Ashcombe: The Story of a Fifteen Year Lease (First Edition) (1949)

First edition. Scarce in original dust-wrapper. “Ashcombe” is the name of the country house in the Wiltshire Downs whose lease Cecil Beaton held for fifteen years from 1930. In this book Mr. Beaton has wonderfully succeeded in recreating the atmosphere of those days: the period when the house and garden were being made over from their former dilapidated and derelict state into the idyllic home which they later became; the day-to-day life of the household, the servants and the friends who did so much to create the atmosphere; the week-ends, when there would be visits from Rex Whistler, Edith Olivier, Augustus John, Tilly Losch, Lord David Cecil, and so many others; and the parties and fêtes-champêtres, occasions which are not likely ever to be forgotten either by the guests or their host.

There is no need to extol the skill and talent with which Cecil Beaton uses the pen and the camera. The collection of photographic illustrations is as brilliant as any the author has produced, and, since it is his own home and his own friends which they record, there is an especially intimate and natural quality about them. As well as the photographs, there are drawings by the author, Rex Whistler, Berard, and others. These illustrations, and a charming and persuasive text, together give a delightful and enviable picture of whose life at Ashcombe was picturing those ten years. It is a life which is not likely soon to return, but how fortunate, the reader will reflect, that this vivid record of it will remain.

Condition: Some slight toning to endpapers. Dust jacket good, complete but worn with small chips, edge rubbing, and short tears, the front panel still bright and attractive.