Profiles in Porcelain

Little Augury: Marie Antoinette by Raynaud

Many thanks to all of you Chinaholics who came out of the butler's pantry and shared your own tales of tabletops.

Mrs. Blandings: Herend Golden Edge

Almost all of you advised me to MIX! My dear friend Richard who is famous in our set for his five course dinners with all the proper crystal and sterling accouterments, put it very convincingly:

Curator KDM: Mottahedeh Duke of Gloucester

Aesthete's 19th century limoges in action

" As you know, I love to use my porcelain. For dinner parties but also for those grand solitaire dinners. Chinese take away on old Meissen is the only way to go! I have several single tea cups and saucers and dishes which I only use for Sundays in bed with the Times and tea/coffee.

Style Court is drawn to Herend Chinese Bouquet in Rust while Julieta adores hers in Green

Marnie loves her grandmother's Noritake Beverly, but, like Mr. Worthington, isn't a big fan of Imari

"So go ahead,if you love a pattern, buy yourself a breakfast cup or chocolate cup and side plate for those afternoons on the sofa or mornings in bed (or afternoons in the garden). Personally, I'd buy one cup/saucer/plate in Roseraie for tea in the garden and Darley for afternoons on the sofa. Nobody says you can't have a harlequin tea set.

Home Before Dark: Chateaubriand by Bernardaud

"Another thing I'd like to point out is we can mix and match our china. I don't know if you caught it but at one of my past dinners, I used three different patterns (Royal Worcestor for the appetizer and entree, Bernardaud for the cheese course, Herend for dessert and coffee) Because of that, people noticed the china, rather than being overwhelmed by Herend butterflies or Bernadaud shepards. One word: Mix! "

Meg from Pigtown-Design likes Royal Copenhagen Half Lace in white

while Patricia of PVE Design prefers it in white and blue...

That evening I ran into another china fanatic who caused another tableware epiphany. Jennie, who could easily have us all over for luncheon with her stash of dishes, urgently advised me not to buy a matching coffee or teapot. Buy a silver one - it goes with everything! Sage advice indeed.

Jennie's Enoch Wood and Son's Verona

Janet's grandfather's Wedgwood Edme

In fact, quite a few of you urged me to think about not just mixing up patterns, but materials - don't buy all the serving pieces in the dinner plate pattern -the luster of silver and the glitter of crystal add dimension and drama. After all, who said dinner theater couldn't be right at your own table?

Hermes' Africa adds spice to Marja's dessert

Two of my favorite ladies were preaching to the choir when they urged me to think secondhand: as you know from my ebay exploits, I hardly buy anything firsthand. Deb recommended connecting to the auction houses while Maureen turned me onto to replacements.com because with porcelain, as in life, you can't wait for others to bring to your table what you can put there yourself.

China Girl

Flora Danica from Royal Copenhagen - the Queen Bee of Services

Much more fun than planning a wedding - in my opinion - is picking out china and crystal for one's registry. There's no room for fleeting flights of fancy here - these are patterns to be collected and enjoyed over decades.

My mother Jennifer, a potter herself, enthusiastically agreed to lend her expert eye in this very serious undertaking - armed with a fresh pack of Camels and comfortable shoes, she was ready to take on the Big City.

First stop: Michael C. Fina. Their extensive selection of lines, from Bernardaud to Mottahedeh, makes this ground zero for all brides.

One thing I learned immediately - throw that list made from looking at the website away. I thought for sure Mottahedeh's Tobacco Leaf was for me until I saw it in person.

Alas, the quality of the painting didn't measure up - at least, not after having seen the antique version it's replicating.

The subterranean level of the store is like a candy story of color and pattern. For the first time, I really experienced the connection between textiles - already an obsession - and ceramics. Would it be too dramatic to call it a porcelain epiphany? No, I don't think it would.

Darley Abbey by Royal Crown Derby - loved the haunting blue-green, but how good will it look when the gilt starts rubbing off....

