Coleton Fishacre, Devon
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The country retreat of the D'Oyly Carte opera family and owners of the Savoy Hotel and Theatre. Built in 1925/6 this Arts and Crafts house is fitted and furnished in the Art Deco style.
Coleton Fishacre was built in 1923-6 by Oswald Milne for Rupert D’Oyly Carte, whose father Richard had been the impresario behind the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Milne, an assistant to Sir Edward Lutyens from 1902 to 1905, was strongly influenced by architects of the Arts and Crafts movement who advocated the power of simple design and the highest standards of craftsmanship. There is almost no decoration on the outside of the house, apart from the wrought-iron weathervane supplied by Negretti & Zambra, and the stone sundial on the garden front, which was carved by Herbert W. Palliser in the style of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose tomb had been discovered in 1922. The interiors evoke the modernity of the Jazz Age with Art Deco details. The furnishing – a mixture of Baroque and East Asian pieces – was typical of the 1920s.
The country retreat of the D'Oyly Carte opera family and owners of the Savoy Hotel and Theatre. Built in 1925/6 this Arts and Crafts house is fitted and furnished in the Art Deco style.
