Preservation with a British twist

Magazine Antiques, March, 2005 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

In the 1890s a triad of British philanthropists--Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter, and Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley--realized that they shared a common concern about unchecked development throughout the British Isles since the industrial revolution. In seeking a way to curb this encroachment on the landscape, in 1895 they founded the National Trust, a nonprofit registered charity that oversees places of historic interest and natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Today the trust cares for more than 20,000 buildings, more than 612,000 acres, and more than 700 miles of scenic coastline. Supporting this ambitious and benevolent mission are more than 3 million members, visitors, tenants, partners, volunteers, and benefactors.

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The National Trust's partner in the United States is the Royal Oak Foundation, with headquarters in New York City. Founded in 1973, Royal Oak also awards grants for the preservation and conservation of buildings and the natural environment here and abroad, and makes funds available to scholars immersed in various aspects of Anglo-American culture. Today more than forty thousand members of the Royal Oak Foundation support both its day-to-day operations and the diverse grants the organization makes. In 1991, for example, the New York Botanical Garden was the recipient of a grant to study the effects of pollution on its fifty-acre urban forest. The Royal Oak Foundation is also responsible for planting tens of thousands of trees in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Additionally, it sponsors lectures, tours, and other educational activities here and abroad.

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Recently the foundation has collaborated with Lee Jofa, a manufacturer of fine textiles, to produce a line of more than forty fabrics that reflects English design through the centuries. This is the company's first alliance with a nonprofit organization, and Royal Oak will benefit from each yard of fabric sold. Among the printed fabrics offered are Kirby Print (illustrated at upper right) based on a 1920s hand-blocked fabric. The woven fabrics include Winthrop Velvet, based on a design from the extensive archives of Lee Jofa, which has been creating hand-crafted textiles since it was founded in New York City in 1823 as Johnson and Faulkner. Romanelli Stripe (illustrated below) is a silk blend taken from an eighteenth-century pieced silk damask used as a wall covering. A woven fabric called Aubrey Crewel (illustrated at upper left) replicates a design that survives from the seventeenth century.

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For information about the locations of Lee Jofa's showrooms around the world, consult its Web site (www.leejofa.com); or telephone its headquarters in Bethpage, New York, at 516-752-7600, or toll-free 800-453-3563. For more information about the Royal Oak Foundation, consult its Web site (www.royal-oak.org), or telephone 800-913-6565 (in New York 212-480-2889).