What the flock?

London antiques dealer Christopher Jones stopped (or quite possibly stooped) by yesterday leaving a comment on an old post, Swirls and Twirls. Which in turn led to my discovery of his line Plush; one of the best contemporary ranges I have seen in a very long time.



Neo-Classical Chair



Vintage Boots
Pair of 1930's riding boots with trees.



Kent Mirror



The full range of colours available for stock or commissioned pieces.

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Just as one is thinking...

What's the point?

The Decorator - An un-aired 1965 television pilot produced by Aaron Spelling, starring Bette Davis and Mary Wickes.

Spirits

Mrs. de Menil's Liquor Closet
Nest, Fall 2001
Article by Edward Albee
Photographs by Langdon Clay


A little place of bewilderment, as it was described by one of the de Menil's children. Its ocher felt lined door, palest of blue painted papered walls, seamless black concrete floor, and mirrored shelves were created by the couturier Charles James.

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The Italian

That was how Coco Channel referred to her contemporary, and rival, Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973). Schiaparelli's initial success came with her tromp l'oeil knitted necktie sweater. Such was its popularity, it enabled her to open her first shop in 1927 at 4, rue de la Paix - one of the most fashionable streets in Paris.



It was the manifestation of her belief that it was more important to be creative, outrageous, and fun rather than tasteful that kept the public enthralled. That is, until those qualities were no longer fashionable. Facing financial ruin, Schiaparelli closed her doors in 1954.



The dining room of Schiaparelli's apartment on the boulevard Saint Germain in 1931. The interior having been renovated by Jean-Michel Frank. His design (which illustrated both Schiaparelli's love of colour and her influence with him) was based on the colours of white, yellow, orange, green, and black. White being used for the walls, Tunisian rugs, and the rubberised fabric used for the curtains and the chairs. The divans were done in the same fabric, but in a brilliant green. The small dining tables were of black lacquer with grey streaks.


Schiaparelli's apartment on the rue Barbet-de-Jouy was also decorated by Jean-Michel Frank in 1934.


The living room was furnished with an orange leather sofa and occasional chairs slip-covered in canary and milk-white quilted chintz. The walls were white and almond green.


In the bedroom is the same blistered rayon bark fabric that Schiaparelli used for dresses. White walls and a polar bear rug set off the lavender-blue fabric.




22, rue de Berri an eighteen-room hotel particulier that Schiaparelli purchased in 1937. Both Jean-Michel Frank and Maison Jansen helped with the decoration. The arrangement of Schiaparelli's eclectic furnishings is indicative of the more personal style of the 1930s.


Birth is not the beginning
Death is not the end.




Images from Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli

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Limbo

While it may not quite be hell, it is quite hellish. This sofa belongs in our dining room-cum-office. Yes India, people do use sofas with dining tables, perhaps not with great hulking ones, but they do use them. Until the chimney breast in the living room can be removed, here it must remain. On the bright side, it does give me time to choose a paint colour for the living room and change my mind a million times, or so.

It really is so much easier doing this sort of thing for others.



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Swirls and twirls

Pomfret House, the Northamtonshire residence of long time antiques dealer Christopher Jones, and its drawing room. In November its contents went on the block at Christies, The Country House Sale: Pomfret House and Tetworth Hall.

Among the 280 lots were a selection of marble glazed pottery and agate ware. Agate ware is a mix varicoloured clay worked into an overall marbled effect, probably introduced about 1730 by Dr. Thomas Wedgwood of Rowley’s Pottery, Burslem. It was sometimes called solid agate to distinguish it from ware with glazed marbling. Below, are examples of both.




A PAIR OF CONTINENTAL POTTERY 'AGATE' CAMPANA-SHAPED VASES
19TH CENTURY
In the Neo-Classical style, each marbled with cream, ochre, brown and black striations, the upright leaf-capped handles issuing from stylized bearded masks, gadrooned rims and a fluted spreading foot.




A PAIR OF FRENCH POTTERY MARBLED VASES AND COVERS
LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED MARKS FOR PICHON
Each oviform with cylindrical neck, applied with upright frond-scroll handles terminating in lion masks, marbled in brown and green clays.



A PAIR OF FRENCH POTTERY TWO-HANDLED VASES AND COVERS
CIRCA 1800, IMPRESSED 'LAMBERT & CIE'
In the Neo-Classical taste, sponged in purple, blue, yellow and green, each with bell-shaped cover, the shoulder applied with rams masks joined by bands of laurel garlands above stiff-leaves, an oval medallion to the front and back, the lower part with a stiff-leaf band and laurel knop, circular foot and square base.



