Elsie de Wolfe Lady Mendl Villa Trianon Versailles France Auction Catalog 1981
Ader Picard Tajan (auction house)
Auction catalogue "Collections de la Villa de Lady Mendl"
Preface by Princesse Ghislaine de Polignac.
Rare French-language auction catalogue of the contents of the villa of LadyMendl (Elsie de Wolfe), Villa Trianon at Versailles.
Sale the Hôtel George V, December 9, 1981.
Catalog measures approx. 9.5 x 7.5 inches.
Sale included 234 lots, many of which are illustrated in the catalog.Color and black and white images.
Among the lots are works by Boucher, Carmontelle, Fragonard, La Tour,Pillement, Tiepolo, Romney, Messel Vertes.
Provenance: I purchased this book from Beaux Books, U.K., in 2021. Decommissioning some books to make room in the library!
For background information, see “Lady Mendls Last Treasures Are Sold,”ByFrank J. Prial, Special to the New York Times, Dec. 10, 1981
Lady Mendl - the name conveys anaura of a golden time long past: Isotta-Fraschinis in the Bois de Boulogne,steamer trunks at the Gare St. Lazare, the Ile de France and the Mistral.Ciros. The dansants at the Cafe de Paris, Clicquot 28 and the singer TinoRossi.
It was a magic era for those whoknew how to live and could pay the bills, and Elsie Mendl was in the thick ofit. For longer than most people who knew her can remember, she lived—held courtwould be more accurate—in her exquisite home in Versailles, the Villa Trianon.
Elsie Mendl, born Elsie de Wolfe andrenowned for successive careers as a Broadway stage star, interior decoratorand international hostess, died in 1953, almost three decades ago. The VillaTrianon has remained dark and shuttered ever since. Today, for almost 12 hours,the treasures of that house, the lifetime collection of a woman of incomparabletaste, have been passing under the auctioneers hammer. Its small consolation,but the auction is being held at the Hotel Georges V.
Drawings and old paintings went thismorning; modern pictures and objets dart this afternoon. This evening,the furniture will pass into strangers hands, and soon the villa itself willbe sold. Pretty routine, said Antoine Ader of the auction house of AderPicard Tajan. Were getting some excellent prices but nothing startling. Itsmuch as we had predicted.
Who was buying—or for that matter,who was selling—remained a mystery. Under French law, there is no requirementthat any names in an auction transaction be disclosed. Who Lady Mendlsexecutors are and why they chose this time to sell after waiting 28 years, Mr.Ader would not disclose. In fact, it was evident that the majority of thebuyers were regulars associated with auction and antiques concerns. Who theymight be buying for was another matter.
Among the older pictures, a group byJean-Baptiste Mallet, the 18th- and 19th-century French artist, soldparticularly well. A 1793 painting, entitled Madame Royale Treated by DoctorBrunier, sold for 140,000 francs or about $25,500. A 1774 drawing by JeanHonore Fragonard commanded about $11,800, while an undated Tiepolo drawing ofthe Virgin and Child went for about $9,000.
The collection included aninteresting selection of drawings and paintings of Lady Mendl herself and ofthe Villa Trianon. One of them is a remarkable—and amusing—painting that wasdesigned to cover the ceiling of one salon of the Villa Trianon. It depictsLady Mendl, dressed in the style of the 1920s, pug dog under her arm, leapingsymbolically from North America on one side of the canvas to Europe on theother.
This ceiling painting fetched$1,800, which was more, Mr. Ader confided, than had been expected, if onlybecause the purchaser will have to remove the canvas from the ceiling himself.
Leaping from continent to continentwas exactly what Lady Mendl spent most of her life doing. She was born in NewYork around 1870. Her father was descended from French Huguenots and came fromNova Scotia; her mother came from Aberdeen, Scotland. Elsie de Wolfe lived withrelatives and studied in Edinburgh, eventually moving on to London. There shewas presented at court and became a member of the circle around the Prince ofWales, later Edward VII.
Back in New York in the 1890s, shebecame a professional actress, sharing an old town house with a friend,Elisabeth Marbury. Her skill at decorating the house drew commissions fromfriends, and in 1904 she abandoned the stage to make decorating her lifeswork. After she did the interiors for the Colony Club, which had been designedby Stanford White, her future in the decorating field was assured.
In 1906, she and Miss Marburydiscovered an old, abandoned house in Versailles and bought it. Thirty yearslater, Lady Mendl wrote: "If I have done anything really fine, it is theVilla Trianon. Into it has gone not only the best of my knowledge but the bestthat I have to give as a hostess whose dearest wish is to make her friendshappy and at home."
In 1926, she married Sir CharlesMendl, a British diplomat who had often visited the villa. Lady Mendl abandoneddecoration and became an international hostess at the couples apartment inParis, their home in Beverly Hills, Calif., and, of course, at the VillaTrianon—when they were not in residence either in London or on the Cote dAzur.
The villa was occupied by Germansduring the war, but Lady Mendl returned in the late 1940s and, in her finalyears, revived some of the glitter and gaiety that marked the years between thewars.
The preparations for todays auctionbegan two years ago, according to a spokesman for Ader Picard Tajan. Apparentlythere were no efforts to preserve the home intact.
One room may be preserved, however.A collection of most of the items once used to decorate the villas ballroomwas sold as one unit—for about $9,000—and the auctioneer, Mr. Ader, said heunderstood that the purchaser, a Frenchman, planned to re-create the room.
The highest price achieved duringthe day was 165,000 francs, or about $30,000, for a Louis XV table in Brazilianrosewood, ornamented in bronze, with three drawers. Several paintings of theVilla Trianon by Walter Gay, the American artist, were sold to Americans. Oneof his pictures, showing the salon of the Chateau de Breau, which was expectedto bring about $700, was sold for about $4,550, also to an American.
Mr. Ader said there were fewsurprises among the furniture. He noted, too, that many of the items purchasedby dealers were bought not for customers but for themselves. He said many ofthe older dealers had known Lady Mendl professionally and they were buying amemento of their friendship with her.
I would classify this in Very Good condition. Please see photos as theyconstitute part of the description.
Will combine shipping on multiple items.
International Buyers: I use eBays Global Shipping Program.Icharge for shipping in the U.S., which gets the package from Dallas, Texas, toeBays Global Shipping Center in Chicago. Any other fee you see forinternational shipping is levied and kept by eBay to get the package fromChicago to you.If you buy multiple items, I will refund any unused amountof the postage eBay collects for the domestic leg of the journey.
OR, I can also, if you wish, if you let me know which items you want,cancel all but one of the auctions and revise the remaining auction to be a lotincluding your other items, which would thus allow you to pay just one shippingfee.
