Mr. Selfridge Had An Interest In Architecture

Actor Jeremy Piven as Harry Gordon Selfridge.
From the PBS television series "Masterpiece Classics".
Image:  list.co.uk

Fans of British period dramas are currently enjoying the PBS series Mr. Selfridge starring Jeremy Piven as the American-born retail pioneer.  Harry Gordon Selfridge, 1864 to 1947, worked his way up from stock boy to head the department store that became Marshall Field in Chicago.  When Field refused to make him a partner, he struck out on his own.


Harry Gordon Selfridge
as he appeared about 1910.
Image:  Wikipedia.

117 (now 1430) Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
Photo via Glessner House blog.

The Selfridges had shared a house on Rush Street with her sister and brother-in-law until purchasing a city house on Lake Shore Drive for $100,000 in 1898.  It had been built in 1890 by architect Francis Whitehouse for his widowed mother-in-law.


Harrose Hall, Lake Geneva.
Completed 1899.  Now demolished.
Photo via Glessner House blog.

A summer home at Lake Geneva was completed in 1899.  Named Harrose Hall, combining the names of Harry and Rose, it was a substantial Arts & Crafts house of stone and half-timbered stucco.  More about the Selfridges' Chicago years may be found here.


Architect Louis H. Sullivan's store for Schlesinger & Meyer
was H.G. Selfridge & Co. before becoming
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.  It is now a Target store.
Image via intralld.com

With business partners, Selfridge bought the Chicago department store Schlesinger & Meyer and changed the name to H.G. Selfridge & Co.  The landmark building designed by Louis H. Sullivan was included in the deal.  However, within a year, it was all sold at a great profit to Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.


Selfridge's Department Store
designed by architect Daniel Burnham.
Photo via RIBA.

The lure of London retail beckoned after a 1906 visit and a magnificent new Classical Revival store was opened in 1909 designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.  The influence of the Beaux Arts ideals of the 1893 Chicago World's Exposition, largely designed by Burnham, is apparent in the store, and the matching expansion completed in 1929.  Several designs for a 450 ft tower were submitted by Burnham as well as British architects Sir John Burnet and Philip Tilden, but it was never built.


Highcliffe Castle, Dorset.
South Court as published in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library

London gentlemen of social standing had a country house for weekend entertaining, and Harry Gordon Selfridge leased Highcliffe Castle in Dorset from 1916 to 1922.  During World War I, Rose had a therapeutic charitable tent retreat on the grounds called the Mrs. Gordon Selfridge Convalescent Camp for American Soldiers.


Highcliffe Castle entrance.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Constructed in the romantic Gothic Revival style mainly from 1831 to 1836 by architect William Donthorne, it was home to the diplomat Lord Stuart de Rothesay.


Highcliffe Castle Great Hall staircase.
Photo:  Country Life Library. 

Salvaged stone work and colored glass windows from across the channel in France were incorporated into the house, making it appear older than it actually was.


Highcliffe Castle Great Hall.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

In contrast with the exterior, the interiors past the Great Hall were largely finished in the French taste of the 18th and early 19th centuries.  Although the house was only leased by Mr. Selfridge, he installed central steam heat and a modern kitchen and bathrooms.


Highcliffe Castle, Salon.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.



Highcliffe Castle, Octagon Room.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.



Highcliffe Castle, Dining Room.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Highcliffe Castle, Library.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Although Highcliffe Castle holds Grade 1 status, the interiors were lost in two fires in the 1960s.  In 1977, it was purchased by Christchurch Borough Council and is used today as community space, tourist attraction and popular wedding venue.  A 1990s restoration was partly funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery fund.



A proposal for the Selfridge Castle
at Hengistbury Head by Philip Tilden.
Image:  RIBA.

Selfridge thought big, of course, and Highcliffe Castle was only a temporary residence.  He bought a mile-long stretch of cliffs nearby and commissioned architect Philip Tilden, who had been involved in the competition of sorts for the tower above the store in London, to design 'the largest castle in the world.'  Despite Selfridge's preference for classicism, he wanted the castle to have a mix with the concept of a medieval fortress being the primary goal.  

