Category: OPULENCE & SPLENDOUR

Luxury and the arts From houses to cars and from Hockney to van Dyck, a profile of the best and the worst

Taking the Tito

Ex-Marshal Tito Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet for sale for staggering sum 1,598% higher than similar examples owned by other dictators

“Benevolent communist dictator” Marshal Josip Tito, 1^st President of Yugoslavia (1892 – 1980) had use of a Boeing 727 plane, a private train and a 55-foot yacht but now the 1971 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman ‘Presidential Landaulet’ he travelled around in from 1971 to 1980 is for sale for the staggering sum of £2.5 million ($3.1 million, €2.9 million or درهم11.4 million) through Tom Hartley Jnr. in Derbyshire, England.

Tito with the car in the background

Tito used to take his dog for rides in the vehicle

And apparently he used to shave in it too

Capable of achieving 0 mph to 100 mph in 10 seconds, this 2.5-tonne, 6.3-litre limousine was built to Tito’s personal specification. The ‘dictator-mobile’s’ bespoke features numbered not only a drinks cabinet but also a shaving kit in its rear centre console and despite having covered 17,012 miles and having passed through various owners, is in remarkably good condition.

Justifying the punchy price sought, in November 2016, Tom Hartley Jnr. told Car Dealer magazine:

“I’ve always been in love with the car. It’s a very significant and very important car – all of the Landaulets are, and only nine of them were built in the long roof, six-door configuration. Of those nine, this is probably regarded as the most original, the most unmolested car and it also has great provenance”.

A 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman owned by China’s Foreign Minister, Chen Yi, sold for just £147,200 ($182,800, €172,500 or درهم671,400) in 2014 whilst just £225,000 ($279,400, €263,700 or درهم1.03 million) was sought for a 1977 example originally owned by Bokassa I of Central Africa in 2015.

Naturally, the needs of drinkers was a prime consideration when it came to bespoke fittings

Luxurious rear seating

The glass partition between the passengers and the driver

The driver’s seating

And hood down

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with Tito in 1972

April 10, 2017
Living Eyre

“Gentleman’s manor house” that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Thornfield Hall in ‘Jane Eyre’ available to rent for just £14,400 per year; alternatively you could take a tiny studio in SW3 for the same sum

Described by Charlotte Brontë (1775 – 1817) as being “three storeys high; a gentleman’s manor house; battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look” in Jane Eyre, Thornfield Hall was where Jane Eyre became a governess and where she fell for Mr Rochester. The 16^th century building that is said to have been Brontë’s primary inspiration, North Lees Hall, is now available to rent and is offered for the same sum as a poky 179 square foot studio in Chelsea Cloisters in London, SW3.

North Lees Hall, Birley Lane, Hathersage, Derbyshire, S32 1BR is owned by the Peak District National Park and available to let after the Vivat Trust, that managed it as a holiday rental from 1988, ceased trading in 2015

A first floor studio – 154 Chelsea Cloisters, Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London, SW3 3DR – is available through JLL for the same sum but is hardly as imposing

Ruth Wilson played Jane Eyre with Toby Stephens as Edward Rochester in the 2006 TV adaptation of Jane Eyre; part of the series was filmed at North Lees Hall

Supposedly designed by Robert Smythson (1534 – 1614), the architect of Hardwick Hall, Grade II* listed North Lees Hall features a tower and turrets and comprises of 2 reception rooms, 3 double bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It also has a large breakfast kitchen and basement but the panoramic views from the castellated roof terrace are what will most likely impress potential tenants.

North Lees Hall is available through Saxton Mee for £1,200 per month ($1,484, €1,402 or درهم5,453 per month). Tenders to rent it on a furnished basis for a minimum of twelve months must be submitted by Friday 28^th April.

April 9, 2017
Billionaire Battersea

Historic Battersea mansion for sale for the same sum it was marketed for in 2011; it has been mostly empty throughout the intervening period and was renovated by the late billionaire Malcolm Forbes

Billionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes was a man who liked to live large. He had a huge yacht named The Highlander, threw lavish parties across the globe and counted Gianni Agnelli, Gordon Getty, Calvin Klein, Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump as friends. This “mysterious collector” also owned numerous residences and one of these, Old Battersea House in London, is for sale for the same sum as it was marketed for in 2011.

