Tag: design

Muting Masterpiece

Highlight of the art and antiques calendar, Masterpiece London, announces its 2020 fair has been cancelled due to coronavirus

The brainchild of renowned dealer Harry Apter and three other founding members, Masterpiece London was due to take place at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea from 24^th June to 1^st July.

Sadly, as with many other largescale events, yesterday, its organisers announced they had “decided to cancel this year’s edition” due to the coronavirus outbreak. In a release on their official website, Masterpiece London, however, confirmed their 2021 fair will go ahead from 24^th to 30^th June 2021 and stated they will be launching a “range of initiatives in lieu of this year’s edition.”

In December 2017, MCH Group, the owners of Art Basel, bought 67.5% of the shares in the company that organises the fair. They most sensibly retained the esteemed expert Philip Hewat-Jaboor as chairman.

A full statement was issued on Masterpiece’s website. It reads:

In light of the evolving Covid-19 pandemic and increasing measures taken to combat it by the UK government, we have decided to cancel this year’s edition of Masterpiece London, which was scheduled to take place from 24 June – 1 July 2020. We are grateful for the support and hard work of our exhibitors, partners and staff in preparation for this year’s edition of the Fair; however the health of everyone involved in Masterpiece London is our absolute priority during these unprecedented times.

We are committed to supporting our exhibitors and visitors, and over the coming weeks will share details of a range of initiatives we will be launching in lieu of this year’s edition.

We look forward to welcoming you to the next edition of Masterpiece London, which will take place from 24 – 30 June 2021.

We wish you all well during this difficult time.

Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

Twitter: @SteepleTimes

March 27, 2020
Thanks Alexa

Alexa Chung transitions from “fashion genius” to “fashion designer” and shares her views on Googling and airports; Matthew Steeples asks: “Who’d want to miss such important news?”

Is there nothing that the ‘Queen of Instagram’ (with her 3.1 million followers) Alexa Chung cannot master? This “phenomenon,” “starlet” and “human” (that’s her very own description of herself by the way), The Guardian today announced, is “back in a different guise” and making her “debut as a designer” at London Fashion Week. “Hasn’t she been in (or out) of fashion for years?” we hear you cry.

Alexa Chung is, of course, a “human” (aside from being many other amazing things)

God help anyone who gets in this one-time (failed) television presenter’s way. She blocked me on Twitter simply because I dared to question her relevance outside of the confines of Stephen Fry-land and now (modest as ever) “it’s no surprise to me that I’m in this position now” Chung has merged her name into one word: ALEXACHUNG to accompany her transition “from muse to founder and creative director.” One might ask: “Why?” but of course the answer’s simple for this 34-year-old: It makes life easier when one is already so well known, doesn’t it?

Naturally, when she’s not (as everyone does at breakfast) “still Googling pictures of Jane Birkin,” Chung now finds herself observing the world. She remarks: “Airports are such emotionally charged places. I travel a lot, and I people-watch. And I love that British thing of wearing your holiday outfit home but with a sensible jacket because if you are British you are never not thinking about the weather.”

Just the kind of advice we all need: Thanks, Alexa.

Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

Twitter: @SteepleTimes

September 15, 2018
The King of Caravans

One-of-a-kind “big caravan-house” with patio on the roof for sale for £30,000; the current owner bought it for just £1 and spent £70,000 restoring it

Believed to be the last remaining example of 99 originally made, a “revolutionary” hammer finished aluminium caravan named a Berkeley Statesman has gone on sale.

Costing £1,065 when new in 1951 – the same price as a terrace house – and rebuilt at great expense by its current owner Tim Mitchinson after he found it hidden on a farm in Bedfordshire in 2004, the two-floor structure is described as being “a wonderful piece of history lovingly restored to its former glory.”

The 22-foot long by 12-foot high caravan features a living and dining area, a 1950s style kitchen with a range of appliances, two bedrooms capable of sleeping four and a shower room complete with a modern shower and an ingenious sink from an old railway carriage.

An advert for the Berkeley Statesman following its launch at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in 1951

On occasions, Berkeley Statesman caravans have known to take to racetracks

Of it, Mitchinson told the Discovery Channel:

“I thought it so ugly it, it had to be mine… [Restoring it was an] exercise in insanity… But it [is] absolutely unique… She arrived on the back of a lorry and I thought: ‘We’ll have a go.’ … A beautiful silver phoenix… It’s been blood, sweat and tears… A remarkable restoration.”

