Wrapping up our time in London

Manhattan skyline from the New Jersey side of the Hudson just before entering the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan, late Sunday afternoon, 6:45 PM. Photo: JH.

June 9, 2009. Overcast and breezy days, a very occasional spritz. And very pleasant in New York. We returned from London with a lot of great memories and considerations of history, along with JH’s great digital observations.

The Rothschilds are one of the most fascinating non-royal families in the past four hundred years of Western Civilization. One man with five sons created a financial empire that greased the wheels of the policies of kings and emperors, politicians and statesmen for more than a century and which still retain a significant influence today.

Mayer Amschel, the family founder was born in 1744 in Frankfurt’s Jewish ghetto. He started in business dealing in antique and precious coins. By the late 1770s he was trading government bonds and importing English textiles. By the beginning of the 18th century three of his sons were in the business and he was financing the British in the war against Napoleon at Waterloo.


Young Ferdinand de Rothschild.

By the first quarter of the 19th century, there were five Rothschild sons covering Europe – James in Paris, Carl in Naples, Salomon in Vienna, Nathan in London and Amschel in Frankfurt.

By the time of the founder’s death in 1812, the Rothschilds were very rich. They had begun building mansions and even palaces for themselves, palaces that rivaled even their royal clients, all over Europe. Kings and presidents and society pushed aside their in-grown anti-Semitisms and went a-knockin’ on the Rothschild’s gilded doors. This was a remarkable and important achievement and articulates many things about us.

Aside from the financials which are incomprehensible to the average person, the Rothschild family unit itself is arguably unique. The family was All. They intermarried to protect their interests. The women were excluded from any matter of business or money. And so they married their cousins, to keep everything. There were some women who never married and they too are remarkable in their own ways. This bonding and this tradition (which began breaking up by the early 20th century) gave them a lasting power that eludes most of us.

This past Friday we were taken out to Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, the 16th century style chateau of Ferdinand de Rothschild who built the place beginning in 1877.

On arrival, it is genuinely palatial. It was grey and overcast on Friday. There was a long and winding and narrow driveway from the main road, through fields and hills and dales, and forests and more forests. It was easy to imagine what it was like for the guests including Queen Victoria and her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) when they and their parties arrived because the road through the property remains simple and narrow. The grounds approaching are pastoral and natural looking although the creator imported and planted forests on much of what was a mainly barren cone shaped hill when he discovered it.

The leveled hilltop where Waddesdon Manor would be built. The Duke of Marlborough, chronically in need of funds sold the land but before hand he harvested most of its trees for the lumber to sell. Ferdinand de Rothschild had the cone-shaped top of the property -- many acres of clay -- leveled by as much as nine feet. This was done by hand with shovels and wheelbarrows.

Ferdinand conducting tricks with his favorite poodle, Poupon.

A portrait of Ferdinand in his early 50s.

Ferdinand had been hunting with the Duke of Marlborough in the early 1870s on some of Marlborough’s land. Ferdinand liked this piece so much he bought it. More than 2000 acres. The property was cone-shaped and so Ferdinand had the top of it leveled. It was clay and many acres had to be cleared and leveled by nine feet in some areas, by shovel and wheelbarrow. Then the pipes had to be installed. A power station had to be created for gas and electic (it was one of the first great houses to have central heating and electricity – something that fascinated Victoria and delighted her son).

Ferdinand was in his late 30s when he started building. His father had just died. He had been married in his mid-twenties to his cousin Evelina, daughter of Lionel Rothschild of London. Evelina died in childbirth when Ferdinand was 27. He never married again. He had a younger spinster sister, Alice. She occupied Waddesdon with her brother. He became a collector full time and often entertained large house parties of guests on weekends.

He loved entertaining and costume parties were popular among the aristocracy in those days. Rothschild loved dressing up as a Renaissance man, reflecting his collections and his creation that housed them.

Ferdinand's youngest sister Alice who became his hostess after his wife died, buying a house in London right next to his at 123 Piccadilly near Hyde Park Corner. She also bought a small estate next to Waddesdon but used it only to visit during the daytime.

