Lady Ashley reenacting
Italian Masters for the Prince of Wales Theatre
in aid of the "General- Lying-In -Hospital"
(captioned from the original photograph in my collection)
Lady Ashley as Ghirlandaio's Giovanna Tornabuoni
Lady Ashley as Cavallino's Saint Catherine
The sitter is Wilfred Ashley's second wife Muriel , "Molly", And she was Mrs. Ashley from 1914 (her marriage) until 1932 (when her husband was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Mount Temple). As a result of her marriage, Muriel Emily Spencer was styled as Baroness Mount Temple on 13 January 1932. Molly was his second wife, the glorious and slightly seclusive personality , Muriel Forbes-Sempill, former wife of Rear-Admiral A L O Forbes-Sempill. Her formal title was Baroness Mount Temple. She is referred in the photographs captions as Lady Ashley and Country Life refers to her as Lady Mount Temple. I shall call her Molly. So- "Molly" with the help of architect Oliver Hill, built one of the most ravishing houses in London in the 1920s, Gayfere House, in Great Peter Street, Westminster.
(with a lovely assist in tracking some information on the Lady from the AESTHETE. the Lament here.
Gayfere House built of red brick & Portland stone in the Queen Anne style. Oliver Hill's reverence for the formalities of the style and what Country Life called the "Luytensesque," created a "lighter exterior in spirit and handling."
The drawing room at Gayfere House
The walls of the Gayfere House drawing room were of green-silvered mirror glass & silver grey oak. Molly was the driving force for this modern Baroque masterpiece-sharing her passion with Hill. Country Life describes the room: 'The walls of glass- backed with small squares of green silver foil and pilasters, and panels of silver-grey oak which disguised the jib doors. These also formed shutters at night that folded over the windows, while the chimneypiece and overmantel of 18th century inspiration were carried out in engraved looking glass. Silver became a leitmotif for the decade...Oliver Hill was fascinated by the possibilities offered by the new ways in which glass was produced. Moreover, Hill had a painter's eye as well as an architect's, which enables him to respond to a very wide range of objects & materials, both hard and soft, man-made and natural, and he was always able to draw on his vivid historical memories & imagination. Thus he was a brilliant architectural decorator.'
van Huysum
Jan Baptiste Bosschaert
Described by Christopher Hussey- 'the bedroom was the cool green of deep water: a bed set in a crystal alcove and resting on crystal feet, standing on a milk-white floor. The Walls and ceiling are glazed green. The bed-cover and chair of zebra- skin.' Hussey also confirms that to a large degree, Lady Mount Temple had the ideas and Hill- the ability to interpret them. ' Both parties were free to criticise and protest, though each undertook not to destroy anything original in the work of the other.' It is hardly thought that the work went terribly smooth- both were known to have their way and Hill-according to Country Life- used every trick available to get his way.
The bathroom at Gayfere House
In the 1931, Oliver Hill (1887-1968) installed panels of beveled mirrors without decorative frames for the walls, ceilings, decorative panels and door architraves in a bathroom for the Gayfere House in London. In front of a mirrored wall, Hill placed decorative objects, such as vases and perfume bottles, on glass shelves. Combined with the reflective fronts of a lavatory and a chest, every surface became available for reflection. Altogether the walls, ceiling, cabinet fronts, shelves and accessories formed endless Kaleidoscope effects made more capricious with electric lighting. ( Cornell University linked in text) The craze for modern bathrooms and the ability to design in mirror thrilled Oliver Hill. The innovations in mirror design gave him a chance to pull out all the stops as it were- and design a cabinet des glaces at Gayfere House., The walls and the ceiling were in grey mirror, a floor of black marble and the bath tub was of gold mosaic with blue glass vessels in sky blue recesses. Little else would do than to finish the room off with matching blue towels.
The beautiful Molly, reviving the old masters in tableau, appears to sit placidly while who knows what thoughts may have swirled in her head-perhaps a bed swathed in zebra at Gayfere House along with the nagging thought that Mr. Hill was working his own plans for the same in impala.
all the Gayfere House images are from the Country Life Archives here
or LONDON INTERIORS from the Archives of Country Life.
or LONDON INTERIORS from the Archives of Country Life.
the tableau photographs are from my own collection.
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