Tony Duquette Tastemaker Tag Sale

The weekend could not come soon enough. Big plans for me? Yes. I've got a date tomorrow morning (that would be Saturday) at 11am EST with One Kings Lane. They're hosting a Tony Duquette Tastemaker Tag Sale co-starring Hutton Wilkinson. The sale includes treasures from Duquette's home Dawnridge as well as from his personal collection and warehouse. The items seen above are included in the sale. I cannot wait!

If you want a tour of Dawnridge, one hosted by the chicest and most charismatic characters I know (that would be Hutton), check out the YouTube video below.

Say What?

It dawned on me over the holidays that I'm partial to stationery, cocktail napkins, and other "stuff" that have quotations or phrases emblazoned on them. It might be a gentle reminder to "Don't Forget", or perhaps something cheeky like "We Don't Care How You Do It Up North!" (The latter was printed on paper cocktail napkins that I once had.) I've always admired the needlepoint pillows with witty sayings on them that Mario Buatta seems to be able to find. (Where, oh where, do you find these, Mario?) And then there is the needlepoint pillow that a disgruntled girlfriend once gave to famed Hollywood producer Robert Evans that read "He knows where you've been sleeping." That took guts, no?

I decided to take a quick tour around my home and snap some photos of the notepads, napkins, and matchbooks which feature quotes. And no, no "He knows where you've been sleeping" pillows around here.

My friend Louise seems to be a fan of quotations too. She owns monkey notecards printed with this quote by Edna Woolman Chase- " Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess." Chase certainly had a point. Louise was kind enough to give me one which I display on my bookshelves.




Another gift from Louise were these matchbooks with the immortal words of Cicero (the quotation had to be shortened because of the size of the matchbook)- "A room without books is a body without soul." Truer words were never spoken.








Didn't we all go crazy for Charlotte Moss' fabulous notepads and cocktail napkins that celebrated the spirited words of Diana Vreeland, Tony Duquette, and other style icons? I would argue that it takes a cup of strong coffee to get out of bed in the mornings, but what do I know. Why argue with Diana?


And for the grand finale:

Yes, an actual piece of paper from Albert Hadley's famous "Don't Forget" notepads. To me, this is the equivalent of owning a vial of Elvis' sweat. It was stuck in a copy of "Decoration" that was once part of the Parish-Hadley library. I found it late one night around midnight, and I was positively dying to call somebody, anybody. How many people, though, want to receive a call in the middle of the night saying "Oh my Lord, I just found some of that Albert Hadley "Don't Forget" notepaper!"

All photos taken by Jennifer Boles, copyright The Peak of Chic.

A Study in Glamour

One of my favorite rooms at the recent Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas House was the study decorated by Hutton Wilkinson and Atlanta designer Stephen Boyd. Not only did the room look really terrific, it felt as though someone actually lived in the space- not an easy feat when decorating for a mythical client. The look that the design duo went for was one of luxury, quality, and most importantly, glamour. What might have been the most striking piece in the room was a large screen that was upholstered in Hutton's new print for Jim Thompson, Duquetterie. In fact, this fabric set the tone for the entire room. The whimsical print was derived from the door panels of that well-known cabinet that Tony Duquette designed for Elsie de Wolfe in 1941. I've included a shot of it below in case you can't quite place it.

To see what the room looked like in all of its glory, you'll have to wait for the February issue of Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles. But in the meantime, I am able to show you detail shots of the Hutton Wilkinson designed fabrics for Jim Thompson's Tony Duquette collection. I think you'll see that Hutton and Stephen made great use of these beautiful fabrics throughout the room. These new prints will be available come Spring, so treat this as your official sneak peek.

The image at top is a small bar vestibule off of the study. The fabric on the walls is Jim Thompson's "Duquette Modern Snowflake Pattern". Tony Duquette designed the original print, "Modern Snowflake Pattern", after seeing 18th c. carved Chinese screens that were owned by clothing designer Adrian. Hutton took the original print and updated it with an industrial punched metal pattern.




Guess what? This Jim Thompson fabric, used as portières, doesn't even have a name yet- it's that new. Beyond the curtains you can get a glimpse of the study. The chandelier is the Tony Duquette "California Sunburst Chandelier" for Remains Lighting.




The screen is upholstered in "Duquetterie". Hutton duplicated images of foliage and blackamoors that graced the carved plaster, mirrored, and painted panels of the Duquette/de Wolfe cabinet and made them into this recurring pattern. The sofa is covered in a Greek Key print, originally used by Duquette in the 1940s, that has been updated by Hutton with the addition of black squares at the intersections and subtle shadings to the design.




