That Woman: Wallis Simpson

The Duchess of Windsor, 1945, in a dress by Vionnet, one of her favorite designers.
Photo uncredited, allstarpics.net.

Following the previous post of The Devoted Classicist with mention of Billy Baldwin, this post features another famous native of Baltimore, Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, wife of the ex-King of England.  Much has been written about the Duchess, one of most famous personalities of her day, but new information is brought to light in a recent book THAT WOMAN: THE LIFE OF WALLIS SIMPSON, DUCHESS OF WINDSOR by Anne Sebba.  The title comes from the Queen Mum's referring to Wallis as "that woman", no doubt wondering how she was able to snare Edward VIII, as "a middle-aged married woman with large hands and a mole on her chin."

Edward and Wallis, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Redemption may eventually come to Wallis Simpson, after suffering vilification during her lifetime.  Courtiers worried that the Prince of Wales' depression and stunted mental growth was a liability to the throne, but more serious was the Prince's chuminess with the Germans and his willingness to make concessions to an agressor to avoid war.  The Prince and Wallis were photographed in friendly visits with Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler.  It was said that even after the abdication, the Nazis had plans to install him as a puppet monarch after a successful invasion of Britain was complete.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor at Friedrickstrasse Station, Berlin, 1937,
with Robert Ley, head of the German Labour Front.
Photo uncredited, FanPix.net.

The British government exiled the Windsors to the Bahamas in 1940 and installed Edward as Governor.  The intent was that the remainder of their lives would be spent in what was then relative seclusion, restricting their indulgences to parties and the creation of clothes and jewelry.  George VI and Elizabeth, adament in their refusal to acknowledge Wallis as HRH, seemed to blame her for the abdication despite knowing that Edward VIII would have made a disasterous monarch.

The Windsors playing cards in Nassau, Bahamas, 1941.
Photo:  David E. Scherman for LIFE magazine.

Born Bessiewallis Warfield in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1986, Wallis' father died very soon afterwards leaving her mother in strained circumstances, eased by running a residential hotel but branding the family as "boarding-house keepers".

Wallis Warfield in an undated photograph.
Photo uncredited, FanPix.net.

In 1916, she married Lieutenant Winfield Spencer, Jr., a US Naval pilot who was a violent alcoholic.  After the separation but before the divorce, Wallis went to live in Shanghai.  There, "she learnt from the Chinese prostitutes some ancient oriental techniques for pleasuring men" and "appeared in naughty postcards".  While in New York waiting for the divorce to be finalized, she met Ernest Simpson who owned a shipping firm.  Although he was already married, it is generally acknowledged he did not know what hit him when he invited her "to make up a fourth at bridge".  They were married in 1928 and went to live in England where the prolific romance novelist Barbara Cartland (later the stepgrandmother of Lady Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales) taught Wallis "the niceties of British etiquette". 

Edward VIII giving a radio broadcast, 1936.
Photo:  Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

A highly visible representative of the slowly building trend to reject stifling Victorian protocol, the Prince of Wales was soon a grateful guest of the Simpson's lavish dinner parties.  Completely using up her husband's resources on couture clothes and entertaining, the Prince of Wales, known for his love of everything American, was noted to be immediately enthralled by Wallis, relishing her taunting him and publicly berating him.  Soon the Simpsons were weekly guests at the Prince's retreat, Fort Belvedere, and the Prince wanted Wallis as his bride, no matter the consequences.

The Windsor marriage photo, June, 1937, at Chateau de Cande, France.
The chateau was owned by their friend, naturalized U.S. citizen Charles Bedaux.
In 1942, he was arrested in North Africa supervising construction of a German pipeline and returned to the U.S. on charges of treason.  He committed suicide in prison awaiting trial.
Photo by Bettman/Corbis.

In this book, Anne Sebba contends that Wallis was not in love with the Prince, only the opulent lifestyle.  Based on new archives and letters written by Wallis to Ernest Simpson recently made available, the author re-evaluates the role of politicians in the 1930s and sheds a new light on the character and motivation of this powerful and complex woman.

The Duchess of Windsor arriving in Florida, 1956, with her custom Maison E. Goyard luggage.
See the June 25, 2011, post of The Devoted Classicist blog
 for more about the Goyard luxury brand that continues today.
Uncredited photo from FanPix.net.

Although it may have been a "hellish exile", it was a pampered one, with a Jansen-decorated mansion in suburban Paris leased from the French government for a nominal amount, a tax-free allowance, and off-shore investments siphoned off from the Duchy of Cornwall estates.  The Windsors were always commissioning jewelry for each other from Cartier;  the pieces that remained after their deaths were auctioned for $50,281,887.  But this book presents that this indulgent existence was better than the alternative;  Wallis saved Britain from Fascism by staying with Edward.

The Flamingo clip of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and citrine
 set in platinum was made by Cartier, Paris, in 1940.
It is currently in a private California collection.

