The Steeple Times

Tag: 1937

  • Moving On – June 2020

    Moving On – June 2020

    Moving on homes owned by the newsworthy – including properties owned by society snapper Sir Cecil Beaton, novelist Jackie Collins and film producer-director Peter Minns.

    A Tennis Court Teardown

    Moving On – June 2020 – Moves of the Noteworthy – A chronicle of the moves of the newsworthy – including homes owned by society snapper Sir Cecil Beaton, novelist Jackie Collins and film producer-director Peter Minns.

    Paris Hilton’s dad Rick’s realty firm Hilton & Hyland has just launched to the market the former Beverly Hills home of the late Jackie Collins OBE (1937 – 2015) for £13.4 million ($16.95 million). They don’t say much about the bonkbuster author’s residence of some 25 years other than: “Secluded behind gates and foliage lies a great opportunity to purchase a tennis court… Home could use a remodel or rebuild.” Miss Collins and her second husband art gallery owner Oscar Lerman paid £2.4 million ($3 million) for 5,269 square foot 614 N Beverly Drive in 1991.

    Limited Living in the ‘Hampshire Highlands’

    Moving On – June 2020 – Moves of the Noteworthy – A chronicle of the moves of the newsworthy – including homes owned by society snapper Sir Cecil Beaton, novelist Jackie Collins and film producer-director Peter Minns.
    https://vimeo.com/358107497/b6629a2217

    Reduced in price from £4 million ($5.1 million) in September 2019 to £3.73 million ($4.72 million) now through agents BCM, The Oast House at Hartley Mauditt in the South Downs National Park in Hampshire was converted by film producer-director Peter Minns in the 1990s.

     

    This delightful ‘mini estate’ looks like something that could have been in of The Darling Buds of May and comes with 76.28 acres of land suitable for ‘stick and ball’ polo, but the problem is this – a planning stipulation dictates that the majority of the main house is only allowed to be on a “short-term” basis whilst two cottages are for “holiday or seasonal worker use” and a bungalow is limited to “anyone fully employed in agriculture.”

     

    Minns is best known for having produced programmes including Mad Cows & Englishmen for the BBC, A Question of Sleaze – The Neil Hamilton Story for Channel 4 and Citizen 2000 – which followed the lives of twenty children who became 18 in the year 2000.

     

    Moving on Sir Cecil’s Seat

    Moving On – June 2020 – Moves of the Noteworthy – A chronicle of the moves of the newsworthy – including homes owned by society snapper Sir Cecil Beaton, novelist Jackie Collins and film producer-director Peter Minns.

    £4 million ($5.1 million) is sought for Queen Anne Reddish House in the Chalke Valley in Wiltshire by agents Savills. Society snapper Sir Cecil Beaton CBE, owner from 1947 until his death in 1980, described it as: “My dream home” and an “exquisite country seat” and between 1987 and 1999, it was home to the I Want to Be Free singer Toyah Wilcox. Aside from 6 acres of glorious gardens, the Grade II* listed house comes with two cottages, a range of follies and a water meadow. Locked-down Instagrammers have been moving all over its marketing brochure and sharing photos online, with one even gushing: “It’s the prettiest house I’ve seen EVER… EVER.”

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  • Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti

    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti

    Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57SC Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 99.9% lower than the most famous of the four originals is said to be worth

    If ever rediscovered, a car termed “the most beautiful ever created” – the second of four Bugatti Type 57S Atlantic coupés – would supposedly be worth £93 million ($113 million, €104 million or درهم415 million).

     

    Handcrafted as part of a limited production with sales only to the British banker Victor, 3rd Baron Rothschild, an English tennis player named Richard B. Pope and a Frenchman named Jacques Holzschuh between 1936 and 1938, the second coupé made was used for promotion and then given to its creator, Gianoberto ‘Jean’ Bugatti (1909 – 1939). After he was killed whilst testing a Type 57 tank-bodied racer, his car passed into the hands of various racing drivers. It was then hidden away with the outset of the Second World War, but sadly never resurfaced.

     

    Named in honour of Mr. Bugatti’s aviator friend Jean Mermoz (1901 – 1936), whom never returned from a journey across the South Atlantic in 1936 in a Latécoère 300 Croix-du-Sud plane, the 12-foot long 57SC is lauded as the ultimate automotive design icon. Bugatti themselves term the “world’s most valuable vehicle” to be “extraordinary” and reference the coupé “unique in its time and still unique today.”

