Ann Getty, Degas, the Divine Sarah & A TREE

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the prettiest tree-has to be in Ann Getty's  Music Room-
the prettiest book under the tree this year-Ann Getty Interior Style.

the Christmas tree in the Getty Music Room is filled with thirty years of ornaments collected and made reflecting the Getty's love for the opera

The beauty of what's inside the book is No Surprise. I've long followed the style and design elegance of Ann Getty. Her passion for Art-Design-& her Work is evident in the book's pages. Accompanying Getty on her opulent design journey is writer-Diane Dorrans Saeks- purveyor of all things beautiful-and beautifully distinctive to the West Coast and of far flung places beyond.

The book is a sliver of perfection-a exotic taste of  Getty Opulence. Attention to detail and understanding of Getty's style and her pursuits are handled by author Diane Dorrans Saeks with finesse.Both women know themselves and each other-that is what makes the book one of those you will want to reach for time and again. Saeks moves through the homes of the Gettys with golden tales of history-art and design-in a language that reflects the mood created by Ann Getty's assemblage of lavish textiles and furnishings.

The Getty home in San Francisco is inhabited by the great-Artists, as well as the famous names of their day:

tiered ormolu chandelier originally owned by the famed fashion maverick Daisy Fellowes

Read more: Dining Room Chinoiserie Panels - Pictures from Ann Getty's San Francisco Home - Harper's BAZAAR

tiered ormolu chandelier originally owned by the famed fashion maverick Daisy Fellowes

Read more: Dining Room Chinoiserie Panels - Pictures from Ann Getty's San Francisco Home - Harper's BAZAAR

Degas and Matisse paintings in the Getty Living Room

Moreau, Renoir & Pissaro make appearances here as well

A Chandelier in the Dining Room belonged to Daisy Fellowes
Chinoiserie Panels were designed for the King of Poland

the Dining Room table set for the Holidays

Ann Getty poses for Harper's Bazaar in her Russian inspired Music Room

(the color and textiles Getty used in this room are amongst my personal favorites)

Curtains in Patchwork are from Nureyev's Paris Apartment

Caneletto and his pupil's work hang on a raspberry damask wall

(another of my favorite things- Patchwork)

Jacques Emile Blanche paints Nijinsky, the painting hangs in the Living Room

(I adore the works of Blanche)

Getty's signature colors are reprised in Peter Getty's Music Room  

(the finish and walls in this room echo some of my own in a previous home)

A Lepage portrait of the Divine Sarah Bernhardt hangs in the peacock blue Living Room of the Getty's Temple of Wings estate

 ( Sarah Bernhardt and I share a birthday)

 The Temple of Wings is dedicated to the Aesthetic Movement Collection amassed by the Gettys

(another favorite of my own is the Aesthetic Movement)

 Frederick Leighton paintings hang in Temple Study

 & what's equally revealing and another thing I like is Getty's easy going style-it's obvious she is at home in her formal surroundings dressing simply & with ease.

I believe it's as easy to relax in a formal room as it is in any.

Ann Getty 

Personal Style

to Note: Getty in jeans-a white shirt-and could it be Minnetonka moccasins?
& the decrepit tufting on the cut crystal chair-(another of my favorite things "If...don't fix it.")


once again-I say-get this book-destined to be a page worn Classic.

The Style Saloniste-Diane Dorrans Saeks wonderful blog- HERE. Diane has her top ten book selections for the season published this week too.

Anne Getty Associates HERE

(thank you to Rizzoli for the beautiful collection of photographs given by permission to use- with principal photographs by Lisa Romerien)

let Nature take its course

 Nature comes in different guises and bringing Nature INside & making it into something functional is part of Man's better Nature. All of these things are a part of my One Kings Lane Tastemaker Tag Sale-each one has a story-and each has captured my attention and is part of my personal collection or was selected by me expressly for the Sale.

 top to bottom 

Glazed pottery vase with raised floral decorations. This piece is one I have used for early spring cherry blossoms or pink forsythia branches. It always brings an exotic air to the room. Stands 9" high.

