tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85912232186198392882024-03-12T22:42:05.895-04:00Emily Evans EerdmansEmily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-22550828992116382592015-06-16T18:51:00.001-04:002015-06-16T18:51:04.408-04:00Room of the Week: Nicky Haslam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Lately I have been obsessed with a hue one might describe as "lavender grey." Fresher than puce, but with more edge than lilac. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If everything I feel about this color could be transposed into a room, it would be this one designed by <b><a href="http://www.nh-design.co.uk/" target="_blank">Nicky Haslam</a></b> for a prominent art collector. Nicky's creative director Colette van den Thillart told me Nicky calls the color "ashes of mauve." "It's a VERY chalky specialist finish… It is indeed a lavender grey but made more ephemeral by the specialist BARELY there texture."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There isn't anything I don't love here: that it's a London residence with a country house vibe (given off by the floral curtains); the pleated lamp shades threaded through with ribbon; the ceramic asparagus; the chalky white mirrors and moldings; the slightly off-palette upholstery used on a pair of fauteuils which, as Mario Buatta taught me, makes the room look like it evolved over time; and of course the spectacular Picasso over the mantel. Here a Madeleine Castaing maxim comes to mind: that every room should have something ugly in it. Its rawness and "unpretty" earthy colors add a frisson and make the room anything but old fashioned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Top photograph by Derry Moore for <i><a href="http://www.architecturaldigest.com/" target="_blank">Architectural Digest</a></i>. The project appeared in the December 2010 issue.</span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-50055587290236734052015-06-10T19:55:00.002-04:002015-06-16T19:35:25.572-04:00Blanc de Baroque<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mona Williams captured by Cecil Beaton who included her in his pantheon of greats (cf. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RWSMGN2?creativeASIN=B00RWSMGN2&linkCode=w01&linkId=CEOUYPQXHFQJP5YV&ref_=as_sl_pc_ss_til&tag=regeredu-20" target="_blank">The Glass of Fashion</a></i>)</div>
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Anyone interested in the brittle elegance of the interwar years has long revered Mrs. Harrison Williams, later the Countess von Bismarck, as a paragon of style. In 1926, after steadily marrying up, the Louisville native married Williams, purportedly the richest man in American.<br />
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Where others might dive into a surfeit of ormolu and opulence with such ample means newly at their disposal, Mona kept it (relatively) spare and simple. And as all my designer friends know, "less" is a lot more unforgiving than "more." </div>
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The Delano and Aldrich house at 1130 Fifth acquired by the Williams in 1928</div>
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For both their Manhattan townhouse and their Palm Beach residence, the Williams turned to Syrie Maugham for the right balance of blanc de Baroque. I recently stumbled across these photos of the townhouse's dining room taken in 1931. </div>
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My first thought was to question Mona's mythical status as it seemed more depressingly stark than glamorously so. However all was soon explained when I read the inscription: "to be used by Mr. Sert in drawing murals." </div>
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Jose Maria Sert's murals</div>
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These murals, nine in all, by "Tiepolo of the Ritz" Jose Maria Sert (Spanish, 1874–1945), were sold at Parke-Bernet in 1952, shortly before Harrison's death. They were acquired by Ruxton and Audrey Love whose collection was sold in 2004 by <a href="http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4329678" target="_blank">Christie's</a>. (Lament not - Sert completed another commission for the Williams' Long Island residence which Mona ultimately took with her to Capri). In 1954, Beaton's "rock crystal goddess" married her secretary, Eddy von Bismarck, and added Countess to her well-selected adornments.</div>
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Such was Mona's verve even in the domain of real estate that the Palm Beach residence was bought lock, stock and barrel by Jayne and Charles Wrightsman. </div>
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The Williams in Palm Beach in their Maugham-decorated living room, depicted by Beaton</div>
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Only the Maugham-installed wallpaper stayed after the Wrightsmans became Francophiles and entrusted the room to Stephane Boudin of Jansen, followed by our man Henri Samuel. The exuberant reupholstery was a later Deming and Fourcade update. Supposedly, upon seeing further estimates from Denning and Fourcade, Charles Wrightsman thought it better to sell the house…</div>
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P.S. Apologies if my prose seems rambling or overdone or just poorly edited - in an attempt to re-enter blogging, time polishing must be sacrificed… </div>
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P.S.S. Thank you to The Swan… Here is the Maugham-Williams Palm Beach Paper installed in Pierre Berge's dining room<br />
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Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-88660986567475285502015-05-28T18:59:00.002-04:002015-05-28T19:02:48.389-04:00On the path of Henri Samuel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Winter Garden at Henri Samuel's country house Montfort l'Amaury as illustrated by <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1576873536?creativeASIN=1576873536&linkCode=w01&linkId=6D5S7QRBMTXHRH65&ref_=as_sl_pc_ss_til&tag=regeredu-20" target="_blank">Jeremiah Goodman</a></b></span></div>
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As you may know, I am busy at work on my next book which I couldn't be more excited about. It is on the decorating master Henri Samuel whose career spanned most of the 20th century and whose clients included the Rothschilds, fashion designer Valentino, Jayne Wrightsman, the royal chateau de Versailles, and… you get the idea.<br />
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After coming across this photograph of the designer with Ingrid Bergman at his country house, I thought perhaps the actress was also his client. My new theory is that Bergman consulted Samuel while researching her role in the 1961 film <i>Goodbye Again</i>, in which Bergman plays a decorator in a love triangle with Yves Montand and Anthony Perkins. Read more about the film on <b><a href="http://thepeakofchic.blogspot.com/2010/09/decorator.html" target="_blank">The Peak of Chic </a></b>(whose post sparked this hypothesis). I haven't found further confirmation in the Bergman archives at Wesleyan but I haven't given up.<br />
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Can't you imagine the dishy stories Samuel might have shared with Bergman that weekend in these rooms?<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Credit: Last two photos from the <i>Architectural Diges</i>t book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895350033?creativeASIN=0895350033&linkCode=w01&linkId=TXT2ENAXRKEYDAJQ&ref_=as_sl_pc_ss_til&tag=regeredu-20" target="_blank">International Interiors</a></i></span><br />
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<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-24884702528265953012015-05-22T15:28:00.003-04:002015-05-22T15:28:28.262-04:00Clandon Park Revisited<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykm0JmHX1I/AAAAAAAAB00/isr36iTBThA/s1600-h/ntpl_95906%283%29.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415902704260570962" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykm0JmHX1I/AAAAAAAAB00/isr36iTBThA/s400/ntpl_95906(3).jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 325px;" /></a>The Hunting Room at Clandon Park, Surrey</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Editor's Note: A blazing fire struck Clandon Park weeks ago, reducing the house to a shell. While the National Trust is still assessing the damage, the good news is that a large amount of the collection was saved and that perhaps a restoration of the house, along the lines of Uppark, might be possible. What is lost forever however is the John Fowler overlay of interpretation and decoration the house received in the late 50s and 60s. In memoriam, we are reposting this 2009 ode to the house by Toby Worthington.</span><br />
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THE FOWLER TOUCH: In which guest blogger Toby Worthington shares his first impressions of Clandon Park, Surrey, and a Favorite Room<br />
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Travel does not entirely suit me. Preferring the comfort of my own bed and the meals that emerge from my own kitchen, I am content to sit in a comfortable armchair surrounded by piles of books on English houses. One of those books, indeed the best of the lot, was John Cornforth's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Inspiration of the Past</span>; and on one occasion when I was poring over the author's evocative passages about the restoration of Clandon Park, my companion stirred me out of a trance with the simple question:"Why not see it for yourself?" That was twenty years ago and the journey was, I realize now, something of a pilgrimage that led to a close inspection of the finest example of John Fowler's work for the National Trust.<br />
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Built by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni for the 2nd Earl of Onslow in the 1720s, Clandon Park is a house that has been described, variously, as gaunt, forbidding, and unwelcoming~no doubt because, by the late 1960s, most of its contents had been dispersed; what funds there were had been spent on essential structural repairs, so that as a result, there was little to show for this in the appearance of the interiors.<br />
