R.I.P. Betty Sherrill

Yesterday brought the sad news of designer Betty Sherrill's death.  For decades, the New Orleans-born Sherrill was the doyenne of American decorating.  Having joined McMillen Inc. as a young designer in 1952, Sherrill later became the firm's president, a role for which the talented designer seemed made.  Under Sherrill's tutelage, McMillen Inc. operated in the upper echelon of the design world and continued to maintain the high standards set by the firm's founder, Eleanor McMillen Brown.

Visit any of the marquee buildings of New York's Upper East Side, and you'll likely find a number of McMillen-designed apartments.  This is no coincidence.  Betty Sherrill moved in the same social circles as many of her clients, who have included members of society, industry, and royalty, and with her innate understanding of luxury, taste, tradition, and discretion, Sherrill and her staff became the go-to decorators for those seeking help with their manses and their maisonettes.  Betty Sherrill knew how her clients wanted to live, because she lived in a similar fashion.

Although her death marks the end of an era, it does not mark the end of McMillen Inc.  With Sherrill's daughter, Ann Pyne, now serving as President and her granddaughter, Elizabeth Pyne, working on staff as a designer, the firm is poised to remain one of this country's premier design firms.  With a legacy that includes Eleanor McMillen Brown and Betty Sherrill, it shouldn't be any other way.

Photos of Betty Sherrill's homes from The Decorator by Florence de Dampierre and The World of McMillen: Sixty Years of Interior Design by Erica Brown

The Late J. Hyde Crawford

May 20 marks the one year anniversary of the death of J. Hyde Crawford, a truly talented man. As an illustrator, Crawford was responsible for updating Bonwit Teller's signature violet print, which was strewn across both the store's shopping bags as well as its charge cards.  And as a textile and wallcovering designer, Crawford was one of the founders of Quadrille, the textile and wallpaper line that remains popular today.

Photos of Crawford's Manhattan townhouse have appeared numerous times on this blog, as recently as a few weeks ago.  Some photos show the townhouse as it looked in the late 1970s, while others capture its early-1990s appearance.  Just last week, I was informed that the townhouse, which is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood, was recently sold, having been listed with agent Clifford E. Katz of Sotheby's International Realty, East Side Manhattan brokerage.  A perusal of the listing's photos showed that although some tweaking had been done here and there, the townhome's interiors looked much as they did in the early 1990s.

I know that many of you, like me, are fans of Crawford's work, so I wanted to show you the home as it appeared before Crawford's death (Mr. Katz was kind enough to allow me to use his listing photos on my blog.)  I have also included both the late 1970s and early 1990s photos so that you can make a comparison.



2014:

Early 1990s:

Late 1970s:

The Philadelphia Antiques Show

A few weeks ago, I attended The Philadelphia Antiques Show, where I was one of the show's featured speakers. I was aware of the show's reputation as one of our country's premier antiques shows, but I don't think that I realized how good the event was until I spent a few hours wandering the show floor. The show was a treasure trove of Chinese Export porcelain, early American furniture, portrait paintings, scrimshaw, and textiles.

What kept going through my mind as I meandered from booth to booth was how rich our country's decorative arts tradition really is. I think that some of us (myself included) have a tendency to sometimes overlook American antiques in favor of French or British pieces.  And although both England and France have produced sublime furniture, textiles, and arts through the centuries, we shouldn't discount American decorative arts. We too have produced some truly remarkable furniture and objects.

Now that I got that off of my chest, I want to show you what I found to be the highlights of the show:

Dealer Arthur Liverant's booth was understandably a hotbed of activity.  His collection of children's chairs, which you can see in the photo at the very top, was a highlight of the show.  (This was also the booth where Arthur and I made our TV appearances on Good Day Philadelphia.  If you want to see my television debut, click here.)

A Palampore Tree of Life quilt that was made in the Northeastern U.S. in the early 19th century.  The Herrs Antiques of Lancaster, PA.

A child's Hepplewhite chair, New England, circa 1800.  Joan Brownstein, the dealer who is offering this chair, believes that the crewelwork fabric was probably taken from an earlier work.  The charming embroidered images, which include a dog on a pillow and a peacock, must have delighted the child who owned this chair.

Hyland Granby Antiques was offering a number of scrimshaw whale teeth, including this pair whose engravings depicted British maritime scenes.

This rather menacing looking piece is a c. 1780-90 clock made up of 400 blades.  Made by J Y Oliver of Cambridge, England.  This piece was featured in dealer Kelly Kinzle's booth.

I love dogs and porcelain, so this very rare famille rose hunting dog candlestick, one of a pair, naturally caught my eye.  Available through Polly Latham Asian Art.

Thanks to the San Francisco Antiques Show, I am familiar with frequent exhibitor Earle D. Vandekar, which deals mostly in porcelain, prints, and sailors' woolwork pictures.  However, this is the first time that I have seen one of their booths filled with Fornasetti plates alongside antique porcelain. I think it's an interesting combination.

This c. 1807 profile portrait of Simeon Baldwin intrigued me because of its pink background and black and gold star eglomise mat.  Christopher T. Rebollo Antiques.


P.S.- In case you think that antiques dealers aren't a fun-loving group of people, take a look at Arthur Liverant's 2014 calendar, in which he makes an appearance as Superman:

All photos are the copyright of Jennifer Boles for The Peak of Chic

Atelier d'Offard

The other day, I overheard someone declare that wallpaper is coming back. Coming back from where?  Ever since I was a child, I have loved wallpaper, and that love has yet to wane. In fact, one of my frustrations in life is that my apartment doesn't have enough rooms for me to paper. I guess that there could be worse frustrations to have.

Lucky for me, then, that a random internet search led me to the website of Atelier d'Offard, where I proceeded to spend upwards of an hour looking at all of their glorious papers. Atelier d'Offard is a French firm that is based in Tours and led by François-Xavier Richard, who is a painter, sculptor, and engraver. And, if I am comprehending the French text correctly, it seems that many of their designs are based on historic papers, while others are original designs.  One of their designs is the weird yet wonderful monkey and cotton print, which you can see above.  (I have seen plenty of cotton in my day and a few monkeys, too, but never together.)

I curated some of my favorite prints from the site, which you can see below, but if you have time to kill, do visit their website to see the entire collection.