Artist and designer Aldous Bertram infuses his work—be it paintings, interior design, or accessories—with exuberance
Though Aldous Bertram claims to be a recluse, his passport says otherwise, with stamps from France, Germany, China, Japan, and many more countries. The charming artist and designer, who launched his namesake design firm last year, also revels in armchair Instagram travel. “I’m inspired by historical places,” he says.
Raised in the small English village of Linton in Cambridgeshire, the dapper Brit landed in Charleston three years ago via the Bahamas and Palm Beach. Along the way, he journeyed through Asia and the Far East researching for his doctorate from Cambridge University and then interned at the posh London offices of Sotheby’s, de Gournay, and House & Garden. After earning his stripes developing products for coastal design doyenne Amanda Lindroth, Bertram struck out on his own, commencing with a brilliant collaboration with New Orleans atelier Fleur.
The artful collection of made-to-order mirrors celebrates all that Bertram fancies—Eastern architecture, intricate chinoiserie, scrolled silhouettes, classic stripes, and saturated colors. “The mirrors are inspired by the places I’ve been and things I’m obsessed with,” he notes. “They’re each so different from one another and really fun.”
The jauntily elegant “Claydon” reinvents a delicate door surround from England’s Claydon House in watercolor that looks like three-dimensional plaster. To capture the intricate details and precise shading, the designer painstakingly painted a four-foot-high rendering of the chinoiserie frame. (Over the years, Bertram has honed his fine-art skills on projects both majestic and miniature, from wall-size murals to extraordinarily elaborate dollhouses.)
Then there’s the architectural “Davenport,” modeled after another English country house door molding and available painted with the royal look of lapis lazuli, and “Tangier,” with its keyhole cutout that mimics the Moorish architecture Bertram found so fascinating while visiting Seville. Dressed in vertical bands of seaside color, this style anchored the designer’s spruce piazza at the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Showhouse this spring. “Brighton” boasts the same pointed horseshoe arch adorned with a Chinese wallpaper pattern pulled from the designer’s art portfolio.
Every mirror in the collection reflects the Aldous Bertram style, which he gushes is “a whole mix of colors, patterns, and styles of furniture…exotic things from the Far East, block-printed Indian fabrics, precious stone finishes, and chinoiserie”—in short, very English. Perhaps that’s how this serial traveler settled on home in the Holy City. “Charleston gives me a massive cultural injection,” he says. Not only does King Street remind him of a European high street, the architecture here feels decidedly English, with the added charm of our signature piazzas, “which I absolutely love, because I’m also obsessed with columns.”
Design Doctor: Aldous Bertram penned his doctoral dissertation on Chinese influence in English garden design and architecture.
Exuberant Read: His Dragons & Pagodas: A Celebration of Chinoiserie (Vendome Press, 2021) is a gorgeously illustrated, thoroughly researched survey of the decor style. Bertram is working on a book commission for the Palm Beach Preservation Foundation “and perhaps a chinoiserie sequel.”
Travel Plans: He is heading back to England this summer, with some side trips “for shots of cultural inspiration. I’m all about palaces, country houses, and art museums,” he says.
Wish List: “I really want to do hand-painted wallpaper and fabric.”
More: aldousbertram.com; fleurhome.com
Photographs by courtesy of Aldous Bertram; (Piazza) Blake Shorter & (Aiken Rhett Vignette) Julia Lynn & Courtesy of (mirrors-3) Fleur