A proposed terrace for the Selfridge Castle
at Hengistbury Head by Philip Tilden.
Image:  RIBA

Within four miles of ramparts with towers, there was to be a Gothic hall, a 300 ft tower, a theatre, a Hall of Mirrors copied from Versailles, a winter garden, a covered lake, long galleries for pictures & tapestries and at least 250 suites for guests.  The intent was to have a 'small castle' completed first, and then the 'large castle'.  Plans for construction were impeded by - Spoiler Alert - his wife's death from the influenza pandemic in 1918, and finally the impact of the Wall Street Crash in 1929.  In 1930, 300 acres were sold to the local council and no part of the design was ever realized.


Landsdowne House, London,
as seen in an 1811 engraving.
ACKERMANN'S REPOSITORY OF ARTS,
LITERATURE, COMMERCE, FASHIONS,
AND POLITICS.

Selfridge leased one of London's finest houses, Landsdowne House, for his city residence from 1921 to 1929.  Begun for the third earl of Bute, Prime Minister John Stuart, it was sold unfinished about 1765 to William Petty-Fitzmaurice, the earl of Shelburne, later first marquess of Landsdowne, and finished to plans by Robert Adam in 1768.


A detail from Greenwood's Map of London, 1830,
showing Landsdowne House facing its own front garden
between Berkeley Square and the rear garden of
Devonshire House.

A great asset of the house was that it faced a front garden, unique for London.  (This allowed Devonshire House a view all the way to Berkeley Square.  To read the story of the now-demolished mansion that was the center of life for the Cavendish family from the October 18, 2011, post of The Devoted Classicist, click here).


The plan of the principal story of Shelbourne House
as Landsdowne House was first known,
as published by Robert Adam, 1765.

A widening of the road in 1930 required a removal of the flanking pavilions and the front rooms of the main block.  A somewhat similar façade provided a replacement and two of the grand rooms were purchased by museums in the United States.  The building is now Landsdowne Club.


The exterior of Landsdowne House
as photographed for Arthur Bolton's
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM,
published 1922.  Country Life Picture Library.

The Organ Drawing Room has been restored and can now be seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


The Drawing Room of Landsdowne House
showing the niche originally intended for
Lord Bute's vastly expensive mechanical organ.
Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Eating-room, as it is labeled on the Adam floor plan, has also been restored and is on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In addition to the plaster work, the millwork, and the marble chimneypiece, even the original flooring is installed in the New York City location.  Plaster copies of the statues now occupy the niches, as the antique sculpture was dispersed in the 1930 Landsdowne sale.  The original furniture designed by Robert Adam and executed by John Linnell no longer survives.


The Dining Room of Landsdowne House
showing the niches that originally held
nine ancient marble statues.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Landsdowne House, known as a center for political entertaining in earlier times, was a noted Jazz Age party mansion for Selfridge.  It was leased furnished and came with twenty servants.


Mr. Selfridge's Room at Landsdowne House
as it appeared in 1921.
Photo:  English Heritage.

Numerous liaisons included both of the dancing Hungarian twins known as the Dolly Sisters.


The Dolly Sisters.
Photo:  Wikipedia.

And there was reportedly an affair with the divorcee, Syrie Barnardo Wellcome, later to be known as the famous Lady Decorator, Syrie Maugham.


Syrie Maugham.
Photo:  Tumblr.

Forced into retirement from Selfridge's in 1939, he was essentially penniless in his later years after spending his fortune on extravagant living and an addiction to gambling, not to mention the succession of mistresses who were essentially refused nothing.  But H.G. Selfridge's showmanship and admiration of architecture has left a legacy in retail history.



