Table of contents for Jul/Aug 2020 in Veranda

“Art is not always about pretty things. It’s about who we are, what happened to us, and how our lives are affected.” SO SAID ELIZABETH BROUN, the long-time director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. Her words strike a particular chord today, as the world battles a public health crisis unlike anything we’ve seen in generations. As we modify our lives to distance from one another, what are we creating now—and how will we share it with each other? Art, especially when broadly defined to include decorative arts and material culture, brings us together. The things we make reflect our shared experiences and provide comfort, context, and connection—particularly during periods of difficulty. In 1870, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art? opened to the…

1. Summer Lime - 2026-60 “This upbeat pale yellow reminds me of a sunny day. Try it in a playroom, or as an accent in a more sophisticated space.” 2. Crystal Blue - 2051-70 “The ultimate calming color—this tranquil soft blue-green signals the brain to relax and unwind.” 3. Thunderbird - 675 “A smooth aqua-green. In a high-gloss finish, it looks sumptuously wet and shiny, like the sea!” 4. Seapearl - OC-19 “My go-to neutral, the perfect backdrop! It’s a warmer off-white—so beautiful in natural light.” 5. Manchester Tan - HC-81 “A timeless, elevated khaki, this is an essential grounding shade to play against brighter hues.” Discover more than 3,500 standout shades at benjaminmoore.com.…

HAMSA From Mesopotamia and Carthage to modernity, the open hand is a mighty symbol of protection against the evil eye. ANKH Ancient Egyptians depicted their gods grasping this powerful hieroglyph of life, which was also linked to fertility. PENTAGRAM The five-pointed star confers myriad values across cultures and millennia but often links five virtues, senses, or elements. HALDILI This pendant, common in 17th-century Moghul India, shielded the heart from palpitations and the grief fibrillations expressed. SPIRIT LOCKS Worn by hill tribe peoples in Southeast Asia, these silver padlock shapes defend the soul from illness and accidents.…

JUST AS A PAINTER WOULD VISIT THE LOUVRE, every gardener needs to see the great gardens of England,” says jewelry designer and lifelong horticulturist Mish Tworkowski, who set out across the small country last year, zigzagging between public Edens and humbler house gardens. “The English are probably the best gardeners on the planet. They have the ideal climate, of course, but I also think there’s something in their DNA that predisposes them to love the soil.” His botanical pilgrimage was steered, in part, by friend Aaron Bertelsen of Great Dixter, the East Sussex oasis Tworkowski calls a plantsman’s and designer’s paradise, where “flowers are falling over the walks, plants topple over one another, and combinations are wild and unexpected. It’s a true English experience,” says the jewelry designer, who grew…

THE COLLECTION • Custom-designed dinner service, hand-painted with family insignia MEET THE MAKER • The second producer of European porcelain, Vienna-based Augarten traces its history to the early 1700s, when its founder, Dutch soldier and spy Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, gained permission from the crown to begin making the rare ceramics. Since then, pedigreed clients have ranged from the princes of Liechtenstein and Marie-Antoinette to 20th-century notables like Jacqueline Kennedy and Jacques Grange. THE BACKSTORY • “Dinner services bearing family monograms and coats of arms predate porcelain’s arrival in Europe,” says historian and Augarten project manager Alexandre Boutry-Orengo. “People would travel to Asia just to get it. We’re seeing this demand return today. People want to reach across generations with something beautiful.” MAKE IT YOURS • Porcelain dinnerware, price upon…

HOT SEAT TABLE FOR THREE Expert hostess Carolina Irving and her daughters Olympia and Ariadne are bringing back the art of the dinner party, making entertaining at home more alluring than ever. THE DINNER PARTY IS OUR ANTIDOTE to a restless and, at times, generic world,” says Carolina Irving, the designer known best for her globally inspired textiles and hand-made tableware line she launched with daughters Olympia and Ariadne. This fall, the trio is launching CID At Home, a dinner-party service that delivers tabletop essentials, from place settings to flowers and candles, to hosts who entertain at home. (CID At Home will retrieve everything the next day, unless the host wishes to purchase the items at a discount.) “We’re bringing back the dinner party because entertaining at home feels like…

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS on the water are when we’re approaching port and easing away from the dock, headed out to sea,” says David Sutherland of the voyages he and his wife, Ann, embark upon on their 130-foot Westport yacht. “We’ve just seen something new, and we hold so much anticipation for what we’ll see next.” The pair, who founded the luxury outdoor fabric line Perennials Fabrics in 1997, has always gravitated to life on the water, particularly during months when Dallas, their landlocked hometown, gets witheringly hot. So when they traded a share in a yacht for a triple-decker of their own, they wasted no time redecorating it stem to stern, readying it for sails with friends down the Atlantic seaboard and through the Caribbean isles, and for the deck…

