Remembrance of Rooms Past™

House and Garden, July 1987. Photo by Karen Radkai

House & Garden, July 1987. Photo by Karen Radkai

From House & Garden, July 1987. Photo by Karen Radkai

Villa Polissena, one of Rome’s most beautiful villas - bequeathed by King Victor Emmanuel III to his daughter, Princess Mafalda, on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Philip of Hesse in 1925. In 1980 Prince Philip died and his eldest son, Prince Henry of Hesse (Enrico d’Assia), inherited the villa. 

Portrait of Laura Alma-Tadema by Ellen Epps (1873), at Townshend House, London.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Study, Townshend House, London, by Anna Alma-Tadema (1884)

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

A lifetime of collecting fills the rural Suffolk 15th-century Tudor home of aesthetes Stephen Calloway and Susan Owens. Stephen's study houses an array of accumulated art, antiquarian and archaeological discoveries. Photo by Antony Crolla for The World of Interiors.

On a library table in aesthete Stephen Calloway's Suffolk study stands a lectern displaying a rare 18th-century Japanese edition of ancient Chinese philosophers' calligraphy. Photo by Antony Crolla for The World of Interiors.

The State Dressing Room at Nostell Priory, fitted with a bed in the late 19th-century, is decorated with Thomas Chippendale's "india Paper" of 1771 and chinoiserie furniture of his own design.

The State Bedroom at Nostell Priory. While the four-poster bed was added in the late 19th-century, the other pieces of furniture are by Thomas Chippendale. The Rococo ceiling with instrument-playing cherubs is a remnant from a previous decorative scheme by the architect James Paine, who conceived of this spaces as a music room. The carpet was fitted by John Fowler in 1972, who was commissioned by the National Trust to oversee the restoration. Photography by Tom Mannion for The World of Interiors, May 2002.

The Portrait Gallery at Temple Newsam as photographed by James Mortimer for The World of Interiors in 1990. The poorly seamed photo is less than desirable; however, this photo reveals the gallery as it was at the time, its walls hung with crimson damask by Lady Hertford in the early 1880′s. it has since been returned to its original green damask.

The Chinese Drawing Room at Temple Newsam was redecorated by Lady Hertford in 1827. She enlivened the hand-painted wallpaper, given to her mother by Prince Regent, by pasting on exotic birds cut from Audubon’s  Birds of America. Photographed by James Mortimer for The World of Interiors, 1990.

The London flat of textiles designer Jennifer Shorto, The World of Interiors, June 2017. Photography by Simon Upton. 

The London flat of textiles designer Jennifer Shorto, The World of Interiors, June 2017. Photography by Simon Upton. 

The London flat of textiles designer Jennifer Shorto, The World of Interiors, June 2017. Photography by Simon Upton.

Renzo Mongiardino’s bedroom, Milan.