Lady Henrietta Spencer Churchill at the ROM

Last Monday I agreed to be a last minute replacement in creating a "vignette" at the Royal Ontario Museum for that Wednesday. Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, granddaughter of Winston, was launching her new book with a lecture-slide show. We were given quotations from the book to trigger displays. Waterford-Wedgewood was the sponsor.

The quote referred to placing empire beds sideways along the wall with draperies in the French manner.

In the showroom is an iron daybed that I based on the empire style, and made for David Watkins, the cinematographer for Merchant-Ivory. In the drapery closet, is a Brunschwig & Fils silk valance that I planned to make into a bed canopy. I knew the museum wouldn't allow me to drill into the wall to hang it, so I called my brother, Doug Macaulay of Kingsway Motion Picture, who brought studio equipment (stands, booms, clips, lights). I made a lightweight oval ring out of PVC and Velcro with the help of Dwight Taaffe Designs, and we raised the canopy 8 1/2 feet over that daybed. Deep cream coloured Tergal sheers, also from the closet, made the draperies. The exquisite lace Portault sheets provided by Le Caprice de Marie-Claude were the identical colour.

So far there weren't any antiques, so I borrowed a valuable antique Pyranesee print from Hilary Bonnycastle Motherwell, my invited guest.

Since the Canopy draperies were sheer, the stand and boom would be visible through them, so I added lots of LTM lights to create the impression of a studio set. Don Druick, playwright extraordinaire, emailed a scene from his award-winning play "Through the Eyes" which he is currently transforming into a screenplay. Tossing these pages on the bed, and setting the whole thing on a carpet provided by Anthony Hellman, the Knight Errant who brought me this whole opportunity, completed the scene.

It all came together in 48 hours. Night of, Doug arrived in full dress kilt (we decided that it is traditional for English nobility to have a Scot on hand) and Lady Spencer-Churchill walked straight up to him and introduced herself!!! It was the only time that happened all night. Both Doug and I bought a copy of the book and she signed them - for me with a thank you for the lovely display. Doug won't show me what Her Ladyship wrote on his overleaf. His version is that it says something naughty following her phone number!

- Lois Macaulay