Often seen with Elizabeth Taylor at his side and described as “living life in the fabulous”, Forbes purchased Old Battersea House in 1971. It had previously been home to and saved from demolition by Battersea Council by the eccentric author and ghost hunter Wilhemina Stirling. She took up a lifetime tenancy on the building in 1931 and used it to house artworks by her sister, Evelyn de Morgan (1855 – 1919).

Businessman and publisher Malcolm S. Forbes (1919 – 1990) with seven times married actress Dame Elizabeth Taylor DBE (1932 – 2011) at his lavish 70th birthday party at the Palais Mendoub, Tangier, Morocco in 1989

Old Battersea House, 30 Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, London, SW11 3LD, United Kingdom

A. M. D. Wilhemina Stirling (1865 – 1965) owned the house prior to Malcolm Forbes

Christopher ‘Kip’ Forbes (born 1951) assisted his father restore Old Battersea House and later oversaw the family selling its art collection in 2003 and 2009

Grade II* listed since 1954 and adapted during Forbes and subsequently his son Kip’s ownership to showcase a vast collection of Victorian art and antiques, Old Battersea House was built on Tudor foundations in 1699 and was at first known as ‘Terrace House’. It originally had gardens extending down to the River Thames and is rumoured to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723).

Featuring “handsome classical proportions throughout” and standing within a 110-foot wide walled garden, the 10,100 square foot house includes 4 reception rooms, 10 double bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. It has off-street parking and a garden store but it is sadly overlooked by the adjoining housing estate that was built in its grounds in the 1930s.

Savills seek £12 million ($15 million, €14 million or درهم54.9 million) for Old Battersea House.

The impressive hallway of Old Battersea House

Another entertaining space

Elizabeth Taylor and her then husband Larry Fortensky at Old Battersea House in 1992

Images of the house as it was furnished during the ownership of the Forbes family

April 6, 2017
Over-Engineered

Essex “neo Georgian Palladian” residence created from an ordinary detached house marketed for £5.4 million; it is a bit of a mish-mash and described as “over-engineered”

Estate agents normally wax lyrical about properties they are marketing but in the case of £5.4 million ($6.7 million, €6.3 million or درهم24.8million) Threshers House at Threshers Bush, near Harlow in Essex, Beresfords bizarrely go as far as to describe it as “over-engineered”.

Situated on a plot of 11.5 acres and redeveloped and extended since 2010 by an “award winning builder” named Paul Pickering, the 7,409 square foot main residence offered is described as being “neo Georgian Palladian” in style. Given such an architectural period doesn’t exist as a sole entity, it is a bit of a mish-mash but given the new building is an improvement on the plain house that it has been created from, one can be forgiving of the result.

The old Threshers House, Hobbs Cross Road, Threshers Bush, Harlow, Essex, CM17 0NP

The new Threshers House, Hobbs Cross Road, Threshers Bush, Harlow, Essex, CM17 0NP

The old interior of the building and the new interior

A proposed design that was ultimately rejected by planning officials at Epping Forest District Council

Aside from a somewhat ostentatious South Fork-esque portico entrance, Threshers House is presented without kitchens and bathrooms so as to allow “incoming purchasers to design to their own requirements”. It includes 5 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms and a 2-bedroom first floor flat and comes with planning permission for a 1,400 square foot orangery and underground leisure facility. Within the grounds is a completed 1,988 square foot 3 bedroom cottage, a 886 square foot bungalow, a 768 square foot bungalow and a 1,386 square foot six car garage.

Elsewhere and benefitting from separate access, a tiled stable and thatched barn complex provides accommodation for 14 horses and was previously run as a business named Threshers Equestrian. It comes with a horse walker, floodlit manège, lunging room and hard standing as well as a number of paddocks.

Threshers House – which is situated about 40 minutes drive from Canary Wharf – is also available for £3.25 million ($4.06 million, €3.81 million or درهم14.92 million) with just 5 acres of land and minus the ancillary accommodation.

