The Estate of Oleg Cassini the Estate of Oleg Cassini
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE ESTATE OF OLEG CASSINI THE ESTATE OF OLEG CASSINI AUCTION IN NYC Doyle, 175 East 87th Street, New York City Thursday, June 27, 2019 at 10am ON-SITE EXHIBITION IN OYSTER BAY COVE Moorelands, 47 Sandy Hill Road, Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island Saturday, June 22, 11am – 4pm Sunday, June 23, 11am – 4pm Monday, June 24, 11am – 4pm PURCHASE PICK-UPS All purchases must be picked up in Oyster Bay Cove at Moorelands, 47 Sandy Hill Road, Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island Friday, June 28, 10am – 3pm Monday, July 1, 10am – 3pm Tuesday, July 2, 10am – 3pm All purchases must be removed from the premises no later than July 2 AUCTION INFORMATION Janice Youngren, VP Director of Client Services 212-427-4141, ext 207 [email protected] For further information, please visit DOYLE.COM IMPORTANT NOTE Lots identified as “Estate of Oleg Cassini, 19th Street Townhouse, New York” are property from the Manhattan townhouse and sold pursuant to a NYC Sheriff’s Office property execution seizure, case# 18048607. Lots identified as “Estate of Oleg Cassini, Oyster Bay Cove Residence, New York” are property from the Oyster Bay Cove residence and will be sold on behalf of Oleg Cassini, Inc. and Cassini Parfums, Ltd. by Rosalia Baiamonte, Esq. as court appointed Receiver. Catalogue: $25 CONTENTS Automobiles 1-4 The Life & Career of Oleg Cassini 5-70A Furniture, Decorative Arts & Fine Art 71-122 Arms & Armor 123-164 Furniture, Decorative Arts & Fine Art 165-384 Silver & Silver Plate 385-442 Furniture, Decorative Arts & Fine Art 443-750 Glossary I Conditions of Sale II Terms of Guarantee IV Information on Sales & Use Tax V Buying at Doyle VI Selling at Doyle VIII Auction Schedule IX Company Directory X Absentee Bid Form XII Oleg Cassini’s Oyster Bay Estate Moorelands Gene Tierney the wholesale trade required for survival in Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion district. However, he excelled at making connections, and Cassini slowly entered New leg Cassini is an icon of York society. He was soon twentieth-century fashion. Though born joined by younger brother to Russian aristocracy and raised in Igor (who had studied in Italy, he built a fashion empire that was America and travelled with unmistakably American. Cassini is perhaps the young Emilio Pucci) and best known for the hundreds of designs he his parents, the once-dazzling created for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Countess and his father, the but his achievements as a collector, displaced diplomat still loyal connoisseur, and quintessential twentieth- to Russia. The family settled century man go far beyond Camelot. in Washington, D.C., and Igor worked his way up the Hearst In 1913, Oleg Cassini was born in Paris newspaper chain to become to the Russian diplomat Count Alexander the famous society columnist Loiewski and Countess Marguerite Cassini, Cholly Knickerbocker. a Russian aristocrat of Italian ancestry who also had an interesting link to America. In New York, Oleg Cassini The daughter of Count Arthur Cassini, married the troubled socialite Russian Ambassador to the United States Merry Fahrney (who would during the McKinley and Roosevelt go on to marry eight times), administrations, Marguerite dazzled turn- but the marriage ended in of-the-century Washington as her father’s scandal for Oleg, and he decided to the scene, the beautiful 20th Century official hostess and left her mark on the follow his original intention and head for Fox–talent Gene Tierney. capital city. Stationed in Denmark when Hollywood. Despite initial difficulties, the Russian Revolution toppled the czar, Cassini gained access to Hollywood’s With the outbreak of World War II, Ambassador Cassini and family were elite (partially through his skills on the Cassini enlisted in the Coast Guard but exiled to Switzerland before settling in tennis court), and was soon hired as a was transferred to the U.S. Army Cavalry Florence, Italy, where young Oleg was designer at Paramount Pictures alongside which allowed officers of foreign birth. raised. A true Renaissance man, he spoke the redoubtable Edith Head. In her He attended basic training at Fort Riley, Russian, French, and Danish before adding 1941 film debutI Wanted Wings, Veronica Kansas, and the horsemanship he learned Italian and English; he studied medieval Lake wore a memorable Cassini design. as a boy served him greatly. He attended and modern European military history and That same year, Cassini met and married Officer Candidate School and reached the costume and learned to draw; he learned the newest young Hollywood star on rank of First Lieutenant (he also became horseback riding, fencing, and the art of chivalry; and, most importantly, he came Grace Kelly to understand the struggles of the Russian titled class and other European aristocrats in the wake of the Russian Revolution and World War I. Countess Cassini started a successful fashion business in Florence, and soon the talented young