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post in December 2017, he added:

“I need to sell it so [my] house can be extended but I will miss it terribly. I am really proud of rescuing what is a valuable piece of social history.”

Estate agents RM English are marketing the Berkeley Statesman for just £30,000 ($38,500, €33,200 or درهم141,500) and point out that it is currently located in the centre of York. They add: “It will need to be transported off-site by a low loader trailer.”

Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

Twitter: @SteepleTimes

August 24, 2018
The Finery of Fatland

Vast Greek Revival style Pennsylvania mansion for sale for 56% less than it was marketed for in 2014; it comes with a pub in the basement

An extravagant and somewhat over the top estate in Pennsylvania is on sale for £2.96 million or 56% less than the £6.75 million sum it was listed for back in 2014.

Extending to some 11,377 square foot and consisting of 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, Greek Revival style ‘Fatland’ – originally known as ‘Vaux Hill’ and known as such once again since 1990 – in Lower Providence, Montgomery County dates to circa 1843 and stands on the site of an earlier stone farmhouse. That building served as the headquarters of General George Washington in 1777 and also was used by General Sir William Howe.

Now set on a plot of just 11.29 acres, the Fatland Estate used to be significantly larger but was reduced by land sales to make way for an express highway, a housing development and 154 acres towards the expansion of the Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Barbara Safford speaking at the time of the 2013 sale of the contents of ‘The Fatland Estate’

The house as previously furnished

“Decorated in the rich French taste,” the house was stuffed to the brim with European antiques by an insurance tycoon named Robert Safford after he and his wife, Barbara, purchased it in 1990. The couple also altered ‘Fatland’s’ original asymmetrical composition with the addition of a west wing and end pavilion that mirrored the east wing and end pavilion and even added a pub to the building’s basement. After Mr Safford’s death in 2011, the property – which also includes an outdoor pool, tennis court and barn – was put up for sale in 2014 whilst separately, in 2013, Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia held a sale of contents that netted £2.9 million.

After three years on the market and now with a significantly reduced asking price, Terese Brittingham and Tom McCouch of Keller Williams Realty Group are the agents currently handling ‘The Fatland Estate’s’ listing.

The Fatland Estate – The Numbers

November 2017 – For sale at a reduced price of £2.96 million ($3.95 million, €3.31 million or درهم14.50 million) after a pending sale in June failed to complete through Keller Williams Realty Group.

October 2016 – Relaunched to the market for £2.96 million ($3.95 million, €3.31 million or درهم14.50 million) through RE/MAX Elite.

August 2016 – Reduced to £3.7 million ($5 million, €4.2 million or درهم13.4 million).

February 2016 – Relaunched to the market for £5.248 million ($6.999 million, €5.866 million or درهم25.699 million).

September 2014 – For sale for £6.747 million ($8.999 million, €7.542 million or درهم33.042 million) through Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty.

July 1990 – Sold to Robert Safford and Barbara Harvey for £1.6 million ($2.1 million, €1.8 million or درهم7.7 million).

Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJs6uxho03k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYg61xGPqs

November 26, 2017
An Idea Car

Futuristic 1952 Chrysler styling prototype to be auctioned in New York; its “wild technology” includes a hydraulically operated spare wheel

Concept cars don’t generally go far and most end up sidelined to the world of dreams, but a 1952 Chrysler D’Elegance by Ghia headed to auction in December is something quite to the contrary.

Described as an ‘Idea Car’ and the product of a collaboration between Chrysler’s Virgil Exner Sr. (1909 – 1973) and Ghia’s Felice Mario Boano (1903 – 1989) – the designer of the Ferrari 250 GT Boano – the D’Elegance was built on a shortened 292 centimetre chassis and comes with two comfortable armchairs, power steering and electric windows.

What makes this car standout, however, are its gunsight taillights, distinctive egg-crate grille and “wild technology” such as a rear deck lid with a hydraulically operated full-size spare wheel that raises and lowers at the touch of a switch.

Described by Virgil Exner Jr. as “one of my father’s favourite cars” in 2011, the D’Elegance now comes with a 1956 vintage 354 Hemi V8 engine and a pedigree that includes ownership in the Blackhawk Collection, winning a special class of Chrysler Concepts at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and having been driven through the Alps from Monaco to Venice as part of the Louis Vuitton Classic Serenissima Run.

RM Sotheby’s will sell the fully restored car with an estimate of £682,000 to £834,000 ($900,000 to $1.1 million, €771,000 to €943,000 or درهم3.3 million to درهم4 million) at their ‘Icons’ sale in New York on the 6^th December.