 Three yards of Lee Jofa Verdure Tapestry fabric. Through masses of leaves tree trunks can be seen-creating a rich forest to recover a chair. I've used this length to cover a table just as it is-with no extra seaming or tacking.


Drawn to Gestures-I have a number of  "Hands" carved in wood-made of porcelain-perhaps once a part of a Santos-or anything that speaks quietly of the perfect gesture. This is a single HAND Carved in Wood that may have been a glove mold. Its primitive execution makes it sculptural and its height makes it ideal sitting on a coffee table amongst or on top of stacks of books. 15 inches tall.


This Primitive Hand Carved Garden Turtle had a spot in a garden for many years- I wonder where? I've collected turtles for years and this giant caught my eye-how could it not? Measures 20 inches long and 12 inches wide.


Each piece is linked within the text to a description page on One Kings Lane, or you can see everything HERE.

The Sale is going great, lots of pieces are gone-but some of my favorites remain. I'm personally overseeing the packing of the Sold pieces so everything except the White Glove items (those taking special shipping requirements)- will be on their way for Holiday gift giving.

Thanks for looking-and making this a great Sale- pgt

& about the ChristmasTree

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There was every kind of gilt hanging-thing, 

from gilt pea-pods to butterflies on springs. 

There were shining flags and lanterns,

and bird-cages, 

and nests with birds sitting on them, 

baskets of fruit,

gilt apples, 

and bunches of grapes. 

Lucretia P. Hale's story The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree 1870.

In 1846 Queen Victoria and Prince, Albert, were illustrated in the Illustrated London News. They were standing with their children around a Christmas Tree. Victoria was quite popular and the English embraced their first Christmas trees, long a tradition with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, with East Coast American Society following.



On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and each net was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs gilded apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves.

 Dolls that looked for all the world like men—the Tree had never beheld such before—were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed.-  Hans Christian Andersen's story of The Fir-Tree

Decorations were quilled snowflakes and stars, tiny sewn pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Bead decorations, fine drawn silver tinsel was imported from Germany, Candles lit the tree. By the 1850's the frenzy of the decorated tree brought about the production of  intricate glass bead garlands &  garlands made from necklace 'bugles' and beads made in Lauscha Germany.

This year I've decorated two small table top trees. This is a seventeenth century tradition- similar trees were decorated for each member of the family &  set on tables with each person's packages stacked under the tree.

So about these two small trees- one of them has actually disappeared- smothered under the ornaments-mostly RED ones. Many favorites, old and older. The second small tree is in the Living Room. It sits on a brown velvet skirted table and is filled with sentimental favorites, felt ornaments,beaded and sequined made by the hand of my GranMa Bess. Others painted by my mother, some memorials to beloved pets, to Christmases past-family photographs, etc.

 Each year a decision is made-to do a large tree- or not to? The first year the dreaded "faux" tree was introduced at home, my parent's home, there was a decided chill in the air. The quality of these beasts improved over the years. I insisted on taking one of them when my parents started giving away certain treasures-One man's trash, as they say.  This tree, well- it is bedraggled-but once the mass of ornaments adorns it- it is a wonder. There's something about that tree-
Magic I think.
This year it remains in the attic, maybe next year.






Philip Treacy & Emma Watson-the tree
photograph by Tim Walker-the toys


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the TREE according to Countess von Staufer

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The first Tree of record is from a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601. He writes of a tree decorated with "wafers and golden sugar-twists (Barley sugar) and paper flowers of all colours". The early trees were biblically symbolic of the Paradise Tree in the Garden of Eden.  many food items were symbols of Plenty, the flowers, originally only red (for Knowledge) and White (for Innocence).   from Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer (1945-2007) where much of the Tree's history is recorded, linked here




tree by Alexis Mabille Couture Fall 2011

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Millay on dogs

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photograph by Berthold Litjes

Parrots,
tortoises

&

redwoods 

live a longer life than men do; 

Men 

a longer life than dogs do; 

Dogs 

a longer life than love does.

edna saint vincent millay

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