A CONTINENTAL AGATE WARE CYLINDRICAL JARDINIERE
LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY
With two mask handles and moulded borders.

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Masterful artistry

Description of Lot 150
A PAIR OF FRENCH POLYCHROME-PAINTED COMMODES
SUPPLIED BY MAISON JANSEN TO THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR, CIRCA 1938
Each with a faux marble top, each decorated with a ribbon trellis held with clasps of pearls, centering the badge of the Prince of Wales, one painted throughout with butterflies, including the Silver Studded Blue, the Machaon (called the Old Word Swallowtail), the Boloria Selene (called the Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary), the Parnassius Apollo (called the Apollo), one with flowers including buttercups, forget-me-nots, holly, poppies, white clover, sweet peas, chicory, campanula, dianthus, cornflower, vetch, dog roses, Jerusalem artichokes and hedge bed-straw, each with mahogany and silk-lined drawers, and some of the carcases in mahogany, one inscribed in blue ink to the top corner of the back panel, '866', the other inscribed in blue in the same area '864' and also with small paper label with black and red type, 'EP 1613 ...7'
35 in. (89 cm.) high, 63 in. (160 cm.) wide, 24½ in. (62 cm.) deep (2)

Christie's Rockefeller Center
October 7, 2008

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A perfect example of how it is not just about lamps and cushions

In Episode 3 of Top Design, five design teams are asked to create window displays for five different fashion designers. Fairly simple and straight forward. That is, if the designers are able to share a common frame of reference, or at the very least be able to interpret an abstract concept. This is where everything becomes interrelated and relevant.







Blade Runner

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More Rose Cumming

The original document for one of Cumming’s signature patterns, Banana Leaves—offered in five colors, including green and rust—was also found in the archives. Created by applying painted leaves to cotton, the design was first hand-printed in the Caribbean.



Bird in Circle, a linen hand-printed by Rose Cumming, features the vibrant contrasting colors that marked her textile and interior work. The fabric, simpler and more abstract than her chintzes, was never put into production by her company. It was rediscovered after Dessin Fournir acquired the firm and is available in gold, green and six other colors.

From a Different Cloth: PIONEERING DECORATOR ROSE CUMMING’S BOLD TEXTILE DESIGNS ARE REDISCOVERED
Text by Jeffrey Simpson/Photography by Billy Cunningham
Published April 2007, Architectural Digest

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Spotlight on...

London antiques dealer Christopher Hodsoll.


A pair of carved wood mirrors after a pair at Harewood House




A large oval gilt wood mirror in the 18Th century manner after a design by William Kent




A pair of chinoiserie lacquer cabinets of early 20Th century manufacture with the finest 17Th century doors incorporated


A pair of jasper baluster lamp tables



Known for his idiosyncratic taste - an English country house grandeur as seen through an 18Th century connoisseur's eye. Mr. Hodsoll worked for many years with the late great Geoffrey Bennison. Like his late mentor, Mr. Hodsoll is increasingly turning his hand from simply dealing in antiques to decorating, having recently completed a number of overseas commissions and a substantial London townhouse.

In partnership with Lulu Lytle, Mr. Hodsoll has formed the design company Soane, producing furniture, lighting and accessories with a classical bent, all made to the highest of standards in the United Kingdom.

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Master of the crosshatch

Pierre Le-Tan, Trompe l'oeil 1998
Lot 192 Sotheby's Paris


Pierre Le-Tan, Interieur 1999
Galerie Bartsch & Chariau


Pierre Le-Tan, Salon du Dessin 1999
Galerie Bartsch & Chariau




Three of the eighteen covers Pierre Le-Tan has done for The New Yorker

Pierre Le-Tan was born 1950 in Neuilly near Paris. He learned how to draw in the studio of his father, the painter Le-Pho, a well known Indochinese born artist. After having spent three months at the Paris Academie des Arts Décoratifs, he decided to quit and aged hardly 18, published the first of numerous covers for The New Yorker.

Pierre Le-Tan’s drawings have been published in every prestigious periodical fromVogue to The World of Interiors and have brought him international acclaim. He has become a cult figure for a small set of bright and sophisticated aesthetes.