     

    As a result of their desirability, the car – which Motor Authority terms “delightfully swoopy… [the] crown jewels of Bugatti production cars” – has unsurprisingly inspired a number of automotive designers to create homages to it. One example, created by “hot rodder” Terry Cook, is being auctioned this month – but one thing’s for sure, whatever it sells for, its hammer price will nowhere near that of a ‘real’ example.

     

    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    In March 2017, the “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57SC Atlantic coupé,” the Delahaye USA Pacific was auctioned at the Mostalgia Amelia Island sale in Florida. It sold for £182,000 ($220,000, €204,000 or درهم808,000). The same car is headed to auction again this month.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    Jean Bugatti pictured next to the ‘Royale Esders Roadster’ prototype he designed in 1932.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The four Bugatti 57SC Atlantic cars.

    The “reimagined Atlantic” concerned was made by Cook’s firm, Delahaye USA, in 2016 and is described as “noticeably longer than the original, 10 inches to be exact.” It has a 127-inch wheelbase and features a BMW fuel-injected 12-cylinder engine and automatic transmission and unlike its forerunners comes equipped with air conditioning, heating and power windows. The stainless steel tubular seat frames are exact copies of those from the 57SC now owned by Ralph Lauren and the fabric is described as “richly decorative.”

     

    RM Sotheby’s will sell the 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific – which actually is titled a 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ – as part of their ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000) for this “wonderful modern homage.” Of it, they add: “The Delahaye USA Pacific is sure to turn heads no matter where it may travel, be it on any side of either ocean.”

     

    Those on an even more limited budget could still live the ‘Atlantic dream’ – Ralph Lauren is currently marketing a 1:18 scale, die-cast, hand-painted replica of Mr. Lauren’s 57SC for ‘just’ £1,595 ($1,930, €1,784 or درهم7,090).

     

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    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The metallic gray-blue 1936 Bugatti Type 57S – chassis number 57374 – was originally owned by Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild and thus known as the ‘Rothschild Atlantic.’ It was sold for in excess of £24.8 million ($30 million, €27.7 million or درهم110.2 million) in 2010 to the collector Peter Mullin. The car is now displayed at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The missing 1936 57SC – chassis 57453 – was presented in black and known as ‘La Voiture Noire’ or ‘The Black Car.’ It was the second Atlantic manufactured, disappeared from France in February 1941 and has never been seen since. Jean Bugatti considered this particular example his “most innovative and most valuable creation.”
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The 1936 Bugatti 57SC – chassis number 57473, ‘the Holzschuh Atlantic’ – was first owned by Jacques Holzschuch and his wife, Yvonne, and presented in black. After they were killed in the Second World War, the car’s subsequent owner, René Chatard, was hit by a train whilst in it 1955. He and his companion died and the remains of the vehicle were sold on. The restored car – considered a replica by experts – is displayed at the Torrota private collection in Spain.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    Clothier Ralph Lauren with his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC – chassis 57591, the ‘Pope Atlantic.’ It was originally owned by Richard B. Pope and presented in sapphire blue, but painted black after being sold to Ralph Lauren in 1988.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, commemorating the 110th anniversary of Jean Bugatti’s birth, Bugatti sold a one-off model named ‘La Voiture Noire’ in homage to the missing 57SC for circa £15.7 million ($19 million, €17.6 million or درهم70 million). They declared it: “The most expensive new car ever sold.”
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The model available from Ralph Lauren.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The steering wheel of the 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The seats are an artwork in themselves.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    Another view of the interior.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    With the doors open, from the front.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The spare wheel.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    From the front.
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    From the rear (complete with twelve exhaust pipes).
    Beauty’s in the Eye of the Bargain Basement Bugatti – 2016 ‘Assembled Vehicle’ 1939 Delahaye USA Pacific by Terry Cook – Replica “homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57S Atlantic coupé” to be auctioned for a sum 100% lower than the missing most famous of the four originals is said to be worth – The vehicle will be sold as part of the RM Sotheby’s ‘Drive Into Summer’ online sale from 21st to 29th May. They have set an estimate of £124,000 to £165,000 ($150,000 to $200,000, €139,000 to €185,000 or درهم551,000 to درهم735,000)
    The bonnet of the vehicle with a model of the car that inspired it on it.
  • A Poirot Curve

    A Poirot Curve

    Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum

    Featured as the main article in Country Life just 15 days after the start of the Second World War on 16th September 1939, Hamstone House on the 946-acre St. George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey was constructed between 1937 and 1938 for Herman Peter Thygesen Lind (1890 – 1956), the founder of a firm that later constructed both Waterloo Bridge and the BT Tower in London.

