What price perfection?
A THORNY question facing country-house agents, vendors and buyers alike is: how do you value a dream country house in these unpredictable times?
The honest answer is, probably, that nobody knows. However, the arrival on the scene of two notable properties—an early-Georgian gem in Wiltshire’s Chalke Valley and a restored 17th-century masterpiece near Chichester, West Sussex—may provide some clarity.
In 1947, following Broadway success and a new contract with film-maker Alexander Korda, the Society photographer, artist, stage and costume designer Cecil Beaton was looking to buy a house in the country. A friend, the writer Edith Olivier, introduced him to pretty, red-brick Reddish House in the village of Broad Chalke, eight miles from Salisbury. Instantly captivated, he readily agreed), was Beaton’s cherished country home, where he entertained his many friends from the worlds of the Arts, stage and screen. Among them was Greta Garbo, to whom he proposed marriage, inviting her to ‘build her nest’ here. The offer was politely declined.
