a very good friend,

My recent profile on Walter's Story of A House is of my dear friend, Sterling. I've known him for about 25 years and every time I see him he is brimming with energy. It was a pleasure to visit with him and share his story. His eclectic collection is a mix of art and provenance, and in turn it tells the story of his métier. Read it in WALTER here, and I've added some of my own photographs of particulars not in the story for you here.

 photograph by Catherine Nguyen from WALTER

Over the many years I’ve known Sterling and spent afternoons in his company, I’m always the richer for it. His boundless energy is infectious and both his knowledge, and taste, impeccable. Many pieces in my collection were a once a part of his own. 


One wall in a small hall way is covered with works from the last days of the monarchy thru the reign of the Bonaparte family. Telling the story in engravings, and ephemera, Sterling's wall talks:A letter from a Voltaire relation, thanking its recipient for a basket of food while he was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror (not shown), Engravings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Marie, c. 1793 (not shown) , Engravings of Pauline Bonaparte lounging as Venus Victorious, and Daumier engravings from 1830.

Winged Victory on a console in the Entry, along with miniatures of Napoleon and his generals, and Josephine with her own intimates, signed DAVID, c 1810.

Years ago when Sterling was moving to a smaller digs, he had a private sale, and I like to think I got some of his best things-though it can’t be so-for Sterling every object-every work of art- is special-a particular favorite, evoking a memory, time, and place in his incredible life. 

On his many trips to Mexico City & Cuernavaca to visit his great aunt, he collected magnificent masks. One of these masks hangs in his living room- it's one I had purchased from him-years later, he insisted I sell it back to him. 

I did, and as a sort of student of the imminent Dr. Boyd, I sold it back at a tidy profit!

 

 “Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world only, our own, we see that world multiply itself and we have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists…” so said Marcel Proust, in Remembrances of Things Past, doubtless Sterling would say the same.

My friendship with Sterling has yielded so many gifts.I hope you have been half as blessed!

the WALTER story here, and a more in depth look at Sterling's home in the WALTER issue April 2015.

GEORG JENSEN Reflections

"an imagined truth, a rumination on the how and why one falls in love with Georg Jensen silver at first sight"
Murray Moss

Neck Ring No. 169, Pendant No. 131, and Bangle No 205

Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube

" Torun let the sunshine in."  Murray Moss

Torun an incredible beauty, began designing for Jensen in the 1960's, imbuing the company with a distinct beauty in the form of achingly exquisite jewelry. She was already considered one of Sweden's foremost silversmiths of the postwar when she began designing for Jensen.

"Jensen became hip." Murray Moss

It's expected that the singular aesthetic of Georg Jensen would present in an equally singular volume of its 110 years of work. GEORG JENSEN Reflections, authored by Murray Moss is just that.

"I looked for what I believe has not been offered-a contemporary contemplation of a contemporary company, tenaciously remaining relevant today." Murray Moss author

What captivates is the book's design, its sleek, yet over sized pages, its photography (especially commissioned for the book), and its story. Moss' GEORG JENSEN Reflections is in a sense the author's love letter to Jensen's genius. Rare today in the world of books, GEORG JENSEN Reflections delivers Moss' sense of Jensen with poetic understanding, and free flowing reflection-much like a piece crafted by Jensen himself or his cadre of renowned artists.

Blossom Ladle No 84/151

Georg Jensen, 1919

Blossom Flatware No. 84

Georg Jensen, 1919

"Blossom," as cutlery, was created in 1919. This is for me Jensen's most exquisite work. Surrounded by an Art Nouveau style that could be excessive, Jensen looked deeply into nature's artistry to forge a flower stem sinuously  wrapping a handle and terminating in a gorging flower bud.
While "Blossom" as a design element originated 100 years ago, it exudes a modernity. Sensuous, yet pure, in "Blossom" Jensen transcends conformity, atypical, the design stripped away all of Art Nouveau's preconceptions into an elan vital in accord with the 21st century.

Blossom Teapot No. 2A, 1905

Silver with Ivory Handle

In addition to the newly evocative photographs of Jensen works, archival photographs, and original renderings at conception are a  part of this special visual paean.

ALL Images were used with permission from the publisher, GEORG JENSEN by Murray Moss, Rizzoli New York, 2014.

Princely

Rodarte Fall 2015

I love the use of a classic pattern, in this instance the Prince-ly Prince of Wales Check , and  variations thereof on houndstooth- in the Anorak. Easily done, and equally well done by Michael Kors (the quintessential American sportswear designer), in the Trench.

Michael Kors, Fall 2015

the ORIGINAL

Designed by his King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales, as livery for his hunts at Abergeldie Castle on Scotland’s Deeside it was popularised by his grandson the Duke of Windsor when he was Prince of Wales. Its authentic colours are red-brown on a white ground with a slate grey overcheck.

the one time Prince, Carte de Visite of King Edward VII c.1902.

& his Princely Grandson,

 Edward, Prince of Wales

Prince & Consort

Finally, Both designers get high marks for beautiful evening wear with the Ease, coincidentally, and familiarly, of The Duchess of Windsor.

