Duchess of Devonshire's Chickens

Today is the sale at Sotheby's for Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire: The Last of the Mitford Sisters. As one would expect, prices are soaring. As you know, the Duchess had a fondness for chickens. The sale did not dissappoint.  Here are some of the chicken related items.

 Model of a hen, by Nicholas Johnson, made from reclaimed pine.

 Two bespoke pine and plywood travelling poultry boxes with the specially engraved monogram DD.

A matched pair of large continental earthenware hen tureens and covers, 19th Century.

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Coq et Poules (Creuzet 181)

A Japanese bronze group, Meiji Period, late 19th century

A French bronze and marble presse-papier in the form of a cockerel, second half 19th century

Jonathan Sainsbury, Gossip - Hens

 English School, Farmyard Fowl

 T. Benson, Hens and Cockerels in a Farmyard

Harry Epworth Allen, Study of Poultry

A Collection of Books on Poultry, 1853-2001

 Anne Gascoigne, Buff Orpington Hen

 An Edwardian electroplated novelty egg cruet, Mappin & Webb, circa 1910

 Poultry related ceramics, late 19th/20th century

 

 

Take Six Girls

I know what you are thinking -- "Not another f-ing Mitford book!"

Fine, we are a bit fond of the Mitfords, I cannot lie.

I will chalk it up to being an only child. I am fascinated with large families. Bear in mind, I do not now nor have I ever wanted a large family or any sort of sibling. Growing up there were my things and more of my things and I liked that immensely. But there is something very mysterious about large families, especially one with 6 girls.

No, the Mitford sisters were not sharing a single room, their family was loaded. But something about that sisterhood made for a strange and often tragic competition that boardered on psychopathy. Laura Thomson has put together a group biography of the sisters that offers and unusual in site into their personalities. It is rather like taking the them, fully formed and stuffing them into a single room. It offers up a much different view than seeing each sister from their own point of view.  Lord knows, many of them spent their entire lives rewriting their personal history.

If you have yet to jump into the abyss of Mitfordom, Take Six Girls is a great place to start.  You get an enticing view of each of the sisters, giving you room to decide which of the girls you might like to take a look at in more depth. Trust me, there will be great depth no matter which sister you choose. If you have read them all...even I don't think I have read them all...Thompson delves into the beginnings of family rivalry, to shed new light on the tumultuous gang.

If you have never read about the Mitfords, Take Six Girls is a fine beginning. If you love the Mitfords, it won't be your last.

Requiescat in Pace -- Maya Angelou

She wrote, she lectured, and she sang.  In her early career, Maya Angelou was Miss Calypso.  She also joined Jessica Mitford in a ditty or two.  Enjoy.

Our Mistake

Clearly no one but Gillian is reading our blog. I would like to say that I inserted Unity Mitford instead of Jessica Mitford as a test, but it was just downloading a picture from a file with only a thumbnail to go by. As I told Gillian, I am going to have to get Teddy to help me label those Mitford pictures. As an aside, the Beatles song Decca covered was Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Here's a YouTube video for your enjoyment.

Brideshead Revisited, Revisited

Do not be dissuaded by my Brideshead post. Do find a particularly rainy weekend to immerse yourself in the full eleven hours of Brideshead Revisited. After carefully spending the first few hours flush with headiness of those Oxford years, you can continue watching while you read Paula Byrne’s Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead.

Byrne focuses on Waugh during the years he conceived of (and lived) his novel and much of the aftermath, including Waugh’s first marriage. On the 27 June 1928 Evelyn Waugh married Evelyn Gardner making them Evelyn and Evelyn Waugh. (Let me take this opportunity to say that if you are planning to write a novel where the protagonist marries a women with the same name and you present this manuscript to a “writing” instructor, you will be told in no uncertain terms that one cannot have a book where both the protagonist and his wife bear the same name. The reader will forever be confused as to which on you are writing about.) This is why truth is stranger and often far more interesting than fiction.

She-Evelyn and He-Evelyn

It was quickly decide by their very quick friends that the Waugh’s would be known as He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn to differentiate them. The ever-quick Nancy Mitford felt they looked a bit like twins, like schoolboys. Present at the wedding were two of Waugh’s Oxford friends; Harold Acton acted as best man and Robert Byron gave away the bride.

Acton and Waugh remained close even though Acton was a bit ruffled by the character of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited.

Nickolas Grace as Anthony Blanche

Aesthetes, Acton and Brian Howard, came together in one of Waugh’s most notable characters, Anthony Blanche. Waugh, trying to appease his friend often said that Blanche was one-third Acton (the good third, presumably) and two-thirds Howard (the stammering, wicked parts). Harold Acton said of Waugh, “I still see him as a prancing faun.” The sophisticated Acton infatuated Waugh. Of Brian Howard, Waugh was a bit more leery believing him to be “bad, mad and dangerous to know.” It was Acton who stood on the balcony reciting T. S. Eliot from a megaphone. Brian Howard was thought to have had the greatest promise of his group of friends but his potential was never fully developed. His only biography/collection compiled by Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster bears the title, Brian Howard: Portrait of a Failure.



