Olivier & KNOLE

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The kiss he was dying to steal, then he stole,
At the feet where he wanted to kneel, there he knole,
And he said, "I feel better than ever I fole." Phoebe Cary

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, two of the greatest British actors-some might conclude the greatest of all time. Today they would be known as a power couple- above, the married couple lounging at home on their Knole sofa with New Boy, their Siamese cat.

The origin of the sofa known as the Knole sofa is the great house of Knole,  once Thomas Sackville's Renaissance mansion & as most know it - the home where Vita Sackville West grew up, grew to love and to write of . Knole 'has a deep inward gaiety of some very old woman who has always been beautiful, who has had many lovers and seen many generations come and go … It is above all an English home,' she continued, 'It has the tone of England; it melts into the green of the garden turf, into the tawnier green of the park beyond, into the blue of the pale English sky.'
 

The original- at the National Trust's Knole 

The sofa at Knole is a  a padded and upholstered lounge that was made around 1610 - 1620. The actual upholstering on the original is in red velvet with red fringing, though later forms could be upholstered in any of several different materials, notably tapestried backs and sides. Many versions abound-to get close to the original design-look for the cushioned sides that drop down.

Leigh with New Boy in a chair in the same room with the Knole sofa

Knowing Knole

a collection of Knole sofas sold by Christie's Auction House

Ready for your own?  from Michael Haskell, a 1920's Knole sofa, adapted with back cushions for the lounging that was inevitable during the era.

NEW KNOLE?

at Edward Ferrell

and Lewis Mittman

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