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A fairy godmother appeared, not a moment too soon, in the form of a bequest, along with a substantial endowment, from Mrs David Gubbay (born Hannah Ezra, her mother was a Sassoon), and though her unrivaled collection of porcelain birds and satinwood furniture would seem at odds with the robust architecture of the house, those discrepancies of scale and weight would produce, in the skilled hands of John Fowler, one the most appealing rooms in all of Clandon Park, the Hunting Room. More of that anon; but first, a brisk tour of other parts of the house.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykmZgQVTfI/AAAAAAAAB0k/yKLfdlTdfoE/s1600-h/IMG_0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415902246486756850" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykmZgQVTfI/AAAAAAAAB0k/yKLfdlTdfoE/s400/IMG_0001.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 264px;" /></a>THE GREAT HALL, A CUBE OF 40 FEET WITH A PAIR OF CHIMNEYPIECES<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykcsc8E8CI/AAAAAAAABy0/9kd1s145L80/s1600-h/Clandon_Park_0004.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415891576897728546" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykcsc8E8CI/AAAAAAAABy0/9kd1s145L80/s400/Clandon_Park_0004.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 262px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px;" /></a>DETAIL OF THE GODDESS DIANA, CHIMNEYPIECE<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykdEpJxzpI/AAAAAAAABy8/9Wtn6hH15h8/s1600-h/Clandon_Park_0005.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415891992493280914" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykdEpJxzpI/AAAAAAAABy8/9Wtn6hH15h8/s400/Clandon_Park_0005.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 264px;" /></a>MARBLED COLUMNS, SCONCE SUPPORTED BY COCTEAU-LIKE ARM<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykeJAFO43I/AAAAAAAABzc/UKKTLaK8czg/s1600-h/Clandon_Park_0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415893166879335282" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykeJAFO43I/AAAAAAAABzc/UKKTLaK8czg/s400/Clandon_Park_0001.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 261px;" /></a>CEILING OF GREAT HALL, attributed to the plasterers Artari and Bugutti.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykdqG3xL4I/AAAAAAAABzM/hscZPjsX2qA/s1600-h/Clandon_Park_0006.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415892636125966210" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykdqG3xL4I/AAAAAAAABzM/hscZPjsX2qA/s400/Clandon_Park_0006.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 266px;" /></a>THE PALLADIO ROOM, in which the bold 1730 ceiling and the 1780 Revillon wallpaper were linked by color.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykeeKWyYsI/AAAAAAAABzk/7UtQHaJzbaY/s1600-h/Clandon_Palladio__0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415893530414572226" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykeeKWyYsI/AAAAAAAABzk/7UtQHaJzbaY/s400/Clandon_Palladio__0001.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 266px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px;" /></a>THE PALLADIO ROOM'S CEILING,<br />
with Mr Fowler's coloring~an object lesson in how to paint architectural ornament</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Syke4kvPEXI/AAAAAAAABzs/jV4z9mlhpi4/s1600-h/Saloon_Clandon_0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415893984173035890" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Syke4kvPEXI/AAAAAAAABzs/jV4z9mlhpi4/s400/Saloon_Clandon_0001.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 266px;" /></a>CHIMNEYPIECE AND OVERMANTEL IN THE SALOON<br />
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The overmantel, formerly whitewashed, was marbled to restore integrity to the chimney wall.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykfLTSlV5I/AAAAAAAABz0/3gT_2oP7bIg/s1600-h/Clandon_Saloon.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415894305906972562" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykfLTSlV5I/AAAAAAAABz0/3gT_2oP7bIg/s400/Clandon_Saloon.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 266px;" /></a>DOOR SURROUND IN THE SALOON Another lesson in architectural painting.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Syklr3kEMHI/AAAAAAAAB0c/2ass58XnOso/s1600-h/Clandon_0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415901462469554290" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Syklr3kEMHI/AAAAAAAAB0c/2ass58XnOso/s400/Clandon_0001.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 264px;" /></a>THE HUNTING ROOM</div>
<br />
A room at the south east corner of the house, of a relative intimacy, the Hunting Room seems to<br />
me a demonstration of John Fowler's well-mannered( but never boring) approach to assembling materials, furnishings, pattern and colour in a way that is endlessly satisfying. As mentioned earlier, Mrs Gubbay had a penchant for Chinese porcelain birds, and over the years bought a number of fine rococo brackets on which to display them in an authentic 18th century way.<br />
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The room takes its name from a set of understated tapestries that were installed against an equally understated background of Mr Fowler's much loved diamond cloth dyed in tobacco brown and outlined, surprisingly, in a braid of sharp green grosgrain.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykkqE0jd6I/AAAAAAAAB0U/qJ2aLfC_wBY/s1600-h/IMG_0002_1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415900332157007778" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykkqE0jd6I/AAAAAAAAB0U/qJ2aLfC_wBY/s400/IMG_0002_1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 266px;" /></a>Typical of John Fowler's approach, the woodwork is dragged in 3 shades of stony white and the skirting boards follow the universal Palladian system of being painted off-black.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykkQmzw_VI/AAAAAAAAB0M/x_ajmPtsh4g/s1600-h/Clandon_Park_0003.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415899894603906386" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/SykkQmzw_VI/AAAAAAAAB0M/x_ajmPtsh4g/s400/Clandon_Park_0003.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 263px;" /></a>CHANDELIER IN THE HUNTING ROOM ,<br />
with its elegant chandelier bag.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykjx5quO-I/AAAAAAAAB0E/AHX_-WMAxAE/s1600-h/IMG_0005.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415899367090306018" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykjx5quO-I/AAAAAAAAB0E/AHX_-WMAxAE/s400/IMG_0005.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 266px;" /></a>A CANED CHAIR GIVEN AS PART OF A SET BY JF,<br />
now in the Morning Room. Note pancake squab cushion.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykh9L2FDHI/AAAAAAAABz8/ASBIlh8AndE/s1600-h/IMG_0004.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415897361925082226" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OsRCxkOHQh4/Sykh9L2FDHI/AAAAAAAABz8/ASBIlh8AndE/s400/IMG_0004.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 266px;" /></a>Festooned chintz at the windows in the Hunting Room.</div>
<br />
For reasons of appearance as well as economy, John Fowler introduced festoon curtains made of<br />
printed cotton in the brown and white Seaweed pattern, edged in bittersweet chocolate brown chintz and decked out in maltese bows at the headings. It was at this stage that I began to understand the brilliant counterpoint of elements both humble and grand~indeed, that was the secret of Mr Fowler's magic touch~but my musings were interrupted by an opinionated woman who was stationed in the room as guide on that particular afternoon. She gave those charming curtains a withering glance.<br />
<br />
"All wrong, those curtains. Very Laura Ashley." A remark which seemed to me at the time, to be putting the cart before the horse. But nothing could deflate me on that occasion. From that point on, a sense of calm came over me regarding my own work~all doubts put temporarily to rest in the presence of this, the "real thing" that was before me at nearly arm's length, to study, analyze, and savor. No more guessing, or being teased by photographs in books or magazines.<br />
<br />
The details of a house have an altogether different impact when witnessed, like a meal actually tasted as opposed to the printed recipe. In this instance, what might have been a house of icy grandeur was transformed into something that met the highest aesthetic standards while putting the visitor completely at ease. As James Lees-Milne said at John Fowler's funeral, "No art scholar whose learning had been instilled into him by professors, but one of nature's enthusiasts whose immense knowledge had been picked up by the wayside, John was the least academic of men. Yet nothing was allowed to stand in the way of getting a thing right."<br />
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Top photo courtesy of National Trust; all other photos courtesy of Toby WorthingtonEmily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-24030692946634699282015-04-17T18:51:00.000-04:002015-04-17T18:56:02.466-04:00Ssss is the Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This past Wednesday, the annual Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala was held at Cipriani and the tabletop displays were more dazzling than ever. This year's theme was the Garden of Eden and one table even came with its own live Adam and Eve alluringly bedecked in strategic foliage.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73UAm2QvD2Q/VTF6tcx03eI/AAAAAAAADN4/UT54tMDiwmw/s1600/chervet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-73UAm2QvD2Q/VTF6tcx03eI/AAAAAAAADN4/UT54tMDiwmw/s1600/chervet.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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It was a thrill to participate in designer <b><a href="http://www.harryheissmanninc.com/" target="_blank">Harry Heissmann</a></b>'s dramatic <i>Sssss </i>table featuring Eerdmans Fine Arts' (and previously Elton John's) 1970s <a href="https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/more-furniture-collectibles/sculptures/rare-1970s-brass-cobra-sculpture-lamp-alain-chervet/id-f_1332766/" target="_blank"><b>brass Cobra sculpture by Alain Chervet</b></a> as its centerpiece.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5csotN0iBI/VTF6e4NG7hI/AAAAAAAADNw/9DQHfLZMGvY/s1600/Harry-Heissmann-Sssss-Lenox-Hill-gala-table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5csotN0iBI/VTF6e4NG7hI/AAAAAAAADNw/9DQHfLZMGvY/s1600/Harry-Heissmann-Sssss-Lenox-Hill-gala-table.jpg" height="640" width="496" /></a></div>
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An illustration of the table's concept by <b><a href="http://www.illoz.com/demichiell" target="_blank">Robert de Michiell</a></b></div>
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Harry nestled the snake under a "fantasy weeping willow with wisteria fashioned from upside-down snapdragons" by <b><a href="http://www.emilythompsonflowers.com/" target="_blank">Emily Thompson Flowers</a></b> (our favorite florist whose creations adorned the White House one holiday) on a bed of moss.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYf_oteV7so/VTGEjwAFjEI/AAAAAAAADOI/nE74ke-eONM/s1600/IMG_0882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYf_oteV7so/VTGEjwAFjEI/AAAAAAAADOI/nE74ke-eONM/s1600/IMG_0882.JPG" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.markgagnon.com/" target="_blank"><b>Artist Mark Gagnon</b></a> created bedazzled serpent chargers out of papier mache. The entire mise en scene was arranged on the exuberantly patterned tablecloth made from Tony Duquette for Jim Thompson's Gemstone. As Harry calls it, it is a table for friends made by friends.<br />
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Click here to <b><a href="http://www.sarahsarna.com/how-to-set-a-table/" target="_blank">Sarah Sarna </a></b>to see more tables...Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-30263249577132872012015-03-30T20:22:00.000-04:002015-03-30T20:38:22.224-04:00April 1st - The Wait is (almost) Over<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--IpyY18Mhng/VRnakbBvwLI/AAAAAAAADNE/pACP52isrQI/s1600/Wendell%2BCastle%2BGathering%2BMomentum%2BInvite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--IpyY18Mhng/VRnakbBvwLI/AAAAAAAADNE/pACP52isrQI/s1600/Wendell%2BCastle%2BGathering%2BMomentum%2BInvite.jpg" height="281" width="400" /></a></div>
