Detail, Cover Portrait of Country Life, Nov. 12, 1904

Royals, titled ladies, great beauties, and the daughters, sisters and wives (frequently with offspring) of titled men once graced the covers of every issue of Country Life.  In this case the subject was Mrs. Harley with her child.  Mrs. Harley was the daughter of Sir William Henry Holland, M.P. 1st Viscount Knutsford.  Mrs. Harley's twin brothers Sydney and Arthur, (the little girl's uncles) succeeded their father as 2nd and 3rd Viscount, respectively, in 1914 and 1931. 

About this child I find nothing else recorded.  I wonder what happened to her, don't you?  Burke's Peerage is silent on this element of the family line.  However, as I said to my upholsterer yesterday, just look at those pillows.  Look at the vibrant rich sprawl of color cascading away beneath her little legs.  Those wonderful metallic Edwardian hues, the gold and silver thread applique, the coppery brown against the grayish arsenic green, with the subtle undertones of celadon and cerise --

"This is a black and white photograph," he observed somewhat cautiously.

Needless to say, I decided not to argue the point and resorted to my collection of swatches instead, to make my point:



Also yesterday Bianca took us to see the work of Eugene Richards at Fahey Klein on LaBrea.  Breathtakingly bleak.  Then B. and I went to a design show at the old Robinsons May in Beverly Hills and topped it off with a late lunch at Mel's on Sunset.  

After that I returned home and watched the rest of Season One of TrueBlood and ended up feeling as though I had just about run the gamut of seeing.  Or something close.