A few emails. A bolt of fabric crossing an ocean. A shared sense of what transforms a room into one that you want to come back to again and again.
We sent a selection of our fabrics and wallpapers to Lorfords, the beloved Cotswolds antique destination, and Eliza, our Creative Director, hand-picked sixty pieces from their remarkable collection. Together, we arranged them into a series of vignettes that feel collected, layered, and completely at home with one another.
The UK and Europe's largest collector and distributor of unique decorative antiques, with 5000+ antiques in stock and 150 new items added weekly.
An iconic American heritage brand founded in 1933 by legendary interior designer Sister Parish. Now in its fourth generation of female ownership, Sister Parish Design continues its legacy of timeless textile and wallcovering designs for great American homes.
Because quality textiles and quality antiques share one defining trait: they reveal themselves in mixed company.
Shop Eliza's picks from Lorfords one-of-a-kind inventory.
Our family continues its love of antiques and antiquing, and it is probably one of our favorite weekend pastimes. Digging through country and city antique shops is an absolute delight for us. whether with my mother, an avid collector, or Eliza, who is just starting her own collections, it is a shared passion.
Her father! They did it together when she was a child in New Jersey and later in London and Paris, where her parents had an apartment. Sister wrote about her father's love of antiques in her diary:
"My father had dimensions beyond the business, sporting and social spheres, which was common among most successful men at that time. Father was a learned and well-traveled man. He became a collector and connoisseur of English and American antiques. I am sure that much of my knowledge originates with him. We used to bicycle all over the New Jersey countryside, exploring out of the way antique shops. Whenever we tinkled the bell on an antique shop's door, Daddy would inevitably buy me a Staffordshire figure. Thus collections are born. My father had good taste in a scholarly sense. A thorough knowledge and love of good furniture is essential to good decorating. I am sure it helps to be the daughter of a known authority on antiques."
Jacqueline Gonet, a famous editor at House and Garden told Susan:
"Sister did a lot of antiquing, and I think she knew antiques very well. It was extraordinary to see her go to the big antiques show with her clients. She knew exactly what she was looking for. She went through the show at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York with a fine tooth comb."
Nancy Lancaster's famous country house Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire.
Below is an excerpt from a letter Sister wrote to her husband, Harry, about Ditchley Park, right after the war.
"I just hung up from talking with you and I wish you were here with me now. Even in your most fantastic dreams, you would not imagine such beauty. Michael brought me down.A beautiful dark blue car met us at Oxford. Ronnie and Marietta opened the door, and I walked into the most fantastically beautiful house that I have ever hoped to see. You feel Nancy Lancaster in every corner. Room after room of such pieces—the way they are placed, the needlepoint carpet, carpets, crystal chandeliers (all with candles), China—oh Lord, it’s terrific. First is the great hall (where we had high tea), the China room (silk walls), the velvet room (velvet red walls), the green and white writing room, then the stucco room, then the library (50 feet long), then Ronnie’s desk room, then the large dining room, then the breakfast room. Each one is more perfect than the last. A good deal of the furniture was here from when it was built in 1700. The bedrooms are even better, if possible. All four-poster beds have crown tops. In my room now, I have had to get on a little stepladder (covered in white damask) to get up. The bed is white lacquer with green jade! Each bath has a fireplace and such gems as needlework bathmats, beautiful consoles (as sinks), baskets of toilet paper with lavender bags—I could go on forever, but I have no power of description."
Battersea!
Bathrooms.
Sister recanted this and other details in a stay at Nancy's and Ditchley Park:
John’s partner was my American friend Nancy Lancaster. When you were her guest at Ditchley Park, she would take you to any house you wanted to see. At her house, the walls were hung with 19th-century damask that Nancy dared to bleach. And she treated bathrooms as real rooms, filling them with furniture—an original idea at the time.
At Hasley Court, where she later lived, Nancy sat at one end of the dining room in a wing chair, slipper chair, and ottoman, with pillows thrown into its hollows. Except for the man sitting opposite in a chair that was a twin to hers, all the other guests were given tufted William the Fourth leather ones. I always found the contrast amusing.
Nancy Lancaster was the daughter of one of the famous Langhorne sisters from Virginia and also one of the great decorators of our time. She lived in England, most of her adult life, where she was at one time married to Ronald Tree. Tree owned a famous house, Ditchley Park, which Nancy completely remodeled, using innovations that reflected her Virginia hospitality in the English charm of that fantastic house. Ronald’s second wife Marietta Tree, was also a friend of Sister’s. Sister visited Ditchley after the war, at which time Ronald was married to Marietta.
Bunny Mellon!
Sister was a true Anglophile, and her connections with England dated back to her childhood. She documented a trip to London right after World War II ended. Within weeks of the war's close, she said she would see her good friends at Colefax and all of her buddies in London. Some of her reminiscences below:
I sailed to England in 1948 with my old Fox classmate Bunny Mellon to discuss a possible business tie up with Colefax & Fowler. They sent me furnishings that I sold in New York and I sent them things like tassels, which they had trouble producing in England after the war. But the arrangement was soon stopped because of currency restrictions.
It's an exciting time for Lorfords Antiques as we begin this partnership with Sister Parish Design, the iconic American heritage brand renowned for its timeless style and extraordinary history. Working alongside Creative Director Eliza Crater Harris, great-granddaughter of the legendary American interior designer Sister Parish, makes this collaboration especially meaningful. We hope our design friends in the US will embrace this meeting of two heritage-led worlds — our carefully curated antiques alongside their celebrated American design legacy.