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Come into my life bonny Jean

11 Montpelier Street was my first port of call when I began my decorating journey. I had hoped that their charming chintz would lend a certain polish to a decidedly unpolished client. At the time they also had the most exquisite collection of plains, small patterned monochromatic chintz, that were produced exclusively for them. Sadly, those are now nothing more that a memory.

In 1961 Jean Monro, daughter of the famous London Decorator of the 1920s Mrs Geraldine Monro, decided to reproduce and market the favourite designs her mother had used over the years, some of which were already being produced exclusively for the decorating company. Thus Jean Monro Ltd. came into being.

In 1998 Jean Monro Ltd was acquired by Turnell & Gigon.


JUBILEE
Taken from a wood-block design of 1853, this design has been given a fresh, naturalistic colouring. The original was so dirty as to make the colours unworkable for such a brightly-coloured flower as the Sweet-Pea. This fabric was named to celebrate 75 years of fine decorating by Mrs Monro Ltd.


HOLLYHOCK HANDBLOCK
A very handsome, large-scale bouquet of Hollyhocks, hand-blocked on heavy 100% linen. The original printer's "fent" was a hideous colour and has not been reproduced. Probably mid 19th century, 73 block applications are needed per repeat of this design.



AMELIA
A climbing design of Roses and Plumbago on a stippled and striped background. Very little alteration was made to the original document
This is a particular favourite in the pink/tan colourway. Which I recently used on a deep buttoned chaise lounge.


POLYANTHUS
The first design to be produced after the founding of the Company and still a "signature" today. Clearly there was an error in the naming of this design as the flowers shown are Auriculas.
The moiré background of this print was typical of their exquisite collection of plains.


LILY/AURICULA
This beautiful design of 1855 is printed using some 24 blocks which have been used for over a century. 96 applications are required to complete one repeat of the design. For many years printed only with a blue ground, in 1983 scraps of 2 further colourways were found and the second colourway added to the collection.




HYDRANGEA/ROSE
Adapted from a block-printed chintz dating from the early 1840s when this type of climbing design was very popular. Roses and Hydrangeas were often featured in Victorian designs and the stippled ground was also a favourite.

Another favourite, which was the first chintz I ever used when I began decorating.

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Lick it and see

Whilst one is happy enough to give a definition of an abstract concept such as elegance, it becomes trickier with something so personal as taste. Especially without sounding cunty. Everyone, rightly or wrongly, likes to believe that they have good taste and are tasteful. In fact, most people are. They are too afraid not to be. Afraid of what or whom I am not entirely sure.

Good taste is nothing more than an accepted paradigm. No one is born with it; it is something that is learnt.

In spite of all that I know, I neither have good taste nor am I elegant. It simply is not in my nature. For me, either something is fabulous or it is not. There is no in between. As Nietzsche said, The grand style follows suit with all great passion. It disdains to please, it forgets to persuade. It commands. It wills.

Here is an overview of what could be described as my paradigm as prescribed by the previous generations.

First there was the thesis: Classic French furniture and decoration.


Elsie de Wolf's Villa Trianon

Then there was the antithesis: Sparse modernity.


Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion

And Finally the synthesis: An informed eclecticism.


The living room of Henri Samuel


Donna Marella Agnelli, nee Caracciolo di Castegneto, the epitome of patrician beauty.
Of her endeavors, Agnelli was to say in an interview with Joan Juliet Buck for Vogue in 1971: One applies a certain technical know-how, some culture, and a certain amount of taste—which I hope I have. It is my little soufflé.


Marella Agnelli by Avedon


Expressionist painting by the likes of Emil Nolde,

I had an infinite number of visions at this time, for wherever I turned my eyes nature, the sky, the clouds were alive, in each stone and in the branches of each tree, everywhere, my figures stirred and lived their still or wildly animated life, and they aroused my enthusiasm as well as tormented me with demands that I paint them.


Autumn Sea VII by Emil Nolde

Sculpture for some unknown reason was deemed important. Perhaps it harks back to some reminiscence of, or desire to recreate, the Grand Tour. To this day I have an affinity to the work of Aristide Maillol.


The Mediterranean by Aristide Maillol


Music consisted of singers such as The Divine One, classical, or opera.


Sarah Vaughan in Berlin 1969


This film, Diva, changed everything. It opened my mind to the possibilities of a world outside of what were very clearly defined boundaries. It is still one of my favourites.




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