Melissa Eleanor Tyler

Interwar country house interior decoration is stigmatised as elitist and biased by connoisseurship. Melissa's dissertation re-examines the legacy of Nancy Lancaster (1897-1994) as the doyenne of country house decoration. Current histories argue that Nancy invented the country house style because of her ability to inject comfort into grand houses and her nostalgia for Virginia.  But these histories have not properly addressed Nancy’s self mythologising or the problems present in an archive that depicts idealised versions of her interiors. Therefore, the dissertation asks what, if anything, distinguishes her interiors from other country house decoration between the years of 1920 and 1947. It seeks to identify why Nancy’s decorative style is considered to evoke a sense of continuity and easy comfort. Through three case studies—Mirador, Greenwood, Virginia in the United States; Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire, England; and Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, England—,the dissertation interrogates Nancy’s homes in the context of eighteenth-century revival styles and use of space in Anglo-American country houses. It demonstrates that Nancy both respected, subverted, and created trends in country house decoration and how these interiors were used. And while Nancy’s legacy is a highly fabricated mythology, it is possible to identify Nancy’s decorative style. It concludes that she subverted rather than invented a new kind of country house interior; it was one which depended on her ability to curate understated interiors with a sense revived grandeur.