Mid-Week House Tour

I was invited to Baltimore Heritage’s Architectural Awards dinner, but before the dinner, they had arranged a tour of several houses in one of Baltimore’s most charming neighbourhoods, Bolton Hill.

The tour started at the historic Brown Memorial Church, with its incredible Tiffany windows. These windows make up the largest collection of Tiffany windows still in their original setting.In 2000, the church undertook a massive renovation of the windows, clearing nearly 100 years of grime from them, reinforcing the lead and restoring them to their original glory. In looking at these massive windows closely, you can see Tiffany’s artistry, like in this star with its beam shining down, all done in the shading of the glass. Tiffany accomplished the varying shades and colourations through the texture and thickness of the glass, so that in this window, it looks like light playing on water, but it’s really the texture of the glass.The detail in the windows is incredible, down to the catch-lights in the eyes of this shepherd.

The entire church was beautiful in a very simple way, with the windows doing all of the decorative heavy lifting.

Our next stop was a late 1800’s brownstone house, with much of the original tile and woodwork intact.We were all charmed by this terrific bench, which looked like had been purpose-built for this curved wall.If that wasn’t wonderful enough, the woodwork on the original wood floor was fabulous.This house had a delightful garden in the back, which was a perfect respite from the 100* afternoon.I was quite taken with this vent in the kitchen, which has elevated a utilitarian piece into a work of art.

From there, we walked a block or two to a cottage that would have been at home in a small village, complete with a picket fence, a rambling garden and a small koi pond. Our fearless leader, David, is showing everyone the way in!The owner of this house had a few passions that were easy to identify… textiles, china and travel.  There were wonderful middle-eastern rugs, pillows, blankets and runners all through the house. There were also maps and myriad travel posters indicating the the owner might have picked up some of the textiles on her travels.Here are a few more pieces of the china collection.And I love how she’s used some of the pieces of china for the candle sconces.There was a tray of fresh apricots on the patio, which was a huge treat on such a hot day, and when I walked around the corner of the house, I saw the source for this bounty!I loved the front garden of this house with its huge hydrangeas and boxwood lining the path.

Finally we visited a house that someone told me had been decorated in “80’s gay disco” style, but is now in the final stages of a complete restoration.All of the woodwork had been covered with a black lacquer, and has now been stripped down to its original state.

One of the most interesting features in this house was the windows and their curious woodwork. After looking for a few minutes, we concluded that there were once interior shutters that folded into the wood frames. Since the original shutters are missing, we couldn’t test our theory, but I’ve been in dozens of houses in this neighbourhood, and will soon be spending lots more time there, and have never, ever seen this before.

The owners have used a lot of William Morris-style printed wallpapers in the main rooms, and they went perfectly with the period.And amazingly, some of the hardware remained on the old doors, although it’s been cleaned and polished.

Despite the 100* temperatures, it was fun to see some of the neighbourhood’s interesting houses.

For more information on Baltimore Heritage, click here.

Truly. Madly. Deeply.

When I saw this on Scalamandré’s FB page, my heart just stopped.

One of their customers had the jacket made, and used a Scalamandré silk scarf for the lining. The idea for it came from Steve Stolman who is President of Scalamandré.

Well done!

Mad Hatters!

It’s such fun reading the UK papers. They have a much better sense of the absurd than any American paper I’ve read. And the captions on the pictures are spittingly hilarious. Summer in the UK papers is known as the Silly Season, so when Ascot rolls around this time each year, the editors are in top form. So go check out the Telegraph, the Daily Mail or the Guardian for some great commentary.

If the outfit isn’t colourful enough, look at her fingernails. Ewww.

The ever-elegant Mrs. Edward Claridge

Simon Cowill’s ex-girlfriend

I do like this Wedgwood-style hat.

Clearly, these gals were not allowed to come into the Royal Enclosure.

And I do rather like this one…

I would love you to add a link to some of the hats and outfits that you’ve come across!

Dress Code

Once again, it’s Ascot time, and things have certainly changed. While many people remember Ascot from My Fair Lady when Eliza Doolittle attends in the gorgeous black and white dress dreamt up by Cecil Beaton, that’s not the reality of today.

After last year’s races, new rules were put into place and there are even monitors at the entrance to the race course, to make sure you’ve come dressed properly. And they’ve issued a new Style Guide for 1912 2012.

Apparently, no fascinators are allowed in the Royal Enclosure. But this ostrich-feather hat is.

Skirts are to be knee-length.

Trouser suits are welcome. They should be of full length and of matching material and colour.

Strapless, off the shoulder, halter neck, spaghetti straps and dresses with a strap of less than one inch (2.5cm) are not permitted.These charming “dress-code assistants” are prepared to hand out pashminas to anyone who breaks the rules.

The customization of top hats (with, for example, coloured ribbons or bands) is not permitted in the Royal Enclosure.

Oh, in case you think Ascot is the lovely quaint racecourse in My Fair Lady, think again!

Wouldn’t want to be stuck behind her in the stands!

Maybe we’ll hear something from our Ascot correspondent again this year!

Golf Outing

Every year around this time, the Baltimore Architecture Foundation hosts a golf tournament at one of the private clubs in the area, and every year, we also host a Concourse d’Elegance – or an antique/vintage car exhibition.

Although the past few days have been gorgeous, the day dawned rainy and overcast, but we knew that our golfers were a hardy bunch!

We thought it would be fun to invoke the game’s birthplace and so hired a bagpiper to call the players from lunch to their carts.Everyone thought that it was a fun idea, and the piping certainly got their attention.

The club is a relatively old one and is dotted with old-growth trees which make the course difficult, as you can’t see from one end of the hole to the other.

As our guests finished playing and gathered on the front porch for cocktails, we had the vintage cars pull into place. The two show-pieces were an old Cadillac, above and an old Packard, below.

One of the friends of the BAF is kind enough to bring one or two cars from his collection each year. These two were just spectacular and we were so pleased he brought them, despite the bad weather.

The cars are meticulously restored, and have each won prizes for their perfection.

The details are really stunning in their simplicity and effectiveness for the overall design of the cars.

We had cars ranging from the 1920’s Cadillac to a 2012 electric car – one of the new Mitsubishis. In the interest of science and experimentation, I did have to try one of the club’s signature Southsides. Personally, I think that the colour is a bit garish, and in addition to the Mt. Gay rum in the drink, they float a bit of Myers rum on the top, which leaves an unattractive brown slick, which I declined.

Thanks to everyone who came out for a fun, but cool and damp day!