Property of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin H. Bartholow, Greenwich, Conn. | architect: George Hickey III Associates

There is a style of country house in France called a manoir—a design for bucolic living that lies somewhere along the architectural path between a glorified farmhouse and a very modest chateau. Its spirit has been transported to Greenwich, Conn., in a house belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin H. Bartholow that represents the collaboration of three people: the architect, George Hickey III Associates; the interior designer, Mary Dunn of Nancy McClelland Inc.; and Mrs. Bartholow herself who is a tireless collector of French furniture. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bartholow had lived in city apartments since they were children, but bitten by a sudden impulse to become suburbanites, they bought the first house they thought they liked. They discovered they did not, however, so they sold it, and their next move was more deliberate. Enlisting the aid of Miss Dunn, who, in turn, recruited Mr. Hickey, Mrs. Bartholow gave her designers carte blanche with the provision that—when she chose to wield it—they would honor an editorial blue pencil. Proceeding on the theory that as ardent a devotee of French furniture as Mrs. Bartholow would be most at home in a house with a compatibly French flavor, the architect designed a latter-day version of the manoir. The house is successful because it answers, on every count, Mrs. Bartholow's request for simply stated elegance, compactness (for all its engaging look of sprawl) and pure Gallic countryside charm.