Showing posts with label debo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debo. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The House

Nancy Mitford's little sister Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire has a problem we can each appreciate. She has too much stuff filling her closets and various homes. Left unsaid is probably a pressing need for a lot of cash to cover the death duties of the recently deceased 10th Duke.

So what's a girl to do when she needs to raise a pile of cash quickly, in unsettled times? We've already mentioned her new book ,and while sales may be brisk, represent egg money.

When you need serious cash one invites Sotheby's to look around. They'll created a plan.

Quoting their catalog:

"The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement have instructed Sotheby’s to hold an auction of treasures gathered from the attics and stores at Chatsworth.

The sale comprises 20,000 objects in well over 1,000 lots which will be on view in a series of marquees in the grounds of the house from October 1st. The house and grounds will be open to the public as usual during the period of the sale and view.

Coming from the great houses of Chatsworth, Chiswick House, Bolton Abbey, Compton Place, Devonshire House, Hardwick Hall, Holker Hall and Lismore Castle, the sale includes works from almost every conceivable area: Architectural fittings, Books, Carriages and Cars, Ceramics and Glass, Collectables, Continental Furniture, English Furniture, European Sculpture, Garden Statuary, Natural History, Jewellery, Old Master and British Pictures, Oriental Works of Art, Silver and Plate, Objects of Vertu, Prints, Rugs and Carpets, Textiles, Tapestries and Wine."

Letting the wine cellar go, may be a step too far.

Toad

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Nancy and The Duchess


Once you have completed Mad World, and your taste for between the wars English Lit has re-awoken, you find that a natural follow up to Waugh was his buddy and frequent correspondent Nancy Mitford.

Nancy is much in the news as Penguin has re released Love in a Cold Climate, The Pursuit of Love, Don't tell Alfred, The Blessing and Wigs on the Green. Love in a Cold Climate is one of the funniest books ever written in English.

PBS Masterpiece Theatre did a rendition of Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love in 2002. If you haven't seen it, search. The books are part autobiography, and its a wonder any of the Mitford sisters were sane.

Her former employer Heywood Hill LTD is having an exhibition of Nancy memorabilia and packaging a boxed set of all 5 of the Penguin reprints, for release in September, and ...

"

Love from Nancy

This Summer we are celebrating the life and work of our most famous alumna, Nancy Mitford, in a new exhibition: Love from Nancy. Running from Monday 28th June to Friday 10th September the exhibition includes many items from the Mitford Archive at Chatsworth, set up by the author's sister Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire."


It's a glorious summer for the Mitford Girls.

Nancy's sister Debo, the recently widowed, dowager Duchess of Devonshire autobiography, "Wait for Me" will soon be published as well. She, like most of her sibs is a talented writer. I enjoyed Counting Your Chickens, about life on the Devonshire estate which was published several years ago.

Read on!

Toad