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After six intense years, I am thrilled to announce that the <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wendell-Castle-Catalogue-Raisonn%C3%88-1958-2012/dp/0988855704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427759648&sr=8-1&keywords=wendell+castle" target="_blank">Wendell Castle Catalogue Raisonne</a></b> is finally (almost) out. Please join me this Wednesday, April 1st, at the <b><a href="http://www.friedmanbenda.com/" target="_blank">Friedman Benda</a></b> gallery to celebrate the latest work of furniture revolutionary Wendell Castle and a sneak peak at the first 50 copies of the catalogue.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Words can't express what a monumental project this was - not the least because of the artist's zeal for experimentation and prodigious output of nearly 2000 unique works. At 82, Castle still goes to his studio daily and is arguably creating his best work ever. The artist has famously said, <b>"The dog that stays on the porch doesn't get the bone" </b>and indeed his choice to constantly challenge himself with new techniques, forms, and materials instead of playing it safe and reproducing an acclaimed chair or table is quite extraordinary and inspiring. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UENZlei0xmk/VRnbNme7ohI/AAAAAAAADNU/8lCAEKMV1Zw/s1600/WCinsidepage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UENZlei0xmk/VRnbNme7ohI/AAAAAAAADNU/8lCAEKMV1Zw/s1600/WCinsidepage.jpg" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Castle seen stack-laminating, his pioneering technique which allowed him to sculpt gravity defying form.</i></div>
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The catalogue documents each work made by the artist since the 1950s and is presented in an elegant behemoth published (officially in June) by <a href="http://www.artistbook.org/" target="_blank">The Artist Book Foundation</a>. (The publisher deserves a Nobel prize for fitting in so much information so attractively.) Traveling with me to Morocco, London, Paris, San Francisco, and of course Rochester over the past several years, this book is without doubt the most rigorous and demanding project I've ever worked on.</div>
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Please do come this Wednesday to fete Wendell, an American master, and raise a glass to the tremendous patience, hard-work, and eyesight devoted to this book by my incredible colleagues (Alice, Tricia, Marc, Leslie, Marisa, Carole, Miri, Kimberley, Hannah, Roy, and many many more). And if you have a Castle piece we might not know about despite our best Nancy Drew efforts, please email me at castlecatalogue at gmail dot com<br />
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Wendell Castle: Gathering Momentum<br />
Opening Exhibition, April 1, 6 to 8pm<br />
Friedman Benda<br />
515 W 26th St<br />
NYCEmily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-22929535933704954132014-12-04T18:42:00.004-05:002014-12-04T18:59:15.127-05:00Harry Heissmann on Christmas... Tree Stands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XSk2s9P9b9U/VIDnT7h37gI/AAAAAAAADLY/Vzd9Fu9FnDA/s1600/samson.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XSk2s9P9b9U/VIDnT7h37gI/AAAAAAAADLY/Vzd9Fu9FnDA/s1600/samson.tiff" height="640" width="425" /></a></div>
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<i>Editor's Note: I am delighted to invite you all to a selling exhibition of <b><a href="http://www.harryheissmanninc.com/" target="_blank">Harry's</a></b> famous collection of vintage and antique Christmas tree stands, opening December 11 through December 23. They will be displayed in the most gemutlich of settings, the <b>Philip Colleck</b> historic townhouse on East 58th Street. This is one of <b><a href="http://www.eerdmansfineart.com/" target="_blank">Eerdmans Fine Art's</a></b> first ventures - I so hope to see you there!</i><br />
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By Harry Heissmann<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZPheSbDOgck/VIDxFSTShxI/AAAAAAAADMM/BozwyhWnjhg/s1600/IMG_4848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZPheSbDOgck/VIDxFSTShxI/AAAAAAAADMM/BozwyhWnjhg/s1600/IMG_4848.jpg" height="400" width="263" /></a></div>
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The days after
Christmas, particularly January 6, which is when most people dispose of their
Christmas tree, are sad days for me. I’m not sure why I
get so nostalgic, but the piles of dead trees, most of them dry and with lots
of needles on the ground is just such a pitiful sight.</div>
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When I moved to the
United States in 1995, I learned that many people put their tree on the
sidewalk with the stand still attached, as they will just buy a new one with
the tree for the next year. This would of course
not have happened in 19<sup>th</sup> Century Germany, when the novelty cast
iron Christmas tree stands were very expensive and could only be bought by
wealthy families. The first model the company Roedinghausen cast was offered in
1866. At the turn of the century a cast iron Christmas tree stand would cost
the same amount you had to pay for a whole box of Christmas ornaments. The stands became
family heirlooms and would be kept in the attic or the basement to be used
again and again. Today, recycling being so important, there are services
offered to have your discarded tree transformed to mulch but few keep the
stand – usually a red and green metal or plastic model of unspecific design.</div>
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To me it is most
fascinating to imagine the families delighted by the tree stands and of course
much more importantly – the actual Christmas tree. The trees were mostly
table top trees and times were apparently much different, as ornament was used
on everything that was made, even on the Christmas tree stands. </div>
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Their origin,
however, is of course much simpler. The earliest mention
of a decorated Christmas tree is in a handwritten document from 1604. The
decoration was of paper roses and ‘wafers’(?) and a wooden square is mentioned
for the attachment. Maybe it was a hole in a square piece of wood or one of the
wooden fences which became fashionable later on. But the earliest stands
definitely were made from wood, such as the wooden ‘crosses’ even still around
today. Sometimes buckets
were filled with wet sand and even ‘futterrueben’ were used in more rural areas
in Austria or Northern Germany especially after the Second World War.</div>
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<i>And to tempt you, a few of the stands which will be available online soon on <b><a href="https://www.1stdibs.com/dealers/philip-colleck-ltd/furniture/?search=philip+colleck+ltd" target="_blank">Philip Colleck's 1stdibs page</a></b>:</i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_UiPqzGcc1U/VIDu4EMecTI/AAAAAAAADLo/S7GfweHILd8/s1600/7-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_UiPqzGcc1U/VIDu4EMecTI/AAAAAAAADLo/S7GfweHILd8/s1600/7-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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A large cast iron Christmas tree stand, made by ‘Holler’sche Carlshuette’, circa 1910.</div>
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This stand has wonderful ‘Jugendstil’ (german equivalent of Art Nouveau) floral leafy decoration,</div>
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the original screws and old paint, which has tarnished to a wonderful ‘verdigris’ patina.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qtBrzYD1Xlk/VIDvESEXNCI/AAAAAAAADLw/PlZXcwmXm3g/s1600/1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qtBrzYD1Xlk/VIDvESEXNCI/AAAAAAAADLw/PlZXcwmXm3g/s1600/1-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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A wonderful large cast iron Christmas tree stand, made by ‘Eisenwerk Roedinghausen’, circa 1950’s.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LWwFRZqUpnY/VIDvRLWeObI/AAAAAAAADMA/O0MsqLHYjq8/s1600/2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LWwFRZqUpnY/VIDvRLWeObI/AAAAAAAADMA/O0MsqLHYjq8/s1600/2-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Rare cast iron Christmas tree stand, Germany circa 1920’s.</div>
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This stand features wonderful vignettes of ‘modes of transportation’, a car, a sailboat, a train and most importantly a blimp, or ‘Zeppelin’, as well as a toy soldier, a doll and a snowman, etc. Original paint, accented in gold and silver, original screws.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKmDBbKMxtA/VIDvOcCZyEI/AAAAAAAADL4/Jo6PAP1PAnk/s1600/3-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKmDBbKMxtA/VIDvOcCZyEI/AAAAAAAADL4/Jo6PAP1PAnk/s1600/3-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Wonderful ‘ round ‘ Christmas tree stand,Germany, circa 1920’s (very Hollywood Regency!)</div>
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This stand features Christmas trees and star decor, as well as star shaped screws, original paint in green and silver. It is marked underneath ‘KT’</div>
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<b>Exhibition details:</b></div>
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11-23 December, Monday–Friday 11AM–4 PM</div>
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Philip Colleck, Ltd.</div>
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311 East 58th Street</div>
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New York, NY</div>
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All photos by <b><a href="http://www.joshgaddy.com/" target="_blank">Josh Gaddy</a></b>. </div>
Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-33913931254993678822014-12-02T22:50:00.002-05:002014-12-03T18:52:08.287-05:00The Bunny Effect<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mE-bATLZj_c/VH6EKBTq67I/AAAAAAAADLA/51nYREwKirk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-11-30%2Bat%2B7.28.41%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mE-bATLZj_c/VH6EKBTq67I/AAAAAAAADLA/51nYREwKirk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-11-30%2Bat%2B7.28.41%2BPM.png" height="256" width="400" /></a></div>
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"I don't want to hear one more word about that sale," said my friend's partner upon hearing our topic of conversation. Indeed the <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2014/masterworks-mellon-n09245.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Bunny Mellon </a>auction is STILL a subject of conversation - mainly what we didn't win - and has unleashed a passion in many of us for ceramic vegetables and painted fauteuils (a market on which Mrs. Mellon seemed to have a monopoly).<br />
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If you viewed the sale, you couldn't have missed the ginormous five-tier etagere arranged with all manner of porcelain cabbage, asparagus, and lettuce, faithfully replicating how it was in her Virginia house*, as seen above.<br />
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One of the many interesting things about Mrs. Mellon is that even though she could have lived in the most ducal surroundings, she preferred things rustic and light. She wasn't afraid to paint a bronze Giacometti white or let it rust out in the garden, and she didn't think twice about whopping off the Chippendale Gothic cresting...<br />
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of that etagere, which she purchased from Colefax and Fowler, as seen in this 1964 photo that John Fowler sent Mario Buatta. <br />
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* Not the Georgian style red brick house her husband built with his first wife. Apparently it was too formal and stiff for the 2nd Mrs. Mellon who used it instead as a walk-in closet.Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-71726920913225252632014-10-30T23:52:00.002-04:002014-10-31T20:03:20.759-04:00First Act: All the World's a Stage...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><a href="http://www.thedecoratorsclub.org/index.php/event-2/jacqueline-beymer-lecture-series-2" target="_blank">The 2014–15 Decorators Club Education Fund Lecture Series</a></b> is a celebration of the ephemeral. Whether on stage or film, at a party, or in the dining room, some of the most inspiring, joyful, fascinating, and unforgettable design moments are fleeting and doomed to disappear. The series features four major design talents of the 20th century who created many such moments.<br />
