Product Description

This beautiful volume explores eight European estates that, despite war, taxes, and the passage of time, have remained in the same families for centuries. The photographs are redolent in atmosphere and the text is revealing, due to the author’s long friendships with the owners of these great houses. Offering an inside view of a highly refined way of life, Private Splendor reveals the secrets that kept these homes in private hands. The houses include Seville’s Casa de Pilatos, owned by Spain’s most illustrious grandee; Harewood House in Yorkshire, owned by a cousin of Queen Elizabeth; Germany’s Schloss Regensburg, occupied by the flamboyant Princess Gloria von Thurn and Taxis; and the Palazzo Sachetti near Vatican City, whose enormous Sala dei Mapi is entirely frescoed by Francesco Salviati (1510–1563).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #458964 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Alexis Gregory is a publisher, author, art collector, and deputy chairman of Sotheby’s advisory board. He lives in New York and Paris.

Customer Reviews

Amazing book with private views of fabulous splendor
This is a fabulous book. I bought the book because of my connection and time spent at Harewood House in England. The photographs are so fantastic and the text very competent. Which in the case of Harewood is quite an accomplishment since the history is long and quite complicated. Alexis Gregory is to be congratulated on getting all the facts right. I know this home intimately and the photos show Harewood just as it is in all its glory.

I was also fascinated with St. Emmeram Palace in which I have also spent much time. Again the images and the accompanying text are best examples of their craft.

But the best part of the book was discovering other stately homes and palaces that I did not know about. It was exciting to get a look inside these private spaces. A more beautiful book will be hard to come by. I could not put it down. The only complaint with the whole book is that there was not more of it- more photos and more homes included!

I am often disappointed by such photography/history books, but this is the exception to that rule.

My highest compliments!

The Best of Its Type
PRIVATE SPLENDOR is by far one of the best of its type. Author Alexis Gregory and photographer Marc Walter are guests in eight great houses still inhabited by their aristocratic families. An intimate view into the lifestyle of today's owners is presented in a good blend of the scholarly and the artistic. Granted, more about the architecture, art, furnishings, family history, etc., could have been told and shown, but each palace is worthy of its own book. This is a very good book that shows life in great houses beyond the velvet rope that would restrict the casual visitor.

Beautiful addition to my library
I find this to be a beautifully photographed book, I have dupilcated one of the floral arrangements already. A great idea book.