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Lot Essay
TEATREO ALLA SCALA, MILAN
Milan's Teatro alla Scala, sometimes referred to as "il Piermarini" after its architect Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808), is one of the most famous opera houses in the world. From the inaugural performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta to orchestras conducted by the legendary Arturo Toscanini, the venue which opened its doors to the public on 3 August 1778 as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala, has welcomed an incredible roster of performers and performances to a stage renowned for its gilded opulence.
These tables were purchased by Audrey James when she was in Milan with her friend Coco Chanel, directly from the theatre when it was being redecorated in the mid-1930s.
AUDREY JAMES AND HOLME HOUSE, LONDON
Audrey James, later Pleydell-Bouverie (1902–1968) was a renowned beauty and prominent member of transatlantic society who married for the third time in 1938 the Hon. Peter Pleydell-Bouverie (1909-1981), youngest of the 10 children of the 6th Earl of Radnor. Audrey was the daughter of William Dodge James, the Anglo-American lumber and steel millionaire, and his wife Evelyn Forbes. Her godfather was Edward VII and she was at one time was romantically linked to the future Edward VIII. The James family lived at West Dean in Sussex and her younger brother Edward James became the celebrated aesthete, writer and Surrealist patron/collaborator of artists such as Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Pavel Tchetlitchew.
In 1936 Audrey acquired Holme house (or The Holme) in Regent’s Park and set about remodelling the house and gardens, as published in two articles in Country Life in October 1939 and April 1940. To remodel The Holme she turned to the architect Paul Phipps and the decorator Stéphane Boudin, of the Parisian Maison Jansen. The Dining Room, Drawing Room, Morning Room, Library and Ballroom - where these console tables were placed - at the Holme were amongst the most elegant Regency Revival rooms created by Jansen at the time, fusing furniture from early 19th Century England, France and Italy in what one could term the ‘Vogue Regency’ style. The theatricality of the Vogue or ‘Hollywood’ Regency took on a literal sense in this pair of console tables and gilded wall-carvings from the Dining Room at The Holme (later in the Music Room at Julians Park, Hertfordshire), which had once been in the foyer of the Teatro della Scala in Milan.
TEATREO ALLA SCALA, MILAN
Milan's Teatro alla Scala, sometimes referred to as "il Piermarini" after its architect Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808), is one of the most famous opera houses in the world. From the inaugural performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta to orchestras conducted by the legendary Arturo Toscanini, the venue which opened its doors to the public on 3 August 1778 as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala, has welcomed an incredible roster of performers and performances to a stage renowned for its gilded opulence.
These tables were purchased by Audrey James when she was in Milan with her friend Coco Chanel, directly from the theatre when it was being redecorated in the mid-1930s.
AUDREY JAMES AND HOLME HOUSE, LONDON
Audrey James, later Pleydell-Bouverie (1902–1968) was a renowned beauty and prominent member of transatlantic society who married for the third time in 1938 the Hon. Peter Pleydell-Bouverie (1909-1981), youngest of the 10 children of the 6th Earl of Radnor. Audrey was the daughter of William Dodge James, the Anglo-American lumber and steel millionaire, and his wife Evelyn Forbes. Her godfather was Edward VII and she was at one time was romantically linked to the future Edward VIII. The James family lived at West Dean in Sussex and her younger brother Edward James became the celebrated aesthete, writer and Surrealist patron/collaborator of artists such as Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Pavel Tchetlitchew.
In 1936 Audrey acquired Holme house (or The Holme) in Regent’s Park and set about remodelling the house and gardens, as published in two articles in Country Life in October 1939 and April 1940. To remodel The Holme she turned to the architect Paul Phipps and the decorator Stéphane Boudin, of the Parisian Maison Jansen. The Dining Room, Drawing Room, Morning Room, Library and Ballroom - where these console tables were placed - at the Holme were amongst the most elegant Regency Revival rooms created by Jansen at the time, fusing furniture from early 19th Century England, France and Italy in what one could term the ‘Vogue Regency’ style. The theatricality of the Vogue or ‘Hollywood’ Regency took on a literal sense in this pair of console tables and gilded wall-carvings from the Dining Room at The Holme (later in the Music Room at Julians Park, Hertfordshire), which had once been in the foyer of the Teatro della Scala in Milan.