"Nancy Lancaster: Her Life, Her World, Her Art" 1996 BECKER, Robert

BECKER, Robert [426] pp. First Edition Alfred A. Knopf 1996 9 3/8" x 6 1/2" Great houses, exquisite gardens, a glittering society. This was the world of Nancy Lancaster: aristocrat, a woman of wit and edge whose inborn decorating genius culminated in her creation of the style (chintz, elegance, cozy clutter) that flourishes today as the English Country look. We see her astonishing houses and estates - in Virginia and in England - and watch as she brings them beautifully to life with her maverick eye and exquisite taste. We see her among her family and servants living at Mirador, the idyllic Virginia manor owned by her grandfather Langhorne. And we come to understand how those years so crucially affected her vision of home, of comfort, of style. We watch as Nancy, orphaned at the age of fifteen, is raised by her celebrated aunt Irene Langhorne Gibson, the original Gibson Girl, and becomes a debutante in Richmond, Newport and New York, as well as a member of the first class to be graduat