     

    Now offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates, this Grade II listed “classical” house is described on British Listed Buildings as being “in Georgian tradition” and of “brown ham stone ashlar,” but has a look that is more akin to something out of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels. In 1987, Christopher Warman of The Times, lauded it as “the most important architectural centrepiece of St George’s Hill” and “[looking] like the bridge of a huge ocean going liner.”

     

    Accessed via a Grade II listed double gatehouse, Hamstone House is curved in shape and was somewhat mockingly featured in Punch magazine as “[standing] out like the Duchess of Windsor’s flamingo brooch in a local jewellers window.” Its 8 acres of gardens and grounds were listed as “not [looking] out of place in the grandest of crematoria.”

     

    Refurbished most recently in 2006, the 23,546 square foot freehold property now includes amongst other things 5 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and an indoor swimming pool. The second floor is dominated by a large roof terrace accessed via an office, from where no doubt Mr Lind no doubt planned many a business manoeuvre as he looked out across what is listed as “rural grandeur.”

     

    Sold to a company connected to Oleg Deripaska, the somewhat controversial oligarch and associate of Peter (now Lord) Mandleson in 2001, Hamstone House was previously marketed for £5 million ($5.7 million, €5.4 million or درهم21.2 million) in 1987 according to Wikipedia.

     

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    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
    A Poirot Curve – Curve shaped neo-Georgian house that wouldn’t look out of place in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel on the St. George’s Hill estate in Surrey for sale for an extraordinary sum. Hamstone House, South Ridge, St. Georges Hill, Weybridge KT13 0NF, United Kingdom is offered for £16 million ($18.4 million, €17.2million or درهم67.6 million) by agents Beauchamp Estates.
  • Elvira Mullens Barney (1904 – 1936)

    Elvira Mullens Barney (1904 – 1936)

    Though considered one of society’s “Bright Young Things,” the “morally dubious” daughter of Sir John and Lady Mullens was just a tempestuous coke addict who got away with murder.

     

    Separated from her supposedly violent American singer husband, John Sterling Barney, and living with an “extravagant, bisexual waster” named Michael Scott Stephen in 1932, Elvira Mullens Barney gave a dinner party at her “prodigally furnished” Knightsbridge home – known as the ‘Love Hut’ – at 21 William Mews on the 30th May that year. Early the next morning, shouts of: “Get out, get out! I will shoot you! I will shoot you!” were heard in the mews followed by: “Chicken, chicken, come back to me. I will do anything you want me to.”

     

    Undoubtedly the inspiration for Eveleyn Waugh’s character Agatha Runcible in Vile Bodies and possibly also Elvira in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Mullens Barney’s single shot at close range with a .32 Smith & Wesson revolver killed her lover in the doorway of their bedroom. On her arrest, she launched into an “uncontrollable violent outburst and paroxysm of rage” and “slapped a policeman in the face when he suggested she put on a warmer fur coat.” She is said to have then added: “I’ll teach you to say you will take me to a police station. Now you know who my mother is you’ll be a little more careful in what you say and do to me!”

     

    Placed in a private cell at Holloway Prison with a “telephone, powder-puffs and a grand tea-gown” whilst awaiting trial at the Old Bailey, Mullens Barney was ultimately surprisingly cleared of both murder and manslaughter on 5th July 1932. As he left court, the judge at the trial, Mr Justice Humphreys exclaimed: “Most extraordinary! Apparently we should have given her a pat on the back” whilst Mullens Barney was said to have headed to a celebration party and shouted: “I am the one who shot her lover – so take a good look at me” as she took to the dance floor.

     

    To escape public and press outrage, “spoilt child of fortune” Mullens Barney moved to France. She was found dead on Christmas Day 1936 after “a typical long night of drinking and taking cocaine” in a hotel room in Paris with signs of haemorrhage around her mouth. Her sister, Avril, meanwhile made her third husband divorcé Ernest Simpson (whose ex-wife Wallis had become wife to Edward VIII in 1937) in 1948 and was killed in a car crash in Mexico in 1978.