Author Anne Sebba will present a talk "That Woman: The Duchess of Windsor and The Scandal That Brought Down a King" on Saturday March 31, 2012, 2 pm, at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art sponsored by Decorative Arts Trust in association with The Royal Oak Foundation.  A book sale and signing will accompany the talk with the public invited to attend free with regular museum admission as part of Decorative Arts Trust's educational programs.  (Upper level Trust members will be invited to a reception following the talk at one of the city's most remarkable private gardens).  For more information, see the D.A.T. website.

Author Anne Sebba is also a delightful speaker.

For those not able to attend the event, THAT WOMAN: THE LIFE OF WALLIS SIMPSON, DUCHESS OF WINDSOR may be ordered at discount here.

Chips Channon's Dining Room

The Dining Room at 5 Belgrave Square, London.
Photo from JANSEN by James Archer Abbott.

Regular readers of The Devoted Classicist are familiar with this writer's admiration for the work of legendary decorator Stephane Boudin who was president of the firm, Maison Jansen, from 1935 to 1961 (although his work for the company spans before and after those dates).  So indulgence is begged for a fourth consecutive post on the work of Boudin.  The commission that brought Boudin and Maison Jansen to international decorating status was the dining room 1935-6 at 5 Belgrave Square, London, for American-born Henry "Chips" Channon and his heiress wife, Lady Honor Guinness of the brewing dynasty.

The Dining Room at 5 Belgrave Square, London.
Photo from JANSEN by James Archer Abbott.

Chips Channon, heir to a shipping fortune, became a British subject and a member of Parliament.  But a large part of his efforts went to befriending English and Continental royalty, and he is now best  known for his diaries published after his death.  "Monsieur Boudin of Jansen came to us this morning with his final drawings and estimates for our dining-room which is to imitate and, I hope, rival the Amalienburg.  It will shimmer in blue and silver, and have an ochre and silver gallery leading to it.  It will shock and stagger London.  And it will cost over [GBP] 6,000...." Channon recorded in 1935.  King Edward VIII came to dinner with Mrs. Simpson on June 11, 1936, with Channon writing "it was the very peak, the summit I suppose."

The Dining Room at 5 Belgrave Square, London.
Photo from JANSEN by James Archer Abbott.

The inspiration for the room was the Hall of Mirrors in the Amalienburg, the hunting lodge in the park of the Nymphenburg Palace near Munich.  It is unclear as to whether it was Channon or Boudin who proposed the concept of the Bavarian fantasy.  But author James Archer Abbott notes in his book JANSEN that Boudin did travel to the Amalienburg to study the room to serve as a model.  The existing Regency detailing was removed and Roccoco decoration was created in plaster and burnished with silver leaf against a background of aquamarine.  A set of silver chairs, at least 24 in number judging from the photos, were made in the Jansen workshops using a period example as the model and upholstered in aquamarine silk damask, the same fabric as used for the curtains.  But it is the dining table, designed by Boudin and also made by Jansen, that is the inspiration for this post.  The table, topped with squares of mirror, and three pairs of mirrored doors from the room were sold at auction, September 20, 2011, at Sotheby's, London, Sale L11302.

Lot 105, a large carved and painted extending dining table, 2ft 6in high, 25ft 4.5in long (extended), 4ft 11in wide.  Sold GBP 75,650 including Buyer's Premium, or about US $117,396.
Photo from Sotheby's.

Lot 106, three pairs of mirrored doors.  10ft 6in high, 2ft 3in wide.  Sold GBP 21,250 including Buyer's Premium, or about US $32,976.
Photo from Sotheby's.

The two spaces preceeding the entrance to the dining room were also decorated by Boudin as a processional transition to the grand room.  The first space was a small dining room with lighted display cases lined with white silk and glass shelves displaying 18th century porcelain to compensate for the lack of windows.  The second space was a passage based on a bedroom at the Amalienburg, lighted by candles in a porcelain and ormolu chandelier and matching sconces plus a lighted cove washing the vaulted ceiling with a glow.

A view from the small dining room, through the passage, to the grand dining room beyond.  Author James Archer Abbott describes the small dining room as having black walls like the background of the Bessarabian carpet, and the passage was apricot with silver leaf ornament.
Photo from JANSEN by James Archer Abbott.

The house was damaged by Nazi bombs in 1944, but later was restored by Channon who was divorced by his wife in 1945.  After Channon's death in 1958, the house was sold and divided into luxurious apartments.  The dining room was disassembled and stored at Channon's country home, Kelvedon Hall near Brentwood, Essex, where it presumably remained until sold by the estate of his only son Paul, Baron Kelvedon of Ongar, who died in 2007.

Henry "Chips" Channon with his son Paul, presumed to be named after his father's close friend Prince Paul of Yugoslavia.  They are in the library of the same house at 5 Belgrave Square decorated in the Neo-Regency style by Lord Gerald Wellesley and Trentwith Ellis.
Photo from CHIPS - THE DIARIES OF SIR HENRY CHANNON published by Phoenix Press.

More on this room and pictures of the inspirational Hall of Mirrors at the Amalienburg can be seen at a March 7, 2007 post of The Peak of Chic blog.  Much of the background information for this essay comes from the highly recommended book JANSEN by James Archer Abbott, published by Acanthus Press, 2006.  Additional information was provided by Sotheby's;  past auction results as well as information on upcoming events can be seen at their website.