April 3, 2017
A Dutch Delight

New York’s “most impressive” Dutch colonial house for sale for £2.59 million in spite of needing updating

Built in 1735 and listed as a designated New York landmark in 1966, 126 West Drive in Douglaston, Queens is considered to be New York’s “most impressive architectural remnant of the early Dutch Culture”. It has just been listed for sale for £2.59 million ($3.25 million, €3.05 million or درهم11.94 million) through Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Overlooking Little Neck Bay, this “picturesque Dutch colonial house” features a salt-box roof, wooden shingles and oak beams and was built by Cornelius Van Wyck, a third generation settler on a plot of 125 acres. It was subsequently expanded in the 1770s and 1930s but despite now standing on a plot of just 0.65 acres is “one of the largest true waterfront properties in Queens”.

Extending to 3,876 square foot and including 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, the Cornelius Van Wyck House has direct access to a sandy beach and is just 28 minutes from Manhattan.

April 2, 2017
A Blank Canvas

Chelsea “studio with living rooms” built for Augustus John and later owned by Dame Grace Fields DBE available to rent

Though the Pembrokeshire born artist, bohemian and pacifist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) was best known for his portraits of Lawrence of Arabia and Dylan Thomas, he is also said to have fathered as many as 100 children over the course of his life. A Grade II listed “Dutch farmhouse-style” studio he built and occupied for twenty years in Chelsea, London is currently available to rent.

This vast studio room is the most impressive feature of 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6U

Built in 1913 to 1914 from designs by a Dutch architect named Robert van ’t Hoff and Grade II listed, 28 Mallord Street cost an estimated £2,200 to build (the equivalent of £233,000, $291,000, €272,000 or درهم1.1 million today). It includes features influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and was described by Augustus John as “my new studio with living rooms” on completion. He lived there until 1934 and though initially delighted by the building’s “solidity and tautness”, ultimately termed it “this damned Dutch shanty” and moved to a new, purpose-built ferro-concrete at Fryern Court in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

Owned by the thrice married actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979) – who described it as “feeling like home” and “a love nest” – in the 1930s and sold for £5.4 million in 2009 (the equivalent of £6.6 million, $8.2 million, €7.7 million or درهم30.2 million today). 28 Mallord Street is now available to rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) or £494,000 per year ($616,000, €576,000 or درهم2.3 million per year) through Aylesford International.

Augustus John OM, RA was celebrated for brilliant figure drawings, and for a new technique of oil sketching; his work was often favourably compared with Gauguin and Matisse

A Blue Plaque commemorating the artist was installed on the building in 1981

28 Mallord Street in 1981

Actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields OBE took up occupancy of the building soon after Augustus John sold it

Expanded to provide 5,109 square foot of accommodation over five levels, the house is dominated by a 38’3” by 25’2” studio reception room with a ceiling height of 18’4” and also includes upto 6 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and a temperature controlled wine cellar with Hermès wallpaper.

Aylesford describe 28 Mallord Street as “a true family home, the ultimate blank canvas and ideal for any art collector”. They offer it on an unfurnished basis.

March 31, 2017
Narrow in Knightsbridge

Tiny 2.5-foot deep Knightsbridge “corridor house” sells for £810,000 at auction

Yesterday, at an auction in London, a 2.5-foot deep (at its minimum) and 3-foot deep (at its maximum) mews house sold for £810,000 ($1 million, €936,000 or درهم3.7 million) despite being nothing more than a very long corridor.

Extending to 275 square foot in total and 65-foot long, 1B Ennismore Gardens Mews needs “complete refurbishment” but has potential for a first floor extension. The single-storey freehold property, which was owned from the 1950s to 2010 by a lady named Linda Wildoner, is certainly one of the smallest houses in Knightsbridge and could definitely be described as a curiosity.

Linda Wildoner (1916 – 2010) outside 1B Ennismore Gardens Mews, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HX with Sir Martyn Poliakoff CBE (born 1947)

Miss Wildoner, an Austrian who moved to London after the Second World War to take care of Sir Martin Poliakoff and his family, died in 2010 and yesterday’s sale was carried out at the behest of her executors.