From the softcover, “The Waddesdon Collection Guide,” there is an unattributed quote about Ferdinand and his monument written during the house’s heyday:

“Waddesdon is a marvelous creation: a real creation – not an old mansion taken over with its gardens, park and stabling – but a vast chateau built by its present owner, surrounded by endless gardens planted by him and towering over a big park reclaimed from agricultural meadows by our host. However, I failed to gather that his priceless treasures gave him true pleasure. His clock for which he gave 25,000 pounds, his escritoire for which 30,000 was paid (ed’s note: millions in today’s currency) his statuary, his china, and his superb collection of jewels, enamels and so forth – gimcracks he calls them – all these things give him meager satisfaction. I felt that the only pleasure he derives from them is gained from showing them to his friends.”

The view of Waddesdon Manor upon entering on a grey and overcast Friday.

Exterior of the parterre and south front of the Manor in the summer. ©The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor.

The Baron’s Room.

Ingo Maurer chandelier in the Blue Dining Room.

The Green Boudoir was part of the Master Suite of the house, reserved for very special guests such as Bertie, the Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Alexandra who would use the boudoir.

Ferdinand’s collections are fantastic. Furthermore, under the Rothschild family’s guidance and participation, the collection which the man began early in his life and continued right up to his death 1898 at age 60, remains in place.

Ferdinand seems to have focused on every design detail of the house including rooms that were built for architectural and design acquisitions like paneling and paintings. Ferdinand knew on purchase where anything he acquired would go/would fit in the houses. Everything from the floors, the rugs, the walls, the fireplaces, the chandeliers, the furniture – including many of the best pieces from the 18th century French decorative arts including items from Versailles such as Marie Antoinette’s personal writing desk. The paintings, the mirrors, the porcelains, the silvers, the accessories – everything is in impeccable condition. When and if its/their condition deteriorates, it is restored.

The East Gallery to left of the front entrance of the house with 8 by 14 foot paintings of Venice by Francesco Guardi.

The Grey Drawing Room is dominated by three full length portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The Morning Room. The black lacquered Drop-Front desk was acquired in 1890 from a member the FitzWilliam family. Wanting to keep the sale a secret, Charles FitzWilliam required an exact copy made to replace it in his Milton Hall in Peterborough. Its original provenance is unclear. It was made around 1770 by Rene Dubois and Jacques Goyer for an unknown patron. The scale and the symbolism of the gilt bronzes suggest attributes of a German or Russian ruler. Elements of War and Peace are held by an eagle at the top. Ferdinand paid up to 40,000 pounds for it (millions in today's currency).

Because of this, the house is kept darkened with shades mostly drawn, and day lights very low -- anything and everything to keep anything from damaging any of the precious items. When Queen Victoria who never went anywhere, requested an invitation and came to visit for the day, she dined alone with two others in the baronial dining room (fit for a Queen). The host and the rest of the party remained in an anteroom like good subjects. She really just wanted to see what she’d heard so much about. When her son Bertie came (and often with a mistress in tow), which was frequently (he didn’t succeed until 1902), it was more lively and social. And grand.

Ferdinand de Rothschild grew into a man who was, despite his famous hospitality, quite sickly. Often while his guests were served a sumptuous meal at his table, he’d be dining on cold toast and water. He disdained wine as poison. At the end of his life he wrote to a friend, Lord Rosebery: “I am a lonely, suffering and occasionally a very miserable individual despite the gilded and marble rooms in which I live.” His house when it speaks, confirms this -- although the beauty and the brilliance can mask it quite successfully for many of us.

Ferdinand de Rothschild later in his life with his favorite dog Poupon at his feet in what is known as The Baron's Room. A set of five Sevres vases sit on the mantlepiece. They are from a set of 15 purchased by Louis XV in December 1769.

Ferdinand died in 1898 in his sixtieth year. His sister Alice continued to use the house. Her lifestyle was much quieter than her brother’s. She died in 1922 at age 75, leaving the house to her grandnephew James, a son of her favorite niece. James de Rothschild and his wife Dorothy (Dollie to family and friends) brought a new life and a fresh vibe into Ferdinand’s dream. That is apparent in a public visit.

