Ancesserie

It's really a dying art. Letters I received from my Grandmother during my summer sojourns to Georgia were saved and now cherished, and the letters I sent had been saved by her. When she passed away at the age of 107, my mother retrieved them. I thought- these meant something to Grandmother, memories of her flood back every time I revisit them. I've saved many letters from my loved ones, they make me laugh, and yes, some make me cry-but they all make me think of that person who took time to write.

My mother saved many pieces of correspondence from her family whose roots were in Maryland-their beautiful "hand" drifts across the page-some are written on embossed paper with an engraving from the sender,some just bits on lined paper, all in the most beautiful old colors. A letter on my father's side of the family tells of a soldier's encampment on the Rappahannock River during the Civil War-now framed in archival glass and kept in a trunk its sender carried through his war service.

This crisp Palmetto leaf is part of Lydia Derrick Wherry's collection  Ancesserie.

Original artwork by South Carolina artist Beverly Grantham Derrick for Ancesserie.

Lydia's family newspaper archives, The Edgefield Advertiser,  was the starting point for her company dedicated to preserving the art of letter writing. She believes like I do, in the power of the letter-or just simply a note-saying I Love You, infinitely more prized than a quick email.
How many of those do you save?


The Edgefield Advertiser is the oldest newspaper in South Carolina-its owners going back four generations. In a vacated press room Lydia discovered " beautiful cuts, copper engravings wooden and lead type from the time of letterpress...strewn about the tables and presses."

one particularly clever design, HORSE AND MULE

A part of The Edgefield Collection: featuring original letterpress engravings, type and plates. 

Along with these note cards, Lydia can do custom work on her note cards, and calling cards. Another thing I can't do without is note pads-there are some charming ones from Ancesserie.
This one, An Ear Full, is something I'd like to give, and often...

There are some quite lovely Calligraphy options available-opening a new way "to Keep" in touch.

I love these sweet little crosses,  so perfect for a Christening, or a note of condolence.

Ancesserie evokes a simpler time, a time when things mattered a little bit more. 

Stop and think about what that might be, and mean to you.

Chances are, Lydia is just be one step ahead of you, at

A N C E S S E R I E,  

here

happy Mother's Day

To my inspirational and lovely-inside and out- Mother, always saying when Beauty was discussed
"Pretty is-as Pretty does.
In her case-this has been True.

Me, my GrandMother, and Mother

c.2000. 

As mentioned in past postings-Bess, my Grandmother lived to be 107. Many of our Mother's Day photographs were taken in the Hospital where she spent the last years of her wonderful Life. 

Her belief was to stay curious-and interested in Life,

 That She Did!

.

heart felt

.
 friend & teacher
as a child-I was fixated on Helen Keller.
She became my first hero.
It started with a gift from my Grandmother Bess-a book of Keller's axioms that I still find inspiring.

 "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, 1894 from the Perkins School for the Blind Archive.

there are many stories and photographs about both women on the American Foundation for the Blind here

.

teaching ME

.

I've asked some friends- who was the teacher that made you tick?
you know- the teacher that got you started on what It is you do.

In reminiscences about my own teachers it is difficult to pin down just one.

One evening I answered a call from my hometown newspaper-they had questions about teachers.

"Who had the greatest influence on you as a teacher?"

After a quick inventory of my elementary school-junior high (was anyone ever influenced by a teacher at that stage). I settled on my high school history teacher, Miss (MS.) Elliott.

"I would have to say Mary Alice Elliott!"

silence on the phone

a pause

"Would you not say Mrs. Wright?"

hesitation

"Well of course She was such a great influence-so much beyond a teacher.

 She is still a mentor-friend. I hardly think of her as a teacher!"

with a singular laugh-deep-ironic

Oh, Yes of course. 

Good answer Gaye!

It was la Wright, Frances Herself. 

She got me. 

We laughed. 

that laugh became more raucous- but within it-that slightly gravel-y smooth Southern drawl that defined her.

Frances & Me, c.1993.

so Teachers-
I started thinking about these two women -How could they have been such influences on me-yet be so different?
Upon reflection words like-- Independent, Dynamic, Passionate apply to both. Ms. Elliott- a crack history teacher, while Frances-Mrs. Wright-filled her life with Music. I never saw the parallels and I can't help feel they prepared me for more than just my crazy love of history and of the arts. I grew up in a very traditional Southern town, but women with Independent lives surrounded me. These two- and of course my Grand Mother.


they deserve my praise-
my best- and their own special telling.

to be continued.