Constance from Bernardaud - one of Bernardaud's best-sellers and comes with lots of different serving pieces. Neoclassical with whimsical acorn garlands - definitely a contender.

Roseraie, also by Bernardaud - I don't know why, but I fell in love with this one. Hmmm...

So many delicious patterns, but only one could be crowned mine. Or could it? How about another pattern for the dessert service, suggested Mom. This changed the whole game.

While going over our research at the tasty east side Mexican joint, Zarela's, Zarela herself came over, and after a random anecdote about Robert Palmer, advised, "Make sure food will look good on it." Oh, right!

The one line chez Fina did not carry, to my chagrin, was the Hungarian factory Herend. After a quick Camel, Mom was ready to fight the crowds up Fifth to Saks where we admired the hand-painted bugs, the molded basket-weave rim and green branch handles of Rothschild Bird.


I was charmed even before I heard the back story of the pattern: it was first made for the Baroness de Rothschild in 1860 and was inspired by the Baroness having lost her pearls in the garden which were found later by the gardener in the beaks of frolicking birds perched in the trees.

A tip to other brides or anyone who has decided to make a lifelong commitment to porcelain - look at the serving pieces as well as the dinner plates. After looking at the coffee pots and tureens of Roseraie, I bade a sorrowful farewell.

Another thing to keep in mind - generally the more decorated the plate, the more expensive it is. I was smitten by the over-the-top Traditional Imari by Royal Crown Derby....

but found the price tag equally dramatic. As I don't want to live in fear of breaking plates and I hope to be able to complete the service before I'm 100, a service that is more reasonably priced than not is a consideration.

The solution? Having my cake and eating it too - on Traditional Imari, while the rest of the dinner is served on Rothschild Bird.

Now, what did or would you pick out?

When It Rains, It Pours

Many thanks and lots of aloha to Mrs. Blandings and her merry band of bloggers for organizing the most sumptuous bridal shower ever - this is a crew from whom you don't have to worry about getting ten crystal vases.

Here's to a new grown-up chapter in life full of mystery and adventure (and getting used to saying "my husband")!

Just Wed!

As you read this, Mr. EEE and I -no longer a Mam'selle - are making our way to the tropical shores of love, Kauai.

Macadamia nuts, otherworldly sunsets and a future with a most wonderful man await. But I'll be checking in sporadically - we have china patterns to discuss!

Interior Inspirations, Part IV: Reggie Darling

Editor's Note: When Reggie Darling first commented on EEE, I was instantly intrigued - who is this man with the P.G. Wodehouse name and the waspish WASP wit to accompany it. While searching for a way to contact him, I was delighted to discover that he had just launched his own blog which is now one of my must-places to visit.

When contacted by the inestimable Emily Evans Eerdmans with the request to write a guest piece about an interior that has inspired or influenced me the most, it was both a great honor and a predicament. Which to choose?

After a great deal of deliberation, I narrowed the list down to two that have most inspired and influenced the restoration and decoration I and my spouse have undertaken at Darlington House, our Federal-era country place in the Hudson River Valley.

The Grange and Hamilton House:

Jewels of the Early-Period Colonial Revival

The Grange today

Hamilton House today

The rooms I have selected are found in “The Grange” in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and in “Hamilton House” in South Berwick, Maine. Both houses were owned by and sympathetically re-decorated at the turn of the last century in high-style early-period Colonial Revival style by owners of rigorous taste and elevated sophistication. Miraculously much of their interiors remain largely intact to this day. Both of these properties are today owned by Historic New England and are open to the public as house museums. I encourage you to visit them, as they are both handsome and beautifully-situated.

What distinguishes The Grange’s and Hamilton House’s interiors from later Colonial Revival interpretations is that their owners did not seek to create slavish museum-type period interiors in their rooms, but rather ones that were informed by history, and where the contents are arranged for modern-day use and comfort. I call them period-ish. They are emblematic of the early-period Colonial Revival, when interiors were designed to recreate a period mood while still retaining elements that were not, by definition, of the American Colonial period.