     

  • Double Cher

    Double Cher

    Holmby Hills estate owned variously by Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis for sale for double what it sold for in 2016

     

    A 12,201 square foot mansion on 10.1 acres in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles is on sale for £136 million or double the sum it sold for just a year ago.

     

    Featuring 9 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, ‘The Owlwood Estate’ or more simply 141 South Carolwood Drive is described as “easily one of the city’s most iconic and historically significant properties.” Built in 1937 to the designs of Robert D. Farquhar in a “classic European Italian Renaissance” style, the estate was owned by Tony Curtis and Sonny Bono and Cher in the 1960s and has also been home to Joe Schenck, the first president of United Artists and a chairman of 20th Century Fox.

     

    Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of <a href=

     

    Now offered with designs for redevelopment by Bob Shapiro, the head of Sturmer Pippin Investments and CEO of Woodbridge Luxury Homes, the property offered also includes a sunken tennis court, a swimming pool and two guest houses.

     

    Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine is the realtor handling the sale.

     

    The Owlwood Estate – The Numbers

     

    July 2017 – Placed on the market for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million).

     

    September 2016 – Sold for £68 million ($90 million, €76 million or درهم331 million) to developer Bob Shapiro.

     

    July 2012 – Placed on the market for £114 million ($150 million, €127 million or درهم551 million) by Dawn Arnall, “the widow of subprime mortgage profiteer Roland Arnall.”

     

    2002 – Sold for £25 million ($33 million, €28 million or درهم121 million).

     

    1999 – Listed for sale for £44 million ($58 million, €49 million or دره213 million) by Ghazi Aita complete with an adjacent property.

     

    1978 – Sold to a “shadowy businessman” named Ghazi Aita for £3.2 million ($4.2 million, €3.6 million or درهم15 million).

     

    1970 – Sold to Sonny and Cher for £568,000 ($750,000, €636,000 or درهم2.8 million).

     

    Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.

     

    Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis Double Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony CurtisDouble Cher – The Owlwood Estate, 141 South Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077, United States of America – For sale for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million) through Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine – Former home of Sonny and Cher and Tony Curtis

     

  • A Villa In The Sky

    A Villa In The Sky

    Gargantuan Mayfair aprtment goes on sale for £30 million; it has eighteen windows facing Hyde Park and is in a building designed by the architect of Broadcasting House

     

    A vast maisonette, described as a “villa in the sky”, on London’s Park Lane has gone on sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) in spite of being in need of complete redecoration.

     

    Split over the seventh and eighth floor of a portered building named Fountain House, the apartment offered extends to 6,897 square foot and includes 4 reception rooms, 2 kitchens, 10 double bedrooms, 2 staff bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Its principle reception room is 38-foot long and its dining room is described as “easily sitting 22 guests”.

     

    A Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through Wetherell
    Houses on the site of Fountain House on 30th December 1930 (prior to their demolition)

     

    Designed by George Val Myer (1883 – 1959), an architect best known for the BBC’s Broadcasting House, in conjunction with F. J. Watson-Hart and built by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons between 1935 and 1938 on the site of demolished mansions, Fountain House includes around 60 residential units, offices, a fuel station and a car showroom.

     

    On the market through Wetherell on a lease of 84 years, the service charge for the flat is £81,538 per annum ($105,584, €94,135 or درهم387,836 per annum).

     

    A Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through WetherellA Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through WetherellA Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through WetherellA Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through WetherellA Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through WetherellA Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through Wetherell A Villa In The Sky – Apartment 74/75, Fountain House, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 7HQ, United Kingdom – For sale for £30 million ($38.8 million, €34.6 million or درهم142.6 million) through Wetherell

  • Remembering Michael Bienes

    Remembering Michael Bienes

    Witty Fort Lauderdale based philanthropist Michael Bienes passes away

     

    Philanthropist Michael Bienes sadly died of cancer on 5th April according to the Sun Sentinel.

     

    New York born Mr Bienes, a multi-millionaire many times over until falling prey to Bernard Madoff’s crooked Ponzi scheme, was known for hosting lavish parties and supported everything from the Holy Cross Hospital in Broward County to the Royal Opera House in London. He was generous to a tee and known for his dry sense of humour and wit.