This week it is a pleasure to open my pages to the friends I posed this question to.


.

who INSPIRES Me

.

For the panel discussion at West Week, I was asked Who Inspires Me? 

I had to think about the people that seem to be-always with Me. Many people came to mind-the famous-the infamous, but mostly it was family-clients-friends.

 At the top of my List was my Grand Mother. I have featured her a number of times in postings-SO-If any of this is repetitive –my apologies.

My Daily inspirations center around a Grand-Mother & RAMBLING. 

She claimed I was her greatest RAMBLER.

This drawing of Bess and my mother was done for me by Vivian Strauss as a gift for my Mother. It is copied from a photograph of the pair in my Grand Mother’s garden.

Bess knew how to live well and beautifully.  Simple tasks like setting the table were transformed into a Daily Ritual of getting out one of a dozen different China Patterns, napkins, silver, goblets and adding amusing centerpieces from her tours in the garden or bric a brac from around the house. 

She followed House and Garden and her bible-Religiously.

She decoupaged, She scrapbooked- and She had a perfectly folded Linen Closet with Monogram towels and press sheets.

She kept a beautiful house-these things- the ordinary became EXTRA Ordinary with Bess.  

Her bird baths-Her garden and KOI Pond- also known as the Fish Pond- were notables with her grandchildren and her friends.

Nights spent with her meant wearing a special Chinese Kimono in red and yellow or plundering her bureau drawer full of costume jewelry.

Legend tells that Bess stood watching the upstairs rooms of her house burn holding a bouquet of violets.

I learned So Much from this Woman-and things I never Knew-until I was older and creating a Life for Myself.

There is Not a Day that goes by that SHE is not Present. 

.

when straw calls: I

.
it  already being Summer here in the South-North Carolina to be exact-90 degree, sultry, humid-I say grab a straw. if I didn't manage to revive the parasol back into fashion-let me suggest straw hat. I have several I wear in the summer. In many ways little has changed in the styling of straw.  Long before the damage caused to our skin by the sun came to light -tanning-basking in the sun- was very IN.
For me- now and for about 15 years- it has been OUT.

Back in the day straw hats of all sorts were worn to guard ladies from losing their fairness & it's still a stylish and good way to do so. Thoughts about hats after the Royal Wedding have led some to cry for the return of wearing  hats.
My thoughts-don't give the ladies another accessory in which to over Do.
Don't.
Straw hats if held in check to more practical use- can't be harmful.

 Pisanello, 15th c.

 "For me, hats aren't an accessory, they are the raison d'être of an outfit." 

Stephen Jones

baroness fiona thyssen-bornemisza 1966

My GranMa apprenticed at the local milliner and though she married soon after- and fairly well-she always had the talent to "decorate" a hat.  That talent ran to other areas:  decorating the house, exquisite handwork, sewing curtains, dresses, slipcovers, arranging flowers- painting, gardening-let's just say she had the knack-for- the list goes on. 

'Millaners'

millener-1520–30;  variant of obsolete Milaner,  native of Milan, dealer in goods from Milan 

"vendor of fancy wares, especially those made in Milan" famous for straw works, fancy goods, ribbons, bonnets, and cutlery.  "one who sells women's hats"- likely from 1520s onward, but certainly in use by 18 century.

milliner- a maker of women's hats, first recorded in 1529 when the term referred to the products for which Milan and the northern Italian regions were well known, i.e. ribbons, gloves and straws.


there is something quite beautiful about this 18th century hat- the shape, the color, with only its chintz banding a little faded.

from the Costume Institute, 18th century

Mary Countess of Howe, 1764

 by Thomas Gainsborough

Anne Bingham by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Lady Bess Foster Racky by Sir Joshua Reynolds

A FINE STRAW &CHINTZ HAT

D SHAPED CHIPSTRAW LINED IN A RED CHITZ PRINT WRAPING OVER THE BRIM

from Christies

By the mid 1800's Swiss and Italian straws, together with imitation straws made from paper, cardboard, grass and horsehair were available to women.

baroness fiona thyssen-bornemisza

photograph by henry clarke, 1966

18c straw hat with straw flowers from the V&A

" This is so British and so pretty. It's also well preserved. Whoever dyed those flowers certainly knew what they were doing.  Hats can be wild and wacky, formed out of plastic and flashing lights, but sometimes it's quite nice to make things which are familiar and reassuring-" Stephen Jones, milliner

.

ALLURE

.

