IxSPIRED BY THE PAST ?

PATRICK BATY

HREE YEARs before he died, John

Fowler collaborated with the archi-tectural historian, John Corn-

forth, on a book entitled Enghsh Decoration

in the I Sth Centurjt.l With a complete chapterdevoted to the subject, it was, until I discov-ered the works of Dr Ian Bristow, the firstimportant source of information on the his-torical use of paint and colour that I had

found. The references and bibliographyalone provided me with many months ofuseful foraging.

Their introduction suggested that much

ofJohn Fowler's approach to the decorationof country houses, and consequently that ofa later generation of interior decorators,could be found within the ensuing pages.

The second edition of their work appeared

in 1986, some nine years after John Fowlerhad died. puite unforgivably, I had let mycopy lie unopened for nearly fifteen years,

and it was only in preparation for a talkgiven at an earlier conference that I came toreread and review its contents.

The aim of this paper is to provide an

overview of their chapter on paint and

colour, and to see how relevant it is nowa-days as a secondary source for those work-ing on the restoration ofpainted decorationin historic buildings. Reference has alsobeen made to a later work of John

Cornforth's, The Inspiration of the Past,2

which examines Fowler's contribution tothe English interior.

I never met John Fowler, but have talkedbriefly with John Cornforth about how theirbook was written. If I have understood thefacts correctly, Mr Fowler provided much of

the inspiration and, over the course of manyconversations and at a time when he was

already a very sick man, explained his

approach to historical decoration. His co-

author kept the pro.ject focused, he listened,

looked for the evidence,s provided an enor-mous number of his own references, and putpen to paper, bringing out the first edition oftheir book in 1974.

This book introduced me to many pri-mary sources in the field of paint research,

and to those in related fields. The treatmentof floors, upholstery, lighting, heating, and

picture hanging was dealt with in depth, and

it soon became a vital source of reference ina world poorly served with such detail.Indeed, one of its main purposes was toserve as a basic guide on the history ofdeco-ration for the National Trust's HistoricBuildin gs Representatives.a

On rereading the chapter concerningpaint and colour one can form a clearer ideaof the individual contribution made by each

author. However, it is perhaps this attemptto blend the theoretical with the practicalthat now causes a certain unease.

It should be stressed that much has hap-

pened since their joint work first appeared

and, largely because of Ian Bristow's mag-nificent contribution to the field, our under-standing is now greater.5 What followsmust not, therefore, be seen as criticism,merely as an illustration of how the prac-tices and views expressed by one of the mostsignificant interior decorators of the twenti-eth century must be regarded as just those,

and not necessarily as an accurate exposi-tion of earlier procedures.

JOHN FO\MLER: THE INVENTION OF THE COUNTRY-HOUSE STYIE

When the book was first written a numberof the techniques now available to examinethe sequence of paints applied to a surface

were in their infancy. In spite of referring tothem, the authors seemed slow in recogniz-ing their potential, and often feli into thesame trap that they warned against, that ofbelieving that something was old, or even

original, merely because it looked it.Increasingly it is understood that it is neces-

sary to examine both the physical and docu-mentary evidence before coming to anyconclusions. Until recent architectural paintresearch was carried out at Newhailes, inEast Lothian, for example, it was thoughtthat the Dining Room displayed its originalscheme of the 174,os.6 This is now knownnot to be the case.7

The Balcony Room at Dyrham Park, inGloucestershire, and the Boudoir atAttingham Park, in Shropshire, were bothdescribed by Fowler and Cornforth as dis-playing 'untouched' or 'original' paint.However, some years before the second edi-tion appeared, it was revealed that both dis-played later overpainting.s

Ironically, Fowler's repainting of theSaloon at Clandon Park, which formed thebasis of a number of their assertions, has

now been shown to have been incorrectlyinterpreted.e (Inskip p. 5, Knox p. t6, Sitwellp. z8) The work was carried out followingthe making of paint scrapes, the futility ofwhich wiII be discussed later in this paper.

It was this work at Clandon that providedthe authors with the precedent for using dif-ferent tones of colour on early-eighteenth-century plasterwork.lo However, we nowknow that the scheme that was 'restored' byJohn Fowler was the one applied in r.18?9,not the original 7135 one.

