A Very Pheasant Affair

Last November, Carter and Company was honored with the prestigious Bulfinch Award presented at the Massachusetts State House for excellence in Classical Interior Design.  This award is presented yearly by the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and is given to architects, artists and designers for work embracing the principals of and passion for classical design.

Here I am with the staff of Carter & Company having received the Bullfinch Award.

Classical design has been at the heart of my work since boyhood when I would sketch for hours the façade of Monticello or other great Southern plantations with their strong Greek and Roman influences.   Even today, when left solely to my own devices, as opposed to the desires and wishes of a client, my aesthetic instinctively pulls me in the classical direction.

I am convinced that I must have had several past lives surrounded by the splendors of the ancient world!

In that vein, I was extremely pleased and delighted to suddenly find myself swimming in a sea of neo-classicism at the Spring Furniture Market in High Point.  I was with colleagues Jim Swan and Lynn Dayton and we were viewing the new collections at Baker (which is always the highlight of the trip I must confess).   And next thing I knew we were having a lively chat with the legendary interior designer Thomas Pheasant, who was there to showcase his anniversary collection of furniture for Baker (10 years hardly seems possible) all heavily inspired by classical design.   

We were especially impressed by a series of monumental photographs which were displayed as art for the collection.  What we were seeing, we learned from Thomas, were in fact photos taken by Thomas Pheasant himself.  

These large scale images featured unusual perspectives on architectural details. Their cool black and whiteness and bold scale seemed a perfect foil for the elegant furniture but also stood well on their own.   They beautifully reflected his life-long love of classical architecture.   And it’s this reverence for all things architectural that comes through in the furniture collections. The graceful line, nuanced curve and the attention to the smallest details make the furniture, like his work for private clients, a joy to behold.