspard Poussin.

I am not sure of the painting above, which is different from the one listed in sources. Maybe someone out there knows?

Below: A panorama of the room. The painting on the centre of the wall on the right is Reni's Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (Ca 1730).

The details around the room were simply beautiful. Below: A brass servant's bell. You can see the red marble on the wall, with the original silk brocade trimming.

Below: An ornate pier glass above a gilded marble console.

Next we have The Saloon, popularly thought to be the grandest of the rooms at Holkham. The crimson wall hangings are made from caffoy, a fabric blended from wool, linen and silk.

Above: Peter Paul Reuben's famous depiction of the return of the holy family from Egypt.

Below:Anthony van Dyck's portrait of the Duke of Arenburg.

Above: Close up of the Reubens

Below: Detail of the marble urn on the table below

Below: Detail of the table top

Below: Detail of the carved table legs

Below: Panorama of the saloon

Above: The paintings above each of the fireplaces were commissioned in Rome by Coke when he was on his grand tour. They are Andrea Procaccini's Tarquin raping Lucretia (left) and Giussepi Bartolomeo Chiari's Perseus and Andromeda (right).

Below: Details of the Fireplace below the Chiari.

Above: Central door into Saloon, with large over-mantel containing a bust of Hera/Juno, 2 large torchieres and 2 large Chinese porcelain jars with Little dogs on top...

We finish this series' tour with The Landscape Room...

The room is upholstered in vibrant red damask and contains 22 old masters, 7 of them by Claude Lorraine and 5 by Gaspard Poussin (Nicolas Poussin's brother in law). Claude Lorraine is one of my favourite artists. I love the ancient capricios he painted, the follies, the gardens and the mythological subjects. I was lucky to find a relatively good copy of a Lorraine when I was visiting my mother in Nelson (picture here). It will hang above the sideboard in the formal dining room at WBP (which also has red damask walls).

Apart from Giordano's St Johnthe Baptist Preaching (below), all the rest are landscapes.

Well, that concludes our tour of the gardens and interiors of Hokham Hall. We will be back this weekend with a brief update of what's happening back at WBP.