.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The fief of Clagny, now in Versailles, was first known for the château built by Madame de Montespan, mistress and favourite of King Louis XIV. The expansion of the city of Versailles took over the estate in the 18th century, but it was mainly in the 19th century that urbanisation led to the creation of new districts. In the 1880s, the banker Alexandre Lange, known as Lange de Montfermeil, bought several plots of land and asked the architect Ernest Émile Justin Toutain (1845-1923) to build a château in the style of the reign of Louis XIII. The château - named Château de la Maye - was completed in 1883 and at the beginning of the 20th century the famous landscape architect Achille Duchêne (1866-1947) designed the gardens. It may have been as part of these designs that the present vases were acquired for the château.
Through much of the 20th century the chateau had a succession of glamorous tenants. Between the two World Wars, it was the property of Helen Browne (1875-1951), an American born in Chicago and manager of the Excelsior Publications group created by her husband Paul Dupuy (1878-1927), senator and owner of the newspaper Le Petit Parisien. Dividing her life between her Parisian flat at 29 rue Octave-Feuillet, the Château de La Maye, Arcachon, Venice and New York, she entertained numerous personalities at La Maye. Her daughter Gladys, Princess Guy de Polignac, later inherited it.
After the Abdication Crisis of 1936, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, in search of a compromise between a Parisian life and the countryside, settled at La Maye for several months. Sir Dudley Richard Forwood, the duke's equerry, was in charge of organising the move. A few months later it was the turn of King Zog I and Queen Géraldine of Albania to find refuge in this place in France during their long exile. Since 1956 the château has been a private clinic.
The fief of Clagny, now in Versailles, was first known for the château built by Madame de Montespan, mistress and favourite of King Louis XIV. The expansion of the city of Versailles took over the estate in the 18th century, but it was mainly in the 19th century that urbanisation led to the creation of new districts. In the 1880s, the banker Alexandre Lange, known as Lange de Montfermeil, bought several plots of land and asked the architect Ernest Émile Justin Toutain (1845-1923) to build a château in the style of the reign of Louis XIII. The château - named Château de la Maye - was completed in 1883 and at the beginning of the 20th century the famous landscape architect Achille Duchêne (1866-1947) designed the gardens. It may have been as part of these designs that the present vases were acquired for the château.
Through much of the 20th century the chateau had a succession of glamorous tenants. Between the two World Wars, it was the property of Helen Browne (1875-1951), an American born in Chicago and manager of the Excelsior Publications group created by her husband Paul Dupuy (1878-1927), senator and owner of the newspaper Le Petit Parisien. Dividing her life between her Parisian flat at 29 rue Octave-Feuillet, the Château de La Maye, Arcachon, Venice and New York, she entertained numerous personalities at La Maye. Her daughter Gladys, Princess Guy de Polignac, later inherited it.
After the Abdication Crisis of 1936, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, in search of a compromise between a Parisian life and the countryside, settled at La Maye for several months. Sir Dudley Richard Forwood, the duke's equerry, was in charge of organising the move. A few months later it was the turn of King Zog I and Queen Géraldine of Albania to find refuge in this place in France during their long exile. Since 1956 the château has been a private clinic.