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The premiere lecture is this <b>Wednesday, November 5,</b> and features the legendary Tiffany & Co. Design Director Emeritus John Loring speaking on Joseph Urban. <br />
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Perhaps you've never heard of Urban, one of the Metropolitan Opera's first scenic designers and William Randolph Hearst's preferred architect (among many other things). This is precisely what the series is all about and why you need to come. I hope to see you there!<br />
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Tickets available<b><a href="http://www.thedecoratorsclub.org/index.php/event-2/jacqueline-beymer-lecture-series-2" target="_blank"> here</a></b>.<br />
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<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-35863433803491096642014-09-17T16:42:00.003-04:002014-09-17T16:42:52.255-04:00Thursday Book Signing Extravaganza at Potterton BooksPlease join me, fellow authors Maureen Footer, Alex Papachristidis, Vicente Wolf and a host of others for a massive book signing event to inaugurate the new location of the city's best design bookstore, <a href="http://www.pottertonbooksusa.com/ny/index.php" target="_blank"><b>Potterton Books</b></a>. <div>
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<b>Details:</b> </div>
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Thursday, September 18th</div>
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2:30pm – 4:30pm</div>
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Fourth Floor of NYDC, 200 Lexington</div>
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Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-77263964358840674802014-08-07T03:11:00.001-04:002014-08-07T13:33:37.965-04:00H.H.H. Reviews…The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Another candid review from Amazon all-star Herbert H. Highstone</i><br />
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Dimly Printed Pages Are Almost Impossible To Read<br />One Star</h4>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm sorry to report that this book, or at least the copy that I encountered, is very badly printed. Perhaps it's one more symptom of the decadence of the paper book, but the printed pages in this volume are so difficult to read that I threw it aside in disgust. You really need to look through the book before buying it to make sure that your eyes can handle an extremely inferior print job with a tiny typeface. I also hated the heavily doctored picture of Nietzsche on the cover that makes him look like a bewildered shopkeeper.</span><br />
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Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-26068851156452335532014-08-03T15:58:00.001-04:002014-08-03T16:00:20.474-04:00Couturier Charles James on…"Clients whom I would have liked to dress…"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you have the opportunity to visit the exhibition <i><b><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/charles-james-beyond-fashion" target="_blank">Charles James: Beyond Fashion</a></b></i> at the Metropolitan Museum (closing August 10), don't skip the small room devoted to the designer's archives. James was clearly aware of his place in fashion history and made sure to document his influences (including Jules Pascin, Kees von Dongen and Christian Berard) and opinions on his contemporaries ("Illustrative Designer-Artists whom I <u>abhorred </u>and thought in their pretention to represent fashion disgraced it: ERTE").<br />
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Here are a few of the bodies beautiful he would have liked to have dressed – "…Some I could have but did not":<br />
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Gertrude STEIN.</div>
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Massive elegance; great style.</div>
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Princess MARGARET ROSE.</div>
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Born a fairy princess to charm and court discipline; become [sic] sad with time.</div>
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Mrs William BUCKLEY New York.</div>
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Miss Lana TURNER</div>
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Beautiful and far greater actress than recognized.</div>
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Miss Greta GARBO New York</div>
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Need I say?</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Top photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/172500" style="background-color: white; color: #6c5e3f; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">"Butterfly" Ball Gown</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; line-height: 16px;">, ca. 1955</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; line-height: 16px;">Brown silk chiffon, cream silk satin, brown silk satin, dark brown nylon tulle</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #262626; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; line-height: 16px;">The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Fund, 2013 (2013.591)</span></span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-31344779003579834032014-07-27T18:45:00.005-04:002014-07-27T18:45:54.118-04:00The Window Boxes of Brooklyn Heights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Truman Capote's former digs on Willow Street</div>
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<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-12278973668854939702014-07-21T10:00:00.000-04:002014-07-21T10:00:01.130-04:00Herbert H. Highstone Reviews… no. 2<b style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Edwin-Hubble-Gale-E-Christianson/dp/0226105210/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=I4LPXAPO4ZYKA5W6&creativeASIN=0226105210" target="_blank">Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae</a> by Gale E. Christianson</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Edwin Hubble holding Nicolas Copernicus to which "endless pages" are devoted</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A Few Points That Interested Me Concerning Hubble Bio</b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Three Stars</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One wonders why Hubble didn't have any children. He was basically a country boy deep inside, and it seems likely to me that he would have wanted children. So who stopped that from happening? I suspect that his wife Grace played a part in that situation. If she didn't want kids, she had ways to prevent pregnancy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The book contained a number of derogatory comments about Hubble's British accent and fancy clothes. But that's what got him access to the 100-inch telescope. The American astronomers who controlled the 100-inch were bowled over by Hubble's elegant facade. He did what he had to do in order to use the world's largest telescope (at that time).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">No one has commented about Grace's bizarre decision to cremate her husband and then bury his ashes in a secret location. THis is a classic symptom of a hyper-controlling wife who has secret issues with her husband and denies him the grand funeral that he must have wanted. It's like Grace wanted to erase Edwin from the surface of the earth. Such a hostile thing to do!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A prophet is not without honor except in his own country. There is a Russian bio of Hubble that praises him in totally unrestrained language. But here in the USA, we seem to have the "tall poppy"principle at work, where the excellent is the enemy of the good and must therefore be cut down to size.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One reviewer mentions the fact that dear Grace had access to the Hubble files after her husband's death, and had ample opportunity to destroy anything that she didn't like. I'll bet that she kept the good old incinerator pretty busy. If she prevented Edwin from even having a decent funeral, I'm sure that her need for control was total.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Any good biography must be selective. I wasn't reading a bio of a famous astronomer to gain access to endless pages about his wife's cats. The entire episode of his WWII work should have been cut down to 3 pages maximum.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Russian bio of Hubble also contains the long-suppressed details about how a gang of younger astronomers formed a cabal to deny Hubble the access he wanted to the new 200-inch telescope. Those little rats did a real number on Ed. Hubble's trusted confidant, the mule driver that he turned into a famous astronomer, also seems to have played both sides of the fence. Such gratitude!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The upshot was that Hubble's speech at the 200-inch dedication ceremony was canceled, and he wasn't even officially invited. He came anyway and stood in the shadows, watching silently. The frosting on the cake came when Hubble wasn't selected at the director of Palomar. When the hyenas really gang up on you, they don't stop until nothing is left.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I mentioned a Russian biography of Hubble. It's much shorter than "Mariner" but it contains a lot of information that "Mariner" leaves out. The moral to this story is simply the following: You need more than one biography to discover the whole truth about anyone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Note from EEE: HHH's review brought to mind the recent Pope Francis controversy about childless couples (or single women) and cats. For a completely different reading of Hubble's relationship with his (rather than his wife's) cat, visit the Huntington Library's blog<a href="http://huntingtonblogs.org/2012/11/hubble-and-copernicus/" target="_blank"> <b>here</b></a><b><a href="http://here./">.</a> </b></i></span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-14360063812449895212014-07-17T22:51:00.001-04:002014-07-18T03:37:28.851-04:00Nick Olsen on Decorating by the Stars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hands down the most fun I've ever had writing an article has been for the current issue of <i>House Beautiful</i>. It was a true triumvirate of friendship between designer (<b><a href="http://www.nickolsenstyle.com/" target="_blank">Nick Olsen</a></b>), client (a family friend) and moi-meme.</div>
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Read the full interview <b><a href="http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/ideas/nick-olsen-interview-0814" target="_blank">here </a> </b>where you will discover that Leos (like the client) adore fiery red and that both the client and Nick have an almost unhealthy passion for chairs.</div>