     

    The 80-year old, whose accountancy firm, Avellino & Bienes was an early feeder fund of Bernard L. Madoff Securities, leaves a widow, Dianne. She told the Sun Sentinel:

     

    “Michael was never a man who would take advantage of anyone simply because he was always afraid of doing anything wrong. He loved people and valued the relationships he cultivated”.

     

    Michael Bienes will be missed by many in both America and Britain. We offer our condolences to his wife and family.

     

  • Anything Can Happen

    Anything Can Happen

    5,000 acre Irish estate where “anything can happen” for sale for £24.1 million; its current owner would prefer a buyer who’ll allow him to use it for three months a year

    Michael Jackson hid out at Luggala in County Wicklow, Ireland in 2006 for three months after being cleared of child molestation charges and other guests at this magical estate have included Francis Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Bono, John Paul Getty II, Mel Gibson, John Hurt, Mick Jagger, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Paul McCartney and Anita Pallenberg.

     

    Encompassing a plot of some 5,000 acres, Luggala (meaning: “a hollow in a ridge”) is also known as ‘Fancy Mountain’ and has been used in films including Zardoz, Braveheart and Excalibur. It is located 28 miles south-west of Dublin, was described by the singer Marianne Faithfull as “the most beautiful place in the world” and the main house there has gradually morphed into what has been called “the most decorative honeypot in Ireland”.

     

    Architecturally significant, Luggala Lodge (also known as Luggala Castle), was built in 1787 and is lauded as having “that special brand of 18th century Gothick that rejoices in little battlements, crochets, trefoil and quatrefoil windows and ogee mantelpieces, Indeed, quite like the Gothick of pastry cooks and Rockingham china”. It “boasts all the appurtenances of a grand castle but on a miniature scale” and though standing on a modest footprint, extends to some 7,438 square foot in total.

     

    In 1937, the estate was bought by the Hon. Ernest Guinness (1876 – 1949) and given to his daughter, Oonagh, on her marriage to Lord Oranmore and Browne – a peer with the rare distinction of managing to sit in the House of Lords without ever saying a single thing. It subsequently became a place where “nobody could stay away: Dublin intelligentsia, literati, painters, actors, scholars, hangers-on, toffs, punters, poets and social hang-gliders” and was even immortalised in poetry by Seamus Heaney.

     

    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Current owner of Luggala, the decidedly eccentric the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne (born 1939)
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Luggala Lodge, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Luggala Lodge after a fire in 1956
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Oonagh Guinness, Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne (1910 – 1995)

     

    On Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne’s death in 1970, the estate passed into the “custody” of her son, the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne. He has spent considerable sums restoring the house and made it a “cultural hub for Irish music, art and literature”. A co-founder of the record label Claddagh Records and instrumental in the formation of the traditional Irish folk group, The Chieftans, Browne and his Indian princess wife, Purna Devi of Morvi, added an indoor swimming pool to Luggala Lodge as well as a Gothic library for his collection of 8,000 books.

     

    Now for sale due to 77-year old Garlech Browne and his wife primarily choosing to be based in Singapore, it has been suggested that the Irish State should purchase the estate. Thus far no offer has been forthcoming and this week Jennifer O’Connell of The Irish Times even penned an article that suggested: “Opening the national chequebook is not the way to secure [Luggala’s] future”.

     

    Luggala – which comes with 7 estate lodges and cottages – is offered jointly by Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s with a guide price of £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million). The Guernsey based Guinness Trust that currently controls the actual ownership of the property has indicated that it “seeks a freehold sale and will entertain offers with both vacant possession and non-vacant possession”. Though such a deal seems as unlikely as that that Christian de Guigné IV proposed of his £81 million ($100 million, €94 million or درهم367 million) estate at Hillsborough in California, at the mythical delight that is Luggala, anything could indeed happen.

     

    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s

  • Moving a mansion

    Moving a mansion

    Washington’s oldest house – which was originally located in Massachusetts – for sale (more…)

  • Jackie Collins OBE (born Jacqueline Collins, 1937 – 2015)

    Jackie Collins OBE (born Jacqueline Collins, 1937 – 2015)

    Jackie Collins OBE (born Jacqueline Collins, 1937 – 2015)The younger sister of the diva-esque actress Joan Collins, “Queen of the Bonkbuster” Jackie Collins wrote 32 novels and sold over 500 million books during her lifetime. (more…)