![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/06\/200303RK35175LowRes-copypreview-642ccc2.jpg?quality=90&resize=1000%2C1500"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>History still captivated him by the time he left school, aged 16, with four A Levels. After travelling in France and Italy and working on archaeological sites in Greece and Israel for 18 months, he went to Worcester College, Oxford, to study medieval<\/a> history.<\/p>\n While he was there, his life underwent seismic disruption as his parents\u2019 marriage fell apart. \u2018From being well-to-do, quite suddenly we had nothing. I had to leave Oxford to look after my mother.\u2019 Kime was still a teenager, but it fell to him to sell the family house and the furniture, \u2018to raise money fast\u2019.<\/p>\n He remembers it as a painful process in which he learned an enormous amount about antiques<\/a> and the trade. \u2018I just pressed on and did it. I made a lot of mistakes. Things that I thought were ordinary turned out to be worth a fortune.\u2019<\/p>\n A year later, cajoled by his tutor, Kime returned to Oxford. He explained that he would now have to deal, alongside his studies, to pay his way. \u2018I had a very good time, selling Japanese prints to the Ashmolean, and Iznik pottery to the master\u2019s wife. It was easy to get stock. I took Thursdays off to go on the bus to Burford. On the way, there were five or six shops you could call in at.\u2019<\/p>\n A favourite hunting ground was a shop belonging to famous dealer Roger Warner. \u2018I used to go there with my girlfriend, and she\u2019d buy wonderful silk dresses. Philip Astley-Jones was his assistant \u2013 an amazing man, and we had great times together.\u2019<\/p>\n After leaving Oxford, Robert met the scientist Miriam Rothschild, who enlisted him to help her sell French furniture<\/a> crammed in her attics at Ashton Wold, Northamptonshire, and who later helped him establish his own dealership. \u2018I loved trading; I didn\u2019t make much, but sometimes I did. To begin with, it was very precarious; from one chaotic moment to the next,\u2019 he recalls.<\/p>\n As his reputation grew, clients complemented him on the way objects were displayed in his home and his shop, and asked for his help. And so the interior design business took shape.<\/p>\n Over the years, Robert\u2019s eclectic taste has changed little. \u2018I don\u2019t have a particular interest in having everything in the same period. You have to mix it up. You can have a very expensive thing and a very cheap thing, and you put them together to make both of them look better. And then if you multiply that, you get an extraordinary result.\u2019<\/p>\n When he works for clients, Robert takes a gentle approach. \u2018I ask them how they want it and always start with a carpet<\/a>. I don\u2019t think of colours for a room until the last moment. It\u2019s the least interesting bit to me, and it\u2019s the last thing to do.\u2019<\/p>\n In his own home, he still treasures objects bought many years ago: \u2018Sometimes I go off things, but not that often, although my flat is full of stuff and I must occasionally get rid of things. I\u2019ve got a green Chinese wallpaper screen that cost \u00a38 and came from Erddig house; it\u2019s a marvellous thing. But seeing something interesting is what excites me.<\/p>\n I bought a beautiful Palladian mirror<\/a> recently; it\u2019s painted, with its original plate glass \u2013 very exciting. I\u2019ll have to take down a carpet and move everything around to accommodate it.\u2019<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/06\/MG3082-copypreviewEDIT-f814f64.jpg?quality=90&resize=1023%2C629"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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