Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback originally owned by the son of the founder of clothing giant Burton heads to auction at the Salon Privé sale
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Tag: 1950s
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The Bentley of Taste
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Bunking down
Converted Cold War nuclear bunker on the edge of London for sale for £3.5 million (more…)
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Pat Albeck (AKA “Queen of the Tea Towel”)
Hull born textile designer and mother of one Pat Albeck studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s and is best known for creating special tea towels for the National Trust. (more…) -
The Hollywood Special: Bristol Cars – Back on track
Bristol Cars market a stunning 402 ‘Hollywood Special’ just as they prepare to move into a new showroom and launch their first new model since 2003 (more…)
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Out of the Ordinary
Highlights from the second annual Christie’s South Kensington sale of unusual items and objects, ‘Out of the Ordinary’
On 3rd September Christie’s South Kensington will auction “an eclectic selection of art and ephemera celebrating the joy of the unconventional”. Here, The Steeple Times selects a few highlights (more…)
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From Docker to Dunstone
Norah Docker’s yacht, Shemara, has found a saviour in Charles Dunstone
When spendaholics Sir Bernard and Lady Docker took ownership of a 65-metre yacht, the Shemara, in the 1950s, little did they know that it would ultimately become part of their nemesis. The very same boat – after languishing for many years – has now been fully restored and is now in the ownership of the telecommunications titan Sir Charles Dunstone. (more…)
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All hail vulgarity
21st century gauche replaces 20th century elegance
A hidden enclave opposite the V&A museum in South Kensington was home to two of the twentieth century’s most fascinating individuals. London club owner and arbiter of good taste Mark Birley lived at Thurloe Lodge for nearly thirty years until his death in 2007 and for a time, the British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn resided next door at Amberwood House. (more…)
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Lillian Pulitzer Rousseau (born Lillian Lee McKim; 1931 – 2013)
This Palm Beach based “Queen of Prep” was the daughter of a Standard Oil heiress who began her career selling orange juice on Worth Avenue. Customers loved Pulitzer’s bright dresses and seizing on this, she began to sell them. Soon, her creations became the favourites of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Caroline Kennedy and members of the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Whitney families. Sales reached $15 million a year in the 1960s and 1970s and net sales in 2010, by which time the company was owned by Oxford Industries, were $122.6 million. Lily Pulitzer’s designs remain as “must-have” items in the wardrobes of wealthy socialites and jetsetters and “The Lilly” is a household name. When told a specific print could not be used for an exhibition of her works because it was expensive, she answered simply: “A budget… How embarrassing”. -
Peter Scott (born Peter Craig Gulston, 1931 – 2013)
A modern day Robin Hood who claimed to have been “sent by God to take back some of the wealth that the outrageously rich had taken from the rest of us”. This Belfast born cat burglar was a meticulous planner whose roll call of marks numbered Sophia Loren, Zsa Zsa Gabor, John Aspinall and Maria Callas. He quoted Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Proust and targeted “rich prats” as it gave him a “sexual thrill”. The 1965 film He Who Rides a Tiger starring Tom Bell and Judi Dench was based on Scott and concluded that: “If I rob Ivana Trump, it is just a meeting of two different kinds of degeneracy on a dark rooftop”. Raffles would have been proud.
