A Room in an Old Castle
English manor house × French Rococo
About A Room in an Old Castle
A Room in an Old Castle is the design philosophy of The Salon: within a Manor of 80.11 square metres and three-metre ceilings, the gravity of an English manor house is layered with the grace of French Rococo. Eleven zones are joined as one continuous sequence of scenes, and furnishings of differing periods and origins are set side by side to express the layered time of a house passed down through generations.
Room by room, English gravity and French grace change their expression
The Study shows English gravity through stillness
A leather-topped twin pedestal desk, a black leather captain's chair, brass lamps, leather-bound books. Once your butler has set the lighting, the scene turns the mind to reading and writing.
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The Dining Room is the Manor's public face
An English yew table, a nine-light chandelier in a style of eighteenth-century Viennese origin, wine-red chairs. As your butler opens the double doors, the long table stretches out before you.
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The Lounge carries the afterglow of a Victorian salon
Gold damask walls, wine-red curtains and sofas, a six-light French chandelier from the 1920s. With the lights lowered and the fire left burning, a depth quite unlike daytime emerges.
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The Bedroom enfolds you in nineteenth-century French curves
A corbeille bed, named for the flower basket, black silk damask, capitonné upholstery, linens in burgundy and gold. Your butler dims the lights and prepares the bed for your rest.
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The Wardrobe layers the butler's attire with English furniture
A bookcase with the spiral ornament fashionable in late seventeenth-century England, leather chairs, morning coats and tailcoats. The attire is not hidden away but shown as part of the Manor's story.
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The Gallery links the time between one room and the next
A pendulum longcase clock, a suit of armour, a gramophone, a bow-fronted glass cabinet of silver and porcelain, great doors of French oak. With every step, the next scene draws nearer.
Read moreFurnishings that do not quite match create the time of a house handed down
Layered time is the idea of setting furnishings side by side as though they had been added, given and inherited over a lifetime, rather than confined to a single period or country. A nineteenth-century French bed, an English yew dining table, a chandelier in a style of eighteenth-century Viennese origin and Japanese porcelain meet within one Manor.
Old and new are joined by the scenes in which they are used, not lined up in chronological order. As your butler carries silver to the table, lights the study lamp and turns down the bedroom linens, the furnishings become the daily life of the Manor rather than exhibits.
The Manor is operated by the Japan Butler Association. Our butlers, women and men alike, consider both how to handle each piece without harm and how close you may stand to see its design. When you wish to know a piece's history we tell it; when you wish to look in silence, we hold back.
In a Manor without windows, the combination of lights changes the colour and shadow of every piece
The Manor's lighting is a device for creating scenes without daylight, combining chandeliers, candelabra, study lamps and the fire. Brightly lit, the silver, the cobalt blue and gilding of the porcelain and the outline of the woodgrain come forward; with the lights lowered, the flames, the wine-red fabrics and the gold ornament take on deep shadow.
To photograph carving, grain and gilding in detail, we bring the light up until the outlines are clear; to sit quietly before the fire, we lower the chandeliers and leave only your hands and the flames lit. In the same room, choosing the light for what you wish to see changes the reflections of the metal and the depth of the fabrics.
Your butler does not move the furnishings themselves, but adjusts how the curtains fall and the brightness of the chandeliers, the study lamps and the fire to suit each scene. Change the room you sit in first and the order of the lights, and the colours that meet your eye as the door opens change too. We ask what you wish to see or to photograph, and set the lights in the order they are needed.
Cobalt blue, gold, wine red and silver guide the eye
| Colour | Where it appears in the Manor | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Cobalt blue | The blue and gilding of the porcelain | Adds a clear contrast to a house founded on red and gold |
| Gold | Chandeliers, frames, candelabra, brass handles, the bedroom linens | Catches the light and leads the eye to doors, paintings and the table |
| Wine red | The dining chairs, the curtains and sofas of the Lounge, the roses, the bedroom linens | Binds the warmth and depth of the Manor |
| Silver | Silver cutlery, the tea service, the silver bell | Sets off the butler's white gloves and movements |
| Black (accent) | The leather chair in the Study, the silk damask of the bed, the shadows of the frames | Tightens the four principal colours and the bright metals |
| Layering of colour | The depth of the wood, the reflections of metal, the red of the fabrics, the blue of the porcelain | Keeps furnishings that do not quite match from looking cluttered, tying them together by the outline seen from the door and the view from your seat. Your butler sets the chairs and lights and leads you to where each sets off the other |
From the opening of the door to the lowering of the lights, the eye passes through five scenes
Leaving the everyday before the armour
The suit of armour at the entrance of Queen's Butler is the threshold between the world outside and the story of the Manor.
