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A Chelsea Inspiration
The Collection of Bernard Nevill
Property from West House, Glebe Place
West House is located in an idyllic pocket of Chelsea. The Thames Embankment is within sight from the front door and the King's Road is a few blocks away, yet the property is surrounded by mature gardens. The house was designed in 1868 by Philip Webb, the Arts and Crafts architect responsible for William Morris's Red House. Professor Bernard Nevill acquired West House just over 100 years after it was built and has spent over 30 years perfecting its interiors.
The gardens are an intrinsic part of West House, which is positioned on the previous site of kitchen gardens for the Old Chelsea Rectory. While the gardens provide a sense of seclusion, they also served as artistic inspiration to the painter George Price Boyce, who commissioned Webb to design West House as space for both living and working. Boyce is best known for his watercolour landscapes of gardens, which he painted in the style of his Pre-Raphaelite contemporaries. For the sitting and breakfast rooms of West House, which look out onto figs and trailing vines planted by Boyce, Nevill aptly selected watercolours from well-known garden painters George Samuel Elgood and Lilian Stannard.
In his designs for the house, Webb incorporated the tenants of the Arts and Crafts movement together with English vernacular features from the 17th century. When curating the interiors, Nevill made the most of these dual influences. He hand-picked William Morris textiles for the dining, drawing and sitting rooms and selected pieces by Arts and Crafts designers Shapland & Petter of Barnstaple, William de Morgan and M. H. Baillie Scott. He juxtaposed these characteristic pieces with William III high-back chairs, oak furniture and 17th century portraits.
Chinese blue and white porcelain, brass sanctuary lamps and carpets add yet another layer of interest to Nevill's interior schemes. These objects draw on the curiosity for the Middle East that inspired painting and decorative art in the 19th century. Together these objects evoke the eclectic and creative spirit of Chelsea during the late 19th century, a world that Boyce, Webb, Morris, de Morgan and the Pre-Raphaelite artists defined.
Nevill combined the soul of West House with his academic expertise to furnish his home with unique objects of impeccable provenance. He sourced pieces from English country house sales (Croxteth Hall, Rudding Park and Elveden Hall), Victorian and Edwardian social clubs, and London dealers such as Christopher Wood. He achieved an inimitable look by drawing together objects that reflect the diverse influences ingrained in the history of West House.
P. Collins, 19th Century
Four architectural views of Chelsea
Details
P. Collins, 19th Century
Four architectural views of Chelsea
each signed 'P. Collins', one dated '1851', variously titled and inscribed
oil on panel
6¾ x 11 7/8 in. (17.2 x 30.3 cm.)
together with another similar by George Drayon; and an oil on board, signed with initials and dated 'HS/84' (lower left) and inscribed 'CHELSEA FROM THE RIVER' (lower right) (6)
Four architectural views of Chelsea
each signed 'P. Collins', one dated '1851', variously titled and inscribed
oil on panel
6¾ x 11 7/8 in. (17.2 x 30.3 cm.)
together with another similar by George Drayon; and an oil on board, signed with initials and dated 'HS/84' (lower left) and inscribed 'CHELSEA FROM THE RIVER' (lower right) (6)
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