FAIENCE As inventive as they were spiritual, early Egyptians pioneered a glazed ceramic pottery so luminous it was believed to harness the sun’s shimmer and even signify rebirth and eternity. That divinity resonates 2,500 years later in an 18th Dynasty faience revived meticulously by Hemmerle and suspended with emeralds and sapphires. “Placing antiquity within a contemporary context,” says owner Christian Hemmerle, “brings to the fore a duality and vivacity that we cherish.” LAPIS This lazurite-rich stone may be civilization’s longest-reigning powerhouse. Since 7,000 B.C.E., Mesopotamians, Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Romans have all imbued lapis lazuli with potency including divinity, royalty, and luck. Favored by pharaohs, the stone—carved into thousands of amulets and sacred objects—offered treasured protection en route to the afterlife. TURQUOISE This sky blue mineral revered by the…

“What makes the Portuguese so phenomenal at their crafts is that they are exceptionally proud of their artistry and yet humble enough to innovate.”—JULISKA FOUNDER CAPUCINE DE WULF GOODING…

THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND inspectress of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, Helen Dorey, took one look at Hyde Hall, a 340-acre estate in western New York overlooking Otsego Lake, and said it was “possibly the most Soanian house in America.” Built between 1817 and 1834 by architect Philip Hooker in a style that embraces early Greek Revival and Federal traditions, the residence is a “foremost example of romantic classicism in this country,” says its executive director and CEO, Jonathan Maney. “The Doric columns on the great house were among the first uses of the Greek order in New York and are more slender than any known Greek prototype. In this respect, Hyde Hall is unique.” What’s also remarkable is how unaltered the house and its furnishings are, says…

I SEE INDIGO AS JAPAN’S universal color,” says Londonbased designer Robert Kime, who traveled to the island with famed client Tory Burch last year and returned with an exquisite collaboration. Amid the looming splendors of pagodas and palaces, the designers found themselves taken by a quotidian family of remnants—scraps, in fact, from trousers, scarves, linings, and obi, among them. The ensuing 12-piece Nara Collection launched late spring, reviving motifs from remnants both modern and antique. “We leaned heavily into the blues,” Kime says. “There is a humility about each of the designs—and indigo is a humble dye, yet it goes with everything. You simply would not find these types of patterns in Europe. They are uniquely, and simply, Japanese.”…

What is the difference between a good client and a great client? Usually it’s the number of yeses one gets (“the more I get, the better it looks,” Miles Redd once said to me). Often it’s the blessing of a collection, or the always-hoped-for epiphany of lots of books. But sometimes it’s the element of surprise. That was the case with the house in Connecticut on these pages, a project for a young family who moved from New York City in search of some green for their two small children. What I found was a sweet 1930s Colonial house on a beautiful piece of property that had been juiced, not violently, but rather unfortunately, with a lot of “amenities”—wings, porches, and dormers, the kind of things that add zeros to…

IT MAKES SENSE that a designer known for his remarkable sense of color would be drawn to Harbour Island, Bahamas, with its world-famous stretch of pink sand beach. Except that looking for sense in Matthew Carter’s work and life is a bit like listening to a symphony with one ear covered. The designer is as equally adept at integrating intuition and surprise as he is harnessing the powers of logic and planning. This fluidity is woven throughout the story of his and his partner Brent Bruner’s transformation of Chanticleer Hill, a 70-year-old cottage they bought three years ago. On the couple’s very first visit to the island some 18 years prior, Carter had coincidentally taken a picture of the cottage’s front gate. During that initial visit, they found themselves so captivated…

