The recycled curtain material - "delft blue floral, vintage rose and teal, and rich damask burnt orange drapery" - was of a style used between the 1950s and 1990s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Upstairs, the silk damask draperies, crystal chandeliers and sumptuous beds feel opulent and the rooms are simply huge.

“Life and death and bloodlines and damask. Wonderful,” wrote Jonathan Foyle, a British academic, on social media.

We looked around the gentlemen’s smoking room to see if a cat’s eyes glowed from under the furniture, behind the damask drapes.

Opie’s backdrop is a damask drapery in dark green, red’s vivifying complementary color.