November 16, 2017
A Modern Beauty

“One of Britain’s finest 20th-century country houses” has been placed for sale for £20 million; it comes with 530 acres and was built by the late businessman Sebastian de Ferranti in the 1980s

One could imagine being in the early 18^th century or in Italy even on first taking a look at the Palladian style Henbury Hall, near Macclesfield in Cheshire. However, as Moliere said: “One is easily fooled by that one loves” and in reality this 12,496 square foot beauty was actually constructed between 1980 and 1986.

The vision of the buccaneer businessman and patron of the arts Sebastian de Ferranti (1927 – 2015) and based upon Palladio’s Villa Rotunda at Vizenza, the 6-bedroomed main residence stands on the site of an earlier mansion demolished in the 1950s. It was designed by the architect Julian Bicknell in conjunction with Felix Kelly and David Mlinaric, was constructed by Tarmac Construction and is faced with warm-toned limestone from north east France. The estate also includes a Grade II listed dower house, five further houses and cottages, a Grade II listed and stable block and courtyard.

The late Sebastian de Ferranti

Henbury Hall during construction

A depiction of the original Henbury Hall in 1707

The front elevation of the current Henbury Hall with parkland beyond

Aside from 12 acres of immaculate gardens with a series of lakes, there is a 200 year old landscaped park, woodland, agricultural land, a beautifully designed swimming pool, a tennis court and a polo field.

Selling agents Savills offer the Henbury Hall Estate as a whole for a guide price of £20 million – a world away from the £9,000 sum the estate sold for in 1872 (the equivalent of £934,000 today).

November 11, 2017
Andrew Warren

New York socialite Andrew Warren is known primarily as the best friend of Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany. With 100,000 followers on Instagram and the creator of the Just Drew fashion brand, he is the son of a real estate investor and also counts fellow trustafarians Kyra Kennedy and Gaia Matisse amongst his ‘Snap Pack’ entourage.

In August 2017, after bizarrely breaking his right arm in an incident in a Fort Pond, Montauk swimming pool involving an inflatable flamingo, Warren exclaimed: “It is especially hard because I use my right hand to design and for social media.”

Previously, in 2016, he modestly remarked: “I don’t I should be judged for posting a photo like eating caviar at Claridge’s in London while it’s okay for someone to post a picture at McDonald’s… In the Hamptons, I’ll have McDonald’s. I’ll have days where I go to Six Flags. I venture to Coney Island. I’m not grossed out by anything. My mom likes to go to Ohio. We do things that people wouldn’t expect us to do.”

August 15, 2017
A Con and A Cabriolet

One-off 1971 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI cabriolet to be auctioned; originally commissioned by a British playboy turned jailbird with connections to Princess Margaret but only actually completed in 1993

A 1971 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI all-weather cabriolet with bodywork by the renowned Italian automotive stylist Frua is to be auctioned this month.

Offered with an estimate of £308,000 to £462,000 ($400,000 to $600,000, €340,000 to €511,000 or درهم1.5 million to درهم2.2 million), this truly unique, one-of-one design was amazingly the final Rolls-Royce Phantom VI completed in spite of the model remaining in production until 1991. This mammoth beast of a car, surprisingly, however, has just 72 miles on its clock and is thus described as “as brand new.”

The car’s first owner, Robert ‘Bobby’ Buchanan-Michaelson, was a bit of a playboy but sadly he never got to actually drive or be driven in it. A “member of Princess Margaret’s inner circle of friends,” this Cambridge graduate was a member of the “Mayfair mammas’ lists of the season’s most eligible bachelors” until “exchanging his Edwardian hacking jacket for prison grey” in 1954 after being jailed for 12 months for an import/export fraud according to a report in Sydney’s World’s News in August that year.

Some years after being freed, ex-con Buchanan-Michaelson took part in the 10,000 mile 1968 London to Sydney Marathon in a Mercedes-Benz 280SE. In a book about the adventure he was described as both a “successful and wealthy businessman, employing a cook, a butler, a maid and a chauffeur” and as an “accomplished sportsman.” Also listed as a lavish spender, Buchannan-Michaelson was later bankrupted in November 1977 – though at the time he lived in grandeur at both at Churchbury Manor at Fairford, Gloucestershire and 26 The Vale, in Chelsea, London, SW3.