Tellingly they admitted that no eighteenth-century instructions had been discovered forpainting a room in the way that theydescribed in their section entitled The

Problems of Painting ArchitecturalDecoration.tr This description best summa-rizes the style that we now associate withJohn Fowler, a style that is still being repro-duced in both private houses and houses

open to the public. Typically it involves theuse of such devices as an off-black on theskirting fascia, the picking out of mouldings,and the application of three tints of off-whiteon panelled doors.

The authors acknowledged that the onlyreference to the use of three tones of colouris among the Osterley papers. If they werereferring to the David Adamson bill forpainting at Osterley in the 177os,12 theyhave overstated the case. Certainly, the ceil-ing of the Drawing Room was picked inwith 'superfine green, pink, dark purple andsky blue colour', and the doors to MrChild's Dressing Room were green withwhite mouldings, but nothing suggestingthree tones of the same colour has been

encountered.

They mentioned the Adamson bill earlierin the chapter, expressing surprise at theextensive use of oil paint, and claiming thatthere was a 'definite attempt to create con-trasts between flat and shiny paint'.13Evidence provided by similar accounts of theperiodra suggests that oil paint was the con-ventional treatment for the fine rooms ofsuch a house. To suggest that there was 'a

definite attempt' to create such contrastsmight, again, be an over-statement.

Likening decoration to cookery, theauthors of English Decorqtion in the t9thCentury told us that;15

Memorable cookery is based on flair and free-dom ofinterpretation, and so is the best deco-

ration: slavish adherence to the pattern books

seldom produced the most successful results.

It is perhaps this tendency to fall back onthe unmeasurables of taste and opinion,rather than precedent, which caused me

most difficulty when first consideringFowler's approach to historical decoration.How does one know when one is looking atgood 'cookery', or at a scheme that reflectsprecedent? Who decides when the 'originalmagic and balance' of a room has been

restored, for example, and how is the evi-dence presentedP

At this stage, perhaps, we should ask our-selves about the sort ofdecorative treatment

INSPIRED BY THE PAST?

given to historic buildings. Should thataccorded to a house open to the public, orowned by a national heritage organization,differ from that in a house in private owner-ship? To simplify matters, this paper wiIIconcern itself solely with the former.

It is in the last paragraph oftheir book, intalking about Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, thatthe authors explained that the aim of therestoration of a sparsely furnished house,

whose sole use was to be shown to visitors,was to give the visitors 'an experience that isas rich and enjoyable as possible'.16

Attitudes to the display of such houses have

changed since the 197Os, and many nowappreciate that something can be learned byshowing a house 'warts and all', while stillaiming for a rich and enjoyable experience.Whenever 'restoration', of the type now rec-ognized by the Burra Charter. l7 was men-tioned, one sensed that it did not meet withtheir approval. Words such as 'academic',

'frozen', or 'pedantry' \\'ere used, and care

urged to avoid the 'slavish renewal of themisguided taste of the duy beforeyesterday'. 1 8

On the one hand, theirs is a serious bookcontaining a wealth of sources on everyaspect of interior decoration, with referencesto numerous letters, journals, bills, images,

and early published works. On the other,they appear to have been highly selective inthe interpretation of these references.

In English Decoration in the l Bth Centurjt,

Messrs Fowler and Cornforth provided a

very comprehensive list of books concernedwith house painting, colour, and hne art, theimplication being that they studied all these

works prior to writing their chapter on paintand colour. However, having suggested thatcorrelation with these manuals would be ofconsiderable assistance to those trying toidentify colours from accounts and invento-ries, and that such an exercise would enable

colours to be produced for restorations, theauthors then betrayed a consistent lack ofunderstanding of the technical details inthose selfsame texts.

Many of the instances cited below will nodoubt be regarded as petty, and it is certainly

true that knowledge of early practices has

advanced significantly only in recent years.leHowever, when one rereads the chapter withthe benefit of curent information, the largenumber of misunderstandings leaves one

with a strong feeling that Fowler's workowed less to historical precedent, than toreceived notions ofthe past.

For instance, the authors told us thataccording to Robert Dossie's The Handmaidto the Arts eggshell paint was actuallyderived from eggshells. The reference wasin fact to a little-used watercolour pig-ment,2o not, as might be assumed, to themid-sheen frnish used in twentieth-centurydecoration.

