Country Life Magazine

I was leafing through some old issues of Country Life magazine and found some great images to share. If you don't know Country Life, it's a weekly houses and horses magazine out of the UK which mostly features country estates for sale, as well some columns on country life, and the weekly picture of "girls in pearls" (debutants). One of the great things about Country Life is their access to many stately homes. Their writers do an in-depth job of researching the houses, and their photographers have a great eye for detail.

These next few images are from a house called Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire. The house has just been sold to the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge for £6.5 million, less than its original £9 million asking price.

Detail from a drawing room Entrance hallway, raised from its original single height Column detail Another issue of Country Life featured the Rococo house, Claydon House, also in Buckinghamshire. The house was owned by Florence Nightingale's brother-in-law, but is now owned by the National Trust. This is the alcove in the Chinese Room, carved by Luke Lightfoot in 1760. Another thing I like about CL is the amazing advertisements, aside from the first 100 pages of real estate pictures, they carry. These incredible chairs, a set of four from the 1940's, made of French steel, brass and copper, were being sold by Mallett Antiques, which I wrote about here. This zink Gothic wall lantern/sconce which would look perfect outside of my front door. It's from Charles Edwards on King's Road in London.

But my favourite thing about CL is the little comic strip that appears on the last page. It's called "Tottering By Gently" and the main character reminds me so much of Lady Pen, who used to work with me in Wales, that it makes me ache for missing that place. Click on the picture to see more of Annie Tempest's Tottering By cartoons.