A quintessential New England house with an extraordinary collection of antiques
In the village heart of Salisbury, Connecticut, a quintessential New England town that hasn’t changed much in the 282 years since its founding, the 1780s clapboard colonial known as Ingleside hasn’t changed much, either. For fourth-generation antiques dealer Dana Jennings Rohn, who has lived in the house through many incarnations in her own life, that is the appeal. “I remember walking through it the first time, when it was this white blank slate full of incredible charm. My mother was completely in love with it,” reminisces Dana of moving into the house as a teenager. In short order, the house became a true family home.
Ingleside had been in a state of “benign neglect” when her parents took it over, and her mother, Gloria Buckley, resuscitated it thoughtfully and sparingly, editing down her voluminous collection of antiques to include only the most beloved. She was also assiduous in her process. “She catalogued everything,” remembers Dana, “decorating notes, paint swatches, fabric and custom dyed trim samples, all meticulously documented in folders I still have.”
Years later, when her parents fell ill, Dana, along with her husband and business partner, Fritz Rohn, and daughters Phoebe and Chloe, moved in. “We each had our own area within the house, and the kitchen served as the heart of the home where we would come together,” she says. After inheriting the family home in 2018, Dana and Fritz lovingly made it their own, maintaining the spirit of her mother’s design and many of her colour choices– but on one important score, they differed. “We just love stuff so much,” says Dana of the layered way of living she and Fritz ushered into Ingleside.
“We collect with complete abandon. One of the greatest pleasures of being an antiques dealer is constantly prowling for beautiful things and being able to take them home with you.” Call it an occupational hazard. Dana and Fritz are the owners of a nearby antiques store, Montage, beloved for its artful and ever changing mix of American, English, and Continental furniture and art. It is natural, then, that collecting art and antiques leads Dana and Fritz’s design impulses. “Our collecting is at the wheel: we are collectors, not interior designers,” she says of their approach. Each room argues this case; in the living room, a 17th-century Franco-Flemish verdure tapestry, with all its saturated tones, informs the green velvet of the upholstery. A moody Zurbaran-inspired still life above the mantle also echoes the rich tonality of the tapestry, while Italian 17th- and 18th-century portraits of Madonna and child amplify the golden tones in the room. They maintained Gloria’s original paint colour, a Benjamin Moore hue called ‘Jamesboro Gold’.
The entry hall is a lively dialogue between objects collected, inherited, and meaningful. On the Welsh dresser base table, a pair of gilded and carved 18th-century heads depicting angels, one Spanish and one English, mingle with a father-daughter set of English portraits, also dating to the 18th century. A rare William & Mary Prince of Wales crest bannister back armchair inherited from Gloria and a collection of American walking sticks, along with daughter Phoebe’s polo mallet, flank the chest. Another set of faces, a pair of tapestry border fragments, add to the animated feel of the entry.
The prodigiously proportioned yet cozy kitchen is centred on its oversized hearth and mantle. Matching the family's convivial spirit, it reads “Old Wood to Burn, Old Books to Read, Old Wine to Drink, Old Friends to Trust”, above which is arranged their collection of Italian and Delft apothecary jars. An Eastern European blue and white painted swirl desk and an Italian still life bring in soft and warm colors. An American cupboard houses their yellow-ware bowls and Portuguese polychrome faience dinner plates.
The couple’s bedroom is a riot of pattern, all in shades of deep blue and white, which is also mirrored by the tulipière and ginger jars on display. The contemporary barley twist ebonised bed is topped by the crest of a French Regence gilded mirror. A graphic, inlaid bone Spanish chest of drawers doubles as a bedside table. The artwork includes a pair of Old Master paintings of Sibyls.
Gloria’s room has remained intact since her passing in 2018. She had commissioned a local artisan and expert in American furniture, Roger Gonzalez, to create a pencil post bed around the dimensions of a counterpane 18th-century English crewelwork and found a blue fabric to match, sourcing custom walnut shell-dyed tape. The red desk, an 18th-century American piece, and a banister back side chair with custom flamestitch needlework made by Gloria complete the room, and exemplify the more pared down sensibilities that Dana grew up with.
Dana and Fritz view Ingleside as an entanglement of tastes– inherited antiques and artwork from family, treasures from their decades of collecting for their own business, and their travels, for which they always pack their roaming eyes. While Ingleside has been a canvas and backdrop for three generations of their family, the house has its own indisputable integrity and energy– empty or full of possessions. “I just always have this feeling that the house has reverence for its past, that it has a nurturing soul that reflects the lives lived in it,” reflects Dana, “and I think it will for generations to come.”
Dean Hearne1/10An abstract painting by Fritz is a modern counterbalance to the antique-filled living room.
Dean Hearne2/10The verdure tapestry informed the colour choices in the living room.
Dean Hearne3/10A still life inspired by the 17th-century Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán and Italian paintings of the Madonna and child tease the gold tones out of the room.
Dean Hearne4/10The 17th-century raised base Italian cabinet in Fritz’s office supports two tall paintings of saints, originally part of a larger Italian 16th-century altarpiece.
Dean Hearne5/10An American cupboard in kitchen houses yellowware bowls and Portuguese polychrome faience dishes.
Dean Hearne6/10The bedroom is a riot of deep blue and white pattern which is also echoed in the Chinese and Delft pottery choices. An inlaid Spanish chest of drawers serves as a graphic bedside table.
Dean Hearne7/10A red cassapanca bench and papier mâché penguin by the couple’s daughter, Phoebe, in the centre hall.
Dean Hearne8/10A marble 17th-century bust of Diana mingles with a 19th-century bronze figure of Venus.
Dean Hearne9/10Gloria’s knot garden.
Dean Hearne10/10The greenhouse Dana built herself over a three year period – which doubles as a delightful spot for dinner parties in the summer.