Such interiors often would include a mix of furnishings from differing eras and countries of origin, not just from America but also from France and England. Successful practitioners of this early-period Colonial Revival style included Elsie de Wolfe, notably in her decorations of the original Colony Club in New York, and McKim, Mead, and White, as seen in their “restoration” of the White House’s principal rooms under Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

It is important to distinguish this early period of the Colonial Revival from the later-period Colonial Revival, which evolved to become more strictly-focused on creating period-consistent interiors heavily influenced by the restorations at Colonial Williamsburg. All ball and claw.

The Grange
Lincoln, Massachusetts

The Grange in the 1890s

Ogden Codman, co-author with Edith Wharton of The Decoration of Houses, is one of the greatest architects of the early-period Colonial Revival, along with McKim, Mead, and White. Codman’s work is thoroughly discussed in Pauline Metcalf’s able monograph Ogden Codman and the Decoration of Houses, a book that should be in every student of interior design’s reference library and takes pride of place in mine.

Grange sitting room 1890s

Grange sitting room today

The Grange was built by the architect’s ancestors in 1740 as a country seat outside of Boston and substantially enlarged and updated around 1800 in the Federal style. By the time Ogden Codman assumed influence over its interiors in the late 1890s the Grange’s rooms were largely populated with furniture and decorative objects from the 1860s and 1870s. He didn’t care for their dated look, which he considered to be at odds with the house’s architecture, and redecorated several of the rooms with a lighter and sophisticated mix of 18^th-century American, English, and French furnishings.

The most iconic of these rooms, a sitting room, features its original paneling installed in 1740, painted white, and mostly (although not-exclusively) furnished with Louis XVI furniture and Chinese porcelain lamps. The same toile de Jouy is used throughout the room to upholster or slipcover the seating, and also as curtains.

Grange Sitting Room 1980s

Over 100 years later this room still appears fresh, light, and comfortable to me, and an ideal place to wile away a summer’s evening. It has had a profound influence on the decoration of our drawing room at Darlington House, where we have sought to capture a similar atmosphere with a mix of American Federal, Louis XVI, and English Regency furniture, along with Chinese and English porcelains.

Hamilton House

South Berwick, Maine

Hamilton House in the 1890s

Built circa 1785, Hamilton House was acquired by the comfortably-circumstanced Emily Tyson and her stepdaughter, Elise, in the 1890s as a summer retreat. They bought the house at the urging of their friend Sarah Orne Jewett, the author of The Country of Pointed Firs, who lived nearby. The Tysons embarked on a major restoration and renovation of the house and in so doing created one of the gems of the early-period Colonial Revival. The house sits in an idyllic setting, overlooking the Salmon Falls River, and it is noteworthy for the beauty of its situation, gardens, house, and interiors.

The Tysons in the Hamilton House dining room

The decoration of the rooms of Hamilton House, in particular its dining room, have influenced our work at Darlington. The dining room is noteworthy for its asperity.

Hamilton House dining room

It is simply furnished with painted fancy chairs, plain mahogany furniture, and gilt mirrors. The floors are covered with rush matting. One of the most delightful aspects of the room is its walls, painted with classical Italian views in 1905 after the Tysons returned from a tour of Europe. Prettily-painted wood window pelmets add a pleasing and decorative touch, from which hang (in certain photographs) plain white dimity curtains.

Publish Post

These are rooms that I come back to again and again, both for their simplicity and their integrity, and I believe that there remains much to be learned from them today -- whether one is seeking to create interiors informed by the past or more modern ones rooted in contemporary living.

For more information on the Grange and Hamilton House: http://www.historicnewengland.org/

Reggie Darling’s updates on the progress at Darlington House can be found on his quite charming blog: http://www.reggiedarling.blogspot.com/