Michael Taylor for Nan Kempner

The Manhattan living room of
Nan and Thomas Kempner
as it appeared in the mid 1980s.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

California interior designer Michael Taylor, born Earnest Charles Taylor in 1927 and died in 1986, is remembered for his West Coast aesthetic using raw wood, boulders or split stone and nubby neutral fabrics.  But he first became well-known for his fresh, new interpetations of traditional European-influenced schemes that had been popularized by the likes of Syrie Maugham , Sister Parish, and Stephane Boudin of Maison Jansen.




Another view of the Kempner living room.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

Nan and Thomas Kempner bought their Park Avenue, New York City, duplex apartment in 1956.  The story goes, as related in an article by Brooke Hayward in the May, 1987 issue of Architectural Digest, that Nan, having a troubled pregnancy and sent to relax in Palm Springs, ran into Michael Taylor the first day at the pool.  (Taylor had added to the decor begun by Frances Elkins for her parent's sophisticated house in San Francisco).  Sending for the floor plans, they worked out most of the decoration on paper in Taylor's San Francisco office.


The Banquette Room designed by Stephane Boudin
for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's home
at 24 boulevard Suchet, Paris.
Watercolor by Alexandre Serebriakoff, 1946.
 

'Comfort First' was the mandate, with Taylor designing deep. oversize seating by laying out the outlines on the floor with string and having them custom made;  they were so big they had to be hoisted through the window rather than brought up in the service elevator.  Inspired by banquettes designed by Stephane Boudin of Maison Jansen for the Duchess of Windsor, the seating for the Kempners was covered in a fabric unusual for upholstery at the time, chamois-colored narrow-wale cotton corduroy.  A twelve-panel coromandel screen bought at a good price provides a rich contrast along with other bargain finds:  two Queen Anne mirrors, a pair of chests on stands, and a large Aubusson rug.  (The rug in the photo is a replacement due to wear).  The chimneypiece and over-mantle mirror were provided in the early 1970s by antiques dealer Norton Rosenbaum.


The Kempner dining room.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The dining room features handpainted eighteenth-century Chinese silk panels that had come from the house of a family friend in San Francisco.  Porcelain birds of Meissen or Chinese Export from her mother's collection are displayed on simple block brackets almost filling the walls not covered with fabric.  An 18th century French needlepoint rug covers the floor.  There are no curtains at the apartment windows, only shutters or shades.


The Kempner library.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

In the library, the walls are covered with 95 coats of glaze to approximate Ming red lacquer, the process supervised by Michael Taylor until the desired effect was achieved.


The guest room of the Kempner apartment.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

In the guest room, Chinese wallpaper taken from Nan's mother's house provides an elegant backdrop for the twin beds that Taylor had made for the room.


Nan Kempner in the master bedroom
decorated by Michael Taylor.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The room to gain the most public attention, however, is Nan's dressing room/closet created from a bedroom.  Designed by Chessie Reyner of Mac II, shirred curtains of a floral cotton fabric conceal the clothing.  While the room is not a favorite of this writer, it may be viewed here on a post of the always interesting blog, Little Augury.  Nan Kempner remained in the apartment until her death in 2005.  More about the celebrated decorator may be found in the book by Stephen M. Salny MICHAEL TAYLOR: INTERIOR DESIGN.

Maison Jansen: The Most Influential Decorators of the 20th Century

One of the many great things about the holiday season is the launch of wonderful new books.  There are a number of new titles in decorative arts by friends and acquaintances, but they have not yet made it to book store shelves in Middle America;  I hope to blog about them soon, though.  First, I will present a 2006 gem, JANSEN by James Archer Abbott from Acanthus Press' 20th Century Decorator Series with Mitchell Owens, Series Editor.  All the images shown here are taken from this book.  The photo above shows the Library of the Madrid home of the March banking family, overseen by then-head of the firm, Pierre Delbee.