Touching the stillness of wood and leather in the Study
The leather-topped desk, the black leather chair and the brass lamps draw the eye low. Your butler sets the desk and adjusts the light so as not to disturb reading or writing.
Passing through the double doors into the Dining Room
As the French oak double doors, some 2,480 mm high, swing open, the yew table, 2,286 mm in length, and the nine-light chandelier appear straight ahead.
Enfolded in red and gold in the Lounge
Wine-red sofas and curtains, gold damask walls, the electric fire in the mantelpiece.
Seeing the French curves of the Bedroom
The nineteenth-century French corbeille bed rises high at head and foot, tracing the outline of a flower basket.
Area, height and period give a sense of scale to the eleven scenes
| The Manor as a whole | 80.11 square metres, with ceilings of three metres. Eleven zones in all: entrance, kitchen, sanitary area, Wardrobe, Study, left wall, Dining Room, partition wall, right wall, Lounge and Bedroom. |
|---|---|
| Dining Room | The English yew table measures 2,286 mm in length. A nine-light chandelier and wine-red chairs |
| Study | The Study at Queen's Butler holds a leather-topped twin pedestal desk, a black leather captain's chair, a three-light crystal chandelier overhead and a bronze floor lamp |
| Lounge | A mantelpiece 1,150 mm wide and 1,019 mm high, and a six-light French chandelier from the 1920s |
| Bedroom | A nineteenth-century French corbeille bed. Black silk damask, capitonné upholstery, linens in burgundy and gold |
| Double doors | Great double doors of French oak, some 2,480 mm high |
What you may do with your butler's guidance
- Having your butler open the doors and arrange the order of rooms to suit your wishes that day
- Using the furnishings within a scene: taking a chair, opening a book in the Study, gathering for tea before the fire
- Looking closely at the silver and porcelain of Queen's Butler and asking your butler about their history and design
- Taking photographs against changing backgrounds in the Dining Room, Study, Lounge and Bedroom
- Having the chairs and the flow of movement arranged for your number, whether one, two or up to six guests
What we ask you to refrain from
- Moving furnishings without your butler's guidance
- Using the Manor unattended, or taking possession of the keys
- Placing objects that may scratch or scorch directly on the furnishings
QWhy are English style and French Rococo found together?
To express a house in which pieces of different periods and origins have been added over generations of living. Joining the gravity of the Study to the curves of the Bedroom creates a layered time that never quite matches.
QMay I actually touch the antiques?
Under your butler's guidance you may use the chairs, the table, the silver and the porcelain as each scene requires. For pieces that call for care, your butler will quietly show you how to hold and set them down.
QCan I see all eleven zones?
We show you the Manor according to the time you have booked and how you wish to spend it. You may take in the whole before choosing a room to settle in, or savour the scenes in order from the door.
QMay I take photographs inside the Manor?
You are welcome to photograph inside Queen's Butler. The Dining Room, Study, Lounge and Bedroom each give a very different background. If a butler is to appear, please confirm their consent first.
QDoes the Manor feel different with one guest or with six?
Alone, you can more easily attend to the details of chairs and lights; with company, scenes arise around the table or the screen. For up to six guests, your butler arranges the chairs and the flow of movement to suit your number.
QCan I enjoy the Manor's atmosphere on a rainy day?
The scenes within the Manor may be enjoyed whatever the weather. Your butler takes your umbrella and coat, and you may move between the fire, the Study and the Dining Room, far from the hours outside. Plans made for outdoors can be exchanged for reading, the screen and the like.
You may also wish to read
Into the layered time.
Tell us the date and hour you have in mind. Your butler will be waiting with the door open.