If the Walls of Country Houses Could Talk

“We have all become terribly sophisticated in the way we look at country houses,” says Tim Knox, architectural historian of the National Trust in Britain.

“Yet in the past it would have been unthinkable to question the authenticity of the venerable clutter and old furnishings in some of these great historic houses.”

What was that venerable clutter anyway? Often, it was current arrangements meant to recall those former days.

The National Trust, which preserves and maintains historic country houses in Britain, has learned to take these pretenses in stride, says Knox, who was in Southern California for a lecture sponsored by the Decorative Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Now we thrill, I think, to learn that the medieval oak roof in a great hall is really Victorian plasterwork, grained to resemble wood.”

Along with this new understanding of the actual history of the English country house comes a certain regrettable loss of innocence, Knox says. Docents can no longer impress visitors by saying that the eyes in an ancestral portrait follow you around the room. “Country houses are now remorselessly researched and analyzed in the light of our new knowledge.”

Inevitably, Knox says, the English country house actually reflects the tastes and mores of the changing centuries.

Early on, there were no interior decorators in the modern sense of the word. You either called in an architect who took care of everything or the lady of the house simply bought what she liked. Houses were constantly rearranged, redecorated and reinterpreted.

These houses look very different from how they did a hundred years ago and, according to Knox, many of the houses acquired by the National Trust had been extensively redecorated, refurbished and even rebuilt in this century.

So those soft butter-yellow drawing rooms with swagged drapes and chintz-covered chairs were a 20th-century invention of Lady Sibyl Colfax, who founded the interior design firm Colfax & Fowler with fellow designer John Fowler, along with Virginia-born Nancy Lancaster, who later bought into the firm. These rooms of relaxed comfort and faded splendor--which according to Fowler looked simple but cost a mint--came into being in the 1930s and ‘40s. Their style became a cliche look still popular among the rich in England and here.

Ironically the history of the English country house is tied closely to the history of America.

“The American Civil War led to the collapse of mercantile British industry, which coincided with the agricultural depression in England, which lasted from 1873 to 1880 and had a devastating effect on the fortunes of the mercantile classes and the nobility which built these country estates,” Knox says.

Many houses and their entire contents of pictures, furniture, even chimney pieces were auctioned off. Adds Knox, “It’s no exaggeration to say that this tide of objects had a galvanizing effect on the emerging antiques trade.”

When increased revenue was needed, here again America was an influence. “The best and the most tried and tested way was to marry new money,” Knox says. “The number of American heiresses who married into the nobility of Great Britain in the beginning of this century clearly demonstrates where much of this new money came from.”

Knox says these trans-Atlantic brides brought not only money, but also a civilizing influence and comfort in the form of bathrooms, adequate plumbing and electricity. They also came with design ideas from American taste setters Edith Wharton and Elsie de Wolfe, and set to work transforming their new homes.

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The 1900s saw the rise of interest in Georgian architecture and furniture in country houses. Before then, “olde oak” was the favored look. Architectural design firms like Lenygon & Morant were influential in promoting Georgian, which began with the Regency style and encompassed rococo, baroque and neoclassical styles.

“They improvised entire paneled rooms, complete with ceilings and chimney pieces made up from old work,” Knox says. “They cunningly blended the old with new decorations. Some of these alterations are only now being recognized.

“But despite the rise of the interior decorator, most country house interiors were unself-conscious affairs full of accumulations of the generations who lived in them. Most just reflect their owner’s taste, which is why so many look so very odd even to this day.”

After World War II, there was a terrible loss of country houses in the dark days of the early 1950s, one being pulled down every three days, says Knox. Luckily, the National Trust had decided in 1934 to begin preserving historic country houses. Today, it maintains about 240 houses, from medieval manor houses to a mock 20th century castle.

“Today the general feeling at the National Trust is to be more sensitive to the house. We don’t hire interior designers, as we once did,” Knox says. “Now we adopt an inclusive approach, carefully weighing up the physical and documentary evidence, and attempt to show the house as it has gradually evolved, giving an idea of all the periods the house existed in.”

The next lecture in the Decorative Arts Council series of Design and Designers is April 15, when Desmond Guinness, author and founder of the Irish Georgian Society, speaks on “The Interiors of Charles de Beistegui: A 20th Century Icon,” 7:30 p.m. in the Bing Theatre of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Information: (323) 857-6528.