The cabinet that inspired the fabric.




Another yet to be named print that will be part of Jim Thompson's 2011 Tony Duquette collection.


Photo credit David Christensen. Images printed with permission from Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles and The Mansion on Peachtree.

No Regifting Necessary

I have a birthday coming up this week. Now, I'm not announcing this because I'm seeking well wishes from you. Actually, I don't like to make a big deal of it. (I swear.) It just seemed like an appropriate segue to a post about gifts.

Have you read the 1985 book Only the Best: A Celebration of Gift Giving in America by Stuart E. Jacobson? It's a charming book which recounts gift giving amongst the rich and famous. Oh sure, there are anecdotes about gifts of largesse that will make your head spin (a Newport estate, anyone?) But, it's not really about that. It's more a celebration of the thought and meaning that has gone into some truly special gifts. Take, for example, the trash can below filled with daisies:

When Steve McQueen first fell for Ali MacGraw, he sent her daisies which she promptly threw into the trash can. Undeterred, McQueen sent her a very large bunch of daisies nestled in a galvanized trash can. It must have worked because after that, they both sent daisies in trash cans to one another until they ultimately married.

Marietta Tree gave her husband, Ronald Tree, renderings of items near and dear to his heart. This one, given in 1948, features his reading glasses and pipe, photos of their homes in Barbados as well as Ditchley (their English country house), and favorite magazines.

What has to be one of the most romantic gifts featured in the book. Mary Lee Fairbanks presented her husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., with a Cartier designed gold envelope that had all of his addresses engraved on it (Fairbanks had lived in quite a few homes) as well as the return address of Mary Lee. Inside the envelope was Mary's engraved message to her husband: "But at last I reached you, My Love."




Vincente Minnelli must have made his daughter Liza very happy with a gift of famous MGM costumes in a size fit for a child. This sure beats the prairie skirt that I used to play dress up in! If only I had had a feathered headdress...




I'm sure this vignette in the home of Tony Duquette looks familiar to you, but did you know that the dolphins flanking the sofa were given to the Duquettes by Frances Elkins? They once belonged to Misia Sert.




Leave it to Fleur Cowles to give Jerome Zipkin such a chic gift. While attending a luncheon at Zipkin's home, Cowles had admired his collection of Meissen leopards. She asked to borrow one, which was later returned with a thank you note. A few months later, Cowles sent Zipkin the small painting seen above which featured one of Zipkin's leopards. This leopard, though, held one of Cowles' signature roses in its mouth.

(All images from Only the Best: A Celebration of Gift Giving in America by Stuart E. Jacobson; Jesse Gerstein photographer.)

Fringe Benefits

I'm trying to figure out the seating situation in my bedroom. (After I wrote that, I realized that this is a loaded statement.) I think it's nice to have a chair in one's bedroom as a place to sit and read. I have a temporary one in there right now. It was my childhood armchair and ottoman that is, well, a little dated. Both pieces are a bit low to the ground which is perfect for a child (of which I am no more...), and they're upholstered in a Colefax & Fowler check. It was great for the 1980s, but not so much anymore. Those two pieces will, I believe, be heading to the consignment store.

What I plan to use in its place is a hand-me-down wing chair that used to be in my parents' library. I adore a traditional, honest to goodness wing chair. You can dress them up, you can dress them down. I want this wing chair to be a little glam, much like those you see in the old movies. And if you look closely at wing chairs from the 1930s and 40s, you'll notice that many of them have brush fringe. I'm thinking of doing this to my chair. Perhaps a solid mohair or silk velvet with a contrasting brush fringe. The deal is, though, that the fringe needs to be short. After trolling my books for images of brush fringe, I noticed that one trend from this era was adorning everything- chairs, sofas, lampshades- in a long fringe. No, this is not for me. I think I'll just stick to a well-groomed fringe.


Billy Haines used fringe on this armchair for actress Constance Bennett. Check out the fringe on the lamp shade!


It pains me to write me this because in my mind, Frances Elkins could do no wrong. But...that fringe is a little too long for me. Other than that, it's really pretty stunning. (Living Room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Wheeler, Lake Forest, Illinois, c. 1934)


A great example by Syrie Maugham in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Williams, New York. (Drix Duryea, photographer)


Leave it to Rose Cumming to make brush fringe so glam. This makes me want to upholster my wing chair in silk. Not the best choice for a home with a dog, but still... (Home of Mrs. C.S. Petrasch, New York City)


In the Beverly Hills salon of designer Adrian, Tony Duquette was enthusiastic in his use of brush fringe.