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Post-script from Nick: <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">My one regret is that I've only now realized that Monsieur Saint Laurent himself was another Leo enraptured by bold colors, expansive collections, and tribal/animal prints! It's so fitting that one of his fabrics [see the print on the settee above] would set our entire scheme in motion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Post-script from the Owner:</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> The sheets are Pratesi, not Frette.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A big thank you to Newell Turner, Shax Riegler and Vicky Lowry for keeping in all my favorite bits. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo by Maura McEvoy for </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">House Beautiful</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span></div>
Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-89460811166397283342014-07-09T22:55:00.000-04:002014-07-09T23:03:51.030-04:00Herbert H. Highstone Reviews...<b>Young Toscanini, DVD of the 1988 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli</b><br />
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<i>Introductory Note: I recently stumbled onto the prolific Amazon reviewer Herbert H. Highstone and I so enjoyed reading his exuberant, strongly opinionated critiques, I am sharing one – the first of many, I hope – here with you. In an age of puff pieces and ego massaging, Mr. Highstone is refreshingly and fearlessly frank. Bravissimo and encore!</i><br />
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<b>Totally Delirious Excess – Mr. Z Does Not Disappoint US!</b><br />
<b>Five Stars</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I caught a glimpse of this outrageous movie on late night TV. This film includes a delirious, dream-like staging of Verdi's Aida that goes far beyond excess in a way that will delight the loyal fans of Mr. Z! Elizabeth Taylor, wearing very heavy brown makeup, looks dazed and confused as for once in her life she is totally outstaged by the most monstrous production of Aida that you can't imagine until you see it on your own screen.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Jewels! Gold! Four-foot trumpets blaring out the famous triumphal march! Even the mad King Ludwig would be pleased by this lunatic dream of a movie. The actor playing the young Toscanini looks exactly like Dr. Zhivago, but who cares? We're on another planet and we're loving it! Verdi is totally conquered and overwhelmed by this postmodernist drama of infinitely lavish excess. Drag out your carefully hoarded bottle of absinthe and get ready for the head trip of all head trips!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-64551896162740957532014-07-09T00:10:00.001-04:002014-07-09T15:11:41.363-04:00Visit to Sissinghurst… More London Diary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Two things I remember from childhood are the ubiquitousness of the English poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West's books and the constant discussion of the moving and dividing of hostas. Only until this year did I see the point of either. In a recent interview, Rufus Wainwright remarked, "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I was so averse to anything relating to gardening because I did always find it the most boring, retired-person thing to do. That being said, we have a garden now, and I’ve never been more excited in my life than waking up and seeing a little pea come out of the earth. It’s like a </span><span data-scayt_word="Wagnerian" data-scaytid="24" style="font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Wagnerian</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> opera..." </span>Like Rufus, the cultivating of one's own patch of dirt has proven to be a game changer and I now affectionately look after several hostas and have even had my first family conference on their relocation.<br />
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In anticipation of visiting Sissinghurst on this trip (which merely spanned several days, not months as my blogging pace might lead you to believe), I dusted off a few of the Sackville-Wests inherited from my grandmother. The first to be tackled was <i>The Garden</i> (full disclosure: first on account of its slimness and charming illustrations by Broom Lynne). Published in 1946, the book is in fact a 135 page poem traversing the four seasons with the presence of war felt throughout. It is elegiac and evocative, but, on my current high carb diet of reality shows, my attention soon wandered and it was in a moment laid down for <i>V. Sackville-West's Garden Book</i>.</div>
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Roses climbing along the tower's walls</div>
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Now we were cooking with gas. Not only was this a collection of articles culled from her <i>Observer</i> column that ran between 1947 and 1961, it was an anthology, a best of the best if you will, taken from four previous already curated anthologies of articles. Organized by month the article was originally published, one can dip randomly into April and read "The merits of grit" or December for "Companions for roses."<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A view of the tower where Sackville-West wrote; she kept several small bud vases on her desk and curated their contents with different seasonal blooms</span></div>
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I soon found myself in the index, cheating, looking up Small Gardens:</div>
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"I should plant only the best things in it, and only the best forms of the best things, by which I mean everything should be choice and chosen. When you only have a very small area to your command you cannot afford to be otherwise selective."</div>
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I then was curious to see how she would weigh in on the much maligned gladiola (yet beloved by the aesthete Oscar Wilde). Her abridged thoughts:</div>
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"I am never quite sure what I feel about the gladioli. Handsome, yes; wonderful in color, yes; … supreme in the late summer flower shows, yes, in those great peacock-tail displays like swords dipped in all the hues of sunrise, sunset, and storm. Here I come to a full stop and start saying No. I don't like their habit of fading at the bottom before they have come out at the top… I don't like the florist-shop look of them. No, take it all around, I cannot love the big gladiolus. It touches not my heart."</div>
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View from the Tower</div>
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Sackville-West and her diplomat husband Harold Nicolson purchased Sissinghurst Castle in 1930 where they lived until her death in 1962. As her daughter-in-law Philippa Nicolson describes in the foreword, Sackville-West formed a gardening philosophy: be ruthless (don't keep anything that displeased you the previous year); let plants self-seed and ramble; an architectural plan - with hedges, paths, and walls as well as with the relation of plants to each other - is essential; and, very interesting to my mind, not all parts of a garden have to always be in bloom. An area can be spent and attention can shift to another area.<br />
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Maeve's and my calves in the White Garden</div>
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Finally the fateful day had arrived and my friend Maeve and I drove to Kent. We arrived just before 5, having underestimated traffic and overestimated a map, but it was all for the best as we practically had the grounds to ourselves bar a German here and there. One enters the property via a long dirt road enclosed by ancient hawthorn hedges. Maeve told me one can date how old a hedge is by how many other vines have grown into it.</div>
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Sissinghurst's collection of roses is one of its great lures. Maeve was on the hunt to see one plantswoman (and wife of Adam Nicolson) Sarah Raven extolled, but alas we concluded it must already have bloomed.</div>
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I admired this pink beauty which was blowsy but also formal. As you rose connoisseurs already know, THE rose nursery is <b><a href="https://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/advanced.asp" target="_blank">David Austen</a></b> which Maeve and I decided is our next outing.<br />
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I found this arrangement centering the White Garden highly accessible and copyable</div>
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Entering the famous White Garden - Vita enjoyed planning one color gardens</div>
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A perfect photo to accompany the sage words of blog commenter superstar Home Before Dark:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"When I first started gardening I began the predictable path of being seduced by color and blooms. One of my mentors, gently explained the natural evolution of gardening. She said you know you have made to the other side when you think first of leaf color and form."</span><br />
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I love me a self-made obelisk. I have two jasmine-vine covered ones at home.</div>
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On the outer edge of the grounds is the Herb Garden</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Barn, adjacent to which is the gift shop and cafe where one can enjoy a glass of white wine.</span></span></div>
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After the aforementioned glass of white wine and the obligatory purchase of a tea towel, Maeve and I departed, eyes and soul full.</div>
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Reading list:</div>
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Adam Nicolson, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sissinghurst-Unfinished-History-Sackville-Wests-Legendary/dp/B004KAB72Q/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=GBU2NIKRDJSRMUEG&creativeASIN=B004KAB72Q" target="_blank">Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History</a> </i> A marvelously intimate and frank history of the house, including its most recent history with the National Trust</div>
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Nigel Nicolson, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Marriage-Sackville-West-Harold-Nicolson/dp/0226583570/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=JFLDGRH4X6HOI6YJ&creativeASIN=0226583570" target="_blank">Portrait of a Marriage</a></i> On Harold and Vita's unconventional marriage by their son. The portrait of Vita by William Strang on the paperback's cover captured my curiosity as a young girl.<br />
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Vita Sackville-West, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-Passion-Spent-Vita-Sackville-West/dp/0860683583/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=PLDJNVZN274KIH6H&creativeASIN=0860683583" target="_blank">All Passion Spent</a> </i> A novel written as a companion to friend and former lover Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own in which the heroine can finally live life on her preferred terms. Spell-binding and high readable. Get the version with Joanne Lumley's foreword.</div>
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__________, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Garden-Vita-Sackville-West/dp/0711223580/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=RB4FQHL3LQZTIWEX&creativeASIN=0711223580" target="_blank">The Garden</a></i></div>
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__________, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/V-Sackville-Wests-Garden-Book-Sackville-West/dp/0689706472/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=JWWBQANJICFJF3Z4&creativeASIN=0689706472" target="_blank">Vita Sackville-West's Garden Book</a></i></div>