KORS 2015

Rodarte 2015

fashion pictures from style.com and vogue uk.

another set of Pearls

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, 

with shamefacedness and sobriety; 

not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;...

 neither cast ye your pearls before swine,

lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 

(King James version of the Bible-the only readable one, and as always the delightfully contradictory)

Caravaggio's  Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1596-97

Whose adorning let it not be that outward of plaiting the hair, 

and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; KJ

(Tilda Swinton by Derek Jarman, 1986)

 "the infant was 'Pearl,' as being of great price- 

purchased with all she had- her mother's only pleasure."NH

 "& however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, 

the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light of the intervening substance.

 Above all, the warfare of Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated in Pearl." NH

 

 

 

 

pearls before swine, the inimitable Dorothy Parker

 Dorothy Parker tells me of the last time she encountered Playwright Clare Boothe. The two ladies were trying to get out of a doorway at the same time. Clare drew back and cracked, “Age before beauty, Miss Parker.” As Dotty swept out, she turned to the other guests and said. “Pearls before swine.” October 14, 1938 the Hartford Courant printed the celebrity gossip column of Sheilah Graham containing this tale. (from Quote Investigator)

 Dorothy with her Sealyham terrier & pearls, 1941.

friend and fellow blogger, Jane at Empress of the Eye is a lucky duck. amongst other divine pieces she owns-these- she is (how I don't know) ready to part with. The pearls once graced the neck of the one and only Dorothy Parker! 

I need these... 'cause I'm writing a book, and to sit, and ponder, and think, and maybe just feel a little of Dorothy's wit and wisdom-as I lovingly worked these pearls and toil over my keyboard.
A girl can dream can't she?
(snap out of it!)

anyway, here's Jane's story, she's telling, and selling on ebay...(linked throughout the text)

These pearls were given to Billy Hibbert just before Miss Parker moved from her West Hollywood, California home back to New York City.  I have enclosed a photo of her in her apartment with Mr. Hibbert and her dog. Miss Parker is sitting in front of her typewriter with cigarette in hand in her LA apartment.

These pearls are in the box that I received them in and is marked A.E. Bettering, Greenwich.  

They are lovely and measure 16" in length not including the 9 ct. gold barrel shape snap.   The clasp is in perfect working order and the stringing is tight and first rate.  

on Pearls...

"Age before beauty; and pearls before swine."- Dorothy Parker

& on Dogs...

Such glorious faith as fills your limpid eyes,
Dear little friend of mine, I never knew.
All-innocent are you, and yet all-wise.
(For Heaven's sake, stop worrying that shoe!)
You look about, and all you see is fair;
This mighty globe was made for you alone.
Of all the thunderous ages, you're the heir.
(Get off the pillow with that dirty bone!)

A skeptic world you face with steady gaze;
High in young pride you hold your noble head,
Gayly you meet the rush of roaring days.
(Must you eat puppy biscuit on the bed?)
Lancelike your courage, gleaming swift and strong,
Yours the white rapture of a winged soul,
Yours is a spirit like a Mayday song.
(God help you, if you break the goldfish bowl!)

"Whatever is, is good" - your gracious creed.
You wear your joy of living like a crown.
Love lights your simplest act, your every deed.
(Drop it, I tell you- put that kitten down!)
You are God's kindliest gift of all - a friend.
Your shining loyalty unflecked by doubt,
You ask but leave to follow to the end.
(Couldn't you wait until I took you out?)-DP

Return of the Duchess

Thom Browne Fall 2015

always in fashion

littl-ee love

e e cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)




(painting "a heart on fire" nils von dardel 1888-1943)

VIXEN, as per Shakespeare

"And though she be but little, she is fierce."

Act III, Scene 2, ~A Midsummer's Night Dream

RIHANNA in Valentino at Tejon Ranch in Lebec, California. 
photographed by Annie Leibovitz

RIHANNA

expect the unexpected.

RIHANNA in Giambattista Valli, at the Grammys 

the Eliza de Feuillide Room

I beg indulgence for my last post. It was a prank?----- or as one faithful reader described it-an early April Fool's Day.
After years of thinking about my guest room in terms of the Countess, and calling it so-it follows to present it as such.
Now, the rest of the story, or indeed, the story.

A late 18th century painted bed, & a Louis XVI chair of the period,  bits of painted furniture, and a Regency chair of the period- are authentic. Shawls made from Indian saris popular in the day, (Eliza was born in India), appear to be scattered on the bed and chair, along with a discarded gown-the saris are- at the least Pre-Independence India.

The embroidered Cowtan and Tout fabric is a document-not unlike this embroidered India Muslin, of the period, 1790, found at the Museum of London.

Eliza did indeed write of Jane and her sister Cassandra, "My heart gives the preference to Jane, whose kind partiality to me indeed requires a return of the same nature." 

Jane's Outlandish Cousin-self described died in 1813, Jane Austen her close friend, cousin, and sister would be present by her bedside. Jane followed her four years later.