The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lancaster House), London.
Lancaster House is managed by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Situated close to Buckingham Palace, this historic house offers a magnificent setting, a prestigious central location and first-class facilities for all types of events and hospitality.
Steeped in political history and magnificently preserved, Lancaster House has a wide range of rooms and a large garden – the ideal place in central London for meetings, conferences and entertaining. The interiors of Lancaster House are arguably as grand as Buckingham Palace. They have been utilised on screen as such in Downton Abbey (TV 2014) and the King’s Speech (Film 2010).
Entrance Hall
Curtains for the Entrance Hall.
Cotton and wool damask in peach used for curtains in the entrance hall.
There are versions of this design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Holkham Hall in Norfolk and the Warner Textile Archive. The 18th Century Italian design has been much used for both fabric and wallpaper. A flock paper version of it dated 1735 was discovered at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich Suffolk. A further version was also discovered at Hampton Court Palace covering mural painting by Antonio Verrio.
Project reference: 1206
Mahogany Guilt Furniture
Occasional furniture.
Pure silk lampas tissue featuring typical mid 18th Century Spitalfield’s styling, much in the dress fashion of Anna Maria Garthwaite. The design includes flower springs intertwined with lace Ribbons woven with a textured ground. The original document forms part of the Humphries Weaving archive collection.
The design was woven in two colourways; the crimson ground (as pictured) was used for upholstery of mahogany gilt occasional furniture and a complimentary colourway on a stone coloured ground was also selected.
Project reference: 2255 (Red)
Project reference: 2284 (Stone)
Walling for the ‘Green Room’
Walling
Silk and Cotton damask woven for walling restoration in the ‘Green Room’.
Mid 18th Century Design of French Origin, arranged in a naturalistic style with typical Rococo exuberance. The same design is also used at the Wallace Collection (London), The Wrightsman Gallery, Metropolitan Museum New York (USA) and the British Embassy (Vienna).
The special feature of colouring chosen is the fine Strié texture in the ground of the damask. This was carefully constructed to imitate a true 18th Century Jaspé effect but actually employs two separate colours of pale blue to create the illusion. The colouring was especially chosen not to detract from the opulence of the surrounding but to compliment the gilt work in the room.
Project reference: 2393