"All I need is twenty minutes on the bathroom floor with witch-hazel pads on my eyes, and I can conquer the world.” 

the grandee of fashion. Diana Vreeland.

. 

I mean- Didn't SHE?
my GranMa swore by it-& to my mind neither lady could fall too far from the mark.



that the witch hazel had to be pulled out of the gramophone cabinet in the bath, I won't deny, but the books-Baudot's the Allure of Women and Diana Vreeland's ALLURE sit on a single stair that I pass at least 25 times a day. one opened with Diana Vreeland's photograph a permanent part of the stairscape. Photographs of my GranMa on her honeymoon are just down the hall- I never know when one of them will have something to say.


.

a house with a swing ii

.

It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing
(doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah)
It don't mean a thing all you got to do is sing
(doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah)
It makes no difference
If it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm
Everything you've got
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing
(doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah)
It don't mean a thing all you got to do is sing
(doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah)
It makes no difference
If it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm
Everything you've got
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing
(doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah)

It makes no difference
If it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm
Everything you've got
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
It don't mean a thing all you got to do is sing
(doo-ah)
It makes no difference
If it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm
Everything you've got
Don't mean a thing all you've gotta do is swing
It don't mean a thing all you've gotta do is sing
It makes no difference
If it's sweet or hot
Give that rhythm
Everything you've got
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
(doo-ah, dooooo-aaaaah)
Don't mean a thing








 ( photograph  my mother and her mother c 1945)
.

.

Impostors at the Frick

.

The FRICK COLLECTION is a sight to behold. One of those rare places where old master paintings and French furnishings exist in their original settings. The jewel box mansion in New York houses collection after collection.
I love porcelains-I inherited the sickness from my GranMa-in my case pure and simple genetics.

a Sevres platter from the collection

Treasures abound at the Frick-an extraordinary installation of Boucher paintings can be viewed HERE.

& an Impostor or 2:

the little IMPOSTOR
made of TIN-

at the FRICK MUSEUM SHOP.

THE ORIGINAL  
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704 - 1778) Manufacture, 1782
Edme-François Bouilliat (active 1758-1810)
Plate: Part of a Dessert Service with Flowers and Turquoise Blue Ribbons, 1782
porcelain, soft paste

the Impostors-posing in the midst of some old pieces of my own.

AN ORIGINAL
Dish with Plum-Blossom Decoration, 18th century porcelain, blue and white
 

The IMPOSTOR
made of Tin

from the 18th-century Chinese porcelain dish with plum-blossom decoration in The Frick Collection.

the Frick Collection Museum Shop
and only $7.00
.

Apologies to Proust

Mais, quand d’un passé ancien rien ne subsiste, après la mort des êtres, après la destruction des choses, seules, plus frêles mais plus vivaces, plus immatérielles, plus persistantes, plus fidèles, l’odeur et la saveur restent encore longtemps, comme des âmes, à se rappeler, à attendre, à espérer, sur la ruine de tout le reste, à porter sans fléchir, sur leur gouttelette presque impalpable, l’édifice immense du souvenir.

Et dès que j’eus reconnu le goût du morceau de madeleine trempé dans le tilleul que me donnait ma tante (quoique je ne susse pas encore et dusse remettre à bien plus tard de découvrir pourquoi ce souvenir me rendait si heureux), aussitôt la vieille maison grise sur la rue, où était sa chambre, vint comme un décor de théâtre…

When from the distant past nothing remains, after the beings have died, after the things are destroyed and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, yet more vital, more insubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of everything else; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the immense architecture of memory.

Yet again I had recalled the taste of a bit of madeleine dunked in a linden-flower tea which my aunt used to give me (although I did not yet know and must long await the discovery of why this memory made me so happy), immediately the old gray house on the street where her room was found, arose like a theatrical tableau…

–Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann (1913) in: À la recherche du temps perdu vol. 1, p. 47 (Pléiade ed. 1954)(S.H. transl.)

This morning at 4 a.m. when I should have been asleep, rather, I was traveling.

Traveling back to my grandmother's kitchen during the hot summertime. A thin fresh white bread, dots of mayonnaise and a single perfect slice of a cold TOMATO. The bread was a simple one-not made anymore- but at a grocery deli I find something that comes close. I spread the pieces with Dukes mayonnaise- if you are a Southerner-and I say this only in the terms of the palate- and the importance of your preferences- You will understand.

