Stowe House

Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house which is the home of the independent Stowe School. The property is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust.

The trust has been undertaking extensive restoration works since the early 2000’s. As well as being s school the house is open to the public, along with the grounds, which are managed by the National Trust, after they were gifted by the estate.

The Blue Drawing Room

Pure silk used for the restoration of walling and window drapes.

The Blue Drawing room has played many roles throughout its history; a family portrait room, a breakfast room, a billiard room, an ante-library and more recently a classroom and school house room. The trust decided to restore the room back to its opulent glory of the early 1860’s, during the time of the 3rd Duke. The newly renovated room will be used as a formal meeting space.

With only grainy black and white photographs of the original room to work from, a vast team of experts began to build a picture of the how the room would have looked. A design matching the period and with the same half drop placement was selected from samples held at the Warner Textile Archive and faithfully reproduced by the Humphries Weaving Company. The rich blue silk colour was developed to be incorporated into the newly restored paint scheme, the product of many years’ careful research and analysis.

With colour and design established Humphries went on to weave a two colour all silk damask with a twill structure figure for interest. The fabric was used for walling within guilded frames and for window drapes.

 

Project reference: 2458

 

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