Acton went on to write extensively and is known for book, Memoir of an Aesthete and for writing a memoir of Nancy Mitford.


Another great read about this period (remember, Brideshead is ELEVEN hours, you will have plenty of reading time) is D. J Taylor’s Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of the Jazz Age.



It casts a wider net of the characters and their hedonism in London during the 1920’s. Truly, the era between the World Wars was a unique and traumatic period of history. After enduring the ravages of World War I and believing it to be a war to end all wars, World War II happened. The youthful frivolity and reckless hedonism came crashing in around Bright Young Things as they faced a growing global darkness. So, yes, Brideshead grew darker as did the times. I won’t fault Evelyn Waugh.

Brideshead Revisited

I have vivid memories of the first time I saw Brideshead Revisited --the sweeping mini-series, not the recently miscast abridged version. I am told that when it first in Washington, D. C., dinner reservations were easy to come by on the night Brideshead was shown as EVERYONE was home watching it.

WETA, the PBS station in DC loved it so much that it seemed every time someone need change for the parking meter, they would launch a fundraiser with Brideshead Revisited. But nothing beats that first experience. I was smitten. Pasty-faced English boys reading poetry and drinking champagne! It was divine. In fact, as memory served me, Brideshead Revisited was the perfect embodiment of Evelyn Waugh's novel. As I remember it, there were hours and hours of those pasty-faced boys and their alcohol.

So I can't tell you how happy I was when I received the 25th Anniversary re-mastered DVD of Brideshead. I was so excited that it took me months to actually watch it. I wanted just the right time to allow for the full 11 hours of uninterrupted viewing. Finally that weekend came to fruition. Just as had remembered there were hours of lovely boys drinking to excess. Actually there were about 2 1/2 hours of what I had remembered. And there were nearly nine hours of abject tediousness.

Needless to say I was crushed. How could I have remembered it so poorly? Why did Evelyn Waugh ever want to become a Catholic after writing Lady Marchmain? Was my love of Jeremy Irons clouded by my first sight of him? Should I even bother to watch the Medici's?

I turned to the great Nancy Mitford for clarification on these matters. Mitford had asked Waugh how he could behave so abominably and yet still consider himself a practicing Catholic to which Waugh replied, "You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being."


Mitford and Waugh carried on a robust correspondence which has thankfully been published for all to read. While Mitford believed Brideshead Revisited to be a classic, she found the character of Charles Ryder a bit "dim." Waugh wrote, “Yes, I can see how you think Charles is dim, but then he’s telling the story.” Still, this minor exchange was a revelation to me. "Dim" seems to be the perfect word for Charles Ryder and the more I watched my DVD's the more I wanted to smack him! It is inconceivable that anyone would have fallen for Ryder and allowed him to be a part of their lives.

I was reminded of an old Fraiser re-run. (Yes, I read AND watch television.) The Crane Brothers find that their favorite actor (the one who came to their school and preformed a Shakespearean tribute and changed their lives) was now a "space alien" in a popular television show. They rent a theater to produce a big stage comeback, re-creating his Shakespeare. And then they see it and he is AWFUL.

Memory is a terrible thing to waste! I have given up watching Brideshead and have concentrated on more extensive reading. More later....

A Very Mitford Christmas

Yes boys and girls, it was a very Mitford Christmas at Lucindaville. Direct from Heywood Hill, the bookshop where Nancy Mitford once worked, I received a copy of Deborah Mitford's new autobiography, Wait For Me!


It was not just any copy of the book but a copy signed by the Duchess of Devonshire.



The cover features the Duchess with her beloved chickens which she tells us are Buff Cochins, Welsummers, Buford Browns, rather stupid (in the Duchess' opinion) White Leghorns and a flock of Warrens that she bought before they could get shipped off to a large, intensive farm.

As you may know from reading Lucindaville, we love our chickens. We also love Balenciaga, Elvis Presley, and Cecil Beaton, but rarely do we find a book that so easily incorporates all of the above.


In addition to the Duchess' book, we also received Leslie Brody's biography of Jessica Mitford entitled, Irrepressible. I was a bit disappointed with Brody's biography. For me, it was dry, and Jessica Mitford was anything but. Brody chose the very factual "high road" so much of the gossipy tidbits are left out and the clear, factual details are the ones that are included with little speculation.

My favorite passage comes early on in the book and features a teenaged Jessica sharing a room with her sister, Unity.

"Using a diamond ring, Decca and Unity etched symbols of their political affiliations into the window of the room they shared at the top of the house—Unity drew a swastika; Decca a hammer and sickle."