The coldness of the home grown TOMATO- its slightly tart bite, melting deliciously together into a sweet goodness- all the ingredients sliding into one pure taste. The bread now a soft dough , I hurry to catch the little droplets of ambrosial juices-allowing nothing to be lost. The perfect summer sandwich-early this morning and anytime I was at GranMa's.

Why so specific about such a simple cold TOMATO? The cold TOMATO was not a part of our family's summer fare. My father preferred them room temperature- and that is how we dined, so far and few made it to that state. My GranMa liked her darlings cold. Simple-That was how she liked them and that is how I liked them when I was at GranMa's house.

So, Yes the TOMATO tastes quite different cold.

It tastes of childhood, carefree thoughts: a little Chinese robe that smelled of roses, a small closet abundant with of House and Gardens, every sort of old paper and fabric I thought could possibly exist under the sun tucked in bureaus, desks, boxes & baskets, crystal and sets of china filled a tall antique cupboard in the Dining Room-demitasse cups to serve my imaginary guests, little China figures in a bathroom alcove arranged in a garden setting, all existing in a charming magical cottage I knew simply as GranMa's house.

All these things presented themselves for a moment and I savored it.

a Fleur with Flair

my favorite FLAIR cover

the Best of FLAIR

"I decided [the wing of a bird] would be the symbol of Flair because it's flight of fancy, which is what we need if we live an interesting and imaginative life. A flair for something--I don't care what it is, but whatever it is, have elegance in it, even if it's shining shoes. And knowledge--whatever you do, learn more about what you're doing." F.C.

FIRST in FLAIR February 1950

all FLAIR ONE YEAR assemblage
from the blog pages of Brilliant Asylum

50-cent for a peak at high society, art, literature, and fashion, Flair lived & breathed for 12 issues, from February 1950 to January 1951. FLAIR was said to have cost over a Dollar.26 to run each copy. FLAIR was way beyond its time with die-cut overlays, varied paper stocks, and accordion inserts. W.H. Auden, Eleanor Roosevelt,Tennessee Williams, Gypsy Rose Lee, Simone de Beauvoir, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau all eagerly contributed.
Time magazine reported, "there is an accordion-style pull-out on interior decoration, a pocket-sized book insert, a swatch of cotton fabric, even a page written in invisible ink that can be read when it is heated by a lighted match."

FLEUR lives on today- as FLAIR, blogged about, revisited and oggled over.

Fleur Cowles photographed by Robert Trachtenberg 2003

Fleur wears BALENCIAGA , made for Queen Elizabeth's coronation 1953

Most probably one of the last articles written about Fleur Cowles was in 2003, by Heather Smith MacIssac for the New York Times magazine and photographed by Robert Trachtenberg. Fleur was interviewed in London at her home at Albany, once Lord Melbourne's Georgian manse. Fleur Cowles died June 5 of 2009, making her- it is believed 101.

by FLEUR

It appears she adhered to her FLAIR raison detre: "Live an interesting and imaginative life." My own GranMa lived to be 107 and at the age of 100- I asked her what she attributed her longevity to: She replied with much the same answer-" You must be curious, You must find life interesting and be creative." It would appear that this is sound sage advice.

Of her Albany drawing room- once the Albany ballroom designed by Sir William Chambers, c.1780:

''I believe it's the most beautiful drawing room in London.'' FC

In the original article- clipped from the 2003 Magazine- The bookcase lower shelf is dotted with multiple petite vases each holding a single pale yellow rose- perhaps the FLEUR COWLES ROSE.

Fleur Cowles
a Pale Yellow Floribunda
very fragrant spice, blooms in flushes throughout the season
bred 1972 by Walter Gregory

A Second Drawing Room with panels gold leaf and exotic pots and flowers by Federico Pallavicini resides over the built in baquette-well worn in pink.

A 1954 sculpture by Sydney Harpley has a very haunting presence at the fireplace in the Second Drawing Room, above it a- Fleur Cowles painting. In this photograph one gets a sense of the grand proportions of this room.

Portrait of Fleur & her signature FLAIR Specs by Rene Gruau

painter, writer, and founder of the short-lived but legendary magazine FLAIR

as we imagine her-with FLAIR. Fleur Cowles and Cecil Beaton (photograph from An Aesthete's Lament)

Fleur in her office amongst, books, family photographs, her paintings, rifts on her name, decoupage plates. Throughout the apartment FLAIR is ever present. What do you have a FLAIR for and What keeps you young?

"The world is a magazine to me, Everything has potential." FC

little footnotes

...& from Pigtown Design

all photographs, unless noted are by Robert Trachtenberg