In full disclosure, James Abbott is a valued friend of almost twenty years, since we were classmates in the Attingham Summer School in England.  In addition to authoring several exceptional books, he has been the curator/director of a number of great house museums, and he is a talented artist as well as all-around Good Guy.  I was an excited youngster when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a televised tour of the sophisticated improvements to the White House, many with the input of Stephane Boudin of Jansen, we were later to learn.  I became familiar with Maison Jansen as a teen, seeing their work credited in library books featuring European architecture and interior design.  I really became a fan, however, after seeing their designs published in 1971 for the four day celebration of the 2,500th Anniversary of the Empire at the ruins of Persepolis, Iran, as shown in the model above.  Jansen designs have often be inspirations for my own projects and my fascination with the Kennedy White House decoration has been enriched with conversations with James over the years with my knowledge of Sister Parish's valuable contributions.  I was not disappointed when JANSEN was published.

 

I am writing about Maison Jansen because there are still many design professionals and enthusiasts that are unfamiliar with the noted inteior design firm.  In James A. Abbott's JANSEN, he states that Maison Jansen was the most famous and influential interior decorating company of the 20th century.  I resisted accepting that claim at first, but I fully embraced it after reading the book.  The Jansen client list was a very diverse international group;  most of them powerful and all were rich.  With headquarters in Paris, there were eventually offices or boutiques in Buenos Aires, London, Cairo, Alexandria, Havana, New York, Prague, Sao Paulo, Rome, Milan, and Geneva.

Jayne (Mrs. Charles B.) Wrightsman, is shown above, in 1959, in the Library of her house in Palm Beach, Florida, as refurbished by Stephane Boudin of Maison Jansen.  The original 1917 house known as Blythedunes was designed by H. Hastings Mundy for Robert Dun Douglas whose family founded Dun & Bradstreet.  In 1930, it was sold to Harrison Williams, a utilities magnate who was once considered one of the world's richest men, and his wife Mona, a renown beauty, who hired architect Maurice Fatio and decorator Syrie Maugham to restyle the house into one of the most stylish of its time.  Financial reverses led to the sale to multimillionaire oilman Charles Wrightsman and his second wife Jayne who had become a serious student of decorative arts, especially those associated with 18th century France.  To make the house her own and satify her own interests, Mrs Wrightsman hired Jansen who paneled three rooms in period 18th century woodwork, altered and augmented as necessary in their own workshops, and floored four rooms in parquet of royal provenance.  The dazzling 18th century handpainted Chinese wallpaper installed by Syrie Maugham remained in the Drawing Room, but a Louis XV marble chimneypiece, set against a floor-to-ceiling framed mirror, replaced a larger baronial English fireplace.  Museum quality antique furniture was supplemented by handmade new furniture, also from the Jansen workshops, and the decor complimented the Wrightsmans' collection of Impressionist paintings.  After Boudin's death in 1967, other designers were called upon for maintenance and updating, notably Vincent Fourcade. 

When the house was sold in 1984 to Leslie Wexner of The Limited and Victoria's Secret, some of the antiques and art were divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Wrightsmans' Manhattan apartment.  So-called lesser pieces were sold at a celebrated auction by Sotheby's New York, an eye-opening event I experienced first hand with "decorative" and "second hand" furnishings selling for record prices.  Wexner demolished the famed house on six acress at 513 North County Road with 600 ft of ocean frontage, causing such an uproar from locals, that he abandoned plans to build a new house (designed by my former employer BeyerBlinderBelle) and decided against having a vacation house in Palm Beach after all.  Jayne Wrightsman, b. 1920, who introduced Boudin to Jackie Kennedy, still lives in a palatial, full-floor, art and antiques-filled apartment at 820 Fifth Avenue, one of New York City's most desirable addresses.

And the Wrightsmans are just one of the many clients and projects profiled in the book!  There is also a sequel of sorts, Jansen Furniture, to be reviewed in a future post.  Both are highly recommended for anyone interested in interior design.


Both Jansen books by James Archer Abbott are available at discount pricing with the option of free shipping through The Devoted Classicist Library in affiliation with Amazon here.