Albert Hadley's Home Office Furnishings

When the late Albert Hadley closed his office as of November 1, 2010, and "officially retired" from his career as an interior design legend, he set up a home office in his Manhattan apartment.  He continued with just a few, select, last projects there until he joined his sister in Nashville last December.  Items from the apartment and his house in Southport, Connecticut, along with a cache of his famous sketches, were the subject of three sales recently on the on-line shopping venue One Kings Lane.  With the thought that readers of The Devoted Classicist would appreciate seeing some of these pieces up close, a selection follows.  Mr. Hadley followed Billy Baldwin's philosophy (paraphrased as "It's not what you have, but how you use it") for his personal decoration, not always using the most precious objects but rather some simple, inexpensive pieces (though premium priced on OKL) to achieve his fresh decor.

Mr. Hadley's desk in the East 63rd Street office during my tenure at Parish-Hadley was a large table of his own design with legs of scrolling straps of distressed gilt iron and a top painted to resemble squares of parchment.  But it is no surprise that he would end with this simple 1970s table with an H-stretcher and legs of white painted steel designed by Mark Scharillo.  Mr. Hadley often used wool felt intended to cover billiard tables as a table cloth for writing tables and that appears to be the case here, as a more usuable surface than the black lacquered top.

This standing lamp from the 1950s was a gift from his mentor Van Day Truex and among his favorite possessions.  Useful as well as stylish, it sometimes made an appearance in his often-changing Parish-Hadley office and was a favorite of mine as well.

To compliment the standing lamp, a set of six German ebonized sidechairs from the 1930s had their seats upholstered each in a different color of silk.  Variations on this model, a simplified verson of the classic klismos chair, were often chosen by Mr. Hadley for projects throughout his career.

I cannot related anything about the story behind his acquiring the bronze falcon by Geoffrey Dashwood on his desk, but I am sure he appreciated the Art Deco architectural form of it.

In contrast, he no doubt also appreciated the contemporary baroque decoration of the small vase used as a pencil holder.

Despite his great appreciation of the antique, Mr. Hadley was a great patron of young contemporary artists.  This abstract painting by Mark Scharillo from the 1980s had previously hung in Mister's Southport weekend home between a pair of windows.  When the artist later saw the installation, it was said that he had joked it was painted for that location.

Wood sunburst mirrors were an accent that often appeared in Parish-Hadely interiors and this contemporary version by Mark Scharillo held a place of honor in the apartment.

Perhaps only aspect of the collection that The Devoted Classicist failed to fully appreciate was Mr. Hadley's patronage of large photographs by Dennis Krukowski.  The photos from 1983 documented the urban artist Richard Hambleton's grafitti-like paintings on exterior walls of buildings in lower Manhattan.  This and another also in the sale had hung prominently but in the more private areas of the Parish-Hadley offices on East 63rd Street during my tenure.

"Personality" chairs were another favorite of Mr. Hadley that appeared in almost every project in some form or another.  This unique, sculptural Regency period hall chair was purchased from antiques dealer Barry Sainsbury in London.

This rendering is another favorite of The Devoted Classicist, a 1946 depiction of an interior by the legendary decorator Dorothy Draper by John Marsman.  In the East 63rd Street offices of Parish-Hadley during the 1980s, it had been part of the decor in the office of Mr. Hadley's talented assistant, the late Tice Alexander.

In this Elle Decor cover, the rendering is shown installed in the Guest/Sitting Room of the apartment mounted on the bulletin board.  Leaning below is a gouache on canvas profile portrait of another legendary decorator, Elsie de Wolfe, dated 1926.

The sadness of the dispersal is balanced by the joy that must have come to the buyers.  Surely all these furnishings have found much-appreciated new homes.

The photos of the furnishings are from the offering by the members-only site, One Kings Lane.  The photo of Mr. Hadley's home office previously appeared in a tribute written by Thomas Jayne.

