The Apartment, Part II

The apartment's Living Room as decorated
by Robert Denning for Marlene and Spencer Hays.

First, it must be explained that The Devoted Classicist has been planning for quite some time to do a series of posts on a particularly attractive Manhattan apartment and how it has been furnished by different owners.  A recent post by blogger, author, and speaker extraordinaire, Jennifer Boles on The Peak of Chic presented the apartment as furnished by what we will call the first owner.  So this, the apartment as decorated for the second owners, is being published out of sequence for this blog, but it will be a logical sequence in the end, hopefully.


The barrel-vaulted and mirrored Entrance Hall
is lined with paintings and drawings by Utrillo,
Ingres, Forain, Pissarro, and Matisse.

The apartment first came to the attention of The Devoted Classicist when it was published as the residence of the current owner, David Kleinberg, a friend and former co-worker at Parish-Hadley.  (A preview of Part III of this series featuring David's décor may be seen in a previous post here).  David had mentioned that it had earlier been decorated by the firm, Denning & Fourcade, his former employer.  These photos by Durston Saylor appeared in the September, 1994, issue of Architectural Digest which reveal the interior design implemented Robert Denning.  (Vincent Fourcade died in 1992 and Robert Denning in 2005).


The Library walls are paneled with elements
of a coromandel screen, repurposed by
the previous occupant.

At the time, the apartment was a pied-a-terre for Nashvillians Marlene and Spencer Hays.  (Selections from their art collection were exhibited at the Musee d'Orsay this summer.  Although the museum text associated with the exhibition reports that their New York apartment was decorated by Renzo Mongiardino [who died in 1998], these photos, showing a décor very much in the style of Denning & Fourcade, would indicate that his involvement with the Hayses would have been later).  The AD article noted that Marlene Hays had Robert Denning in mind during the two years she searched for a suitable apartment for displaying their art and entertaining.  Of the decorator she said, "At first, I thought some of his ideas were crazy, and I'd wonder.  All these mirrors for example.  But they turned out to be a perfect setting for our pictures.  What he suggests always works."


A drawing and a gouche by Pissarro
are displayed on an Empire table in a
corner of the Library.

The 15 x 30 foot Living Room needed lightening and brightening, according to the article, to create a proper background for the art.  Denning repainted the framework of paneling a slightly different green, gilded the moldings, and upholstered the inset panels with printed linen from Brunschwig & Fils who also supplied the tapestry border on the ceiling, a hold-over from the previous occupant.  Two nineteenth-century Savonnerie rugs were cut to cover the floor as a foundation for the mix of Biedermeier, Empire, and Regency furniture.


Jules Emile Saintain's La Menagere, 1866,
hangs over the secretaire a abattant in
the Master Bedroom.

Just as memorable of a room is the Library, paneled with a cut-up black and gold cormandel screen by the previous owner.  Denning added his signature touches with the ceiling upholstered in a floral fabric and a Belle Epoque style light fixture featuring three elaborately pleated and ruffled silk shades.


The bed in the Master Bedroom was made
from a pair of four-poster beds from the
Delano estate.

The Master Bedroom features an eight-poster (!) Louis XIV style bed created from twin beds that Denning refashioned and provided with fringed hangings.  The walls are covered with a Cowtan & Tout chintz and the windows have a yellow striped taffeta festoon blind, a lace shade, and mirrored shutters.  "Rich fabrics soften the master bedroom," says Denning in the article written by Aileen Mehle.


Small sculptures by Maillol and Daumier
are displayed on shelves in the hall
outside the Dressing Room.

The Dressing Room has walls covered in a Clarence House chintz and a ceiling (not visible in the photo) upholstered in a mustard colored moire to conform to the pyramid shape.  The adjacent hall has concealed doors in the form of bookcases faced with false books.

Parts I and III, showing the decoration by the previous and the subsequent owners will appear in future posts of The Devoted Classicist.

Designers' Favorite Things

Juan Pablo Molyneux
Photo by John Lei.

"Selecting The One Object They Could Not Live Without" is the subtitle of the article in the September, 1996, issue of Architectural Digest.  Whether it was truly the most appreciated possession, or one that was chosen for image value, that will be left up to you, Devoted Reader.



The silver tape measure engraved JBK
bought at the April, 1996, auction by
NYC interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux.
Photo:  People Magazine.

Juan Pablo Molyneux is pictured with a pair of Anglo-Afghan campaign chairs that he had owned for over a decade.  He restored the inlaid mother-of-pearl marquetry, disabled the collapsible feature to make them more stable, and covered the seats in zebra silk velvet, vowing never to sell them.  In the first image, he's holding the silver Tiffany's tape measure he famously bought in the April, 1996, Jacqueline Kennedy auction.  Engraved with her initials, he paid $48,250 for the souvenir.  "I like to think she was measuring the White House with it," said Molyneux.


Mario Buatta.
Photo by Feliciano.

Mario Buatta is shown with a few creamware plates.  "It's difficult to pick out one, because the whole set of botanical plates is my favorite," Buatta is quoted in the article.  At the time, he had about one hundred dishes made between 1790 and 1870 with decoration based on botanical drawings, collected over 30 years.  Fans of the decorator will recognize the same designs, painted on cushions, that often serve as accessories in his interiors.


Robert Denning.
Photo by Scott Frances.

Robert Denning, who died in 2005, relates that the first thing that he and his late partner Vincent Fourcade, who died in 1992, bought together was a 19th century Copeland Spode monkey.  "It cost fifteen dollars, but there was a decorator discount of two dollars," he said.  Denning added the bronze feet to the base.


Bruce Gregga.
Photo by Russell Ingram.

Bruce Gregga is pictured with a 19th century Rococo-style clock supported by an enamel elephant and topped with an enameled Chinese man sitting on a gilt, lacquer and enamel seat.  He had admired a similar clock in France 6 or 8 years before happening to find this clock in a New York store.  He says that the clock has moved around to several locations in his Chicago residence before occupying the perfect spot "on a console in the living room with a Botero painting hanging above it and delft vases set on either side, so it fits in with the kind of things that I like."


Clodagh.
Photo by Daniel Aubry.

Clodagh, the Irish-born designer who goes by her first name only, often incorporates Feng Shui and Chromotheraphy in her international projects.  She first saw the Buddha in 1971 in the apartment of photographer Daniel Aubry who would later become her husband.  An 18th century Kmer statue, Aubry's aunt had given it to him from her husband's collection of Asian antiques.  "I'm not covetous of things.  Everything in our house could go.  But this statue, not any other Buddha, is the spirit of our house," Clodagh said of the statue that had traveled to nine different residences with the couple up to that date.


William 'Bill' Hodgins.
Photo by Richard Mandelkorn.

William Hodgins found the 19th century cast-iron statue of Hercules in the early 1990s in the beloved London garden centre, Clifton Little Venice.  Placed on a fluted, marbleized truncated column pedestal in his Boston living room, Hodgins says, "He's kind of wonderful.  I'll always like this one."


Juan Montoya.
Photo by Feliciano.

Juan Montoya's grandfather bought the alabaster urn, thought to be 300 years old, in the 1870s in Florence, Italy, and had it shipped back home to Columbia.  It occupied a prominent spot in his parents' small chapel and Montoya had admired it since he was a child.  When he changed the décor of his apartment in the mid 1980s, he had it shipped to New York.  "It is the texture, the feeling, the element itself that makes me happy.  I would never be able to live without it," he says in the feature.  "But someday it may go back to Bogota, to my sister."

Devoted Reader, do you have a possession (a non-living thing, of course) you would be particularly sad to lose?