A Little Dab'll Do Ya

While I was researching yesterday's post on The Divorcee, I found a terrific online resource for architectural artifacts: Urban Remains in Chicago. I ended up spending a lot of time going through their Art Deco period inventory which includes the 1930s startled cat door stop at top. I'm crazy for authentic Art Deco interiors, but I also know that there is a lot of Deco drivel out there. Deco flourishes can quickly careen into tacky territory. My advice would be that unless you live a Deco era home, go light on the Deco furniture and accessories. The pieces below are ones that I think would look great mixed in with other periods and styles.





A 1920s pendant light with baked black enameled accent.



These 1930s era metal stools are probably too short to be used at a kitchen island or a bar, but could be use for pull up seating around a table of some sort.




A novel pair of armillary table lamps, c. 1930s.




A pair of 1920s chrome plated, cast iron bookends.




I like the looks of this light, although you would really have to find the right space for it.




I like the shape of this mantel, although the varnished oak I'm not so crazy about.




If your first or last name begins with an "E", these door knobs might look nice in your dressing room, powder room, coat closet, etc.

Watch This Movie: The Divorcee

I watched the Norma Shearer movie The Divorcee (1930) over the weekend believing that the movie's sets included a country house done up in Hollywood Regency decor. Well, wrong movie. The Divorcee did not have such a set. Still, the movie was interesting to watch. A pre-code film, the movie's plot was, for the time, rather scandalous. In a game of tit for tat, Shearer's character cheats on her husband after discovering that he had an affair. (In the scene shown at top, a chipper Shearer had not yet learned about her husband's cheating ways.) Shearer then receives a lesson in society's double standard when it comes to adultery. While her husband's fling was a piffling event, Shearer's affair was a cardinal sin, something that eventually leads her down the road to moral looseness. Let's just say that for the era, the movie was considered to be shocking.

Storyline aside, the movie's Cedric Gibbons designed interiors are a feast of Deco architecture. In both Shearer's apartment as well as the swinging nightclubs, the geometric door surrounds are larger than life, while chevron sconces are quintessential Art Deco.

You know, for such morally challenged people, they certainly lived and partied well. Anyway, have a look:



The fireplace and andirons of Shearer's apartment are so Deco in flavor as is that pair of busts.




Shearer's husband in the kitchen fixing, what else, cocktails. The space is somewhat spartan yet stylish too.




The chevron shaped sconces are also textbook Art Deco, but the real star of this screen shot is that massive piano stool with the low ziggurat back and fluted sides.





A dramatic movie deserves a dramatic entry hall.




The apartment's sofa is definitely unusual. It had two separate backs that fit within the niches; the backs were connected by one large, bow front seat.





One could really make an entrance into the nightclub thanks to the massive door. Classic Moravian star fixtures helped to light the space.




Shearer's apartment after she became The Divorcee. I love the swag to one side of the doorway.

Trading Places

A friend recently gave me a copy of the December 2003 issue of House & Garden. While reading it, I found an article on the Jacques Grange designed New York pied à terre of Mathilde Agostinelli and family. When I saw the photo of the pink tufted guest beds (see the photo towards the bottom of the post), I immediately recognized them as those that also appeared in the Agostinelli's Paris apartment, featured in House & Garden, May 2006. After comparing the two articles, it seems that many of the pieces that once graced their New York apartment later ended up in their main Paris residence (also decorated by Grange.)

Of course, if I had that gorgeous Grange designed plaster mirror, the Lalanne side table, and those embroidered panels, I too would make sure that no matter where I lived, there would always be a place for those blue chip pieces. They look terrific on both sides of the pond.



In the New York apartment, the Jacques Grange designed mirror was placed in the foyer.




In Paris, it's in the living room.




To the left of the New York living room, a pair of 18th c. bénitiers (holy water vessels) stood against one wall. One holds a silver champagne bucket with flowers. A Lalanne side table holds a drink tray.




The Lalanne table was later used in the Paris master bedroom. Note the wooden chair and Murano chandelier in the bathroom. The same pieces graced the New York foyer, shown in the second photo.




The holy water vessels later appeared in the Paris dining room, this time holding enormous shells.




Embroidered wall panels by Ernest Boiceau figured prominently into the scheme of the New York dining room.




In Paris, they were hung in the living room.




The pink tufted beds were placed next to each other in the New York guest bedroom. I'm taken with those small duvets.




And then here they are in the daughter's bedroom in Paris.



New York apartment photos from House & Garden, December 2003, Thibault Jeanson photographer. Paris photos from House & Garden, May 2006, Francois Halard photographer.

The Pavilion of the Soaring Kingfisher Bird

I have a wonderful pen pal in Santa Barbara who has led the most fascinating life. Her name is Beverley Jackson, and she seems to have traveled everywhere and met everyone along the way. For years, Beverley was a columnist for the Santa Barbara News-Press, but what I find even more interesting is that she is an authority on 18th and 19th c. Chinese life, dress, and customs. She has a noted collection of Chinese robes, something that eventually led to her friendship with the late Rudolf Nureyev, also a collector of Chinese robes. She has written numerous books on Chinese culture, including Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition, Ladder to the Clouds: Intrigue and Tradition in Chinese Rank, and the recently released The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch. She is currently working on her next book, Living Like a Rothschild, which is based on her friendship with the late Baron and Baronne Philippe de Rothschild. And if that wasn't enough, she also writes an intriguing blog that chronicles the wonderful adventures that she's had in her life.

