Columbia Library columns (v.7(1957Nov-1958May))

(New York :  Friends of the Columbia Libraries.  )

Tools


 

Jump to page:

Table of Contents

  v.7,no.3(1958:May): Page 41  



The Francis Henry Lenygon Memorial Room.        41

great houses likewise bear his mark as he removed Victorian
embellishments and restored them to their original stately qual¬
ity. Early in this century he opened the New York offices as a
branch of his premises at 31 Old Burlington Street, London, and
in the process furthered what we sometimes think of as our "age
of elegance in the Georgian tradition." Americans of cultivated
taste promptly recognized his special gifts, and more than 1000
of the greatest rooms in America bore testimony to his skill, as
do, in another direction, the splendid public rooms of the fleet of
Cunard transatlantic liners that many of us remember with a
certain nostalgia. But he could also turn his mind to designing a
special body for a Rolls Royce so that it might conveniently and
beautifully accommodate its owner in a wheel chair, and in other
instances—it now seems much longer ago than the actual num¬
bers of years involved-he could design a private railroad car
so that its owner while travelling might not be totally deprived
of the beauty of his own home. The original dra«-ings for many
of these projects are a part of the Lenygon collection in Avery
Library.

It adds greatly to Mr. Lenygon's srature that while great com¬
missions came to him he did not think solely of individual suc¬
cess. He was deeply concerned with the quality of the profession
as a whole and «-ith its future. Accordingly, he lent the weight
of his influence to both the British Institute of Decorators and
the American Institute of Decorators to encourage tenable pro¬
fessional standards and to promote and guide the training of
future members of the profession. He ser\'ed the American Insti¬
tute three terms as president, and subsequently as Honorary Mem¬
ber of the Board of Governors.

Throughout his life he consistently sought to heighten esthetic
standards in both practitioner and client. He authored several
magnificent volumes on English furnishings, including Decora¬
tion and Furniture of English Mansions, 1910; Furniture in Eng¬
land, 1914; Decoration in England, 1914;—they are required hold¬
ings in present day libraries. He encouraged young writers such
  v.7,no.3(1958:May): Page 41