DIOR MAISON Page 18 Copacabana glass, large decorative glass ball, and glass carafe: Dior; 1-800-929-DIOR. TOASTING THE SUNSET Pages 35—37 Large silver-plated tray and snack bowl; silver-plated pastry tray; silver-plated water pitcher; crystal water pitcher; teapot; lobster tray; and footed fruit tray: all Christofle. Crew shirts: J.Crew; jcrew.com. BLUE ODYSSEY Pages 66–69 Kraak dinner plate: Oka; oka.com. Takara Zukushi plate: Miya, Inc.; miyacompany.com. Iznik plate: Sheherazade; sheherazadehome.com. Spanish wedding pitcher: Casa Gusto; getthegusto.com. Ceramic bowl: Casa Lopez; casalopez.com. Portuguese faience bottle and plate: XVIII; xviii.pt. Tulip pyramid vase and Windmill plate; Royal Delft; royaldelft.com. Strasbourg and Moustier dessert plates: Bourg-Joly Malicorn; malicorne.com. Blue Onion dinner plate: Meissen; devinecorp.net. Fluted Half Lace teapot: Royal Copenhagen; royalcopenhagen.com. Blue Italian soup tureen: Spode; spode.com. Fez dinner plate: Imports from Marrakesh; importsfrommarrakesh.com. Flora Olanado and Helechos teacup…

FOR THE IN-HOUSE TAILOR With seven compartments for needles and notions, this masterful Japanese seamstress’s kit might as well be a treasure chest. Sewing box, $245; nalatanalata.com FOR THE GARDEN RAMBLER A mighty tote made more gratifying by its winsome grid pattern—a reminder of those pretty planted rows. Tiiliskivi gardening bag, $160; marimekko.com FOR THE CIGAR COGNOSCENTI At last, a woven, brass-trimmed matchbox worthy of his secret smoking lair. Colette Cane oversize matchbox, $350; aerin.com FOR THE UNBRIDL ED BON VIVANT Kaleidoscopic stripes on this Murano glass pitcher tend to start the party before the first guest arrives. Canne jug, $475; lagunab.com FOR THE POWDER ROOM AESTHETE A generational outfit of Middle Eastern makers sculpts essential oil string soaps that read like artful still lifes. Cluster soap, $40; floatinghousecollection.com FOR THE EPIC STORYTELLER Printed tin plates…

DAYS START EARLY and end late for Robb Nestor and Bill Reynolds. “In the summer, we’re notorious for walking out to the garden at 4:30 a.m. with a cup of coffee, then within moments the coffee gets put aside and we’re lost in weeding or trimming or whatever needs doing,” Nestor says. With 3 acres of cultivated gardens on their 11-acre property in Hadlyme, Connecticut, that “whatever” can stretch endlessly. “It’s a dawn-todusk obsession,” adds Reynolds, the resident hedge-trimmer-in-chief (who also designed the outbuildings). For him, a day that begins before sunrise and ends at 10 p.m. strolling the garden with a glass of wine, surveying the day’s toil, “is pure bliss. A perfect day.” It’s the kind of day, and kind of garden, the two former Atlanta residents aspired…

JASPER Long cherished as a rainmaker, this colorfully opaque mineral is believed to ward off evil spirits and venomous bites. EMERALD This glamorous beryl protects against spells, cures diseases, prompts eloquence, offers clairvoyance, and grants the ability to see through a lover’s falsehoods. No wonder Cleopatra loved it. TOPAZ In India, a topaz worn above the heart assured long life, beauty, and intelligence. During the Renaissance, it was clutched to dispel anger. OPAL Long before maidens of the Middle Ages wore opal to protect the blond of their tresses, Greeks heralded its gift of prophecy. CITRINE Named from the Latin citrina for its lemony yellow luster, the gem is believed to guard against evil thoughts and snake venom. JADE Deeply embedded in Chinese culture, the mineral has been prized for…

IT’S AROUND NINE O’CLOCK on a Saturday night, and I am cozied up in the old-school glamour of the Al Moudira hotel. Surrounding me are eight spirited friends, all of us fresh off our journey from Los Angeles to the Egyptian city of Luxor. Sitting in this languid bar, plotting our first adventures, I feel as if I’m reliving a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark: We talk of Luxor’s great temple, the valleys of the Kings and Queens, the tomb of Tutankhamen. How we’ll drift down the Nile. Egypt has drawn me to its mysteries since I was a little boy. As long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit this land of pharaohs and pyramids and a culture older than time. Visions of Elizabeth Taylor…

WHEN I THINK ABOUT A SILK SCARF, I envision it in a watery Mediterranean setting,” says decorative artist Hayden Gregg, whose fascination with antiques and architectural painting‒as in the masterful tile artistry of southern Europe―spans centuries and civilizations. From Christian “Bébé” Bérard’s feats of trompe l’oeil to Bloomsbury artists’ irreverent murals, “I’ve always loved how painting can change a wall into something spectacular.” And on a silk kerchief? It becomes a vision on the back of a Vespa in Puglia, waving in the wind. instagram.com/haydenpaints…