Behn "emphasizes that, while Whiggish middle-class patriots are to be derided, upper-class good taste is international".

But upper-class taste is soon imitated by the middle classes.

Hence, upper-class taste is not defined by things regarded as necessary or useful but by those that are the opposite.

But the choicest view of eccentric upper-class taste may be the one now available at Christie's, which this Thursday begins a three-day auction of the estate of Doris Duke.

From Scottish manor houses to African safaris, from Caribbean beach houses to clapboard cottages, but most of all, surely, from a vision of upper-class American taste wherever it finds itself, come Mr. Lauren's designs.

The work is, however, clearly intended to expose the pretensions to a superior rationality of middle-and upper-class taste.

These objects prove two basic tenets: that Peter Carl Faberge was a brilliant designer, entrepreneur and appraiser of upper-class taste and that the rich, royal and otherwise, often have far more money than they know what to do with.

"The color esthetic at that time was very different," Mr. Waite said, but Homewood's unlikely color schemes "are typical of upper-class taste in the early 19th century."

To the delight of their many admirers, the Charvets' open settings facilitated blending with all kind of fancy suits [...] The original Charvet prints became the first, and regrettably almost the last, bold figured necktie to symbolize upper-class taste".

As such, he shares many character traits with them - a flamboyant dress sense, upper-class tastes and sensibilities combined with a youthful appreciation of the 'trendy' aspects of 1970s culture, a chivilrous and patriotic nature, and a healthy disdain for most representations of establishment authority.