It seems rather charming, the thought of these two young, gorgeous girls their closets full of party dresses, gazing out of their window, appropriating a family jewel, and carving a swastika and a hammer and sickle into their bedroom window. Of course, knowing the history of these two women, it is, at the same time, sadly prophetic.


What a great way to start our new year -- reading about the Mitfords.

UPDATE:

My friend, Anne, sent me a link to Charlie Rose's interview with Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.

Happy Birthday Nancy

Nancy Mitford by Mogens Tvede, 1948

Today is Nancy Mitford's birthday. Recently her novels were reprinted and in keeping with modern technology, Nancy Mitford who has been dead nearly forty years, now has her own web site. Yes Virginia, there is a www.nancymitford.com.

Here in West Virginia we find ourselves in the throes of a cold climate. It is hunting season and I have a ton of housework to do. So what does Nancy have to say about these things?

"I think housework is far more tiring and frightening than hunting is, no comparison, and yet after hunting we had eggs for tea and were made to rest for hours, but after housework people expect one to go on just as if nothing special had happened."

Indeed, well I think I shall do neither. I am going to brew some tea and sit and read some of Nancy Mitford's letters.

Heywood Hill's Bookshop

Heywood Hill

I know what you are thinking...there cannot possibly be another collection of Nancy Mitford letters out there that I don't own. Well...maybe there is.



The Bookshop At 10 Curzon Street may just be my favorite of all the Mitford letter collections. The book features Nancy Mitford writing to Heywood Hill about BOOKS. Oh my! I was reminded of this title this week when I found Frognall Dibdin's Shelves being stocked by his Aunt Helen as Master Thomas is under the weather. (Do hope it is not contagious.) Aunt Helen wrote about Heywood Hill's bookstore which still, by the way, exists at 10 Curzon Street. By the by, if you are in London next week, Alex Maitland will be at the shop on 6th May to sign copies of, and talk about, his new book Wilfred Thesiger in Africa. Another "must have" at Lucindaville, but I digress...

Both Mitford and Hill have gone to that great cocktail soirée in the sky, but thankfully, we still have their letters. I say we pop open a bottle of bubbly this afternoon and have our own cocktail soirée in the library, with our first toast going to Mitford and Hill. Then we can play the Mitford drinking game -- one drink for every Mitford book you have in the library... perhaps not, for many of my gentle readers that could very well lead to alcohol poisoning. OK, just a single glass for ALL your Mitford books.

À votre santé.

More Mitfords

I recently did a post on the William Acton drawing of the Mitford Sisters which came from The Mitford Family Album. (I heard a rumor that there are place mats featuring these drawing. Has anyone out there on Mitford watch seen such a thing? I digress...)

little augury helped put the girls in order. Now I have found another Mitford question...

Over at Ancient Industries they posted this Nancy Mitford classic and wondered who the artist for the first edition jacket could be? Cecil Beaton, Rex Whistler and Osbert Lancaster come to mind... but



I believe it is Albert Roussel. Who is it little augury?


Today I received an e-mail from Amazon-UK filled with Mitford biographies and such.

A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography	Nancy Mitford (Vintage Lives)	Hons and Rebels	Diana Mosley
Nancy Mitford	The House of Mitford	The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family

Then, Megan Wilson at My Book Covers (also Ancient Industries) posted several Mitford covers.


Both Pigtown Design and Mrs. Trefusis Takes A Taxi went gaga over the new Lab Partners covers for the Penguin UK re-issues of Nancy Mitford's novels.






Well, I just can't take much more. Well of course I can.... We do love those pesky Mitfords.

Those Mitford Girls, Again

Desmond Guinness' hallway to the drawing room featuring the William Acton portrait of his mother, Diana

Has the snow stranded everyone? I have been bereft without my blogs.

As for "Pin The Name On The Mitfords" little augury has posted what she believes to be the answers to the Mitford Who's Who?

Here is her list:

1 - Deborah
2 -Jessica
3- Unity
4-Pamela
5-Nancy
6- Diana

She is sure of 5 and 6. I am sure of 2. Any other ideas? Check this Lucindaville post to see the originals.

Those Mitford Girls & William Acton

William Acton, the artist and brother of the famous aesthete, Harold Acton was a close friend of Diana Mitford. He sketched a lovely portrait of her. Her mother saw it and was so smitten, she commissioned Acton to draw the five remaining "Mitford Girls." I have never seen these drawing identified, so I am not real sure which is which. I believe, because of the difference in shading, the first is Diana. Acton did a famous painting of Diana and this looks like the sketch of that painting. Jessica is next and quite discernible. After that I am frankly lost.

Let's play "Pin The Name On The Mitfords." Please join in and let us know if you have ideas.


In 1985, only four of the "Mitford Girls" remained. Three of the sisters posed for portraits.

Pamela

Diana

Deborah