Interview
Autumn 2014
AN AUDIENCE WITH JULIAN FELLOWES
The actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter reflects on his passion for antiques and new acquisitions
Which areas of art and antiques most interest you? I suppose, in a way, I am more like Queen Mary than King George IV, in that it is the family significance of things that interest me more than their quality. The sitter of a por- trait matters more to me than the painter. So I am prob- ably something of a Philistine, but I am a Philistine who genuinely loves his things. I was very lucky when I was a boy in that I got interested in my family’s history, and his- tory generally, early on when several of my great aunts, etc., were still around to tell me about it all. I would listen to their memories of my great grandparents, and even my great great grandparents, all of whom they knew well as children, and they would point out pieces of furniture that had belonged to the people we were discussing, show me pictures and miniatures of them, letters they’d written, epaulettes they’d worn, fans they’d carried, and this made the whole of the recent past - the 19th century past - very vividly alive for me. Then, when the aunts died, I inherited quite a lot of stuff as a starting point for my collection, such as it is. Now when family things come up I do my level best and sometimes luck is on my side. There was a sale not long ago of the contents of a house called The Hermitage in Northumberland, that included a lot of Fellowes and Morant stuff (my father’s grandmother was a Morant), and I was lucky enough to get quite a few things. I do not suggest they are especially good, but I love them and that, to me, is the most important element.
How much has your research for the period settings of Gosford Park and Downton Abbey influenced your own interest in antiques? Again, it was the privilege of being able to talk to people who had lived that life, of hearing about the details from their own lips, that was the moving spirit of Gosford thirty five years later. When I was a little boy, in the early fifties, there was such a sense that a whole way of life had only re- cently come to an end, and the more I listened, the more I learned that it was so. I think I am particularly fortunate to have discovered an interest, as I did, to be allowed to fol- low it up, and then, years later, to be able to put that knowl- edge into a professional project. A dream, really.
How do you think antiques can be incorporated into modern life? There’s always room for beauty and, whatever the
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style of a house, a really marvellous antique will only improve it. There is a paradox though. With a mod- ern house, any antique piece of furniture or painting that you place alongside modern decoration has to be absolutely superb, because the modernity of its sur- roundings will throw every detail of its workmanship into high relief. I am thinking particularly of one mod- ern cottage in London, where they’ve put a couple of antiques and a few pictures among the contemporary stuff... All I can tell you is that they really need to be good to look at, if they are going to hold their own.
Have you bought from or dealt with a LAPADA member in the past? We’ve bought things at several LAPADA fairs over the years, but I suppose my main relationship with a LAPADA member at the moment is with Tim Everett of Everett Fine Art. Since 2012, we have been restoring our house in Dorset, a fairly mammoth project which has involved our moving out entirely and handing the house over to the builders, and it seemed a good op- portunity to get all the pictures and their frames up to scratch. So, one by one, they have been cleaned, re- stored, re-stretched, re-gilded, by the indefatigable Tim. We have had quite an adventure as the paintings have yielded up their secrets - he has brought several back from the grave, including a few of the recent Mo- rant/Fellowes purchases - until now they really tell their stories, both individually and together. I could not be more pleased with the way all this has been managed and executed and I am only impatient for the day when they will be hanging back on our walls.
What do you hope to find at the LAPADA Fair? As we are now nearing the end of the works (he said optimistically), the rooms are beginning to take shape in Emma’s mind and mine, and I’d say we’ll be look- ing more specifically this year for pieces we are actu- ally missing. But on the whole we have been lucky in the things that have been entrusted to our care for this particular period. They have very much improved our lives. And I would love to think that every time there is a display like LAPADA, more people will be made aware of how very heartening it is to live with lovely things around you. I wish them luck.
Opposite Julian Fellowes inspects his collection with LAPADA restorer Tim Everett.
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