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And for your next 5 minute escape break, read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R3CP4H6DIK6AFG/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0688041116&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=283155&store=books" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">this </a>amusing Amazon review of Victoria Glendinning's bio of Vita.</div>
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Please excuse the undisciplined nature of this post. Consider it an homage to Vita's preferred rambling cottage garden.</div>
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Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-65590115426221689812014-06-28T13:14:00.001-04:002014-07-01T12:50:10.043-04:00Inside Nancy Lancaster's Yellow Room… London Diary, Part II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: left;">Like Mario and doubtless many others since, I've pored over photos of The Yellow Room so many times that it has become an old and familiar friend. Yet unfathomably I had never stepped foot into Avery Row until this trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The exterior of 39 Brook Street. Read Mario's book on how he first encountered John Fowler outside the shop in the 1960s… It is a charming tale of twin pocket squares out of Plautus.</span></div>
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Mario, <b><a href="http://maureenfooterdesign.com/" target="_blank">Maureen</a> </b>and I were Colefax & Fowler's guests at Claridge's for lunch, a mere 20 paces away. I had a glass of sauvignon blanc with the lobster bisque, served in a spa-like portion and fortunately augmented by spring peas ordered for the table. I must admit the tremendous enthusiasm and anticipation my companions showed for these peas did arch an eyebrow, but after one spoonful, I am a now a devotee. There may be nothing better than fresh English peas (rolled around in butter and basil I believe and al dente). And if there is one other hot tip you must take away from this blog, it is to never miss going to the loo in a smart hotel or restaurant. Claridge's ladies' powder room is mint green and black Deco deliciousness. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">C&F: the front room on the ground floor with green walls complemented by Mario's socks; Harry, an adorable young man who works there, is hiding in the window to the right</span></div>
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After cappuccino and an affogato for Mario who is a dessert-hound (he would alway brings cookies to our meetings. Once, after we discovered a mutual passion for peanut butter-chocolate ice cream, he brought a pint of chocolate and a jar of Skippy as the grocery store didn't have this flavor of the gods in stock), we embarked on our short journey to C&F.</div>
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The wall paper inspired by the Anteroom of Drottningholm Palace Theater in Sweden, below</div>
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For those who haven't yet made their first pilgrimage, the shop is composed of a rabbit's warren of rooms, rambling from one to another. </div>
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The back of the building looks out onto this courtyard garden. C&F's archivist Barrie McIntyre, who is an incredible repository of information and a jewel in the firm's crown, shared that Mrs. Lancaster was furious with Mr. Fowler when the walls (barely discernible now under the ivy) were painted and the two rowed for weeks.</div>
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On the first floor (or our second floor) one goes through this small room before entering the barrel-vaulted double-height Yellow Room. Barrie told us that Mrs. Lancaster purchased the large old master painting (to the right) for the frame. She then had the canvas cut up and applied to the walls and closet doors. <br />
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Even though the room is no longer furnished with Mrs. Lancaster's antiques (Mario calls the room "a scrapbook of her life") it is still lyrical.<br />
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The money shot: a close up of the glazed "egg yolk" walls</div>
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The faux marbre baseboards</div>
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At the far end of the room is a pair of double doors that open to this practical small butler's pantry complete with dumbwaiter</div>
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The bay windows are deep and conceal these closets</div>
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BEFORE: The room in 1947 (which I included in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Regency-Redux-Interiors-Napoleonic-Classical/dp/0847831442/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=6KPIGM5BHBAPQTRW&creativeASIN=0847831442" target="_blank">Regency Redux</a></i>)</div>
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It was originally designed by Sir Jeffry Wyattville, George IV's architect, who most notably made extensive alterations to Windor Castle between 1824–1828</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gcv2lrTVog8/U678fZR_0wI/AAAAAAAAC_k/hvId7fPSQjc/s1600/Nancy-Lancaster-The-World-of-Interiors-James-Mortimer-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gcv2lrTVog8/U678fZR_0wI/AAAAAAAAC_k/hvId7fPSQjc/s1600/Nancy-Lancaster-The-World-of-Interiors-James-Mortimer-.jpg" height="258" width="400" /></a></div>
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AFTER: In 1957, Nancy Lancaster moved into the set of rooms above the shop to economize. This photograph by James Mortimer shows it in 1982.</div>
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Reading list: John Cornforth, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Inspiration-Past-Country-Twentieth/dp/0670801801/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=FJT4SF6J5D4SHGPU&creativeASIN=0670801801" target="_blank">The Inspiration of the Past</a></i></div>
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Part III: Vita Sackville-West & Sissinghurst<br />
<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-11500319961675369832014-06-20T14:47:00.001-04:002014-06-20T22:12:07.233-04:00Where the hollyhocks grow on every corner… London Diary, Part I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When Mario Buatta, Il Principe di Chintz, wondered if I might be going to London anytime soon, I pounced on the opportunity to tag along. London in June is glorious – the weather is that civilized state of sunny but not scorching; hat shopping for Asc't is in full gear (as you know, fascinators or any headgear under 4" circumference will not get you inside the royal enclosure), and the art and antiques scene is buzzing with shows and sales. <br />
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Speaking of which, Mario and I rendez-voused at the opening of the Haughtons' <b><a href="http://haughton.com/international-fairs/14/fair_pages/art-antiques-london" target="_blank">Art Antiques London</a></b> fair. The show originated as a much-acclaimed ceramics show and it continues to be particularly strong in that category.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">While a monkey caught Mario's eye on Brian Haughton's stand, I was gobsmacked by this unusual 18th century faience boar's leg tureen. German, of course.</span><br />
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A stand hung in the vein of John Soane</div>
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Mario thought this aristocratic gentleman resembled our mayor Bill de Blasio.</div>
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The opening night benefited Princess Eugenie's charity Children in Crisis. Throughout the show and outdoors, a somewhat bizarre note was struck by a company of actors circulating in Dickensian dress. After quaffing a glass of Champagne and Victorian lemonade, Mario and I hopped it over to Mayfair to dine with old clients and friends at George, the most informal of Mark Birley's clubs. I knew I had to order the roast chicken when I saw it was accompanied by bacon and mashed potatoes. Afterward, we window-shopped <a href="http://www.neameantiques.com/" target="_blank"><b>Neame</b> </a>across the street where Mario spied a promising pagoda-topped mirror during which an at first amusing but then disconcerting man with a passion for chickens engaged us in conversation.<br />
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The next day Mario lectured at the Olympia show, followed by a shopping expedition on the Fulham Road. He is currently working on a sprawling Palm Beach residence which he says is his last project ever. After lamenting how many of the shops are no longer there or even selling antiques, he repaired to his hotel room while I met my friend <b><a href="http://rosecestlavie.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Rosie West</a></b> for a drink at Bibendum. Rosie and I had serious business to discuss as I am hoping to commission a portrait of Joan Crawford from her. Of course, there was so much to catch up on, we still have yet to hammer out young Joan, shoulder-pad Joan or cowboy Joan.<br />
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Before Rosie took me to dinner at the House of Lords (such a treat), we stopped by Nicky Haslam's flat to celebrate the London launch of Maureen Footer's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/George-Stacey-Creation-American-Chic/dp/0847842452/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=SPH7ZRHAXTTHXKBK&creativeASIN=0847842452" target="_blank">George Stacey and The Creation of American Chic</a>. </i>The book is as attractive and diverting as the authoress, above with Min Hogg (founder of the sublime <i>World of Interiors</i>), and I can't recommend it highly enough. (Click <a href="http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/the-importance-of-being-nicky/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a> to see more photos of Nicky's chic chic chic (I know it's a tired word, but it so applies here) flat.<br />
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Jane Churchill & Mario</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"> Cecil Beaton biographer Hugo Vickers & Rosie</span></div>
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There were so many lovely people there. I particularly enjoyed meeting designer Vere Grenney (whose shell pink living room I dream about and is the cover of Carolyn Englefield's forthcoming to-die-for book for <i>Veranda</i>) and dealer <b><a href="http://www.valeriewade.com/" target="_blank">Valerie Wade</a></b>. Valerie got her start with Geoffrey Bennison. She told me how Bennison, decorator to Rothschild and exalted others, used to go out on the town cross-dressed and in a wig as Big Carol (after Carol Channing).<br />
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After a delicious dinner made all the more so by the company of Rosie's husband Lord West who has a fascinating BBC radio program Britain at Sea currently broadcasting on the Royal Navy in the twentieth century (listen <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046p07n" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>), it was time to head home to Pimlico and the Shabsters.<br />
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Part II: Behind the Scenes at Colefax and Fowler…<br />
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Reading List (so far):</div>
