Friday, March 27, 2015

Florence de Dampierre

A painted secrétaire à abattant from
THE BEST OF PAINTED FURNITURE
The first U.S. shop devoted entirely to eighteenth and nineteenth-century painted furniture, Florence de Dampierre Antiques, opened in New York City in 1985.  Immediately, it was a great success, drawing popular decorators and A-List clients to the SoHo shop.
Florence de Dampierre
In addition to being a dealer in the loveliest antique furniture, Florence de Dampierre has designed limited edition reproductions and has written five successful books.

Books by Florence de Dampierre.
Image from www.florencedammpierre.com
WALLS: THE BEST OF DECORATIVE TREATMENTS is especially noteworthy as it features a University Park/Dallas renovation project by John Tackett Design.

A John Tackett Design project featured in
WALLS: THE BEST OF DECORATIVE TREATMENTS
Florence de Dampierre will present a talk using images from her books as well as her own interior design projects as a guest of Decorative Arts Trust, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Saturday March 28, 2015, 10:30 am in the museum auditorium.  The public is invited and the event is free with museum admission.

10 comments:

  1. John,
    A stunning topic! A stunning image from your portfolio! Tice always loved to buy the antique bed linens from Florence back the 80's...
    Can't wait to hear more on TDC
    Dean

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    1. D.F., Florence, one of the most charming people in the decorative arts today, has her hands in many projects including a new book that will be published in October about French households. Thanks for commenting.

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  2. Hi! OH how I would love to come! I also bought those antique bedlinen! Weren't the eighties just a few years ago??? Her stuff was fabulous!!! I found some incredible metal embroidery panels I made into pillows.....to faint!

    Walls is one of my favorite of my thousand.....(I am guessing) books! And I remember that picture from years ago! How lovely that I have met you the creator of one of my favorite things EVER!!!

    the internet. I have to thank it.

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    1. P.B., WALLS is a beautiful book, but THE DECORATOR was a first of its kind when it came out. I hope we both can attend one of these Decorative Arts Trust events sometime. Thank you for commenting.

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  3. I have her "the Best of Painted Furniture" which I bought nearly thirty years ago – a lovely book – and "Chairs" which proved to be very useful when teaching.

    The piece of your work featured in her other book is quite wonderful, I must say – that red a beautiful glowing background to the panel. Brilliant!

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    1. B., Florence said CHAIRS was indeed often used as a textbook in design classes. The Chinese wallpaper was used as inset panels in a glossy black paneled dining room in the clients' previous home, so I created the modular fretwork pattern of the frames to fit the panels of varying size for three walls of the room without trimming the antique paper. The custom glaze on the walls is a bit more towards 'Cinnabar' for lack of a better term. Thank you for commenting.

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  4. John that image of your design work is absolutely stunning. I am sure this book is a treasure!

    xoxo
    Karena
    The Arts by Karena

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Karen. WALLS is a great book, but the others have their pluses too.

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  5. The Chinese Room...that Earthy Ochre Red, so evocative of a room perched under a Pine trees shade on the crest of the hill within the Summer Palace that Empress Cixi sat overlooking the cool waters of Kunming Lake. Transporting ones mind for sure...and love that hand painted Chinois panel.
    Would you be kind enough to ask should you attend, what the status of painted furniture is these days...what with the minions of Modernism rampant, there seems to be a void in the dearth of magazines and books published where not one piece of painted furniture is ever shown within the cold square boxes called 'home' of today. Is painted furniture like 'disco' to the 'hip hop' of modernism - that is, out not in? I am curious for I've collected Venetian painted furniture for years! Not too mention I loved dancing to Disco music in the 70s!

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    1. T.S., Florence reported that the established Parisian shops are in a state flux with the Russians not buying and the Chinese focusing on Chinese antiques. Middle Easterners want something else, but they are not buying either. She did say that a good assortment can be found in the Paris flea markets, however, at reasonable prices.

      It will be a while before the magazine editors catch up, I think, as there is surely a backlog of projects to show neutral inspirations for D.I.Y.ers. The change will come when the advertisers, vendors like Lee Jofa who are re-issuing hand-blocked chintz, demand it. And they will. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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