DLA099-0131  Transcription

‘Lady Byng’s New Home’, Gazette [Montreal], 12 January 1929

Moving into a new home is always a trying proceeding whether the home be a mansion or a cottage, but now that the last furniture van has rolled away and every picture is hung to ber final satisfaction, Viscountess Byng of Vimy is enjoying the beautiful home she has created in quiet Bryanston Square. No sound of the ceaseless traffic of near-by Oxford Street disturbs the tranquil dignity of these tall Adams Houses and Lady Byng's new home is a spacious, charming place, pervaded by the genius of the four brothers who left such a tremendous influence on architectural London and whose brotherly affection for each other is immortalized in the name of the Adelphi which they built. The house is filled with art treasures, most of them collected by Lady Byng's late uncle, Pandeli Ralli. In the hall and on the staircase are hung five exquisitely embroidered altar cloths framed to look like lovely color symphonies. Lady Byng seems to have carried her love of plant life even into the decoration of her London home. Greens and warm browns, the color scheme of a forest in spring-time, make backgrounds in nearly every room for the pictures and bibelots whose beauties they display. The dining room walls are treated in some curious artistic way to resemble the smooth unvarnished surface of finely grained wood, an admirable setting for the fine old portraits hung round the room and for the shining mahogany of the table and Chippendale chairs.

On the same floor is Lord Byng's sitting room, lined, as one might suppose, with the Persian tapestry effect given by books in richly colored leather bindings. Beside the curtains of thick crimson brocade, there is an additional charming note of color, in the fine portrait of Lady Byng by Laszlo [3678], which hangs in this room.

Walls of a fresh green, a tan-colored velvet carpet, gold curtains with green shadows in them, continue the reminder of sun-flecked woods in the pleasant drawing rooms on the first floor. On one wall hangs the magnificent Harpignies landscape that Mr. Ralli has left ultimately to the nation. The two Daubigny's, with the same destination, are in another room. Wide doors that may be thrown open divide the larger drawing room from Lady Byng's special sitting room. Both rooms are filled with exquisite French furniture, designed by master cabinet makers, so that the wealth of decoration seems inherently appropriate and not ornate.

MD

10/10/2009