They continued to display their lack ofunderstanding of the technical aspects ofhistorical precedent by pointing out thatDossie did not mention 'dead white' amonghis list of white pigments. But this is hardlysurprising because 'dead white' was a flatwhite finish - a painting process - not a

pigment.More importantly, Fowler and Cornforth

referred to a description of how to paint a

room 'three times in oil' in WilliamButcher's rare house-painting manual of1827.21 They described it as being a verysimilar process to the one that they then out-Iined at length, and which they told thereader was 'based on a combination of per-sonal experience and historical precedent'.2e

I own a copy of the 1821 work and, hav-ing made a comparison of the two descrip-tions, can see no reason why they have citedit as a source.

By juxtaposing a synopsis of Fowler and

Cornforth's recommended approach topainting a room with the traditional methodoutlined by William Butcher,zs and by pro-viding a brief commentary, my concerns

should become clear:

Butcher: For the frrst coat - take the bestwhite lead, mix it well with two-thirds oflinseed oil, and one-third of turpentine;add driers, then lay it on as a thin and

even coat. Once dry, this coat should be

rubbed down, and any holes filled.

INSPIRED BY THE PAST?

given to historic buildings. Should thataccorded to a house open to the public, orowned by a national heritage organization,differ from that in a house in private owner-ship? To simplify matters, this paper wiIIconcern itself solely with the former.

It is in the last paragraph oftheir book, intalking about Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, thatthe authors explained that the aim of therestoration of a sparsely furnished house,

whose sole use was to be shown to visitors,was to give the visitors 'an experience that isas rich and enjoyable as possible'.16

Attitudes to the display of such houses have

changed since the 197Os, and many nowappreciate that something can be learned byshowing a house 'warts and all', while stillaiming for a rich and enjoyable experience.Whenever 'restoration', of the type now rec-ognized by the Burra CharteqlT was men-tioned, one sensed that it did not meet withtheir approval. Words such as 'academic',

'frozen', or 'pedantry' \\'ere used, and care

urged to avoid the 'slavish renewal of themisguided taste of the duy beforeyesterday'. 1 8

On the one hand, theirs is a serious bookcontaining a wealth of sources on everyaspect of interior decoration, with referencesto numerous letters, journals, bills, images,

and early published works. On the other,they appear to have been highly selective inthe interpretation of these references.

In English Decoration in the l Bth Centurjt,

Messrs Fowler and Cornforth provided a

very comprehensive list of books concernedwith house painting, colour, and hne art, theimplication being that they studied all these

works prior to writing their chapter on paintand colour. However, having suggested thatcorrelation with these manuals would be ofconsiderable assistance to those trying toidentify colours from accounts and invento-ries, and that such an exercise would enable

colours to be produced for restorations, theauthors then betrayed a consistent lack ofunderstanding of the technical details inthose selfsame texts.

Many of the instances cited below will nodoubt be regarded as petty, and it is certainly

true that knowledge of early practices has

advanced significantly only in recent years.leHowever, when one rereads the chapter withthe benefit of curent information, the largenumber of misunderstandings leaves one

with a strong feeling that Fowler's workowed less to historical precedent, than toreceived notions ofthe past.

For instance, the authors told us thataccording to Robert Dossie's The Handmaidto the Arts eggshell paint was actuallyderived from eggshells. The reference wasin fact to a little-used watercolour pig-ment,2o not, as might be assumed, to themid-sheen frnish used in twentieth-centurydecoration.

They continued to display their lack ofunderstanding of the technical aspects ofhistorical precedent by pointing out thatDossie did not mention 'dead white' amonghis list of white pigments. But this is hardlysurprising because 'dead white' was a flatwhite finish - a painting process - not a

pigment.More importantly, Fowler and Cornforth

referred to a description of how to paint a

room 'three times in oil' in WilliamButcher's rare house-painting manual of1827.21 They described it as being a verysimilar process to the one that they then out-Iined at length, and which they told thereader was 'based on a combination of per-sonal experience and historical precedent'.2e

I own a copy of the 1821 work and, hav-ing made a comparison of the two descrip-tions, can see no reason why they have citedit as a source.

By juxtaposing a synopsis of Fowler and

Cornforth's recommended approach topainting a room with the traditional methodoutlined by William Butcher,zs and by pro-viding a brief commentary, my concerns

should become clear:

Butcher: For the frrst coat - take the bestwhite lead, mix it well with two-thirds oflinseed oil, and one-third of turpentine;add driers, then lay it on as a thin and

even coat. Once dry, this coat should be

rubbed down, and any holes filled.

