The World of Interiors March 2022

After 21 years as editor you’d think I’d be able to explain what makes Interiors unique in the world of magazine publishing. Only I’m not sure I can. There’s its extraordinary variety of material of course, plus presentation, production and a markedly individual point of view. But flicking through back issues before writing this goodbye letter, I find there’s something more unfathomable, a magic borne of the staff and contributors’ shared desire to show only the best and to imbue stories with gravitas while never allowing WoI to take itself too seriously. Since its launch in November 1981, the magazine’s commitment to record for posterity décor of every stripe has been earnest, but so too has its desire to delight, inspire and entertain. These are pages in which you can…

1 The number-one rule of good sleep hygiene is surely crisp, quality bedding. Enter Matouk and Schumacher’s embroidered ‘Astor Braid’ collection in 520-thread-count Ceylon percale, which is available in eight colourways (from $169 for a sham). Ring 001 855 795 7600, or visit matouk.com. 2 Recline and dine 70s-style, with Ceraudo’s ‘Leo’ dining (from £1,215 per pair) and ‘Felix’ slipper (from £1,370) chairs. Like the two other models in the ‘Orpha’ upholstered-furniture collection, they are made to order in a choice of four plain velvets and one printed cotton in five colourways. Visit ceraudo.com. 3 Like a genie’s wishes, the candlesticks (£60 each) and dishes Ali Hewson (WoI Oct 2019) has created for Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge are limited in number and precious: the pieces are influenced by the gallery’s collection and…

For details see page 74…

CONCEALED WITHIN the vast legal complex of London’s Gray’s Inn is a highly unusual chamber. Like the mise-en-scène for a Greek tragedy recast with an extravagant Postmodern twist, the room was devised by the furniture designer and dealer Jermaine Gallacher (WoI Oct 2020) for a barrister with a bold eye and a hankering to work among some of the museum-grade pieces in his collection of late 20th-century furniture. Gallacher sank the competition thanks to his combination of expertise and audacity. As he recalls: ‘Other candidates for the job wanted to please, but I was like, “No, that will look crap!”’ The result is, as Gallacher puts it, ‘off the chart’, staging a radical culture clash between the brilliant colours and eccentric silhouettes indoors and the highly ordered view from the…

THE GREAT Northern War had been rumbling on for nearly a decade when, in 1709, Charles XII of Sweden was forced to seek sanctuary for his army in Ottoman territory. A bustling encampment soon sprang up at Bender in Moldova, with the king safely installed at its centre in a magnificent tent gifted to him by the local pasha. Amid the daily hubbub of camp life and the exuberant music of the resident janissaries, the monarch attended to matters of state as a steady stream of messengers brought news from Stockholm and Constantinople. For one so inured to military life, Charles cultivated a deep interest in the humanities, including the study of history, architecture, religion and aesthetics. He was especially fascinated by the Near East and Holy Lands, likely being familiar…