Rose and Ruby

I nixed the Nevada Caucuses coverage on Saturday night in favor of reading through some 1935 issues of House & Garden. Believe me, those old magazines are far more interesting and stimulating than all of the so called political experts who feel the need to talk over one another.

While flipping through the August 1935 issue, I found four illustrations of interiors done by Rose Cumming and Ruby Ross Wood. Two of the paintings depict the Cumming designed drawing room and dining room of Mrs. Russell Cecil, Rose's sister. The colors of these two rooms were what caught my eye. Cumming had such a keen and at times unusual sense of color. The Cecil dining room (the first drawing below) seems quite dramatic with its silver and periwinkle blue glazed walls and plum colored rug. The outside curtains were made of midnight blue taffeta while the draw curtains were campanula taffeta. And the drawing room, at top, would not look out of place in 2012. Coromandel screens never go out of style, and neither do choice antiques.

The Wood illustrations (see below) show the dining room and drawing room of Mrs. Charles H. Marshall, later known as Brooke Astor. Astor worked for Wood for a short period of time. The Wood interiors are notable for their chic white walls and elegant furnishings. These two rooms are quite a contrast from Cumming's work.

I tried to find photos of all four rooms so that we could compare them to the illustrations, but unfortunately I came up empty handed. I did find one black and white photo of the Cecil drawing room, though it shows the room from a different angle. You can still see the Coromandel screen, though. (Perhaps there will be photos of both rooms in Rose Cumming, the soon to be released monograph of the designer's work.) And I also found Mark Hampton's charming version of the Marshall drawing room. During the next caucus, I'll spend some more time going through my books in hopes of uncovering photos of the Marshall apartment.



The Rose Cumming designed dining room of her sister, Mrs. Russell Cecil. Mrs. Cecil's drawing room is at top.




A photograph of the Cecil drawing room.





Brooke Marshall's dining room that was decorated by Ruby Ross Wood.




The Marshall drawing room.




Mark Hampton's version of the Marshall drawing room.

Rose Cumming/Cecil photograph plus Mark Hampton illustration from The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955 by Adam Lewis.