Here's something that I haven't spoken on before - my talks. Granted, I never thought I could be a speaker until I actually did it. I was kindly asked by a local WI group to have a chat around what was, at the time, my dissertation topic: The Dollhouse in 17th century Amsterdam and the … Continue reading She Noted – My WI Talks
Running a household in Victorian England had become a science – with tasks to be delegated and a system of categorised activity for those at every level of society. When Girouard writes of the eminent concern for ‘morality, domesticity, organisation and hospitality’[1] in the country house the emphasis is on the rigid upholding of standards … Continue reading The Victorian Country House: Morality, Domesticity & Organisation
Please note, if you hadn't already, it would be most beneficial to read my preceding articles on the Omega Workshops and their connection to Modernism and the Bloomsbury Group in Twentieth Century England... Part of 1 The Omega Workshops Ltd. – “The Big Idea” here... Part 2 of The Omega Workshops Ltd. – “Objects and … Continue reading The Omega Workshops Ltd. – 33 Fitzroy Square
From 1570 – 1620 one can chart the ‘Elizabethan building boom’[1]. Here, we see an unprecedented rise in the building of ‘proud, ambitious heaps’[2] and the beginnings of the ‘architect’ as an entity in the cultural, economic and social landscape. Architectural historian Sir John Summerson credits ‘the most daring of all English buildings’[3] as the … Continue reading The Elizabethan Country House And The Cult Of Sovereignty
The company ethos of the Omega Workshops was a development from that of previous institutions and movements. The Aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century had stressed ‘art for art’s sake’1 as a working principle which translates into the Omega emphasis on pure art and beauty. What critic Charles Marriott sees in Omega as ‘a … Continue reading The Omega Workshops Ltd. – Company Ethos
Perhaps you saw the televised adaption Life in Squares or perhaps you encountered one of its members through the literary and artistic channels of early 20th century Bohemianism: The infamous Bloomsbury Group were a collective of artists, philosophers, writers and intellectuals active at the exciting time of early British Modernism (by which I refer to … Continue reading The Omega Workshops Ltd. – The Big Idea
