Customer Reviews

Rooms

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The Earldom of Drogheda was created in 1661. Soon there was a home worthy of the title --- Moore Abbey. It was large. It was Gothic. It was hugely impressive. And, of course, expensive. In 1945, the family sold it to The Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary.

Derry Moore --- that is, Henry Dermot Ponsonby Moore --- is the 12th Earl of Drogheda. In the orderly way of English succession, Moore Abbey would have been his. He is, however, very happy it went to the nuns: "Had I inherited it, I would've become an alcoholic and done nothing with my life."

Instead, Derry Moore became a photographer. A very special kind of photographer. Three decades of documenting great homes for Architectural Digest --- to some, that might not seem like doing much with your life. But Derry Moore's pictures are light years from the homes and apartments that, in the shelter magazines, increasingly look like "house porn."

For one thing, Moore knows a thing or two about rooms the public never gets to see. He is not bored with them, or protective of them; he grew up in them and visited them, and his privilege is just a fact. So his focus is never on the trillion-dollar painting or the opulent curtains --- he sees a room whole.

For another thing, he also has a brilliant eye for the telling detail. And so he leads you gently into a room, rather like a kindly tour guide. He does not turn up the lights; if anything, his pictures seem to be shot in the quiet of a late afternoon, when the kitchen staff is preparing tea and the lady of the house is still out with the dogs.

'Rooms' is thick (225 photographs) and diverse (eight of these 24 residences are rural; a third are ancestral). Most, as you'd expect, belong to the very rich and very mannered: Pauline de Rothschild's London apartment, Elsie de Wolfe's Versailles pavilion, the Marques de Casa Torres's town house in Madrid. For all that, Moore has particular affection for homes that don't bear the mark of an interior decorator --- "I don't think anything in the book was done by an outside decorator, except maybe Nureyev's apartment in Paris, but even that was distinctive and could only have been his," Moore says.

What impresses Moore most? India. Thirty years ago, he was knocked to his knees by Hyderabad's Falaknuma Palace. The telling detail? "Although it hadn't been lived in since 1911, there were sheets on the bed," he recalls. There the book starts. As a result, you will see, in the very first spread, rooms with paneled walls, giant rugs, ceilings high enough for basketball and chandeliers for miles. No people, though --- feel free to insert yourself.

For all but a few, "Rooms" is a book from another world, now mostly lost. Not because no one can afford to maintain these residences; many hedge fund managers could keep these up without flinching. It's the sensibility that's gone: the world of ladies' maids and footmen, tea in the late afternoon, invitations on the mantel.

There was much that was cruel about that world; most of us would have been on the losing end of power in it. So it's with mixed feelings that I turn these exquisite pages. For there's no question: In this book, Derry Moore has assembled photographs that are essential for those who love great homes. But in a time of change --- of dramatic upheaval --- he also makes the reader nostalgic for an immutability and order that was built on exploitation and rank.

I emerged from 'Rooms' dazed and dazzled. I went somewhere; where did I go? It took some time to return to myself. But it took no time at all to realize that this curious book had given me a remarkable experience.

This book is a drug. Be warned. And then....plunge in.

by far one of the most beautiful books for interior design lovers. i love classic interiors, and the book is a glimpse to beautifull mansions and appartments you couldn't see alsewhere. the photos are superb and the text goes so nicely with the phosts. pure dlight!

If you are a room and interior design junkie, as am I, you will be amazed and thrilled with the sensitive and dazzling series of photo essays enclosed in these pages. I was greedy for more.

However I found the very aggressive design of the book itself very puzzling. I often had to hold my hand over the facing page in order to prevent myself being blinded by the stripes.

Rooms is a perfect title for this stunning compilation of photographs by Derry Moore, since what the book offers is a document of rooms lived in, rather then interiors carefully prepped for maximum prettiness. Although many of the rooms are very grand indeed - those of Pauline De Rothschild, Lady Diana Cooper and Elsie de Wolf immediately come to mind - Moore always views them as homes, not mausoleums of taste.

