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John Cornforth (historian)
John Lewley Cornforth CBE (2 September 1937 – 5 May 2004) was an architectural historian with a particular interest in the history of English country houses. He was the author of many books and articles, and architectural editor of '' Country Life'' from 1967 to 1977. Early life Cornforth was born at Haywood Abbey in Staffordshire, an only child of parents with private means. His childhood friends included Patrick Anson, later 5th Earl of Lichfield, at nearby Shugborough Hall. He took no interest in country pursuits – riding or shooting, cricket or golf – but enjoyed looking at ''Country Life'' from before he could read. He was educated at Repton School and then studied history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was influenced by art historian Michael Jaffé. Career After university, Cornforth worked as a volunteer in the British Museum in London, and started to write articles for '' Country Life'', joining the staff at the magazine in 1961. Its archi ...
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Repton School
Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was then established at the Repton Priory. For its first 400 years, the school accepted only boys; girls were admitted from the 1970s, and the school was fully co-educational by the 1990s. Notable alumni, also known as "Old Reptonians", include C. B. Fry, Jeremy Clarkson, Roald Dahl, and Michael Ramsey. History The school was founded by a 1557 legacy in the will of Sir John Port of Etwall, leaving funds for a grammar school at Etwall or Repton, conditional on the students praying daily for the souls of his family. The social mix of the early school was very broad. Among the first twenty-two names on the register of Repton there are five gentlemen, four husbandmen, nine yeomen, two websters, or weavers, a carpenter and a tanne ...
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Kit Nicholson
Christopher David George "Kit" Nicholson (16 December 1904 – 28 July 1948) was a British architect and designer closely associated with the early Modern Movement in Britain. His most notable works of the 1930s were comparable to the advanced modern abstract style of his older brother, the artist Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 in De .... Early life and education Nicholson was born on 16 December 1904 at Pilgrim's Lane, Hampstead, the fourth child of the artists William Nicholson (artist), William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. His siblings were the celebrated painter Ben Nicholson, Ben (1894–1982); Anthony (1897–1918), who died of wounds in France during the First World War; and Nancy Nicholson, Annie Mary "Nancy" (1899–1978), artist and wife of t ...
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Paul Mellon Centre For Studies In British Art
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art is a scholarly centre in London devoted to supporting original research into the history of British Art. It was founded in 1970 and endowed by a gift from Paul Mellon. Since 1996, it has been situated at 16 Bedford Square in a Grade I listed building. This building houses an outstanding library of 26,000 publications focused on British art and architecture, and over 25 collected archives which include papers of eminent art historians such as Ellis K. Waterhouse, Oliver Millar, Brian Sewell and Brinsley Ford. It also holds the records of its own institutional archives, including a growing oral history collection. The centre compiled its own photographic archive from 1970 to 1996 and now also holds the Tate photographic archive. All of these research collections are available to consult in the centre's Public Study Room. As well as being incorporated as a British educational charity, the centre is part of Yale University and pr ...
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Noble Households
''Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses'' presents transcripts of inventories of nine great country houses and four London town houses as a tribute to the late historian John Cornforth. Summary The inventories document in astounding detail the taste and lifestyle of leading noble families and their households. John Cornforth first "put forward the idea of this publication as a primary resource for the interpretation of the historic interior". As the book's dust-wrapper states, it was his hope that it "would revitalise the study of the great house in the eighteenth century". Structure The inventories, compiled for a variety of purposes by professional appraisers in conjunction with family members or their stewards, are supplemented with a glossary and index to the items listed. The inventories are grouped as follows: Part I: Montagu Inventories; Montagu House, Bloomsbury, London, 1709 and 1733; Boughton House, Northamptonshire, 1709, 1718, 17 ...
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Marc Fitch
Marcus Felix Brudenell Fitch , (5 January 1908 – 2 April 1994) was an English historian and philanthropist. Fitch was born in Kensington, London in 1908, the only child of provision merchant Hugh Bernard Fitch (1873–1962) and his wife Bertha Violet (née James); his family owned food company Fitch & Son Ltd, later named Fitch Lovell. After finishing his schooling, Fitch joined the family business, and was appointed director in 1930. During his life he travelled around Europe, with interests in history, antiquities, and archaeology. In 1952 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and was a member of other organisations. While he was chairman of the British Record Society (1949–67) he set up the Marc Fitch Fund (1956), an educational charity which funds research and publication, primarily in the UK, in the fields of archaeology, historical geography, history of art, and architecture, heraldry and genealogy. Fitch was awarded an Honorary DLitt. by ...
