FEATURES ARCHIVE

Walter Lees’s rooftop apartment in Paris was a sparkling jewel box of treasures – with its mirrored walls reflecting the spectacular view of the gilded dome of Les Invalides, the blue and white geometric pattern carpet designed by David Hicks, banquettes covered in white piqué, tables and stools by Diego Giacometti and interesting objects everywhere – Russian silver, Indian ivories, Chinese cloisonné, and carefully chosen Louis XVI ormolu objects – including a pair of bronze and ormolu brûle parfums acquired on the recommendation of the celebrated decorator Georges Geffroy. One of Walter’s favourite expressions was ‘one fabulous object’ – well, there were rather a lot of ‘fabulous objects’ and he had an instinctive understanding of how to combine modern and old, particularly using silver and silver-gilt to maximum effect in a completely original and creative way.

Walter arrived in Paris in 1948 as an honorary attaché at the British Embassy. So began his Parisian life where he was part of the glittering and elegant world of Paris in the 1950s and 1960s with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Countess Mona Bismarck and his great friend, Hubert de Givenchy. Friendship was central to his life and his collection reflects both his enormous generosity and the extraordinary variety of his friends from Louise de Vilmorin, Chips Channon and Dame Margot Fonteyn to Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker.

In the late 1980s Walter bought a flat in Pimlico which he decorated as a mirror image of his Paris apartment, even to the extent of having two portraits of himself painted by Andrew Festing, each showing him in a similar pose in his London and Parisian interiors. He began to collect Old Master Drawings seriously, building on his enduring enthusiasm for architectural designs, and he also took up photography, travelling extensively especially in India and Russia, the two countries which are a leitmotif through the collection.