Beverley is noted for her stylish and effortless entertaining, but there is something unusual about where she hosts her seated dinners. She does so in bed...actually, a wonderfully elaborate 18th century Chinese alcove wedding bed! Beverley found the antique bed in a shop outside of Santa Barbara and had to have it. Because she already had a beautiful bed on which she sleeps (it's a copy of the bed that once belonged to Pauline de Rothschild), she decided to use the wedding bed as a dining chamber.

After having the bed restored, she placed it in a room whose walls were painted with 2/3 black and 1/3 burnt umber paint- a color that seems to cast a glow on the bed at night. She also added a wooden moon window on the inside of one of the room's picture windows to help integrate the bed into the space. (You can see the wooden window in the photo that immediately follows this text.) On the bed itself, the restorer added a false floor and banquettes that can be removed, leaving the bed's integrity intact. Four people can dine in the bed itself, while two additional guests can dine in the antechamber on two small 18th c. chairs and two small huanghuali 18th c. tables. If Beverley invites six guests to dinner, she simply sits outside of the bed and dines from a tray on her lap!

Beverley usually entertains in a casual fashion. Table linens are often made from fun cotton fabrics decorated with Chinese themes. When she does entertain with more formal dinners, she is assisted by Vicki and Fernando who don Chinese robes in keeping with the surroundings. One constant though is that Beverley makes sure to serve very good wines, some that are from the vineyards of her dear, late friend Philippe de Rothschild.

And in case you're wondering what the "Pavilion of the Soaring Kingfisher Bird" means, I'll explain. Beverley has a large collection of items made from Kingfisher feathers and has written a book on the subject, Kingfisher Blue: Treasures of an Ancient Chinese Art. In fact, she includes the room's name on her fill-invitations which you can see below.

I hope to make a trip to Santa Barbara soon so that I can see the dining bed for myself! In the meantime, I'm getting the lay of the land thanks to these photos that Beverley sent me. And by the way, that's Beverley in the top photo, standing in the alcove of the bed. Her miniature wirehair dachshund, Rennie Jackson, just had to be in the photo too.

For a complete list of Beverley's books, click here.



A detail photo of one corner of the alcove bed with the wooden moon window next to it. The peacock is a recent addition to the pavilion.




This is the way Beverley usually sets the table. Beverley believes that the paintings were not original to the bed but were added later.




An article which profiled Beverley's unique style of entertaining.




Her helper, Fernando, wearing a Chinese robe.




Beverley's Smythson fill-in invitations.





Kirk and Anne Douglas and Joanne Kendall supping in Beverley's bed. Even Julia Child dined in it!




Here you can really see the bed in all of its splendor. The giant fortune cookie was a prop from a film that was shot in the Soaring Kingfisher Bird Pavilion.




All photos courtesy of Beverley Jackson.

Decorating with Confidence

While perusing my bookshelves this past weekend, I found the book Decorating with Confidence by Jose Wilson and Arthur Leaman. I have no recollection of buying it and can't figure out from where it came. The book fairy, I suppose. Anyway, what was interesting about the book is that most of the interiors were done by designers with whom I'm not familiar. I have a feeling that when the book was published (1973), many of the featured designers were probably prominent names in the design industry...or perhaps they went on to become prominent names later in their careers.

I've written so many posts on the likes of Billy Baldwin and Dorothy Draper that I decided it was time to devote one to the talented designers whose names may not necessarily roll off of our tongues. It would be interesting to know what has become of these designers, don't you think?






A small tented dining room by designer Jane Victor



J. Neil Stevens of McMillen,Inc. fashioned a small library and games area out of a hallway leading to the master bedroom. The striped fabric, used on walls and furniture, was used horizontally to make the narrow space seem wider.




Crystal bibelots, displayed on the cocktail table, add some sparkle, as do those metal screens. Reg Adams, designer.




A trompe l'oeil Fornasetti secretary holds shells in this room by George Headly.




I wonder if this room designed by David Holcomb might have been a display room for a department store.




You have to admit that the projected image of the Sistine Chapel is kind of wacky, but rather clever too. Room by C. Ray Smith.




A masculine space with walls covered in herringbone fabric. Jerome Manashaw, designer.





This one room apartment epitomizes the early 1970s aesthetic. Allen Stuart was the designer.




A half-canopy was created using curtain rods and fabric. R. Holland Trull, designer.




Logan Brown found all of this sitting room's furniture, lighting, and accessories at Goodwill.




Portuguese tile wallpaper makes an interesting backdrop for copper cookware. Michael Brown, designer.

Photo at top: I'm crazy for the Bargello runner in this living room designed by Carl Steele of Kunzig & Steele.

All photos from Decorating with Confidence by Jose Wilson and Arthur Leaman