{"id":19510,"date":"2023-03-21T09:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T08:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=28416"},"modified":"2023-03-21T09:36:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T08:36:47","slug":"a-15th-century-farmhouse-in-south-west-france","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-15th-century-farmhouse-in-south-west-france\/","title":{"rendered":"A 15th-century farmhouse in south-west France"},"content":{"rendered":"

When American antiques dealer Marston Luce bought a second home in France, he was looking for more than a base from which to conduct his business \u2013 he wanted personality and enchantment as well. Photographs Jody Stewart <\/p>

By Celia Rufey\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 21 March 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Antiques dealers love to travel. For some, it is simply part of the job, for others there is also the joy factor. For Marston Luce, it\u2019s both these things. He sells na\u00efve and painted furniture from his shop in Georgetown, Washington DC, and he realised it would be useful to have a base in Europe.<\/p>\n

Marston chose France for its well-known fairs and easy access to Sweden and Belgium, where he often finds the antiques<\/a> he and his clients love. \u2018I came looking for a country house because I live in a city,\u2019 Marston explains. \u2018And buying a house in France was a chance to explore, to learn another language and to appreciate the food and wine so essential to this country\u2019s way of life.\u2019<\/p>\n

Marston had imagined Provence<\/a> would be the place to find his house. \u2018It is the only area of France apart from Paris that registers in the American mind,\u2019 he declares with amusement.<\/p>\n

Then a dealer friend suggested that P\u00e9rigord in south-west France might be more accessible, so Marston took the advice and went there first. \u2018The house I found is described as a fermette longue. This indicates a certain status, as well as agricultural connections.\u2019 That\u2019s certainly true here, as the house has a separate barn where tobacco leaves were once hung up to dry.<\/p>\n

\u2018The house spoke to me immediately,\u2019 he says. \u2018It is old, built in stone, has a large fireplace and it\u2019s only one-room deep with all the windows facing south. I\u2019ve been told the earliest part of the house, including the sitting room, is 15th- century, with additions probably made around 1820. As an American, that fills me with awe.\u2019<\/p>\n

When Marston comes to the house in June, he begins looking for antiques close to home. \u2018There are lots of brocantes<\/a> in the villages of P\u00e9rigord. I\u2019ve found many pieces for the house locally and I store any furniture for the shop in the barn and ship it to Washington at the end of the summer.\u2019<\/p>\n

The house didn\u2019t demand wholesale refurbishment, but there were additions that sat uneasily in the old building. \u2018The antiques I like to live with have innate simplicity and the rooms where I place them need a robust presence, without intrusive decoration,\u2019 Marston says.<\/p>\n

You might also like<\/strong> a renovated ancient French farmhouse<\/a><\/p>\n

The sitting room was the logical place to start: the bread oven in the limestone fireplace<\/a> was restored and then the walls and dark beams were given a coat of limewash. Marston is always on a mission to make rooms lighter.<\/p>\n

Next in the line of interconnecting rooms was one with a ladder up to the loft. Marston hadn\u2019t decided how to gain a more satisfactory access to that space until he employed a joiner to replace the plywood doors with 18th- century ones.<\/p>\n

\u2018Antique doors were quite easy to find then,\u2019 Marston observes in passing, \u2018but the extraordinary coincidence was that the joiner noticed the ladder to the loft and told me he was taking out a typical P\u00e9rigord staircase from another house he was working on. He thought it would fit this house and, to my astonishment, it did.\u2019 This allowed the main bedroom and bathroom<\/a> to be fitted upstairs \u2013 a major improvement.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Marston and Deborah decided to install a kitchen<\/a> in this room with the staircase. One of Marston\u2019s early improvements here had been to remove a low modern ceiling. It revealed beams and improved the proportions. \u2018A local designer fitted kitchen cabinets and I had a new window put in over the sink,\u2019 Marston explains.<\/p>\n

\u2018Most importantly, by angling a section of wall next to the door, we managed to fit the buffet \u00e0 deux corps, which dates from around 1760, on the end wall of the kitchen. It\u2019s difficult these days to find a piece of this quality with its original paint and such superb proportions and details \u2013 it enhances the room considerably.\u2019<\/p>\n

The other feature in the kitchen he finds compelling is the large picture of freshly harvested asparagus heaped on a slab ready to be sold at market. \u2018Green is my favourite colour<\/a> and this pulsates with its many shades.\u2019<\/p>\n

The couple have most meals at the beautiful 19th-century Belgian oak table. \u2018Unsurprisingly, we have quite a collection of vintage French linen tablecloths,\u2019 Marston adds.When guests come, the Luces serve meals on a table that has displaced the old galley kitchen at the end of the sitting room.<\/p>\n

You might also like<\/strong> explore Wim & Joop\u2019s country house rebuild in France<\/a><\/p>\n

Marston found this P\u00e9rigordian table locally, but the piece that is of far greater interest, he says, is the 17th-century bench with carved walnut top sitting against the wall behind the table.<\/p>\n

