Page 138 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2015

HOME good to the last drop
ABOVE, TOP: TRUE TO HIS ENGLISH HERITAGE, Gray has tea every morning at 10 o’clock with china teacups. BOTTOM: SORBET with a berry topping is often served to guests with tea.
and dryer. There are five gorgeous Italian Capodimonte chandeliers throughout the home.
An inveterate collector, Gray has collections that attest to his varied interests along with inherited family collections. He has a collection of miniatures from 159 countries, and beautiful sets of silver, crystal and Lenox and Spode china. “Before Katrina I had my mother’s 1,100 place setting of Spode. We picked up pieces in the woods for months,” he said.
At one time, Gray had the largest collection of Russian lacquered boxes outside Russia; some were recovered after Katrina. “Jimmy and I made 11 trips to Russia to buy them,” he said.
He has his grandmother’s 1776 Louis XVI sofa and chairs that traveled to Mississippi from Virginia in a covered wagon. “They still have the original Aubusson tapestry coverings and I refuse to recover them,” he said.
These heirloom pieces are in the room Gray calls “the museum room” along with a 1776 mantle and other historical artifacts.
True to his English heritage, Gray has tea every morning at 10 o’clock
with china teacups and brewed tea served from a teapot. This penchant for elegance and upholding standards is also evident in the dining room where the table is set for a formal dinner. When he entertains, he likes to post the menu and seating arrangement. A Dresden clock and two urns grace the mantle. The windows of this sunny room are dressed with wine-colored drapes topped with cornices that Gray made. Everyone knows that sorbet can be used as a palate cleanser between the courses of a meal, but this genial host uses brandy in the French fashion of the Normans (trou Normand) as a palate cleanser; a little brandy to ease the digestion of the first part of the meal so the rest of the feast can be enjoyed. It’s served in small crystal glasses that have no flat bottoms. Guests must drink all the liquid because the glasses can’t be set down. When empty, the glasses are stored upside down.
The guest bedroom has an 1820 parquet armoire without a single flaw in the wood and a Venetian chandelier with pink flowers. Gray’s mother bought nine of the famous glass chandeliers on a trip to Venice and only this one survived the years and storms.
A diligent historian, Gray has documented the colorful history of his family, which includes ties to British royalty, along with the history of South Mississippi. A number of binders hold pages of research materials on shelves in his bedroom. There’s even one that’s clearly labeled in big letters ‘Knowledge.’
138 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • November 2015
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