When faced with the Georgian Captain’s House in the historic Chatham docks, dealer Stephen Sprake vowed to wash away years of modern accretions to return it to its original splendour.
In the large living room, a 1950s Italian pottery owl stares above one of a pair of 1970s rustic Italian chairs. The 60s lamp is by Georges Pelletier.
We can read in this article :
“Drive through the patchwork of old industrial buildings in the Historic Dockyard Chatham and you arrive at a row of large Georgian terraces built for the senior members of the naval staff. This one, Captain’s House, is a Regency bookend. Think the Battle of Trafalgar and Captain Bush – that era. The interior is not as you might predict. Where you might expect traditional period furnishings, instead you are met by a quirky conglomeration of antiques and interior fun put together by a charismatic dealer – one with the sharp eye of a picky butterfly and an instinct for shape and colour.
The place is an assemblage of interesting stuff from all centuries and continents. Twentieth-century art furniture rubs shoulders with old masters and oversized palazzo furnishings. An early Corpus Christi gazes soulfully across the stairwell and an Indian elephant painting rests on a bathroom fireplace between a pair of 19th-century French château doors that discreetly hide a shower and loo.”
