.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
CONSUELO VANDERBILT-BALSAN
The daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Smith Belmont, Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964) became a celebrated debutante at her parent's Newport residence, Marble House, where in August of 1895 she met Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. Under enormous pressure to secure a match with a European noble family, Consuelo wed the Duke that autumn and returned to England and residence at Blenheim Palace. Consuelo was first able to exercise her passion for French furniture when she constructed her London residence, Sunderland House on Curzon Street in 1904. A gift from her father, the house was decorated in the Louis XVI taste. The Duchess made numerous trips to Paris during this period both to furnish her house and visit her father, who had taken residence in Paris in 1903 following his second marriage to Anne Rutherford.
She separated from the 9th Duke in 1905 and was officially divorced in 1920. The following summer she married the French aviator and her close friend, Jacques Balsan. Consuelo happily settled in France where she lived in the splendid seventeenth-century Saint-Georges-Motel near Eure in Normandy, and a house in Eze overlooking the Mediterranean, until the outbreak of the Second World War. Fleeing to America in 1940, Colonel and Madame Balsan continued to surround themselves with the beautiful objects they collected over the years. Her paintings and furniture often followed her from her house in Oyster Bay to Casa Alva, a tropical retreat in Hypoluxo Island, Florida, which was decorated with walls taken from Hamilton Palace.
Even at the age of eighty, Madame Balsan continued to collect. When she moved to a new residence, 'Garden Side' in Southampton, New York, she outfitted the house with boiseries from a Louis XV château, and surrounded herself with objects collected over the previous half-century. It was at Garden Side that in February 1963, a year before her death, Madame Balsan was interviewed by Vogue contributing editor, Valentine Lawford. Lawford described the elegant figure seated at her 'tall Louis Seize secrétaire, signed Topino, with a row of shapely members of the famille verte lined up above it.'
THELMA CHRYSLER FOY
Thelma Chrysler Foy (1902-1957), elder daughter of Walter Chrysler, was a celebrated society hostess, dubbed by the New York Times as 'the woman of the greatest taste ... in New York'. Famed for her impeccable eye for both art and fashion, she appeared several times on the annual list of the ten best dressed women in the country. Thelma and her husband Byron Foy owned an extensive and well-known collection of French Impressionist art which adorned their homes, furnished lavishly with eighteenth-century French furniture, as was de rigueur at the time. Their collection included works by the best in both fine and decorative arts, such as Carlin, Weisweiler, Oeben, Renoir, Degas, Vuillard, Houdon, Falconet, Clodion and Giovanni da Bologna, to name a few. Thelma’s influence on the next generation of socialites was immense, and many followed her stylistic choices when creating their homes. In fact, Jayne Wrightsman, undoubtedly one of the greatest collectors of eighteenth-century French decorative arts in America, was much inspired by the Foys' collecting. Thelma and Byron shared spectacular residences, including an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a town house on 91st street originally built by the Vanderbilts, and a country estate in Locust Valley. Parke Bernet offered her extensive collection from both her Park Avenue and Locust Valley residences in a landmark series of auctions 13-23 May 1959. Pieces from her estate are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including Picasso’s L'Acteur, a pair of fauteuils by Chevigny, and a Louis XIV Boulle marquetry bureau plat. A portion of her wardrobe is preserved at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among her sumptuous jewelry was a stunning 54.03 carat pear-shaped diamond necklace that sold Christie’s, New York, 8 June 2021, lot 135.
The daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Smith Belmont, Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964) became a celebrated debutante at her parent's Newport residence, Marble House, where in August of 1895 she met Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. Under enormous pressure to secure a match with a European noble family, Consuelo wed the Duke that autumn and returned to England and residence at Blenheim Palace. Consuelo was first able to exercise her passion for French furniture when she constructed her London residence, Sunderland House on Curzon Street in 1904. A gift from her father, the house was decorated in the Louis XVI taste. The Duchess made numerous trips to Paris during this period both to furnish her house and visit her father, who had taken residence in Paris in 1903 following his second marriage to Anne Rutherford.
She separated from the 9th Duke in 1905 and was officially divorced in 1920. The following summer she married the French aviator and her close friend, Jacques Balsan. Consuelo happily settled in France where she lived in the splendid seventeenth-century Saint-Georges-Motel near Eure in Normandy, and a house in Eze overlooking the Mediterranean, until the outbreak of the Second World War. Fleeing to America in 1940, Colonel and Madame Balsan continued to surround themselves with the beautiful objects they collected over the years. Her paintings and furniture often followed her from her house in Oyster Bay to Casa Alva, a tropical retreat in Hypoluxo Island, Florida, which was decorated with walls taken from Hamilton Palace.
Even at the age of eighty, Madame Balsan continued to collect. When she moved to a new residence, 'Garden Side' in Southampton, New York, she outfitted the house with boiseries from a Louis XV château, and surrounded herself with objects collected over the previous half-century. It was at Garden Side that in February 1963, a year before her death, Madame Balsan was interviewed by Vogue contributing editor, Valentine Lawford. Lawford described the elegant figure seated at her 'tall Louis Seize secrétaire, signed Topino, with a row of shapely members of the famille verte lined up above it.'
THELMA CHRYSLER FOY
Thelma Chrysler Foy (1902-1957), elder daughter of Walter Chrysler, was a celebrated society hostess, dubbed by the New York Times as 'the woman of the greatest taste ... in New York'. Famed for her impeccable eye for both art and fashion, she appeared several times on the annual list of the ten best dressed women in the country. Thelma and her husband Byron Foy owned an extensive and well-known collection of French Impressionist art which adorned their homes, furnished lavishly with eighteenth-century French furniture, as was de rigueur at the time. Their collection included works by the best in both fine and decorative arts, such as Carlin, Weisweiler, Oeben, Renoir, Degas, Vuillard, Houdon, Falconet, Clodion and Giovanni da Bologna, to name a few. Thelma’s influence on the next generation of socialites was immense, and many followed her stylistic choices when creating their homes. In fact, Jayne Wrightsman, undoubtedly one of the greatest collectors of eighteenth-century French decorative arts in America, was much inspired by the Foys' collecting. Thelma and Byron shared spectacular residences, including an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a town house on 91st street originally built by the Vanderbilts, and a country estate in Locust Valley. Parke Bernet offered her extensive collection from both her Park Avenue and Locust Valley residences in a landmark series of auctions 13-23 May 1959. Pieces from her estate are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including Picasso’s L'Acteur, a pair of fauteuils by Chevigny, and a Louis XIV Boulle marquetry bureau plat. A portion of her wardrobe is preserved at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among her sumptuous jewelry was a stunning 54.03 carat pear-shaped diamond necklace that sold Christie’s, New York, 8 June 2021, lot 135.