Image at top: Designer John Gerald trimmed this blue satin strie upholstered armchair in a beige fringe. I think this is a great example of what I may do with my chair.

(Image #1: House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration. #2 from Class Act: William Haines Legendary Hollywood Decorator by Peter Schifando. #3 from Frances Elkins: Interior Design by Stephen Salny. #4 and #5 from The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955 by Adam Lewis. #6 from Regency Redux: High Style Interiors: Napoleonic, Classical Moderne, and Hollywood Regency by Emily Evans Eerdmans.)

Watch This Movie (Sort of): Ziegfeld Follies

I've been wishing a lot lately that I could have a day- just one day- to do nothing. Well, ask and ye shall receive...although I received in the form of a stomach bug. No fun at all. So what else was there to do than to watch a movie? Ziegfeld Follies had been on my list for a while, and I was dying to see Tony Duquette's handiwork on the film's set. In case you're not familiar with it, the 1946 MGM film was a musical tribute to the late Flo Ziegfeld, Broadway producer extraordinaire. The extravaganza included musical numbers and skits by Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Fanny Brice, Red Skelton, and others. If musicals give you hives, I wouldn't watch this movie. It was good but I was glad when it was over. (I now wish that I had watched a darker movie like Leave Her to Heaven or Born to Be Bad. There is nothing like whiling away an afternoon with a twisted movie.)

But back to Ziegfeld. I captured some screen shots of the Fred Astaire & Lucille Bremer number that is pure Tony Duquette. The scene begins in a red ballroom with enormously tall masked pages keeping watch over the room.

And then there's an impressive chandelier that crowns the room. Another uniquely Duquette flourish:



Outside the ballroom, guests are shown arriving in front of a naive but totally charming blue backdrop with white flowering trees.

When Fred and Lucille decide to take the action outside, the walls of the ballroom close to reveal more Duquette statues:



They dance amongst a faux bois bench with tasseled feet (wouldn't you love to have this on your patio?) I also am taken with the white painted urn with white branches. Hmmm, that might look nice somewhere in my home...



And after much twirling and dancing, the number ends with couples surrounding Astaire and Bremer on a revolving dance floor. How beautiful is this scene with the female dancers and their pink-hued dresses? See how the dancers are arranged according to the shade of pink that they're wearing? And look at white barren trees that they're standing in front of. At first, I thought they were holding horns above their heads.




There was one other number that charmed me- yet another involving Astaire and Bremer, only this time they're supposed to be Chinese. I don't believe that Duquette was involved in this number, or at least not that I have been able to determine. This gorgeous Chinoiserie set may be the work of one of the Art Directors, perhaps Cedric Gibbons or Merrill Pye. Don't you think these shots, below, look like handpainted wallpaper. Perhaps something from de Gournay or Fromental? This has to be one of the most inventive and fantastical sets I've seen.







If something like this were recreated today, it would be computer generated, something which would have far less charm than these sets from sixty years ago. Then again, I doubt anyone would do a Chinoiserie scene like this today. How many theatergoers would want to see something like this? Not many, except perhaps you and me.

(All screen shots from Ziegfeld Follies, MGM, 1946)

Sunny Side Up

A lot of people feel that the sunburst mirror has been done to death, and I don't necessarily disagree. Yes, they're a tad ubiquitous right now, and perhaps if I had one I might give it a rest in storage for a while. But just because the sunburst mirror is on a few "out" lists right now, it doesn't mean that the motif itself is stale. That radiating design is so pleasing to the eye that it would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I mean, you wouldn't deem the mantel clock at top to be passe just because the pendulum is graced with that sunburst face. And let's face it, Elsie de Wolfe's Schiaparelli cape, below, is drop-dead chic, don't you think?







This sunburst headboard is a bit wild and just the slightest bit tacky (at least in today's world), but you can't deny that it was awfully, um, theatrical. (A display room at B. Altman & Co. designed by Robert Reid MacGuire in 1928.)

How about sunburst wall appliques? These were auctioned off at Christie's a few weeks ago, as was this:

A French ormolu and glass plaffonier-form chandelier. Now this is drama for your ceiling.

But nobody, and I mean nobody, did sunbursts like Tony Duquette. I guess you could call him the Sun King!



Sunbursts on the Duquette Pavilion, San Francisco


and on torcheres at Dawnridge.

(Top photo by Jennifer Boles; Schiaparelli cape image from Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli; B. Altman bedroom from Selling Good Design: Promoting the Modern Interior; Duquette photos from Tony Duquette)