in praise of the Red Room, & Lesley Blanch

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The first time I had an opportunity to do up a place of my own- I painted my little sitting room Red. It pleased me. So much so- that I painted my next abode - yes-Red. My next move was into a large house and it would seem Red would naturally follow me the short two blocks away. It eventually did- in the form of an gorgeous and complex ELITIS paper of a Red, fuschia and orange geometric and damask pattern.*  Better late than never- Red is the color of passion, fire, beauty, royalty and for me above all these- it represented Independence- A Room of One's Own as it were. With each move I found I needed it less.

I don't have any Red in my current home-but I do have lavender- and don't forget lavender would be no where without Red, or blue, or white for that matter. Loving all three- but not so much its imagery of stars and stripes- rather each one standing singly or paired together or Mixed appeals to me greatly- just stay away from a full out patriotic RWB room (just a word to the wise). If two or three houses were within my grasp-there would be a Red room in at least one of them.

Now here we arrive at Lord and Lady Iliffe's Basildon Park country house along with Lesley Blanch and photographer Henry Clarke on a VOGUE assignment in July 1966...

while other guests are off to Ascot.

Lady Iliffe wearing Indian jewels in gold and pink silk inside her walled garden

born Renee Merandondu Plessis of Chamerel, Mauritius

With the introductions completed- First- a quick tour around a few famous Red rooms by Vuillard in preparation for the splendid Octagonal Room of Basildon Park.

Vuillard, Red Interior, 1900

Vuillard, In the Red Room, 1914

Basildon Park, a historic country house in the Anglo Palladian style is just one of three houses Lord and Lady Iliffe share. in the words of Lesley Blanch- "The three houses Lord and Lady Iliffe call home are exactly that: Although in violent contrast to each other, all three express the same unifying sense of harmony- of home...No professional decorator has ever devised so much as a pelmet-indeed, Lady Iliffe is apt to do that herself, creating from a job lot of antique fringes and tassels...Through all three houses a curiously exotic note is sounded...there runs a thread of tropicana, of languorous, frangipani-scented zephyrs..reminding us of Lady Iliffe's French childhood in Mauritius."

Basildon Park's "Piano Nobile"

The Octagon Room with claret-red walls and brocaded curtains from Blenheim Palace.

All the grandeur of the Palladian style is present in this room. Paired with the saturated claret Red in the room is  a pale butter yellow, with eighteenth century bamboo tables and Chinese lacquer. Lady Iliffe's love of gardening is hinted at with the addition of a gardenia bush in the jardiniere-thought to be an eighteenth-century Italian linen basket.

Another Red room at Basildon Park -The Indian-red Library.

Henry Clarke photograph of Lord Iliffe, r. with Lord Roderic Platt & Sir Neill Cooper-Key.

 other important rooms in the house

the Drawing Room

The Dining Room

 The Great Hall

 pages from the Lesley Blanch story in Vogue July 1966: Triple Entente

If you are wondering where Lord and Lady Iliffe were during the other months of the year in 1966- think a streamlined flat overlooking Piccadilly and a "pint sized sun trap overlooking the Mediterranean."( LB)  All three homes Blanch contends -"has its own manner of an unorthodox, entirely personal, and triumphant approach to decoration." That is an idea one can take to heart in 2011- Don't you think? How are the other homes decorated? maybe another time.

Lesley Blanch is described on her own official website as a "scholarly romantic" & that sums it up succinctly -what every writer aspires to. Of her own still she said,  "My rooms are gestures of defiance against every rule of the pundit decorators. Now East, now West, my rooms reflect the globe. Cultures, races, climates, colours and epochs mix in harmony here, as do bargains and chintz..." Shusha Guppy describes her house: "Lesley Blanch’s house is filled with mementos of her travels and adventures: Russian icons, samovars, Qajar paintings and rugs from Persia and Turkey, exotica from India. Divans and the scent of incense and jasmine further enhance the exotic and relaxing atmosphere … "She works at a desk strewn with books, papers and clippings in the living room. All the other rooms, including her own, are also lined with bookshelves." Looking Back, A Panoramic View of a Literary Age by the Grandes Dames of European Letters (1992)

Now-that sounds like heaven.

* my Elitis paper

Vogue pages from 1966- my own.

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