Oleg was sent to Paris to sketch the latest collections for recreation in Italy. In Rome in his early 20s, Cassini created fashions for high society women and designed for a few films, which planted the seed for his move to Hollywood. The drive to reinvent himself brought Cassini to America in the 1930s; in his autobiography he describes arriving nearly penniless in mid-Depression New York City where his title as an exiled Russian Count meant even less than in war-devastated Europe. Down and out, Cassini struggled for employment, having sketching skills but no knowledge of Oleg Cassini would design over 300 items for Mrs. Kennedy, creating the “Jackie Look” that contributed not only to a fashion revolution but also the dawn of a new age. Cassini wrote that “Jackie played a very active role in the selection of her clothes. She loved brilliant colors — pistachio, hot pink, yellow, and white among otherss. Her sense of style was very precise; she would make editorial comments on the sketches I sent her. She always knew exactly what she wanted; her taste was excellent” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 334). After the Camelot years, Cassini’s business flourished and grew into a major industry; his name appeared on everything from an American citizen at this time, losing for this generation that constantly flew couture to tennis-, sport-, and swimwear, his title of Count). Cassini spent several from New York to Los Angeles (then a ten- car interiors, housewares, and perfume. years posted at Fort Riley, where Tierney hour flight), Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, and He collected beautiful and rare artwork, joined him before he landed a convenient the Riviera. In 1954, Cassini set out to woo arms and armor, and antique furniture, military post in Hollywood. As Tierney’s Grace Kelly and sent her roses every day. and lived the lifestyle projected by his career thrived (she played the title role The two were briefly engaged before her image. From this period onward, Cassini in Otto Preminger’s Laura in 1944), she marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. also came to live in important homes. Of was able to assert her influence over his Gothic Gramercy Park townhouse on 20th Century Fox’s head Daryl Zanuck, In December 1960, Cassini’s career-defining Manhattan’s 19th Street he would write who hired Cassini as designer for Tierney opportunity came when he was chosen by imaginatively, “I walked into the foyer and on her 1946 film The Razor’s Edge, which Jacqueline Kennedy to design her fashions immediately fell in love. It was a place proved to be a brilliant showcase for his for the White House. Cassini had long unlike any other in New York, a sixteenth- talents. The pair separated the same year known Joe Kennedy and his war-hero son century Dutch house transported brick and, again seeking reinvention, Cassini John, and had first met Jacqueline Bouvier by brick from Europe by the Wells Fargo re-established himself in New York City before her marriage in the early 1950s. family in the early twentieth century. as a fashion designer. By 1950, the Oleg Invited by President-Elect Kennedy to There was a vaulted, twenty-foot ceiling Cassini label was born. meet Jacqueline at Georgetown Hospital in the living room, leaded windows, (she had just given birth to son John Jr.) elegantly carved wood paneling in many Combining his knowledge of Old World to present to her drawings of potential rooms… It felt like home; I bought it on and modern Europe, Hollywood, the tennis dresses and First Lady looks, Cassini the spot, and spent the next few years courts of Palm Beach and Newport, and worked furiously to prepare a new line for decorating it. Soon the interior of the of course, New York City, Oleg Cassini the First Lady. Mrs. Kennedy had always house looked exactly as I’d dreamed it invented a new brand of fashion that was had her clothes made by the top French would, like a sixteenth-century Florentine distinctly American and of its moment. couturiers of the day, but for the White palazzo” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, For his first collection, Cassini took to the House she wanted an American designer. 1987, p. 361). stage, narrating the looks and imbuing Cassini wrote in his autobiography that the scene with his personality, unusual in he told the First Lady: “‘You have an Of his country estate, Cassini wrote, “I an industry where the designers typically opportunity here,’ I said, ‘for an American realized I needed a country retreat that remained backstage and the models were Versailles.’ She understood completely complemented my medieval home in called by number over a PA. The first what I was trying to communicate; she the city; eventually I found it in Oyster collection was a smash — the president began to talk excitedly about the need to Bay, Long Island—a splendid Edwardian of Lord & Taylor devoted all of their create an entirely new atmosphere at the mansion designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, storefront windows to his designs — and White House.