Working from home, Friday.
‘I learned my taste by myself. I had a really nice provincial upbringing, I wasn’t taken to galleries or anything like that but I was always making things and drawing and  my parents were very supportive of that and then that’s what I did at school: I went to art club on Thursdays. The only access I had to the outside creative world at that point was going to W.H. Smith and buying magazines – not really Vogue – Dazed and Confused, The Face.’  Was there a nightclub? ‘Yes, it was called Liquid and I used to go and I didn’t really enjoy it. I was desperate to get away to art college at the very first opportunity. I knew that I was going to go there from when I was maybe 14 or 15…. ‘

Their Cotswolds farmhouse. As Duncan wrote  – in House and Garden last year : ‘we felt ready for a new set of experiences that we hadn’t found time for in London. A dog! A vegetable garden! Space for guests to stay! But mostly we wanted somewhere to retreat to at the weekends, that wasn’t an expensive pub with rooms upholstered in a million shades of beige…’

On the sofa? It’s by Christopher Moore, ‘the toileman’ @moore.christopher

‘I’d always had an interest in antiques and old houses. When I was at school, I and all my friends used to work at The Vyne, that National Trust house, in the café.’

‘My friend Lucy  [@lucycwilks ] who I used to work with at Ben Pentreath Ltd. said, ‘Oh there’s an amazing spotty chair with Colefax [Malabar] loose covers coming up in Criterion auctions –  I really want it but I don’t need it’. ‘ I got it for about £200.’

Chimney garniture and home-grown tulips

‘When we moved in, we literally threw up everything we could. And now I’m replacing things – those are just Picasso prints, pages from a book. Our friend Mark, who runs an online shop on Battersea Ebury Trading, , he gave us those.’

‘We wanted the place to feel cosy and inviting, a bit cottagey but never twee. We were keen to entertain in a way we didn’t have space for in London, and to create something that would allow us to mix styles, periods and our own designs, as well as trying out things for fun that our clients probably wouldn’t agree to’  – Duncan Campbell

and with Merlin, faun-like beloved young whippet.

‘I applied to St. Martins {School of Art] , I knew it was the smartest place to go to and I wanted to come to London, so that was the only university I applied to, and I moved to London when I was 18. Christopher Brown (@christopherbrownlino) was my tutor – and Judith Watt  (@fashion.bibliophile)  – who teaches Fashion History at St Martins  – taught me for one or two projects.’

‘Then when I moved to London it was actually a really exciting time  – because I lived in Bethnel Green –  Shoreditch, Hoxton, that whole area –  there were really exciting things going on there. In 2006, 7 , 8 ,when everyone was dressing up, I was in denim shorts and Dr. Martens and bleached blonde hair at that point. And I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do, I was at St Martins and going out and having a great time.’

“So I started a fashion communications degree which was kind of styling and painting. I thought I wanted to go and work on a magazine. I realised quite quickly I wanted to do design instead. So I changed to menswear and did a menswear degree . After I’d finished my degree I’d interned with Toast for 6 months, I used to go and stay with the couple who founded it in their house in Wales, tho the company had already been bought by Nicole Farhi then.’
 
‘I think the tablecloth on the little round table is old Schumacher bought from eBay’

fridge-art

What d’you drink on Friday night? ‘Loads of gin, vodka, Campari…’

‘My favourite things in the house currently are the  the new gothick chairs, this  gold chair  – we got it from Lorfords in Tetbury. I love a bit of grotto furniture. Dolphin legs and shell-shaped!’

‘A big poster we bought in Rome’

coats and jasmine

design for a state bed

‘That’s something  – Matedor paintings  – I did when we needed 2 big things to go either side of the chimney, so I wacked them up’

more dogs, and Luke’s candlesticks – ‘I work with this ceramicist  – we design the shapes together and then I hand paint them. And we make platters and vases too’

A plaster urn designed by Rex Whistler for his house, Ashcombe,  and cast in the 30s. ‘A few years ago someone emailed me and said, do you want one?
And then last year in lockdown when I didn’t buy anything, I got back and said have you still got it? Oliver Messel made them, there were nine made, its falling apart but I love it!’

‘I’d heard of Roy Strong, he was one of the talking heads who popped up in that ‘Love Cecil’ [Cecil Beaton] documentary that we were talking about. And then when the sale [of the contents of his house, The Laskett] came up, I just loved it all, I loved how kind of fun it was….’  Pair of Strawberry Hill-style gothick chairs, from The Laskett sale

‘I like the Sitwells a lot and Stephen Tennant. I just love the cover of that book, it’s so great.’

Sweet peas and King Arthur

Fonthill watercolour from Sir Roy Strong’s recent sale

‘I get interested by scraps of fabric on ebay. In the dining room its an old Sandersons fabric I found on ebay. The sketch of costume designs for a male ballet dancer  – probably for Swan Lake – is by Cecil Beaton, sold by Harry Moore-Gwyn from an exhibition of his sketches last year. One of my projects at Central St Martins was based on the ‘Bright Young Things.”

dining-table-desk:’I met Duncan [the designer @jduncancampbell, @campbellrey] when I was 19. I’m 31 now.’