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Terence Stamp, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Double-Feature-Terence-Stamp-ebook/dp/B006LSCK5I/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=HEVBHYFPQ446WNUF&creativeASIN=B006LSCK5I" target="_blank">Double Feature </a></i>(for more on Geoffrey Bennison in a wig)</div>
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Maureen Footer, <i>George Stacey and The Creation of American Chic</i></div>
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Nicky Haslam, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Redeeming-Features-Memoir-Nicholas-Haslam/dp/0307271676/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=YS56YWW6I5LUBYC7&creativeASIN=0307271676" target="_blank">Redeeming Features</a></i></div>
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Hugo Vickers, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cecil-Beaton-Biography-Hugo-Vickers/dp/0316902446/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=MX4CHPIO46KSMHRN&creativeASIN=0316902446" target="_blank">Cecil Beaton</a></i></div>
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Carolyn Englefield, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Veranda-Passion-Living-Houses-Inspiration/dp/1618371355/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=DQPV3NMNII662PJG&creativeASIN=1618371355" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Veranda: A Passion for Living</a> (just saw the proofs yesterday - trust me, you <i>need </i>this)</div>
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and shamelessly, Mario and Moi's book</div>
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<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-43564343536962116352014-05-28T19:17:00.001-04:002014-05-28T20:36:37.147-04:00New Growth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A late spring's visit to LongHouse, the residence and 16 acre East Hampton gardens of Jack Lenor Larsen</h4>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Just inside, the dunes: one sees LongHouse itself beyond the Japanese gate bell; to the right are cobalt blue glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly</span></div>
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Emerald, chartreuse, celadon, apple green – much of this weekend was spent admiring Spring's new growth. After a harrowing winter, these leafy spurs do as much to revitalize the spirit as they do our environs. It is because of this rejuvenation* that I return to this page.</div>
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On Saturday afternoon, Mr EEE, sister-in-law Marianne and I visited acclaimed American textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen's <a href="http://www.longhouse.org/" target="_blank"><b>LongHouse Reserve</b></a>. Only open to the public two afternoons a week, we made sure to to organize our day around it. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The gardens are intended to be interacted with and Mr. EEE gleefully signals our arrival</span></div>
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Larsen regards landscapes as an art form. And just as shrubs, groves, and perennials are artfully massed, contemporary works by 20th and 21st century artists including Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly are thoughtfully installed to interact with the natural setting. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Contemporary sculptures of wild game bathe in Peter's Pond adjacent to the house</span></div>
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The apparent "undone-ness" of Larsen's gardens is reminiscent of his textiles, many of which are random by design. In the 1950s, when he first founded his firm, his work featured natural yarns handwoven in random repeats. The abstract designs were contemporary, even modernist, yet also timeless in their celebration of the art of the hand. Larsen has ever since been a beacon of the craft movement and is one of only four Americans to have had a one-man show at the Louvre.</div>
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The red garden, left, and <i>Remoulade</i>, 1954–1967, by Jack Lenor Larsen</div>
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Undoubtedly Mr. EEE's favorite moment was the Geodesic Dome designed by Buckminster Fuller and originally intended to be used as a residence. (To my Neoclassical horror, it is his dream to one day build and live in one. But perhaps with a columned portico?) Boulders of mesh, wire, styrofoam and concrete by artist Grace Knowlton echo the dome's shape.</div>
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A David Hockney moment</div>
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Each orifice frames a view or painting, explained a wandering guide.</div>
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Gaston Lachaise's work enclosed by Hornbeams above reminded us of Kimye's nuptials that same weekend.</div>
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Because I firmly believe in the experiential dimension of shopping, I paid a visit to InHouse, the reserve's gift shop which is stocked with handmade fashions and wares, many only available there. In a blink of an eye, I was newly enrobed in Penhaligon's peppery floral Bluebell and this smashing raffia <b><a href="http://longhouse.org/instore-category/for-you/be-you-raffia-bag-detail" target="_blank">tote</a></b>.</div>
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I look forward to the darling buds of May unfurling into June blossoms here with you. Thank you for continuing to visit and come back soon.</div>
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*AND because of the wise words of GG, to whom this is dedicated, who is always faultless – except for his dislike of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Hare-Amber-Eyes-Inheritance/dp/0312569378/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=KH3RXDXXCWVETZDO&creativeASIN=0312569378" target="_blank">The Hare with Amber Eyes</a></i>. Sharawadgi!</div>
Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-67411784866724290332013-07-31T14:08:00.001-04:002013-07-31T14:08:42.570-04:00Cocktails with Bebe Berard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A friend just acquired this wonderful oil painting by artist and fashion illustrator <b><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/04/remembering-kenneth-paul-block-the-last-great-fashion-illustrator">Kenneth Paul Block</a>*</b>. It depicts a fantasy cocktail party with glamorous jet-set guests. We know for sure that the bearded man on the left is Christian Berard, but are mystified by the others. Perhaps the gentleman with the red carnation is Cole Porter, who was never without one as a boutonniere - unless going to court? I know you, well-informed and omniscient readers, will crack the mystery!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*For all fans of fashion illustration, the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977787540/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0977787540&adid=111WVMDMZT0T7MF3N07K">Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block</a></i> by Susan Mulcahy is a must.</span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-84502938451875952382013-05-09T00:33:00.000-04:002013-05-09T12:53:31.075-04:00The Finer Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>At Home And At His Exclusive London Clubs, Mark Birley Insisted On Having the Best. Now His Luxe Loot Is On The Block</b><br />
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<b>By Christopher Petkanas</b></div>
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<i>EEE note: This wonderful piece by our friend Monsieur du Panier ran in the March 2013 issue of W Magazine and appears online here exclusively by kind permission of the author </i></div>
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When society club owner's Mark Birley’s estate goes up for auction at Sotheby’s London this month, there will be plenty to lure collectors: a William IV console table, Russian imperial porcelain, dog drawings and paintings by David Hockney, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. But perhaps the most personal lot, the item most expessive of Birley as a man, is something a bit more humble: his backgammon set. An avid player who often hosted tournaments at Thurloe Lodge, his 19th-century townhouse a stone’s throw from Harrods, Birley found the clatter of dice unpleasant. As he was not one to put up with even small annoyances, he had a game board-custom made by Hermès--in needlework.<br />
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Birley, who died in 2007 at 77, built an empire on this drive to gild and refine every detail of his surroundings. At his exclusive members-only clubs and restaurants—Annabel’s, Mark’s Club, Harry’s Bar, and George—regulars came to expect beautifully sculpted butter curls, silver-lidded espresso cups, and all of the magnificently starched appurtenances of a first-rate Edwardian country house. “Everything in his life was scrutinized, whether a piece of fruit or a swatch of fabric,” says his longtime friend Minn Hogg, founding editor of <i>The World of Interiors</i>. “Nothing was good enough.”</div>
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The only son of Sir Oswald and Lady Rhoda Birley, Mark honed his tastes against a backdrop of bohemian splendor, at the family’s villa in London’s St. John’s Wood and their 11th-century rural estate in East Essex, Charleston Manor. Oswald was portraitist to the Court of St. James, tutored Winston Churchill in painting, and traveled the world to memorialize Gandhi, Andrew Mellon, J.P. Morgan, and other magnificos. Rhoda was a gifted gardener and iconoclastic—not to say barmy—hostess with a circle that included the social powerhouse Sybil Colefax, Rudyard Kipling and the diplomat Harold Nicholson.The art historian John Richardson remembers lunching at Charleston Manor, where Rhoda struck him as a “showy, narcissistic character” who poured pots of lovingly-made lobster bisque into her rose garden because she believed flowers thrived on shellfish. </div>
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She wasn’t nearly as doting when it came to Mark and his sister, Maxime, the mother of the fashion muse Loulou de la Falaise. “It wasn't so much a strained relationship--more the absence of any normal relationship," Birley said of his rapport with his mother in an 1990 interview. "An absence of affection... It was rather a mess."</div>
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Scrupulously dressed even as a teen and towering over his peers at six feet five, Birley attended Eton and lasted only a year at Oxford before joining the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson, where he replaced the future decorating great David Hicks as paste-up boy and, later, redesigned <i>Tatler</i> magazine. Birley went on to launch his own agency, and then shuttered it to open, in 1959, the first Hermès boutique outside France. In 1963, he founded Annabel’s, naming it for his wife, the former Annabel Vane Tempest-Stewart, the sparky daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. </div>
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After three children (Robin, Rupert and India Jane) and 21 years, the couple divorced, with Annabel publicly branding Mark a “serial adulterer" and the tabloids noting that she had produced two babies with billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith while still officially Mrs. Birley. The club was far more successful than the marriage. While today Annabel’s has thousands of members who are charged a thousand-pound joining fee and up to the same amount in annual dues, in the beginning it was all People Like Us paying a mere 5 guineas yearly. Founding patrons Lucien Freud, Norman Parkinson and the 11th Duke of Devonshire were receptacles of Mark's connoisseurship and obsession with creature comforts. </div>