JOHN FO\^/LER: THE INVENTION OF THE COUNTRY-HOUSE STYLE

Fowler and Cornforth; The surface should

be primed with a white-lead primer, the

holes and cracks should then be filled.The surface is then rubbed down, usingprogressively finer grades of glass paper.

A coat of transparent shellac polish is

then applied.

The composition of the first coat is basi-

cally similar.2a Nowadays, one winces to see

the modern authors unknowingly suggest

the hazardous practice of the dry rubbingdown of a lead*painted surface, thus releas-

ing a cloud of toxic particles into the air.25

The light use of a wet pumice stone, or wetand dry paper, might have been mentioned ifthey were describing the correct method ofwet rubbing down. Having used one or twodifferent grades of sandpaper, and (presum-ably) removed much of the first coat, theythen applied shellac, rather than a secondcoaf of nrimer

Their next process was slightly more

elaborate than that described in the originaltext:

Butcher: The second coat was to be mixedas before, although fewer driers were tobe added.

Fowler and Cornforth: Two coats of under-coat were next applied. We were told thatas white eggshell (a modern alkyd resintitanium based paint) tended to discolourand darken when used by itself, it was

better to use a mixture of 50 per cent

w-hite eggshell and 5o per cent flat whiteundercoat as the last undercoat before the

final colour was applied.

The final process was somewhat differentto the original:

Butcher: The third coat was mixed usinghalf oil and half turpentine. A colourless

drier in the lorm of white copperas (zinc

sulphate) and a small quantity of blue orblack pigment were added to reduce the

inherent yellowness of the white.

Fowler and Cornforth: The finaL coat

should have stainers added and be given a

flat finish. The alkyd resin eggshell paint

could be thinned with pure turpentine,and sometimes a very small quantity oflinseed oil could be added. This, we weretold, would allow the paint to 'flow' more

easily if it seemed 'ropy' (i.e. thick and

streaky).

In the next paragraph, however, Fowlerand Cornforth went on to quote the late

Morgan Philips, who said,26

Most of us now understand that old paint has

not only colour but a ropy textured appear-

ance, usually showing pronounced brushmarks.

puite why this quote was included is unclear,

especially as we had just been told to add lin-seed oil in order to prevent a'ropy' appear-

ance, and to avoid a 'dead mechanical finish'.Surely this latter, itself, is a further contra-diction, as a smoother finish would be more'dead' and'mechanical' than a'ropy' one?

From a technical point of view, one mightquestion the wisdom of mixing turpentineand linseed oil with a ready-formulatedproduct that contained neither, and whichhad been carefully produced in order to flow,and to cover well.

The authors then stated that oil wouldtend to give a glossy appearance, and so

should be used very sparingly. However, theaddition of linseed oil would not only make

it glossier, it would also increase the chance

of the paint yellowing. This was, presumably,

why they had suggested mixing the whiteeggshell with flat undercoat to produce a

whiter base coat. Would it not have been

better to have left the paint alone?

It might seem unduly pedantic to criticizetheir technique, but it appears to be moreappropriate for the painting of furniturerather than architectural surfaces. The cit-ing of William Butcher's method of rsst is

completely spurious, and their process

appears to have no basis in recognizable his-torical precedent.

No doubt, such a long-winded process

would add to the cost of the work. Indeed,

the authors admitted that their process

might sound a very long-drawn-out and

costly one, but they claimed that it was the

INSPIRED BY THE PAST?

only way to avoid a dead mechanical finishthat is 'so unpleasing in a large room in an

old house'.27 However, the unnecessary com-plexity of the process, cloaked as it was inmock-historical garb, seems to have been

highly prized by Fowler's clients.To give a greater sense of depth and tex-

ture to the colour, the authors told us thatthe final coat of paint might be applied in dif-ferent ways, the most usual of which werebrush graining, stippling, glaze painting,and dragging. All of these fashionable fin-ishes, like the actual method of paintingwhich had just been described, 'are based onhistorical precedents'.28 Once again, an ele-ment of distortion had crept into their text,unless of course a more recent origin was

implied by their use of the word 'historical'.

