Private Houses of France
Living with History
Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery
Photography by Francis Hammond

HC w/jacket
296 pages
370 colour illustrations
ISBN: 978-2-08-020164-5
£55

If, like me, you are fascinated by other peoples’ homes and their style then this is most definitely a book for you. Whether Renaissance or 19th century the interiors and architecture depicted within the book’s pages will inspire and delight both the serious and the amateur decorator and collector.

The Château de Condé, in the Picardy region, had the privilege of welcoming the most cultivated spirits of its time. It stands as a beguiling witness to the effervescent spirit of eighteenth-century France and the bucolic charms of Watteau’s fêtes galantes. © Francis Hammond

Some of the interiors are no longer extant which adds a sense of both nostalgia but also gratitude that they are recorded here and thus live on to be enjoyed. It is an intimate view of a special world and time.

This superlative André-Charles Boulle secretaire in the Salon des Muses, decorated by Le Sueur, is one of only three known examples; one used to be at Knole House, childhood home of Vita Sackville-West, and the other is now in Buckingham Palace. © Christina Vervitsioti-Missoffe