Looking down from the wall is a portrait of a dog, which Marston will never part with. \u2018This painting dates from 1888 and has wonderful charm and na\u00efvety,\u2019 he says. \u2018The owner of this dog loved her enough to have her portrait<\/a> painted and her name, Myrabelle, inscribed across the bottom.\u2019<\/p>\n

Marston describes the house as small, but splendidly equipped for visitors. Early on, a self-contained guest suite was fitted out at the opposite end of the house from the sitting room, accessed through an 18th-century door<\/a> and fronted by a restored pigeonnier. It includes its own kitchen and neat sitting room.<\/p>\n

Recently, the old barn has been renovated and, while space has been reserved to store antiques destined for Marston\u2019s shop, the barn now also hosts a spacious spare room, furnished with several showstopping antiques, including a chandelier combining carved wood, gesso and wrought iron that Marston dates to around 1840. He acquired it from a local homeowner, who was about to throw it out.<\/p>\n

There is a carved panel illustrating garden topiary above the bed and guests can also enjoy reflections in the Louis XVI trumeau mirror<\/a>, dated to around 1785, that Marston bought in Lille in northern France.<\/p>\n

\u2018Guests often comment on the Swedish bench at the end of the bed,\u2019 Marston reports, \u2018both for its usefulness and its simple beauty.\u2019 This observation sums up the qualities Marston looks for in antiques for both this house and his Washington home.<\/p>\n

\u2018The furniture I choose to live with is always simple and usually painted but, most importantly, it has to have soul,\u2019 he says. \u2018Each year, it becomes more difficult to find pieces like this, but the urge to look for them is an enduring passion.\u2019<\/p>\n

\""07.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Table laid with 19th-century French creamware.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""01.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Located in P\u00e9rigord, south-west France, and dating back to the 15th century with later additions, the house is known as a fermette longue (long farmhouse) and has a kitchen, dining room, sitting room and guest suite on the ground floor, with a bathroom and a master bedroom upstairs. The long stone frontage overlooks the garden, which has been planted for ease of maintenance and also to be at its best during the time when Marston and Deborah are here to enjoy it.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""10.\"<\/picture><\/div>
\u00a0The staircase in the kitchen replaced a ladder, which was originally the only access to the loft.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""24.\"<\/picture><\/div>
The house is filled with decorative ceramics.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""11.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Marston removed the modern ceiling soon after he moved in but, even with the increased height, it\u2019s still only just sufficient to accommodate the 18th-century buffet \u00e0 deux corps.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""25.\"<\/picture><\/div>
With its doors open, it is easier to appreciate the buffet\u2019s elegantly curved shelves, which are perfect for Marston\u2019s collection of creamware and glassware.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""02.\"<\/picture><\/div>
The wild boar marching along the wall above the fireplace is a 19th-century trade sign. Marston suggests it would have been suspended on a bar over the street, possibly advertising a butcher\u2019s shop. The sofas and chairs in the sitting room have been chosen for comfort and arranged for conversation. The 18th-century portraits on the wall came from a dealer in Paris. <\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""05.\"<\/picture><\/div>
A collection of curios in limestone and wood are displayed on the window sill.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""06.\"<\/picture><\/div>
When friends come for a meal, it is usually served at the dining table in the sitting room as it allows for a little more formality. The kitchen is through the open archway. Marston\u2019s favourite 19th-century portrait of Myrabelle, a much-loved dog, looks down on diners.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""09.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Marston\u2019s collection of pottery from Gers, Savoie and Provence.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""08.\"<\/picture><\/div>
This tall slender painted dresser sits between the two sections of the sitting room and displays Marston\u2019s impressive hoard of pottery, all glazed in a varied palette of warm cream tones.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""20.\"<\/picture><\/div>
a metal garden table with scalloped edging is a perfect complement to a chair upholstered in an embroidered linen by Chelsea Textiles.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""16.\"<\/picture><\/div>
The bathroom is arranged between the structural beams, with the bath on one side and basin on the other. Marston installed chestnut floorboards and a skylight.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""14.\"<\/picture><\/div>
The space in the loft is governed by the position of the stairs and works in favour of the bedroom, where French windows open onto a small balcony. The 18th-century Swedish secretaire, with its original paint finish, allows the room to function as a study.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""18.\"<\/picture><\/div>
With its good natural light, plenty of space and interesting antiques, the bedroom in the old barn is popular with Marston\u2019s guests.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""19.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Marston believes the eight- drawer chest was salvaged from a shop.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""21.\"<\/picture><\/div>
The sofa in the guest sitting room at the end of the house is upholstered in French antique hemp and linen sheets. A 19th-century window frame makes a graphic statement on the wall above.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""22.\"<\/picture><\/div>
Antique linen hangings are suspended from an 18th-century baldaquin (or ceremonial canopy) that Marston found in Antwerp.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""23.\"<\/picture><\/div>
A trumeau mirror with a painted panel is flanked by creamware plates bearing portraits of Louis XVI\u2019s brothers.<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n
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