Certainly, Dossie mentioned'glazing',2sbut in the context of fine art and smallpainted objects, not the decoration of wallsor woodwork, Similarly, when he referred tocolours that are transparent in water, ratherthan oil, he called these 'washing' colours -a term familiar to watercolourists. DavidRamsay Hay, in the sixth edition of hts Lazus

of Harmonious Colouring of 1847, was one ofthe first authors to mention a stipplingbrush, but this was for laying off a flattingcoat on painted walls, and certainly not a

coloured glaze.3o Brush graining, stippling,and dragging were actually processes used

in the early years of the twentieth century,but could this legitimately be considered'historical' when Fowler and Cornforth'swork was published in 1974, only fifty or so

years laterPslAs if to acknowledge some of the doubts

that might have been raised by more knowl-edgeable readers, Fowler and Cornforthadmitted that glazin g:3 2

... is a method that is very difficult to analyse

through scrapes, because the glazes are so

thin that they hardly ever survive and also

because they are effected by the action of the

oils in the paint.

Once again, we were being asked to believethat in spite of the lack of physical evidence,

their reading of historical sources had pro-vided them with this information.

Furthermore, they said'33

To anyone concerned with restoration whoencounters these techniques used in historicinteriors today, the questions that immediatelyspring to mind are firstly 'are the resuitsauthentic' and 'are the methods authentic'.The answer to both cannot be an unequivocal'yes' for the mediums are not exactly the same

as those used in the past, and consequently

results have to be achieved in a diflerent way.

Nor indeed have the methods been conceived

for restorations: they have been worked out forthe decoration of private houses before therewas a demand for the kind of 'academic restora-tions' that is now developing in England.

However, they assured us that:34

they do correspond to the methods

described in the books mentioned at thebeginning of the chapter.

In writing of John Fowler's contributionto the English interior in his book The

Inspiration of the Past, John Cornforth illus-trated a number of colour samples. Thesewere produced by Fowler in 1,947 forChristopher Hussey, who was preparing a

pamphlet on external colour for theGeorgian Group.e5 Annotations on thereverse of each suggest that they were madeup from combinations of the following pig-ments: white, black, yellow ochre, rawumber, Venetian red, burnt Sienna, crimsonlake, vermilion, emerald green, chrome yel-low, and cobalt blue.

Keen students of the architectural use ofpaint and colour in the eighteenth centurywill see that only one of the eight combina-tions of colour would have been possible at

that time. A number of the pigments, such as

emerald green, cobalt blue, and chrome yel-low, were not invented until the followingcentury; others, such as crimson lake, weretoo fugitive to use externally; while vermil-ion and burnt sienna were expensive, and

therefore inappropriate, for large-scale use.

Once again, these choices appear to have

been based on whimsy and taste alone, cer-tainly not on historical precedent.

Mr Cornforth tells us that John Fowlerbegan to use strong colours in the 195os,

JOHN FOWLER: THE INVENTION OF THE COUNTRY-HOUSE STYLE

in particular the Italian pinks and

orange-terracotta colours that he liked inhalls and staircases,sd the most striking ofthese perhaps being the Wyatt Cloisters inWilton House, Wiltshire, with an apricotterracotta stippled over a yellow ground,and the vestibule and staircase of the libraryat Christ Church, Oxford.

The liking of pink may have come fromthe American decorator Nancy Lancaster's

use of it in the Entrance HalI of her house,

Kelmarsh HaII in Northamptonshire.sT(Stiha p. 55, Figure 6) We are told in an ear-

lier passage that seven coats of distemperwere used to reproduce the pink which was

originally seen in the Hall at Lady Islington'shouse, Rushbrooke Hall, in Suffolk.ss

Cross-section examinationss of a numberof paint samples from the walls at Kelmarshrevealed no evidence of seven coats havingbeen applied.4o This is just as well, as toapply that many coats of an oil-bound dis-temperal would have been technicallynaive. There is a tendency for this sort of'

paint to delaminate, or peel away from the

wall, once a certain number of coats have

been applied.a2 One presumes that thepainter used his common sense and owninitiative when given the specification byMr Fowler.

The pinks may also have come fromthe chalky grounds of the eighteenth- and

nineteenth-century Chinese wallpapers thatFowler studied when he was training as apainter of wallpaper in Thornton Smith'sstudio in the 192os. Probably the mostimportant influence was his sight of the vil-las of the Veneto during a Georgian Grouptour in the mid-195os.43

His painter's eye and his historical sense,

we were told, made him prefer oil-boundwater paint to modern emulsion paint,aa which

he'despised'. It was the dry look of water paintthat he liked and thought more important than

a perfect finish or long life; 'also it gave the

worn effect of old colour if applied in thinglazes'.a5 Although acknowledged as beinginauthentic, Mr Cornforth told us that it didhowever reproduce, in modern materials, the

textured effects which could not be avoided

in previous generations, because of the poorgrinding of pigment.