James was from the Paris branch although he settled in England after marrying his wife. The couple revived entertaining in the house which hadn’t seen it for more than two decades after Ferdinand’s death.

During the Second World War, the house became the home for 100 children under five who had been evacuated from London (because of the German bombing). All but three rooms in the main house were made available for their use. James and Dollie moved into the bachelor quarters.

The heir to Waddesdon after the death of Alice de Rothschild, James de Rothschild and his very pretty wife Dorothy (known to family and friends as Dollie).

After the War, considering that he and his wife were childless, James gave the house to the National Trust to preserve it. With that he also donated the largest endowment any National Trust house ever received. Today the management committee of the house is headed by Lord Rothschild, known as Jacob, a direct descendent of Ferdinand’s wife Evelina.

Now Waddesdon is a museum of a life, of a time, an era and most of all, a family. The “cousins” who have managed the administration of the property over the years have also preserved the sensibility of “family” begun by the founder Mayer Amschel.

Jacob Rothschild happened to be at Waddesdon the day we were there. When after the tour we all had a small lunch in the house’s restaurant (which is its former main kitchen), Lord Rothschild happened to be having a meeting in the room next door, and came into the dining room afterwards. He’s tall and wiry, a lanky character, like Jimmy Stewart, with a bald head, a prominent nose perfect for a Lucien Freud sculpture and a countenance that looks altogether wise and congenial. I didn’t meet or converse with the man, and I don’t know him, but it seemed as if he were a good example of what family can be. And certainly a respectful descendent of his long departed cousin, the house’s builder.

In front of Waddesdon Manor: DPC, Tania Pos, Richard Mishaan and mom, Marilyn White, Laura and Bill Smith, and JH.

Back in London. Last Saturday we went over to the Cabinet War room of Churchill which is part of the Churchill War Museum. This is a bunker built for the then Prime Minister and his staff from which he operated during the war. The Germans bombed London frequently and caused thousands of deaths and injuries, and great fires.

When the War ended in 1945, the Churchill staff abandoned the bunker forever. Someone had the foresight to preserve it. It’s as you might expect – a warren of rooms and corridors with a second lower level for sleeping, etc. The rooms on this tour also contain some sleeping rooms for certain members of Churchill’s staff, as well as a bedroom for the Prime Minister and for Clementine Churchill. Her room is the only one with a faded chintz covered chair. Churchill did not like to sleep down below and did so on only three nights. He did, however take his afternoon hour nap on his bed. Many of the other rooms are for radio and telegraph staff, conference rooms and typist and clerical offices.

A tunnel cut through the special slab that was built to protect Churchill's bunker from aerial bombing.

The tour is very simply and conveniently organized. You are allowed to wander almost anywhere and see everything the recorded guide that accompanies the tour explains everything you’re looking at very clearly, so you get the picture.

In the background you can hear the sounds of phones ringing and of distance air raid warnings of oncoming “doodle bombs” that the Germans dropped in massive numbers. You’re in the bunker long enough to get a sense of the urgency and frightening circumstances that people were living and operating with. For a long time the British anticipated a German invasion. The day they thought it might happen coincidentally was 9/11 in 1942. After a few days, they realized it wasn’t going to happen. Hitler had turned his attention eastward to Russia and a pathway to ultimate defeat.

The Cabinet Room (above, right) was the inner sanctum of British government, the room used for meetings of the Prime Minister, a select few ministers and advisers of his War Cabinet and his Chiefs of Staff. Churchill occupied the large wooden seat at the far side of the room and presided over a coalition of ministers drawn from all sides of Parliament. The room was also used frequently by the Defence Committee, which initially served as Churchill's principal instrument for conducting the war, bringing together specific ministers and Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces. Cabinet meetings could start and finish at any time of the day or night. Churchill, who was famed for retiring late, occasionally called meetings here during the evening bombing raids of 1940 and 1941 and sometimes brought them to a close long after midnight. The "Fine and Warm" sign was the weather forecast for the day.

Schedule of alarm signals.

A cross section of the slab, a thick layer of concrete designed to protect its occupants from the impact of a bomb.

Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary's Room.

