{"title":"Books by Ashley Hicks","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780847872442","title":"Knole","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Sackvilles have inhabited Knole, one of Britain’s greatest houses, for more than four hundred years. Robert Sackville-West, the thirteenth generation of the family, takes the reader on a personal tour of this “calendar house,” with its legendary 365 rooms, fifty-two staircases, and seven courtyards.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSumptuous photographs by designer Ashley Hicks—who recently photographed the interiors of Buckingham Palace—capture the smoldering spirit of Knole, from the state rooms, which house possibly the finest collection of royal Stuart furniture in the world, to the private apartments and gardens to the behind-the-scenes labyrinth of cellars and attics.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eKnole provides a window onto English history. The characters who populate the pages—the grave Elizabethan statesman, the good-for-nothing gadabout at the seedy court of James I, the dashing cavalier, the Restoration rake, the 3rd Duke of the ancien régime—are all representative of their eras (members of a family described by Vita Sackville-West as “a race too prodigal, too amorous, too weak, too indolent, and too melancholy”). Vita's own disinheritance from Knole prompted her dear friend Virginia Woolf to pen \u003ci\u003eOrlando\u003c\/i\u003e, furthering the place’s fame and glamorous luster.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSimilarly, the architectural and decorative features of the house illustrate the different tastes of successive ages, from Thomas Sackville’s seventeenth-century makeover of a ramshackle medieval mansion to an early twentieth-century suite of rooms designed in the Bloomsbury style. Knole has never been illuminated in this way before.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204149969074,"sku":"9780847872442","price":47.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780847872442.jpg?v=1786032606"},{"product_id":"9780847863198","title":"Buckingham Palace","description":"\u003cb\u003eInterior designer and artist Ashley Hicks presents his photographs and description of the interior design of Buckingham Palace, home of Britain's royal family since 1837. An important representation of Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian styles, the palace is the work of such noted architects as John Nash and Sir Aston Webb. Hicks records the formal spaces with vibrancy, capturing the magnificent rooms furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStarting at the Grand Staircase, Hicks leads us through the state rooms, which include the White Drawing Room and the Blue Drawing Room that both overlook the palace gardens; the Ballroom, which is the setting for twenty investiture ceremonies each year; and the Throne Room, used by Queen Victoria for spectacular costume balls in the 1840s. The long, skylit Picture Gallery is hung with important works of art from the Royal Collection by Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, Anthony van Dyck, Johannes Vermeer, and Canaletto, among others. Decorative furnishings from George IV's exotic Brighton Pavilion lend a fanciful turn to many of the rooms.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295144554869,"sku":"9780847863198","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780847863198_08867312-12e8-4546-b196-d5d1188072d5.jpg?v=1786016146"},{"product_id":"9780847875542","title":"Burghley House","description":"\u003cb\u003eA remarkable tour through the lavish interiors, extraordinary architecture and parklands, and unrivaled collections of the grandest surviving sixteenth-century estate in Britain.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConceived by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, and built between 1555 and 1587, Burghley House is a testament to the ambition and vision of the most powerful courtier of the first Elizabethan age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDesigned by Cecil himself, in consultation with the Dutch Renaissance architect and painter Hans Vredeman de Vries, the architecture and interiors at Burghley reflect a mix of contemporary fashionable influences. The house’s facades are each markedly different, with a striking and ornate Gothic gatehouse beneath a roofline of cupolas and obelisks, and with French and Italian styles visible in the windows and pilasters. And inside, where the State Rooms house remarkable collections of furniture, textiles, and Old Master paintings acquired over the centuries, Cecil’s Gothic-style Old Kitchen remains alongside the magnificent Renaissance staircase and Italianate fireplace in the Great Hall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom Burghley’s inception as Cecil’s “prodigy house” to its remarkable renovation and the development of its parklands by Capability Brown in the eighteenth century, to the estate’s preservation efforts today, this is a rare and detailed look inside one of the gems in the British landscape. With sumptuous photography made specially for the book and imagery drawn from Burghley’s private archives, this book is a privileged tour of Burghley House and its remarkable history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295184269685,"sku":"9780847875542","price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780847875542_f433d4c5-d230-4acc-abb9-05f8f6660549.jpg?v=1786016336"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ashley-hicks.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}