Merlin

‘I remember the day I met Ben [Pentreath]. It was the day Amy Winehouse died. We were living in the same London square as her. When I was at university with Duncan and his best friend Haeni Kin – he did Law at Kings – we wanted to do something outside that where we could just have fun with our friend.’  So they created Fox and Flyte – ‘to find new homes for objects that might otherwise be considered old-fashioned or fussy.’  “It is our belief that beautiful things can improve the quality of your life. But then again, perhaps you just need some teaspoons.”

Ben Pentreath took them up and gave them a pop-up space in his shop. Remodelista wrote them up. ‘After that I went and worked for Ben in the decorating studio upstairs over the shop for a bit, with Lucy Wilks who is now one of my great friends, which was great. I did that for 2 years.’

master bedroom

‘Behind the tulips there’s one of  the photographs of Stephen Tennant’s house, Wilsford Manor, from the Sotheby’s country house sale in 1987, bought from Diana Parkin of the Michael Parkin Gallery.  I go for anything Tennant – y or Beaton – y. And Peter Watson.’

Three line drawings by Peter Samuelson. Bedcover from Saved NY. ‘The Endymion cushion I designed for Svenskt Tenn. My final collection at St Martins was inspired by Endymion, it was all kind of handmade linen shirts and crowns made out of Willow. I sold all the crowns .I’ve still got some bits…’

From Luke’s instagram account, for his 2012 menswear collection, photographed by @kimjaconsento, styling by @anthonystephinson

Three line drawings by Peter Samuelson

Two Beaton photographic prints, one of Stephen Tennant and Siegfried Sassoon, one of Gervase Griffiths

outside

‘Merlin  – he loves to go to bed inside that bed’

‘Bedroom sketches  – done for me for fun’

Master bathroom.Lavender.

That’s the gothic cabinet I bought from Sir Roy Strong’s sale. I might paint it inside.’

Blinds:  ‘When we moved in we just used stuff we already had and bought a few bits. I had left over silks so we just thought, Let’s use these up  – they’re made by this lady we work with –  We said, lets make them really 80s, really frilly like knickers.’

The green bathroom – homage to Clive Bell’s bachelor-bathroom at Charleston Farmhouse

‘All this lap boarding was already there. Duncan’s not a fan of the decoration at Charleston, he things its childish, but we have a lot of similar tastes in things.’

for comparison, Clive Bell’s Bloomsbury-bathroom at Charleston in Sussex

more lovely blinds

‘This is the Boy’s Bathroom so we’re filling it with boys. This is by my friend Fee Greening, she does pen and ink drawings, that’s Byron. That’s by Christopher Brown my old tutor – A Minotaur – and then that’s one I did for Lanvin – an invitation – and then Mapplethorpe –  we’re big fans – it’s a mixture of everything.’

a spare room

Spare bedroom. What’s the next best colour after green?  ‘I’m having a lilac moment, its dusty pink in this bedroom, peach too….’
 – This is the corner of the spare bedroom chosen by Miguel Flores-Vianna for a shoot he did for @archdigest last summer. He added in a giant lyre   – or maybe it was there already… ‘

outside

Spurge

‘as a final pre-Christmas offering to the garden gods, we planted a thousand tulip bulbs, some narcissi and a sprinkling of snowdrops,…’  – Duncan Campbell. The garden early in May

Plan for the garden : ‘We resolved to begin with the things we understood and had two L-shaped flower beds dug at the front of the house. These would be tall, exuberant English borders in the cottage garden style, bursting (if all goes to plan) with tulips, hollyhocks, roses, peonies and dahlias when the season comes around. Next to that we put in a series of raised beds in a simple geometric motif for vegetables and cut flowers, divided by gravel paths lined with fruit trees, and a couple of additional beds on the side of the house.’  – Duncan Campbell

the May spring garden

a cool, late, spring, 2021

‘The pink and yellow builders buckets? Nicky Haslam said, ‘You have to go to this shop, Stowagricultural  – it’s the most ravishing shop you’ve ever been to!”

meadow behind

Lavatory. A tomato soup coloured Coronation Chair designed by Lord Snowdon for guests attending the Investiture of the Prince of Wales. ‘That’s perfect, the design is perfect –  that I got in a local auction, it was in Wales or somewhere on thesaleroom.com ‘

‘The plaster bust after Michelangelo’s David? Duncan’s mum gave it to me for my 30th birthday.’

‘Duncan’s mum drove it down from Edinburgh in the back seat of the car with her poodle sitting on the front seat, I’d seen it in a junk shop there.’

Framed magazine shoot photo on the lavatory wall. ‘Our London flat’s completely different now, we’re having work done…’

‘Ive done one book of my work and things to date – Disco Greco –  but I’m working on one at the moment about the cottage and inspiration for Vendome. And I’m starting up a brand, its starting with jumpers. With the backing of a company. I’m quite excited!’

Thanks so much!  to Luke Edward Hall and Duncan Campbell
All photographs copyright bibleofbritishtaste. Excerpts may be used as long as clear links are supplied back to the original authors and content.