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Though not a designer in any vocational sense, Birley—who buzzed around London in a Bentley with his enormous Rhodesian ridgeback Blitz in the passenger seat—earned the esteem of leading decorators John Stefanidis, Nicky Haslam and Nina Campbell. “The kind of luxury he represented was not necessarily part of English life before Mark,” says Stefanidis. "He always had the best, whether it was bread-and-butter pudding or a special ham from the Abruzzi mountains.”</div>
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"Mark's rooms had a certain <i>grandeur délabrée</i>," adds Haslam. "Nan Kempner was staying at Thurloe, which is on a busy road. 'I don't hear a thing,' she said. 'How do you do it?' 'Swansdown,' Mark replied." It wasn't a joke. Birley first used feathers at Harry's Bar, stirring them into the ceiling plaster to dampen the clamor.</div>
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Birley involved himself in every aspect of his clubs, from auditioning wine waiters to making sure the foot baths brimmed with primroses. He was also famously impetuous. In 1970, he started a shop with Campbell. "Mark wanted to sell Porthault," she recalls. "I was trying with French friends to get hold of Madame Porthault, but Mark just went into the Paris store one day, threw down his Hermès suitcase, and filled it with things off the shelves, saying ‘I have a shop in London, and I want to sell your linens.’ It was outrageous, but we got the goods."</div>
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If success begat success for Birley the impresario, as a father he was dogged by tragedy and scandal. Rupert disappeared while swimming off the coast of West Africa in 1986. In 2006 Birley outraged Robin and India Jane, who had been overseeing operations of the clubs when his health began to fail, by selling the establishments shortly before his death for $160 million to the billionaire Richard Caring, who made his fortune in the Hong Kong rag trade. Birley left Thurloe and its contents to India Jane and the bulk of his estate to her son Eben, now 7, pointedly cutting out Robin, with whom he had a baroquely contentious relationship. Robin challenged the will, and brother and sister settled out of court. Last year, he opened his own London club, Loulou's, named for his late cousin. A hurricane of color and pattern, it’s a sort of Annabel's on uppers, prescribed by Lewis Carroll. The club has been greeted with the same hullabaloo Birley <i>pere's</i> first venture received exactly 50 years ago.</div>
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India Jane, for her part, seems uninterested in continuing "Pup's" legendary <i>train de vie</i>. She tried living in Thurloe with his table silver, animal bronzes and humidors, but “the place was too grand,” she says. “I never left the kitchen.” Two years ago she sold the house—a freestanding three-story affair with an acre of land—for, reportedly, north of $25 million. Now she’s unloading its treasures and picking up where the Birley clan left off two generations ago. "Pup sold Charleston to create his life in London,” she says. “When it came back on the market recently, I pounced and bought it. This is one of those full-circle stories."<br />
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<i>All photos of Birley's residence Thurloe Lodge, courtesy of Sotheby's.</i></div>
Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-80086880490891643462013-04-17T12:15:00.000-04:002013-04-17T12:44:06.727-04:00Chicago Botanic Garden Antiques & Garden Fair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As the daffodils and cherry blossoms bloom, I'm celebrating Spring's spirit of renewal by heading out to Chicago for the <b><a href="http://www.chicagobotanic.org/antiques">Antiques & Garden Fair</a></b> opening this Friday, <b>April 19 through to April 21</b>. This year's theme is dedicated to color and could there be a better inspiration than nature's own riotous spectrum?<br />
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A wet gardenia leaf inspired the green of this room by Billy Baldwin</div>
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Chicago, one of our country's foremost cities for architecture, has always been a hotbed of design. Fittingly, the fair has planned a wonderful schedule of style-centric events and speakers, including Michael Smith and Charles Stick.<br />
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I'll have the pleasure of dishing on design with lovely ladies Jennifer Boles of <a href="http://thepeakofchic.blogspot.com/">The Peak of Chic</a>, <a href="http://stylebeat.blogspot.com/">Stylebeat</a>'s Marisa Marcantonio, and the fabulous Julia Reed on Saturday afternoon. Click <a href="http://www.chicagobotanic.org/antiques/lecture"><b>here</b> f</a>or more information. Hope to see you there!Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-65280005821837489692013-02-10T17:20:00.000-05:002013-02-10T17:23:21.252-05:00The Wait is Over... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Almost. This fall the one and only Mario Buatta's first ever monograph is coming to a bookstore near you. It is going to be enormous and packed with hundreds and hundreds of glorious photographs, including projects never before published. And if you think you know everything about the Prince of Chintz's style, you will be surprised.<br />
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It has been the most marvelous adventure working with Mr. Buatta on this (not to mention my new collection of toy Harold cockroaches and wind-up mice). As this will be the end-all, be-all book on all things Buatta-ful, what would you like to see, hear, know?<br />
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<br />Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8591223218619839288.post-52390540542656357322012-11-05T15:55:00.001-05:002012-11-08T01:22:06.925-05:00Dining with Mr. du Pont<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">A 1956 dinner party at Winterthur</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="http://www.winterthur.org/">Winterthur </a></b>(the thur pronounced with a hard T!) is a house museum I never tire of visiting. While its collection of American decorative arts is top notch, it is the house as a whole - a spectacular, precious document of a certain rarefied way of 20th century life that has all but evaporated - that I find so compelling. The museum takes pains to maintain the seasonal changes, from curtains to slip-covers, that were in place during the day of its owner Henry Francis du Pont and lucky us - for the result is the feeling that time has stood still and we are back in there halcyon days. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">du Pont took entertaining seriously and an evening's arrangements were rigorously planned with military precision. His daughter Ruth Lord recalled in <i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0300070748/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0300070748&adid=1MFFAQP7SCRMJF5FSSPC">Henry F. du Pont and Wintherthur</a></b></i>, "In the huge china closet, whose shelves were loaded with stacks of dishes, a footman would climb a ladder and perilously hand down several centerpieces and matching plates. My father and the butler would then decide on the combination of china, glass, and linen that would best complement the flowers . . . Guests were not permitted to see the room before 8:30, when-with the butler's announcement of dinner-the curtain went up."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I got a special glimpse of du Pont's artistry at Winterthur's annual Chic it Up symposium this fall. Besides special lectures by speakers who are both erudite and engrossing, there are a selection of workshops which take you behind the scenes of the collection. (Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've gone into the curtain room where all the off-season curtains are stored - unless you too have a set for each season for your 100+ room house.)</span></div>
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Meredith Graves, the coordinator of the museum's flower program, gave us some insights into du Pont's own taste and how the house today continues the tradition of fresh arrangements in many of the rooms. (At Christmas time, Meredith and her team decorate a soaring Yuletide tree with masses of flowers used throughout the year which have been dried and preserved in the meantime.)<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As many from Edouard Vuillard to John Fowler would agree, du Pont remarked that "... color is the thing that really counts more than any other" and it was around this guiding inspiration that his table schemes evolved, starting with flowers collected from du Pont's own gardens and hothouses on the property. Maurice Gilliand, the Winterthur butler from 1944 to 1951, noted, "On the estate, Mr. du Pont was </span>known as the Head Gardener, in his house he was known as the Head Butler." With his tables, he combined both roles. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Because of the custom of speaking only to your dinner partner on one's left during one course and then on the right during another, low squat arrangements weren't necessary. Depending on the size of the dinner party, a number of cascading bouquets paraded down the table's center at eye level. In fact, creating a wall of sorts down the middle created intimacy. The museum has a record of many of these arrangements as du Pont meticulously documented his favorite table settings.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Close up of table setting showing assortment of table glass, including finger bowls*</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">No detail or effort was spared - one imagines that du Pont took as much pleasure in the planning and plotting as his guests did in the unveiling. Maggie Lidz, Winterthur's historian, discovered that du Pont commissioned artist Marshall Fry to hand-dye and crochet the table linens to complement the china. Maggie notes, "Du Pont was so fond of them, he worried about their fate after his death. He instructed his executors, "The colored mats and napkins are not to be sent to a public laundry. With careful washing they have kept their colors for many years. I do not want them spoiled. They were made by Marshall Fry of Southampton and are in themselves well worth preserving."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This year's <b><a href="http://www.winterthur.org/?p=915">Delaware Antiques Show</a></b> (running November 9 - 11) will present a special loan exhibition dedicated to du Pont's firecracker table displays. On Sunday, the 11th, Maggie will lecture on his legendary entertaining. For details on this and other lectures at the show, click <b><a href="http://www.winterthur.org/?p=1003">here</a></b>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">All photos courtesy of Winterthur. With many thanks to Maggie Lidz for her help in compiling this post. I also heartily recommend her book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0926494694/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=regeredu-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0926494694&adid=11AA8SKFC8G9MP1KP1ZK">The du Ponts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine</a></i>.* </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Click <a href="http://museumblog.winterthur.org/2012/07/11/going-dotty/"><b>here</b></a> to read Maggie's post about the "dotty" glassware<br />
</span>Emily Evans Eerdmanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12434821015450147843noreply@blogger.com11