The Transatlantic Telephone room where Churchill made his private phone calls directly to President Roosevelt and later President Truman in the white House Oval Office.

Clockwise from top left: Clementine Churchill's Room; Brendan Bracken's (Minister of Information) accomodations; Prime Minister's Dining Room; The Churchill's Kitchen; Chiefs of Staff Conference Room; Prime Minister's detectives.

Clockwise from top left: Fuses and meters; Plant Room No. 7; A reminder to turn off the lights to conserve energy; A look down one of the hallways in the direction of the First Aid room.

BBC outside broadcast equipment room.

Emergency office accommodation for short-hand typists and switchboard.

Typing Pool.

Emergency office and sleeping accommodation.

Clockwise from top left: Advanced Headquarters of the GHQ, Home Forces; Keys for the many rooms; Wood pillars to further insulate the rooms from attack; General Sir Hastings Ismay's office.

The Operations Room.

The Prime Minister's Room. Churchill took an hour's nap every afternoon. On the ashtray under the green lampshade is a fresh cigar.

On Friday night we went to dinner in Chelsea at Manicomio with Joe Armstrong and an old friend from California, Dominique Kirby. It was raining lightly and somewhat chilly outside although a number of diners were enjoying the al fresco despite its drawbacks.

Dinner at Manicomio in Chelsea. The soup is a gazpacho with the slightest chunkiness in the puree and crab meat garnish.

So much of this part of the city is so beautifully maintained. “The streets and the sidewalks are so clean,” JH remarked several times as we passed through different areas. That is not true of the entire London, but the higher end areas are, like much of New York’s Upper East Side, very neatly kept up. Although perhaps moreso in London.

London colors in the rain.

Trafalgar Square.

Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace.

London's loaded with available taxis, even in the rain.

Giving directions in St. James's Park.

Scenes from St. James's Park.

London flowers.

Exiting the park onto Birdcage Walk.

Saturday we went back to the Olympia to photograph more booths. The silver-plated bronze bulldog at Dutemenil that JH photographed the day before had already sold. Dealers were doing business. The Elizabethan bed with its pillars of a single carved piece of wood and many other pieces in the booth had red markers on them. There were a lot of sales going on. The man with the canes was intriguing. They were purely cosmetic. The stick meant power. You began to see the sense of it.

Martin Murray.

A Brass Bound Coromandel Vanity Box by S. Fisher, £12,000 from Hampton Antiques.

Bernard Steinitz.

Owen Hargreaves + Jasmine Dahl, London.

Darnley Fine Art, London.

A crocus planter in the form of a hedgehog, circa 1830, from Andrew Dando.

The Nickleby family from Andrew Dando.

Rountree Fine Art, London.

Trinity House FIne Art.

Frederick Whitehead's Warwick Castle from Thomas Mangnall Fine Art.

Fine George III Regency Lyre End Rosewood game and reading table, circa 1815.

Proud Galleries/Idea Generation, London.

Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam & New York.

Finch & Co.

Adrian Alan.

Guy Dennler Antiques, Maiden Newton.

A bouquet from Guy Dennler Antiques.

A rain-soaked bouquet in St. James's Park.

Late Elizabethan Oak Tester Bed, English West Country, Devon, circa 1580-1600, from Beedham Antiques Ltd.

Marilyn Cooperman and Nicholas Silver of 21st Century Jewels.

From the collection of Marilyn Cooperman.

A silver Mtd Boars tusk and Ivory cooler from Elliot Lee.

Haynes Fine Art of Broadway.

Haynes Fine Art of Broadway.

Chevertons Antiques.

An exhibition quality centre table attributed to Holland & Sons, from Butchoff.

Sunday morning we had breakfast just up the street from the Stafford on Piccadilly, across the street from the Ritz at the Wolsey. It’s a great big Art Deco room that in the 1920s was an automobile showroom. The interior is basically intact, two stories high, stone, marble and steel. Grand and now a luncheonette, albeit a very grand one. And very popular. The morning before at noontime, the wait for a table was a half hour. It’s a kind of London version of our Balthazar or Pastis.

From there it was down to Spencer House for the tour, then a quick look at more famous residences around St. James, and off to Heathrow and back to New York.