Incidentally, the authors appear not tohave fully understood the nature of soft dis-temper, which they described as being made

from 'ball whiting broken down over heat

u,ith size and water'. The traditional methodof making it involves the soaking of r,vhiting

(chalk) in cold water followed by the addi-

tion of a warm glue size. This was allowed

to cool to a jellyJike consistency before

being applied.a6

They described soft distemper as giving a

dry fresco-like effect that appeals today butdid not appeal to eighteenth-century taste:47

. . . for according to a mid t sth century dic-

tionary in the Victoria and Albert Museum'The greatest disadvantage of distemper is,

that it has no glittering, and ali its colours

look dead.'

In spite of having just told us of the inter-changeable meaning, in the context of paint,of the words 'dead' and 'flat', they seemed tohave forgotten this other meaning. Couldthis reference suggest the unthinkable - thata flat finish was not always desirable in the

first half of the eighteenth century? Whatcould John Smith - another of their sources

- have meant when he wroter48

Take Notice, That all simple Colours used inHouse Painting, appear much more beautiful

and lustrous, when they appear as if glazed

over with a Varnish ...

Chester Jones, in his book on Colefax &Fowler,ae tells us that to this day the com-

pany often apply paint using techniques thatwere first'brought back into favour' by John

Fowler, and then developed by him and

George Oakes to evoke the softness of oldtired paintwork.so The same author tells us

that the paint is put on thinly as glazes over

either ground colour or white. It is thengiven a coat of flat varnish to protect the

vulnerable surface, as well as to leave that'dry' finish which is 'essential to the look ofold paintwork'.51

As mentioned already, this form of paint-ing has more to do with the painting of fur-niture than that of architectural elements.

INSPIRED BY'I-HE PAS'f? 3i

Ilistorical precedent is not rhat this tech-nique is based on, yet it is tliis approachn hich, until the so-called 'acadernic' restora-rir rrr: of l'ecer)t vears. sLridr.d our hand in tlrcJ .-..'-' b

l,ainting of lristorical interiors.Such \vas Fos'ler's influence that it

appears that his reported r'vords to Ian\IcCallunr, 'Norl,, child, a colour can gorrrr-rcldy if you do not shorl, the undercoattlrrough',52 are still heedecl. Er.en nou' thereis a belief, in some quarters, that lead paintn as transparent. 'fhis is indeecl odd because,

iirr or.er three hundred years, and in spite of'

'tr knori rr torit it;t it u a: u:ed fi)r it\ opa( -'rr'.tr Sirrrilarly ue uele told tlrat distenrper

Irr e: a subtlr 'irregrrlar effet'l'. arrd so trt lr-' i{lues lrsemhlinq the pairrt eftet ts \o popu-lril ir-r the early 198os are still being appliccl,n the l alls of period rooms in museums

rrncl country liouses open to the public.sal'lrere ale manl useful quotcs tn E nglislt

I)et'oration in the 19th Century, and it is per-:r:rps ironic that the unlbrtunate eII-ects dis-:lavcd in these rccently ciecorated roornsrrright have been al'oided hacl one of tlrenr' ( cl) nrade Ittore c,f b1 the author:. J[g;lrovided a description of the painting of a

r.i)onr taken lrorn a letter of' 1767. This:'clated to tlie application of three coats olii:teniper, and tellingly concluded by saying:lrat: 'This method succeeclecl so lr,ell that it. all one colour, and looks extremely nell.. .'r'i Miglit this be taken to mean that a

.,,lrd colour ivas dcsirable?

-\ttention has been drau,n to one of the',:Lll)' cccphtfic t|eailrrent: that Fo$ ler ga|e' rr historit interitrr in tlre errntple oF tlre::r1oon at \Vallington, in Northumberland.: i.rr ittg tarrled out l)aint \('rapes, attd conre' rlrc conclusion tlrat original)51 in tlrc: +Os, the s,alls u,ere lilac and the plaster-

', Ll'k u.hite, Johrr Folvler rer.ersed this,,irnting the rvalls lr,hite ancl the plasterrvorhl ac. If such re\rersals t ere considered justi-

: .'tl. one u,onders \\,hy it \vas e\ren fclt neces--.rll to take scrapes. As a one-off exarllple' : lrla)' not ha\e been such a problenl. but

, r'v the r isiting publit told u lrat had lrap-( ne(l here, or \\.ere they allou.ed to assllme

' ut this \vas an earlier, 'restored', scherne?