Covering a thirty-year period in Moore's career, Rooms presents a range of dwellings that largely compel interest as reflections of their owners' sense of style. Charleston, home of Vanessa Bell and her various lovers, retains its haute bohemian glamour while showing signs of age that more timid photographers would conceal. Shots of Rudolf Nureyev, lounging in a richly colored robe and cap beneath academic oil paintings of male nudes, amply convey the elegant decadence of the dancer's surroundings. These rooms fascinate because they make manifest the inner lives of their enthralling inhabitants; and, aside from his abundant technical skill, Moore's greatest gift as a photographer is to divine and capture the spirit of a setting.

Yet what ultimately distinguishes Rooms from the plethora of coffee table books on interior design is Carl Skoggard's essays on each interior. Witty and informative, these gems convey a point of view as refined as Moore's, brimming with insight in a format that is at once concise and expansive. And it is highly appropriate that the final spread features the eclectic apartment of Joseph Holtzman, whose talent as a designer is matched by his finely calibrated editing of this volume. Rooms is a must-have for those who love rooms as much as the three men who have created this exquisite book.

Great book! Great rooms! Great Old Homes.

Derry Moore is a genius and that is what drew me to this volumn of outstanding photographs. I have read Arch Digest for years & even today my 3rd story attic is crammed with past issues & Derry Moore was the choice of the old fabulous homes I love to visit as often as possible. I saw this book in the incredible London bookstore Hatchard's and just had to order it once I returned home. I have learned the hard way not to try to lug these heavy books.....hughly recommend it.

Derry Moore is the name that should appear first in this listing, as his photos are pure magic. And this book proves it!! Ignore the hideous cover graphics! The photos appear one per page with no borders to distract and each one is more compelling than the next- page after page of iconic rooms!
Here is the Hotel Lambert, including Marie Helene's silver bathtub and her astonishing Sevres room, where the 18th century Sevres royal porcelain dinner service matches the important 18th century Sevres- covered commode: a room unique in the world. Elsie de Wolfe's Villa Trianon. Nureyev's magical lair. Chatsworth. Lulu de Waldner. The Duchesse de Mouchy. Nancy Lancaster at Avery Row. And more!!!
This book is vital to any design library! (the only weak spot is the last apartment featured- the apartment of the author- it doesn't hold up to the magnificence of the others.) The small portions of text are very nice. The cover and bright graphics in between features are terrible. Just ignore them!!
And focus on the transportive powers of Derry Moore.

Derry Moore is fantastic and on top of his game in this book as well as another book published in 2009 of his magical photographs "In House." However I question Rizzoli's editors when thy sat down to lay out these beautiful pictures and covers of both these books. The inconsistency in it's layout of the photographs and the size of the writings within the framework of the book. Neither the covers do justice to these lovely photographs and an eye into the world of interior designs.

Although "Rooms" has more pages of sumptuous, exquisite living spaces than any other coffee-table book I know, and the most wonderful photographer, Derry Moore, who knows how to frame and capture the personality of a room, there is one serious drawback that cannot be overlooked: the color is off. Way off. And color matters. Color is the life blood of a room. Staining the color is a cheap patina. For example, Pauline de Rothschild's magical pink and blue bedroom was not even close to pink and blue. Seeing that beautiful room in dull, flat, made-up shades was for me what it must be like to sample "mystery meat" in jail. I did not recognize what I was seeing! The whimsy of the palate, the artistic integrity of the decor was lost. It was visual palaver. Who knows how many other rooms suffered?
Lauren Lawrence, author of Private Dreams of Public People

May be I have seen too many design books - and were expecting for something more bright :) I have seen many of interiors in other books and they never seemed so depressing to me. If you ever come across "The house and garden book of" series - those pictures look like bright candies in comparison. And the stripes :) - it is something!!! - 1/6 of all pictures and a kind of eye-killers.
I must say most of the interiors are great and so on - but the first impression - they are old and tired.