Of this extraordinarily weird property, Chris Coleman-Smith of auctioneers Savills told the Mail Online:

“You see narrow houses, but this is something completely different… It is on a prime, crème de la crème mews on Knightsbridge. It is a superb, picturesque mews. One of the top addresses”.

“It is very basic and will need a complete refurbishment. It is brilliant. It is weird and wonderful and I’ve not come across anything like it. Someone will create something fantastic here. In a cobbled mews in Knightsbridge it is a great opportunity”.

March 30, 2017
A Treble Two

Miss Marple-esque thatched cottage for sale for a sum 129% higher than it achieved in 2014; it has 2 reception rooms, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms

Sold last in October 2014 for £175,000, Fussells Cottage in the “unspoilt” Wiltshire village of Wedhampton is again for sale for £400,000 ($497,000, €460,000 or درهم1.8 million).

Named after the occupational description for a spinner and situated next to an old mill, the 1,167 square foot, Grade II listed house on offer had its roof rethatched in January 2015. It consists of 2 reception rooms, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

Offered to market by agents Hamptons, the extended cottage retains many period features and comes with an oak framed car barn in its grounds.

March 29, 2017
Painting & Poetry

North Yorkshire mill house complete with its own valley for sale; Wordsworth waxed lyrical about its setting and Turner painted it

Described as “a delightful and delicious valley” by the Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) in 1799 in a letter to his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834), Mill Gill outside Askrigg in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire has more recently been described as a “real hidden gem”.

Sketched also in 1816 by the Romanticist landscape painter J. M. W. Turner (1775 – 1851), the valley is the setting for Mill Gill House, a 6-bedroom stone-built residence that dates to 1721. For sale currently for £850,000 ($1.06 million, €987,000 or درهم3.91 million), the 2,604 square foot house stands in 18 acres of grassland, woodland and ponds. It comes with a “historic relic” 3-storey sawmill complex complete with original machinery, a 2-storey coach house, a high eaved field barn and a 2-storey dovecote.

Of their time at what they call a “mini-estate”, current owner Professor David Blake told The Yorkshire Post:

“I fell for it and so did my wife [Rita], who is a mad keen gardener. It’s such a beautiful place… I’d like to see the mill kept as a workshop and used by an artisan, maybe by a potter or a joiner. That would our ideal buyer”.

“We will miss it and we really don’t want to go. We are just about to take our daily walk. We go and feed the hens and then we feed the ducks on the pond and then we carry on to the tip of the waterfall. It’s the walk Wordsworth did and in summer when everything is blooming, it is even more beautiful. So much so it makes you want to cry”.

Grade II listed Mill Gill House is being marketed by estate agents Robin Jessop.

March 23, 2017
A Musical Roller

Rolls-Royce previously owned by musicians Kenney Jones and Vangelis to be auctioned

A 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III drophead coupé complete with ‘Chinese Eyes’ quad headlights that was owned by the drummer Kenney Jones and the electronic musician Vangelis is to be sold at auction next week.

The mid-metallic blue with beige hide interior stunner, which has been “recently unearthed from a London garage”, was one of a vast collection of cars owned by Stepney born Jones – a member of Small Faces, Faces, The Who, The Law and The Jones Gang – in the 1980s. The Conservative supporting, polo club owner sold the car to Vangelis in 1993 and in an interview with Luxurious Magazine remarked: “I had to downgrade to an Audi Q7 which was big enough to hold [my six children]”.

Kenney and Jayne Jones at their Hurtwood Park Polo Club and Vangelis

Secretive Chariots of Fire score writer Vangelis – born Evanghelos Papathanassiou – kept the vehicle for 23 years yet hardly ever drove it. Despite him having left it in a London garage for decades, the vehicle “runs well” and is described by its owner as having a “very good” engine and “good” coachwork, paintwork and interior trim. Factory extras fitted to the vehicle include an electrically operated hood mechanism, electric windows and a cocktail cabinet with crystal glasses and a carafe under the dashboard.

H&H Classics have placed an estimate of £150,000 to £180,000 ($186,000 to $224,000, €173,000 to €208,000 or درهم684,000 to درهم821,000) on this “decidedly avant-garde, yet majestic” coupé and will sell it on 29^th March at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire.

March 19, 2017