Friday, February 24, 2012

John Galliher in his London Days





We started off the week with a very stylish figure, Tom Parr, so it seems appropriate to end the week with yet another: John Galliher.

I was a johnny-come-lately when it came to John Galliher. I remember seeing his photos in W back in the 1980s (back in the good old days when W was a broadsheet), but I knew very little about him. It wasn't until the advent of New York Social Diary that I learned what a figure he cut in New York society. But what really captured my attention was a 2001
William Norwich article on Galliher that appeared in the New York Times. The article profiled Galliher and his style of entertaining. He was noted for serving a dish called Chicken Mica as well as clearing dishes straight from the table to a plastic lined basket resting next to him. That way, the conversation could continue uninterrupted.

Though the American born Galliher spent his later years solely in New York, as a young man he also had flats in both Paris and London. Here, you can see Galliher's Belgravia flat as it appeared in the late 1960s. To learn more about him, click
here to visit New York Social Diary.



One end of Galliher's living room with a grouping of framed glass pieces by artist Michael Haynes.




The other end of the living room. Galliher was responsible for the decoration of his home.




The book from which the photos came clearly states that this bedroom was from a previous Belgravia home of Galliher's.




Though the book doesn't provide much information about the photo above and the one below, I can only assume that they also show his previous home.




A vignette in Galliher's London home that featured a painting by Aiki and an early 19th century chimneypiece.



The photo at top appeared on New York Social Diary, courtesy of James A. Douglas. All other photos from House & Garden Guide to Interior Decoration by Robert Harling.


7 comments:

  1. I had a friend that knew John Galliher very well. Thank you for this..xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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  2. Is that someone sitting in a chair on the right in the second picture of his Belgravia apartment?

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  3. HGB, I think it's a sculpture. It seems to be the same one as that in the second photo from the bottom. It's kind of a strange piece, isn't it.

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  4. Ah...I missed the sculpture in the black and white photo. Yes, it is an odd piece with the leaning posture.

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  5. Anonymous10:41 PM

    Dear Jennifer,

    I wonder if you would consider making your photos larger. I find them very small for a design site and their size does no justice to your lovely writing. Just a fan wondering.

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  6. Anon- I'll see what I can do to increase the photo sizes. On this particular post, the photos themselves were quite small to begin with, so the scans were as large as I could make them. I'll definitely keep that in mind, though. Thank you!

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  7. Anonymous9:26 PM

    I sat next to him years ago in Mrs. Kempner's drawing room after dinner (sorry, no other way to describe it). He was much older. Perched consipratorially on the couch next to me. "So tell me, are you in love?"

    Great memory. Super charming guy.

    @pamelakeogh

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