Notable Homes: Mildred and Charles Allen Jr at 2 East 67th Street

The Salon, as shown for the 1997 auction.
Photo:  Sothebys.

Here is another in The Devoted Classicist "Notable Homes" series.  This time, we take a look at a Manhattan apartment decorated from 1959 through the 60s by the legendary Parisian firm Maison Jansen, beginning under the guidance of Stephane Boudin.  The limestone building, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 67th Street, was built 1927-8 with an all-star design roster of Warren & Wetmore, best known as the architects of Grand Central Terminal; Rosario Candela, widely considered the best designer of classic luxury 1920s apartment buildings; and Shreve and Lamb, of the Empire State Building fame, as consulting architects.  As an additional consultant to the building, there was Mrs. George Draper, the wife of FDR's physician who would later divorce and become famous as the decorator Dorothy Draper.

The apartment building, 2 East 67th Street, Manhattan.
Photo:  Museum of the City of New York.

Originally, the building had nine full-floor simplex apartments having 14 rooms, two duplex maisonettes, and a penthouse duplex of 18 rooms.  In the 1940s and 50s, there were a few divisions, but it still remains an exclusive and desirable address.  The building replaced the townhouse of Judge and Mrs. Elbert H. Gary which occupied the site for only 15 years as 856 Fifth Avenue.  The widow Gary bought an apartment in the new building, typical for the time as the convenience of apartment living was widely promoted.  After a lengthy legal battle with the owner of the neighboring townhouse, former Governor Nathan Miller, over who had the rights to the address 2 East 67th Street, the developer Michael Paterno won.  Still today, these No. 1 and No. 2 side street addresses are more desirable among many as a distinction between the Knowledgeable and the Newcomer.

Judge Gary's townhouse at the time of demolition.
Photo:  The Museum of the City of New York.

Over the years, there have been some record-breaking sales in the building.  In 2008, Jonathan Tisch, b. 1953, the co-chairman of his family's multi-billion dollar conglomorate, the Loews Corporation, reportedly paid $48 million for the 11th floor apartment;  at that time, it was a New York co-op apartment record.  The listed price was $40 million, however.

Charles Allen, Jr., 1903-1994, dropped out of school at age 15 to become a runner on the New York Stock Exchange.  In 1933, he founded Allen & Company, an investment firm that bought up huge blocks of stock in companies at bargain prices during the early days of the Depression.  Later, the firm provided the initial capital for many companies such as Syntex Corporation, which developed oral contraceptives and anti-inflammatory drugs, the the Teleregister Corporation, a pioneer in on-line computer systems.  He helped developed Irvine Ranch in Orange County, California, in addition to oil and mineral developments in Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania, gold mines in the Philippines and the Grand Bahama Port Authority in the Bahamas.  He was also a director of many major American companies including Pepsico, the Ogden Corporation, CF&I Steel Corporation, Warner Brothers, and the Ambac Corporation.  He had two sons and daughter, the successful Broadway producer Terry Allen Kramer, with his first wife, Rita Allen who was also a noted theatrical producer;  that marriage ended in divorce.  Little is known of his second wife Mildred, 1908-1997, except that she was preceeded in death by her son Arthur from a previous marriage, and that she had a keen sense for design and decoration.  Born Mildred Gottlieb, she had been married to Arthur Arndt and to Marc Haas, the noted stamp collector.  At the time of Charles Allen's death, they were separated, with his living at the Sherry-Netherland.

Mildred Haas Allen.
Photo:  JANSEN by James Archer Abbott.

In Part Two, we will take a look at the Jansen decoration of the principal rooms and a closer study of the furnishings. The historic photos of 2 East 67th Street come from THE NEW YORK APARTMENT HOUSES OF ROSARIO CANDELA AND JAMES CARPENTER by Andrew Alpern available for purchase at discount here.  Much of the background information on Mr. and Mrs Charles Allen, Jr., comes from the highly-recommended book JANSEN by James Archer Abbott;  additional information and photos can be seen in the book available at a discount here.