Another exarnple. perlraps belter knori n.

is \Vest Wvcombe Park in Buckingharnshire,transformed in the 1?4Os fl'om a QueenAnne house into a broadly Palladian one.

Here, as the late Sir Francis Dashu'ood tellsus in ]ris history of the house,56 he ernployed

John Forvler to help restore the house afterthe \\rar. The u,alls of the Saloon lvere, he

says, painted a 'startling yellor.rr' and thcnglazed, in a manner similar to that at NancyLancaster's drau'ing room at the back of her

shop in 39 Brook Street, London.57 MrsLancaster ach.ised the Dashrvoods to retaintlre nincteentlr-t entrrr) qrainirrg on tlre

dado. a. .lre consideled rr lrite 'so boling.-'uIn the Music Room, Forvler stripped off

the nineteenth-century pink u,allpaper and

r,vas h-rcky to llncl tr'aces of- rvhat he belier..ed

to be the original red oclrre. After applyingan undercoat ol u,hite, he and Hal Baxby\pcl)t thrcc dal s 'rrrirrg thc .porrgirrg tet h-nique' that thcy hacl lcarnt as apprentices

together'.5!l

Once again, no mention is rnade in theguiclebook and it would appear that thecolours ancl processes used by Forvler at

houses such as \Vallington and \\'est\\combe bore more relation to the twenti-eth century than to the eighteenth. No doubtrnar-ry r.isitors u'ill havc associated these

schemes lr,ith the furniture and paintings,ancl come arvay u,ith distorted notions of his-torical desipJn. In houses such as this, rvhich

are open to the public, conluscd messages

are so often being gir.en. Small rvonder that,having been softenecl up by such sights, thepublic is confused as to r,r,hich genr.rinely con-stitute historical paint colours.

Both Chester Jones and John Cornforthtell us of the benefits of' 'scrapes', and lrelearn that John Foi.vler rvould use thetl todiscol'er the nature of past colour schenres.

Indeed, one still reads of color-rrs beinp;

rnatched to paint scrapes.6o One rvonders if'such credence u'ould be placed on this sortof process if the practitioners understoodthe distortions tliat can take place.

The problenr of relying on scrapes can be

seen in an area of scraped paint in the llmpress

.Iosephine's Music Room at Malmaison, near

38 .IOH)I !.O\vLER: .fITE INvENTION oF .IIIE C()UN.IRY-IIOUSE STYI-E

Paris, in F rance. A photograph takel'r in 1996

sholr's the results of'thc 1981J redecoration

based on scrapes. During that thirteen-year

periocl, the scraped area of thc capital has

beconre mr-rch less dark as a result of expo-

slrre to ultrar,iolet light in the fbrrlr of day-

light. The green paint that lr'as rnatched to

tlie (then) freshly exposed scrape now acts

as a permanent remincler of the fblly of ill-consiclered scraping.

Serr,ir-rg as a furthcr exarnple are tlie paint

colours found in a sixty-year-old paint saur-

ple book, on one side as tliey r.vere u'hen the

book rvas first opened, and on the other after

lengthy exposure to UV light. One can

irnagine hon' diflbrent a decorative sclierne

u'ould be based otr the two sets of'colours!

Torvards the end of the chapter entitled'Colour and the painter's craft' in Iiorvlcr and

Cornfbrth's Englilt Decoratiort in the I Bth

Certurl we are toid that: '... it rvould be dan-

lferous to dir.ide the 1Sth centtlry into tr.vo

distinct periods ...'.61 Surely they rvere not

suggesting that a Palladian interior of the

first quarter of the eighteenth ccntury mightbe treated iu the same \vay as an Adarn inte-rior of tlie last quarter?

Nou, befbre I arrt accltsed of'an unl\iar-

rantcd assault otl two authors who are not in

a position to answer back, I must enrphasize

that my purposc in questioning theirapproach is purcly a concern u'ith the treat-

nrent of historic interiors in br"rildings opert

to the public.

