{"id":16831,"date":"2022-11-21T14:18:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T13:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=37455"},"modified":"2022-11-24T10:38:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T09:38:26","slug":"a-19th-century-scottish-home","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-19th-century-scottish-home\/","title":{"rendered":"A 19th-century Scottish home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Serena Fokschaner\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 21 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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For Jennifer Bristow-Smith, an antique textiles dealer who originally studied sculpture and textiles<\/a>, it is the history of printed wares that intrigues her the most. \u2018I\u2019m a hunter-gatherer, not a collector. I like finding things and then researching their story. Textiles offer a tangible link with past lives. We all live with fabric \u2013 be it a rug, or bed cover \u2013 so we can all relate to it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jennifer\u2019s provenanced wares are not cheap. \u2018Although some dealers buy from me, my main clients are collectors, historians and designers, who know their stuff.\u2019 Some buy the rarer pieces to reproduce the designs; others to make cushions or for upcycling<\/a>. A set of 18th-century panels block-printed in Coromandel, a former Dutch colony in southern India, recently found its way to an Indian historian who is writing about the subject. \u2018But I\u2019ll often buy things just because they look interesting. Sometimes they\u2019re valuable, sometimes not.\u2019<\/p>\n

The hub of her enterprise is the handsome Victorian house in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, where she lives with her husband, Laurence, a diplomat turned historian. They bought it 15 years ago, while posted in Milan. Built for a prosperous local solicitor in 1890, the house was in reasonably good shape. Inside, all it needed were cosmetic tweaks, as well as the luxury of five new bathrooms and a great deal of bookshelves. Outside, gardens tumble down to a wide, tidal river.<\/p>\n

Her business began when they moved into the house with a depleted bank balance. \u2018While we were in Milan, I\u2019d begun buying textiles in markets or antiques shops<\/a>.\u2019 Then a friend suggested she try selling them at a local car boot sale. \u2018It was a disaster,\u2019 says Jennifer. \u2018People were offering \u00a32 for something worth \u00a350.\u2019 So she turned to selling on eBay, with greater success.<\/p>\n

Visiting a local auction<\/a> a few days later, she spotted a box of antique Irish lace<\/a>. She put in a \u2018measly\u2019 bid of \u00a330 and \u2018forgot about it. A few days later they called me. I had won it. I knew nothing about lace, but in the lot there was a book with a list of all the lace, who it belonged to, the dates and types of lace. At that time I had no idea about the difference between Brussels or Irish lace. I started to read about antique lace<\/a>, sorted out the collection, and it all sold on eBay for exceptionally good prices. My business took off from there.\u2019<\/p>\n

When textiles began to overtake the house \u2013 heaped on tables, or jammed in cupboards \u2013 the couple turned their attention to converting the outhouses. A former stables, where a groom once lived above the hayloft, is now a bright workroom and double-height studio where Jennifer sorts, cleans and prepares her textiles for sale. Antique<\/a> French tea towels, in jaunty stripes, flutter from the drying racks, and jars of hand-carved mother-of-pearl<\/a> buttons gleam from jars.<\/p>\n

Shelves are lined with books<\/a> about embroidery, lace, ribbons, quilts, toile de Jouy<\/a>\u2026 \u2018It\u2019s not just fabric that intrigues me but the things around it: costume, passementerie, haberdashery. One of my most interesting finds was a Columbine costume; it had silk petals and red silk boots with gilded heels.\u2019 The label revealed it had been made by a leading London couturier, who once dressed Princess Alexandra for an Edwardian house party when she staged amateur dramatics.<\/p>\n

Some of Jennifer\u2019s earliest memories involve textiles. Her father was in the RAF and she had a peripatetic childhood, growing up in Malaysia and Cyprus. She remembers the vibrant costumes of the Peking opera performers in Penang, and the vibrant Batik fabrics in markets. Boarding school in 1970s Scotland, by contrast, was grim. After art school she escaped. First to Scandinavia, where she worked as an artist and curator, learning about local textile traditions. Then, craving sunshine, she headed to Marrakech, where she drew on her sculptural training to restore houses. \u2018It was all about materials: terracotta<\/a> tiles, glazed Tadelakt walls and handwoven fabrics,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n