Robert Kime

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Description

'Robert Kime, uniquely among decorators, has risen to eminence in the profession via antique dealing, textile collecting and an abiding passion for putting rooms together. His three strands of expertise run side by side as he createsdecorating schemes for an illustrious, discreet and world-wide clientele.' Min Hogg

While an undergraduate at Worcester College, Oxford, Robert Kime dealt in antiques to supplement his income, selling to dons, the Master's wife and remarkably to the Ashmolean Museum. He persuaded the Bursar to let him keep his rooms on staircase 7 so that his clients would know where to find him. A weekend party at Ashton Wold, the birthplace and home of Miriam Rothschild, led to an offer to sell the furniture crammed into the top storey of the house and, after three years at Sotheby's, a more permanent shop in Oundle, Rutland.

Here are the twelve definitive Robert Kime projects, ranging from Bloomsbury to the Bahamas, from the Irish countryside to la France profonde. Magnificent, speciallycommissioned photography by Tessa Traeger is accompanied by a text which combines illuminating descriptions of the choices and challenges involved in each project with an account of how this most cultured of designers developed his eye.

Reviews

Over the years his projects have ranged from a tumbledown house in France to a new build in the Bahamas, but all have this common thread. 'I'm more comfortable with old things,' he says. 'I like objects that have had a life.' And perhaps it's this attitude that enables him to create rooms that are so supremely suited for living: a combination that his long-term royal client [HRH the Prince of Wales] summed up as 'welcoming, interesting and, above all, comforting.'

Reflecting on a lifetimes work in antiques and interiors, a new book draws attention to one of the most respected and influential English designers of our time, Robert Kime.

Shying away from a heavy-handed co-ordination of texture and colour in an untouchable interior scheme, and, instead, adopting a considered arrangement of the elements that make home life good, in effortless adaptation of that Country House ethic forged in the previous century where some interiors might smell of antibacterial spray, one imagines that Kimes might carry the faintest hint of beeswax polish and wood smoke.

Interior decorator to the great and the good, Robert Kime s taste is changeless, timeless and unlike anything else.

Away from the hubbub, at the farthest edge from the braying crowd, the careful observer will for 30 years have found one quiet, gentle man, Robert Kime the creator of an extraordinary world of dreams, that is subtly different to anything else that we see in English decoration today. Kime shuns the limelight but is revered as perhaps the grandest figure of English decoration.

Reflecting on a lifetime s work in antiques and interiors, a new book draws attention to one of the most respected and influential English designers of our time, Robert Kime.

Shying away from a heavy-handed co-ordination of texture and colour in an untouchable interior scheme, and, instead, adopting a considered arrangement of the elements that make home life good, in effortless adaptation of that Country House ethic forged in the previous century where some interiors might smell of antibacterial spray, one imagines that Kime s might carry the faintest hint of beeswax polish and wood smoke.

Over the years his projects have ranged from a tumbledown house in France to a new build in the Bahamas, but all have this common thread. 'I'm more comfortable with old things,' he says. 'I like objects that have had a life.' And perhaps it's this attitude that enables him to create rooms that are so supremely suited for living: a combination that his long-term royal client [HRH the Prince of Wales] summed up as 'welcoming, interesting and, above all, comforting.'

"Interior design tomes abound, but one recent publication stands out: a book about Robert Kime's work..."

"Interior decorator to the great and the good, Robert Kime's taste is changeless, timeless and unlike anything else. Kime shuns the limelight but is revered as perhaps the grandest figure of English decoration." -- Ben Pentreath * Financial Times *
"Over the years his projects have ranged from a tumbledown house in France to a new build in the Bahamas, but all have this common thread. 'I'm more comfortable with old things', he says. 'I like objects that have had a life.' And perhaps it's this attitude that enables him to create rooms that are so supremely suited for living: a combination that his long-term royal client [HRH the Prince of Wales] summed up as 'welcoming, interesting and, above all, comforting." * Daily Telegraph *
Reflecting on a lifetime's work in antiques and interiors, a new book draws attention to one of the most respected and influential English designers of our time, Robert Kime.

Shying away from a heavy-handed co-ordination of texture and colour in an untouchable interior scheme, and, instead, adopting a considered arrangement of the elements that make home life good, in effortless adaptation of that Country House ethic forged in the previous century where some interiors might smell of antibacterial spray, one imagines that Kime's might carry the faintest hint of beeswax polish and wood smoke. * The English Home *

"A new collection of the decorator's work reveals his passion for antique textiles and a mastery for rearranging existing rooms."

* ArchitecturalDigest.com *

"A definitive book on 'England's most revered interior designer'"

* New York Times *

Author Bio

TESSA TRAEGER is one of the outstanding photographers of her generation and is widely acknowledged as having raised the subject of photographic, food still-life to the status of art. Trained at Guildford School of Photography and Fine Art, Tessa Traeger has worked at Rossetti Studios in Chelsea, London since the 1960s. She has exhibited regularly since 1978 and her work is represented in the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliotheque National in Paris and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

A former teacher, and longtime friend of Robert Kime, ALASTAIR LANGLANDS has worked closely with Robert and his friends and clients to offer a rich and nuanced picture of his achievements as a designer.