A giftecl and ittnovative dccorator Johl-r

Forvlcr might har,e been, but to suggest that

his treatment of historic interiors is u'orth

anything more than a lar54e chapter in the

history of interior design rvould be asking

too much. Due consideration should be

given to the rvorlt carried out by hinr. Let us

ensure, hon-ever, that it is as a sigr-rificant

trr,entieth-century clecorator that he is

renrernberecl, and not as oue u'orking u'ithhistorical precedent or scholarly research

guicling his hand.

In sutnmary, thc materials and rncthods

uscd by John Fou'ler t-ere altogether closer

to those that rve employ today. As far as pre-

seru.ing exantples of his rvorit is concerned,

this rnight be clone on a house-by-house

basis. Sonre of tlie better examples rnight be

kept, r.vhile those produced on an 'of}' day'

might be replaced by scherrtes that have

more rele"'ance to the fhcts knou'n about the

house.

In spite o1' the foregoing, English

Decoration in the lBth Centurlt is a highly sig-

niflcant r'r'ork and should be studied, albeit

nith the care taken u,hen studying any

rvork that blends opinion u'ith fact. As the

authors themselves said of the study of historic

decoration,62

... if the airn is to try to develop an ob.jective

approach to decoration ar-rcl restoration, it is

necessar)' to try to tlnderstand hori' and l'h)'s'e lt>ok at the past in the \\,ay rve do atrcl to be

ar'vare of *'hat itrflrtences there have been on

country houses in thc course of this centurl'.

No one can deny the enormous influer-rce ofJohn Fou'ler, and it is only by ttorv questiolr-

ing his o\\:n approach that \\re can possibly

hope fbr greater obiectivity in our treatment

of historic buildings.

References

I I;i>rvler', Joltn ancl Colnfbrth, .Iohn, Iingli.sh

Decora.tiott in the I sth Cluilur!,2ncl cclition, Barric& Jenliins, Lonclon, 19fi6.

9 Corr.rlbrth, John, 7'1rc Inspiration oJ lhe Past:

Courttry House 'I'aste in the 'l-wenlietlt Cenhtl,Viking, Lonclon, t985.

:l Cornfbrth, .hlu, '.lolrn lbnler aucl the NationalTrust', in Nttti.onal T'rtnt Stttdies, National -ft'trst,

London, 1979, pp. 39-49.4 Corrrfortlr, op. cit. tsla5, p. ezt.5 Bristori; Ian C., ArchitechuuL CoLotn' in British

Interiors 1 61 5- I 8"Io and Interior Llou';e-Paintittg

Colours and Technologl tGtS-|9-!o, both pub-

Iished by Yale University Press, London, 1996.

6 Cornfbrth, John, 'Nervhailes, l'last Lothian', inComtrt l-fb, 21 Novenrber 19.96, \'ol. cxc no. +7

pp. +6-5 1 ancl gB Nolember 1996, r'o1. cxc no.'trS

pp. 72-'i.T Baty, Patrick, Newhailes Honse, tr)ust I'othian: A

Re'port on the Decora,ti.ve Sclrcnrcs Following at't

I)t:anLinatiott of" th( Painled Surfhces in l/arious

Aretts, prepared fbl thc National Trust fbr"

Scotlancl, 26 November 1998.

8 Bristorl Ian C., 'Repair-rting Fiightecrrtlt-Centur)'

Interiors', in ASCLIB Transadion.s, rol. 6, 198t,

pp. 25-33. See also Bristou', Ian Cl., ''l'he Balconl'

40 JOHN I'OWLER: THE INVENTION OF THE COUNTRY-HOUSE STYLE

oo

56

57

58

The other is the recently repainted LongGallery, at Osterley Park, Middlesex.Dated to April troz, from Rolvland Belasis toLord Fauconberg, u'ho was then remodellingNeu'burgh Priory in N. Yorkshire.Sir Francis Dashwood, The Dashr.uoods of 55

West W1,combe, Aurum Press, London, 1990.

22 Avery Row was the entrance to NancyLancaster's private accommodation at the back ofthe Colef'ax & Fowler shop on 39 Brook Street.

Dashwood, op. cit., r99o p. 2o1-.

5e Ibid., p. 216.

60 This author was recently asked to carry outpaint research in a country house in Wiltshire.Prior to this, scrapes had suggested that threeschemes had been applied in the Library - analy-sis revealed that it had been decorated, or par-tia11y decorated, on nine occasions since beingbuilt in the 178os. Similar discrepancies were

found in other rooms.

61 Dashwood, o?. cit., 1990,p.185.62 Fowler and Cornforth, op. cit. 1986, p. 2r.