Design Far Living THE DREW JACKSON SOMERVILLES BOLQUETS OF QUIET UNDERSTAlEMENT
I. Tucked away in the nearby Maryland suburbs is the French chateau Candy and Jack Somerville call home. Instead of a staid drawing room, Mrs. Somerville likes a living room that measures up to its name. In the foreground is an arrangement of tulips, az.aleas and gerbers, with a painted version captured in an 18th Century still-life of lillies behind her. Amidst her Francophile furnishings, she injects a bit of diversion with a chrome and glass coffee table covered with tiny objects d'art and thick pictorial essays. Filmy and feminine, her red chiffon Holston from SaksJandel is set off with diamond drop earrings and bracelet designed by her husband. 2. The allurement of mauve, toned with grey, keynotes the living room with drapes of irridescent silk. The color was picked with the help of Interior Designer, Vada Morrell, to compliment two 18th century chinoiserie paintings on either side of the white marble mantle piece. At the far end of the room is a hand-carvedfruitwood etagere from the south of France, where apoleon mementoes rest along with rare books. In the center are two overstuffed sofas with rounded arms in a silk corded fabric that picks up the hint of pink. The mirror over the mantle is etched Venetian glass. In the foreground, Chinese porcelain antiques are grouped on a Louis XV writing table. Under foot is a rug designed by Mrs. Somerville with a border of pale lavender ribbons and musical instruments, based on historical motifs.
andy Somerville made the first major transition of her life at age seven when she switched first names. And again as a junior in college when she left behind budding career plans, got married and began raising a family of three sons instead. Her third major transition got under way last month as she launched a new business and traded in 20 years of charity work. Born Julia Elizabeth Crittendon, the Bethesda housewife turned entrepreneur, was the 11th generation to bear the family name as she grew up along Chicago's suburban Lake Shore . But neither she nor her parents thought the moniker fit, so the name was switched to Candace on her seventh birthday after the family patriarch died. Raised in the Chicago and New York area, she studied architecture at the University of Virginia before meeting Andrew Jackson (Jack) Somerville, a young swain who promptly proposed. The two were married and Jack was drafted during the Korean War. After his tour of duty, he resumed his studies at night school and took the helm of the family business. One of the old-line families in the Washington area, Somerville proudly relates how his relatives fled France in 1066 during the Norman conquest and settled in Scotland. His kin came to Baltimore and Washington around 1800,
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with his great grandfather starting the family wholesale plumbing business in 1891. "We were married at a time when it was not fashionable to work," Mrs. Somer ille explains, seated in the French-style home she helped to design and decorate. "I wanted a career in television and I had a wonderful opportunity," says the still-stylishly coiffed ash blond grandmother. But she chose raising a family instead. Mrs. Somerville radiates with joy
3. Dinner is served in splendor in the Frenchinspired dining room. Guests sup from golden etched goblets at the fruit wood Regency refectory table with chairs in a Louis XV style with~ cane and a grey moire insert on the backs. Her antique commode and corner settee were part a five-piece salon set, with bisque figures of htl favorites, Napoleon and Josephine, resting on top (left side). The antique candlesticks of bront.e and marble with ormolu mounts highlight another of Mrs. Somerville's collectitd passions, tiny cherubs. The tinkling crystal chandelier, along with another in the circular stairwell, were purchased in France. Above tht antique provincial mantle, the Louis XV mirr01 sparkles in the light .
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10/ June 1980/Dossier
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