ABSTRACT
The Magazine of Art's 1879-80 series, 'Treasure Houses of Art' did not discuss museums, but rather private houses. The owner of the house discussed in this article was the Greek merchant, Alexander Ionides, and his family. Yet it looks mainly what it is, a commonplace London house made comely by alteration and additions that were not sufficiently drastic to leave it architecturally imposing. If this be true, it becomes still more important when all that money can achieve has been lavishly introduced without its cost intruding itself on the people notice. From the inner drawing-room the dining-room is entered, and they have a very notable instance of a very elaborately decorated apartment, that at first sight does not reveal itself as materially unlike any similar room in a well-appointed modern house. It is a symphony of colour orchestrated by a master of scoring, rendered by a Richter orchestra, full and complex, yet never noisy, never strident, but almost a lullaby.
