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'''Margaret Jourdain''' (15 August 1876 – 6 April 1951) was a prominent writer on [[English furniture]] and decoration. She began her career ghost-writing as '''Francis Lenygon''' for the firm of [[Francis Lenygon|Lenygon & Morant]], dealers in furnishings with a royal appointment, who were also the fabricators of carefully crafted reproductions, especially of Kentian furnishings, some of which have been displayed in public collections for decades.
'''Margaret Jourdain''' (15 August 1876 – 6 April 1951) was a prominent writer on [[English furniture]] and decoration. She began her career ghost-writing as '''Francis Lenygon''' for the firm of [[Francis Lenygon|Lenygon & Morant]], dealers in furnishings with a royal appointment, who were also the fabricators of carefully crafted reproductions, especially of Kentian furnishings, some of which have been displayed in public collections for decades.
==Family==
==Early life==
Born in [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire]], on 15 August 1876, Jourdain's father was Francis Jourdain (1834–1898), a vicar and her mother, Emily, was the daughter of [[Charles Clay (surgeon)|Charles Clay]]. One of ten children, her siblings included the writer and academic [[Eleanor Jourdain|Eleanor]], the ornithologist [[Francis Charles Robert Jourdain]] and the mathematician [[Philip Jourdain]].{{r|ODNB}}
Born in [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire]], on 15 August 1876, Jourdain's father was Francis Jourdain (1834–1898), a vicar and her mother, Emily, was the daughter of [[Charles Clay (surgeon)|Charles Clay]]. One of ten children, her siblings included the writer and academic [[Eleanor Jourdain|Eleanor]], the ornithologist [[Francis Charles Robert Jourdain]] and the mathematician [[Philip Jourdain]].{{r|ODNB}}

Margaret Jourdain attended [[Oxford University]] where she met [[Janette Ranken Thesiger]]. They moved together to London and lived together. But [[Ernest Thesiger]], who knew Ranken through her brother, the painter [[William Bruce Ellis Ranken]], proposed a white marriage to Ranken, and she accepted. She left Jourdain and on May 30, 1917, Janette Ranken married Ernest Thesiger.<ref name="McBRINN">{{cite web|last1=McBRINN|first1=JOSEPH|title=‘Nothing is more terrifying to me than to see Ernest Thesiger sitting under the lamplight doing this embroidery’: Ernest Thesiger (1879 - 1961), ‘Expert Embroiderer’|url=http://uir.ulster.ac.uk/36369/1/TEXT_vol.43_2015-16.pdf|accessdate=27 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.brown.edu/cds/mjp/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.02.0649|title=Modernist Journals Project|last=|first=|date=|website=www.library.brown.edu|publisher=Brown University & The University of Tulsa|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=27 September 2017}}</ref> [[Hilary Spurling]], biographer of [[Ivy Compton-Burnett]], who was friend of Ernest Thesiger through Jourdain, suggests that Thesiger and Janette wed largely out of their mutual adoration of William, who shaved his head when he learned of the engagement.<ref>{{cite book | last =Curtis | first =James | authorlink = | title =James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters | publisher =Faber and Faber | year =1998 | location =Boston | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0-571-19285-8 | page =240 }}</ref> Richard Thesiger, Ernest's nephew, said to Spurling that Janette Thesiger told him the marriage had never been consummated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spurling|first1=Hilary|title=Secrets of a Woman’s Heart|page=93 and 310|accessdate=6 January 2018}}</ref>


==Career==
==Career==

Revision as of 20:25, 6 January 2018

Margaret Jourdain (15 August 1876 – 6 April 1951) was a prominent writer on English furniture and decoration. She began her career ghost-writing as Francis Lenygon for the firm of Lenygon & Morant, dealers in furnishings with a royal appointment, who were also the fabricators of carefully crafted reproductions, especially of Kentian furnishings, some of which have been displayed in public collections for decades.