In 1970, in the period between the international car race and his bankruptcy, Buchanan-Michaelson commissioned Rolls-Royce to build him a Phantom VI. After delivery to Jack Barclay Ltd. In June 1971, the vehicle’s chassis was sent to Frua of Torino, Italy to have bodywork fitted but for some reason work stopped and it was not until 1977 – and by now with a new American owner, James Leake, and new drawings of its eventual form – that the project continued.

With Pietro Frua (1913 – 1983) retiring soon thereafter and Mr Leake’s death in 1983, the chassis passed to new ownership and it was only eventually completed as a finished motor vehicle in 1993.

That year, the four-door ‘state cabriolet’ was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show and its boxy look must have surely either have wowed or horrified visitors. It is described as having “an elaborate multi-position convertible top allows the car to be configured as a sedanca de ville, landaulet or fully open convertible.” The interior is trimmed in burled walnut with sterling silver inlays and amongst other luxuries are front and rear heating, air-conditioning, fresh-air ventilation systems, a television, a video player, a radio and a cocktail cabinet. Underneath the seats is a portable Davidoff cigar humidor and even a matching silk-lined ladies’ vanity case. What more could anyone ever need?

RM Sotheby’s will sell the Frua Phantom VI at their Monterey sale in California on 19^th August and term it: “The last word in modern opulence.”

August 8, 2017
Eileen Gray (1878 – 1976, née Eileen Smith)

A pioneer of both the Art Deco style and the functionalist Modernist movement, bisexual Irish aristocrat Eileen Gray was best known for designing the Bibendum chair and the E.1027 table. This great tastemaker lived primarily in South Kensington, Paris and the South of France and another of her creations, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent, the ‘Fauteuil aux Dragons’ armchair, sold for £19 million at auction in 2009.

Extremely private, Gray once remarked: “The art of the engineer is not enough… A house is not a machine to live in. It is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation. Not only its visual harmony but its organisation as a whole, the whole work combined together, make it human in the most profound sense.”

A stunning example of Eileen Gray’s work, an S-bend chair, is on display in Room 135, The Dr. Susan Weber Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Eileen Gray also designed the ‘E.1027’ house at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, overlooking the Bay of Monaco in Franc as a gift for her lover, Jean Badovici, the editor of ‘L’Architecture Vivante’. ‘E’ is for Eileen, ‘10’ for the tenth letter of the alphabet, ‘J’ for Jean, ‘2’ for ‘B’ for Badovici and ‘7’ for ‘G’ for Gray. The building was completed in 1929.

The E-1027 table was designed for the eponymous house in 1927.

August 6, 2017
Great Minus Garden

San Francisco landmark mock Tudor house with stunning ‘Great Room’ for sale for £12.2 million – in spite of no longer having its garden

Built in 1909 as a wedding gift from Morris Meyerfeld, a partner in San Francisco’s Orepheum Theatre, to his then 19-year old daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband Leon Roos – of Roos Brothers Men’s Clothing – 3500 Jackson Street in the city’s Presidio Heights district has been placed on the market for £12.2 million ($16 million million, €14 million or درهم58.8 million).

Consisting of 10,313 square foot of accommodation and constructed in half-timbered, mock Tudor style, Roos House at 3500 Jackson Street is a listed architectural curiosity that includes 6 reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. It centres around a ‘Great Room’ with 20-foot ceiling heights and also has 2 terraces, a wine cellar, a double garage and off-street parking.

The house, which was designed by Bernard Maybeck (1862 – 1957) – an Arts and Crafts architect responsible for the domed Palace of Fine Arts, a “vision of how Roman style could fit in a California context” – is being sold by Dr. Jane Schaefer Roos, the widow of Leslie Roos, son of Leon Roos. It sadly lacks a rear garden as this was sold off “after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to raise funds for repairing the rest of the house” according to the Curbed San Francisco blog.

In 1992, in her book Bernard Maybeck: Visionary Architect, Sally Woodbridge described the interior of Roos House. She remarked:

“Panels of mauve plush edged with gold gimp harmonize with redwood walls. Redwood battens and moldings have Gothic profiles. Indirect lighting and diffused light from wall fixtures softly illuminate surfaces and details, while hanging chandeliers sparkle against the dark heights of the roof timbering. Tables of dark oak and chairs cushioned with rose velvet supplement the furnishings selected from the owner’s collection of medieval pieces. Wall coverings, light fixtures, and furniture – even the heraldic crest of the owner’s initial ornamenting the entrance door – were fashioned from designs by Maybeck.”

Launched to the market last week, Nina Hatvany has the listing.

July 18, 2017