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Victoria And Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area known as " Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. As with other national British museums, entrance is free. The V&A covers and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Afri ...
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Colefax And Fowler
Colefax Group plc is a designer and distributor of furnishing fabrics and wallpaper, based in London in the United Kingdom. History The business was founded in the 1930s by Sibyl, Lady Colefax (1874–1950). In 1938 she was joined in the business by John Fowler, and the business became known as Colefax & Fowler. In 1944 the business, managed by John Fowler, took a lease on 39 Brook Street, Mayfair where it remained until December 2016. Also in 1944 Sibyl Colefax sold the business to Nancy Tree (Nancy Lancaster Nancy Lancaster (10 September 1897 – 19 August 1994) was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Colefax & Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country house look. Biography She was ... as she became in 1948) for a sum in the order of £10000. The group now has offices in the United States, France, Germany and Italy. It owns the brands Colefax and Fowler, Cowtan and Tout, Jane Churchill, Larsen and Ma ...
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John Beresford Fowler
John Beresford Fowler (20 June 1906 – 27 October 1977) was an English interior designer. Early life Fowler was born in Lingfield, Surrey, son of Robert Richard Fowler, clerk of the course at the fashionable Lingfield Park Racecourse, and Blanche Beresford, née Forster. He moved with his family to Bedford Park, London following his father's death in 1915. He was educated Tormore prep school, and at Felsted School. He left school aged 16 in 1923. Career He joined the decorating and antiques firm Thornton Smith, where he painted Chinese-style wallpaper (sold as 18th century originals), and learned other paint decoration techniques, such as marbling and graining. He moved to work in the studio of decorator Margaret Kunzer, and started to decorate furniture for Peter Jones. He established his own business on the Kings Road in Chelsea in 1934, and then went into business with Sybil Colefax, founding Colefax & Fowler. His short sightedness made him medically unfit for mi ...
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Destruction Of The Country House Exhibition
The Destruction of the Country House 1875–1975 was an exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1974, commissioned by V&A Director Roy Strong and curated by John Harris, Marcus Binney and Peter Thornton (then working, respectively, at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), '' Country Life'' magazine and the V&A Department of Furniture and Woodwork). The exhibition included a "Hall of Destruction", decorated with falling columns and illustrations of some of the thousand country houses demolished since 1875, brought down by falling estate incomes, rising costs, death duties, and damage caused by government requisitioning during the Second World War. Described as a "landmark" exhibition, the graphic illustration of the scale of destruction of Britain's built heritage changed public opinion and encouraged moves to protect the country houses that remained. The success of the exhibition inspired the formation of the campaigning group, Save Britain's ...
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Historic Buildings Council For England
Three separate historic buildings councils were created by the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953, one for each of England, Scotland, and Wales. Each Historic Buildings Council advised the relevant government minister on the exercise of powers under the 1953 Act relating to the preservation of listed buildings and other buildings of special architectural or historic interest, including applications for grants. Responsibilities for advice in relation to the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 were added latter. All three have now been abolished and replaced by other bodies. *The Historic Buildings Council for England was abolished by section 39 of the National Heritage Act 1983; its functions, and those of the Ancient Monuments Board for England, were taken up by Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (better known as English Heritage). *The Historic Buildings Council for Scotland was abolished, along with various other public ...
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Destruction Of Country Houses In 20th-century Britain
The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was the result of a change in social conditions: many country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished by their owners. Collectively termed by several authors "the lost houses", the destruction of these now often forgotten houses has been described as a cultural tragedy. The British nobility had been demolishing some of their country houses since the 15th century, when comfort replaced fortification as an essential need. For many, demolishing and rebuilding their country homes became a lifelong hobby, in particular during the 18th century when it became fashionable to take the Grand Tour and return home with art treasures, supposedly brought from classical civilizations. During the 19th century, many houses were enlarged to accommodate the increasing numbers of servants needed to create the famed country house lifestyle. Less than a century later, this often meant they were of an unmanageable size. In the ea ...
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