Early life

Born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, on 15 August 1876, Jourdain's father was Francis Jourdain (1834–1898), a vicar and her mother, Emily, was the daughter of Charles Clay. One of ten children, her siblings included the writer and academic Eleanor, the ornithologist Francis Charles Robert Jourdain and the mathematician Philip Jourdain.[1]

Margaret Jourdain attended Oxford University where she met Janette Ranken Thesiger. They moved together to London and lived together. But Ernest Thesiger, who knew Ranken through her brother, the painter William Bruce Ellis Ranken, proposed a white marriage to Ranken, and she accepted. She left Jourdain and on May 30, 1917, Janette Ranken married Ernest Thesiger.[2][3] Hilary Spurling, biographer of Ivy Compton-Burnett, who was friend of Ernest Thesiger through Jourdain, suggests that Thesiger and Janette wed largely out of their mutual adoration of William, who shaved his head when he learned of the engagement.[4] Richard Thesiger, Ernest's nephew, said to Spurling that Janette Thesiger told him the marriage had never been consummated.[5]

Career

The finely-honed writing that distinguishes Jourdain's work must be partly credited to careful pre-editing by her lifelong friend and domestic partner, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett. Ivy and Margaret Jourdain lived together from 1918 until Margaret's death in 1951. Members of their circle might speculate on whether they were lovers: Ivy referred to herself and Margaret as "neutrals". [1] Margaret Jourdain's papers are archived at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, but some of her unpublished translations of poems by Jose Maria de Heredia, Pontus de Tyard and Gérard de Nerval are among Ivy Compton-Burnett's papers at King's College, Cambridge. [2]

Margaret Jourdain teamed with Ralph Edwards, keeper of Furniture & Woodwork, the Victoria and Albert Museum, to produce Georgian Cabinet-Makers (1944, 1951), a series of biographies of the major London furniture-makers from the Restoration of Charles II to 1800, supported by archival work, which had not been a strong feature of previous connoisseurship. As revised by Edwards, it remained the essential standard in the field for several decades until superseded by work by Peter Ward-Jackson, Christopher Gilbert, Helena Hayward, and members of the Furniture History Society.

Her Regency Furniture (1931) covered new ground in extending the classic period of English furniture design forward to 1830.

Major works

Most of Margaret Jourdain's works went through several printings.

  • English Interior Decoration and Furniture of the Later XVIIIth century 1760-1820 : An Account of Its Development and Characteristic Forms 1922; 1924. (B.T. Batsford)
  • English Decorative Plasterwork of the Renaissance 1926; 1933 (B.T. Batsford)
  • Regency Furniture, 1795–1820 1931 (1934?) etc. (Revised and extended to 1830 by Ralph Fastnedge)
  • Georgian Cabinet-Makers 1944; 1946; revised 1951 (3rd edition 1955) (with Ralph Edwards)
  • The Work of William Kent. Artist, Painter, Designer and Landscape Gardener 1948. (Country Life). The first modern reassessment of William Kent, with an introduction by Christopher Hussey.
  • Jourdain, Margaret; Jenyns, Soame (1967), Chinese export art in the eighteenth century (2 ed.), Spring Books (First edition appeared in 1950)
  • English Interior Decoration, 1500 to 1830 : A Study in the Development of Design 1950 (B.T. Batsford) A brief illustrated survey.
  • English Furniture 1950. (Country Life). Another brief popular illustrated survey, several times reprinted.

References

  1. ^ Lees-Milne, James; Spurling, Hilary (2007), "Jourdain, (Emily) Margaret (1876–1951)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, retrieved 10 September 2015 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  2. ^ McBRINN, JOSEPH. "'Nothing is more terrifying to me than to see Ernest Thesiger sitting under the lamplight doing this embroidery': Ernest Thesiger (1879 - 1961), 'Expert Embroiderer'" (PDF). Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  3. ^ "Modernist Journals Project". www.library.brown.edu. Brown University & The University of Tulsa. Retrieved 27 September 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  4. ^ Curtis, James (1998). James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber. p. 240. ISBN 0-571-19285-8.
  5. ^ Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. p. 93 and 310. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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