Indholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2024 i Veranda

“An antique forces you to decorate the room in a way you had not thought of.”—DESIGNER ANN PYNE “Integrating an antique means changing a space to accommodate the ‘discordant’ piece…. That struggle is what creates a room that doesn’t exist anywhere else,” says Ann Pyne (inset, at right), president of McMillen Inc. The design firm, America’s oldest and longest running, is celebrating its centennial. She carries on Eleanor McMillen Brown’s insistence “on learning and on flair” that since 1924 has inspired originality through classical principles (as in this 2012 New York City drawing room) and has endured—much as antiques—economic crises, wars, and decades of decorating trends. Ann’s daughter Elizabeth Pyne (inset, at left), who is the third generation of her family to work at McMillen, adds, “Antiques remind us people…

SARTORIAL SUZANIS & IKATS Central Asia’s multicolor embroideries and dyed wovens, respectively, arose humbly, adorning tents and houses before becoming fashionable symbols of rank in early social echelons. Zimmer + Rohde’s Uzbek-inspired ikat (1) recalls coats merchants wore to flaunt prestige; suzanis like Andrew Martin’s black linen design (7) were often part of heirloom bridal trousseaux. SPIRITED CRANES & CHRYSANTHEMUMS These ancient symbols of luck and longevity permeated antique Japanese textiles. To wit, the pom-pom–shaped flowers blossom across Manuel Canovas’s chartreuse silk (3) adapted from a 19th-century Asian document and flourish in needlepoint on Fromental’s marl-stitched cushion (4). And in a pair of jacquards—S. Harris’ cerulean chinoiserie (5) and an orange kimono-inspired fabric by Sahco (6)—the spirit of the lithe, leggy birds endures as a beautiful omen. MUGHAL MINIATURES REMASTERED…

NINETY YEARS after its debut at the 1934 Venice Biennale, Rubelli’s Punteggiato textile—a version of which is still in production—is as modern and magnetic as ever. The chiseled velvet with staggered polka dots was the brain-child of Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti, just one of the top-tier visionaries the Italian textile titan has threaded into its long history (watercolorist Raffaele Mainella was another, and more recently, English artist Luke Edward Hall). And late last year another bold twist for the Venetian powerhouse: the appointment of Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi, founders of tech-forward design studio Formafantasma, as Rubelli’s new creative directors. The Italian duo have since launched 27 new textiles in their Gardens collection that reinterprets traditional flora motifs through color and an experimental mix of fibers and techniques.…

THE THIRD TIME WAS THE CHARM for architect James Carter, who had drawn up, and scratched, two sets of house plans for Melanie and Jay Grinney. The couple, recently married, had moved into the home Jay had owned for several years—a house Melanie, a Birmingham, Alabama, native, knew before she knew her husband. “Jay bought it from an old friend of mine, who actually ended up introducing us,” she says. And the house had more cred: The two wed in the backyard. It worked for a few years, but both desired a more functional cook’s kitchen and a lap pool. Before beginning renovations, they looked at other properties and engaged Carter to draw up plans for the house Melanie’s father grew up in. “But the more we looked, the more…

THERE ARE FLOWERS EVERYWHERE for those who want to see them,” wrote Henri Matisse. But what joy to spy these blooms—brought to life by Van Cleef & Arpels with signature virtuoso complication and profound artistry—on one’s wrist at all hours. The Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch, which evokes the ephemeral choreography of a late summer breeze, is a botanical masterpiece of painstakingly precise, centuries-old enamel techniques. With its vallonné corollas, champlevé leaves, and plique-à-jour blades of grass (and butterflies) applied with marten-hair brushes in layers of color fired individually, the maison does Matisse one better. Here, the flowers dance forever. vancleefarpels.com…

Neoclassical Theater In the 1700s the excavation of buried Roman cities at Herculaneum and Pompeii uncovered artistic expressions of simplicity, discipline, and the ideal human form explored by ancient civilizations. These were then reinterpreted by artists of the day like Jacques-Louis David in paintings such as Oath of the Horatii. Here, Strong summons the neoclassical drama with crimson Buckeye Belle peonies, olive branches, and scarlet gladiolus cascading from Casa Gusto’s Small 19th-century Italian Grand Tour krater, a ceremonious urn like those the ancient Greeks used for mixing water and wine. To Bacchus, we raise a glass. Rococo Bravado The aesthetics of early 18th-century France were nothing if not ambitious. “More than more,” says Strong of the period’s overly embellished everything in architecture, art, and craft (overshadowed only by the extravagance…

FIVE ANCIENT MOTIFS FLOURISH ANEW IN RICH CONTEMPORARY TEXTILES NEW FURNISHINGS IN TIME-HOP FINISHES FROM AGED BRONZE TO FAUX VELLUM A FRESH CLASS OF HEIRLOOM GEMS DEBUTS WITH INNOVATIVE RIFFS ON JEWELRY BOX STAPLES FALL’S SHIMMERING SPATE OF AU COURANT TIMEPIECES CELEBRATES ICONIC DESIGNS…

THIS IS THE BIGGEST ANTIQUES SHOW I never heard of, and navigating it is as challenging as pronouncing it: Mercanteinfiera (Merk-an-’tane-fee-’ERa), literally Merchants at the Fair. Eventually you get the hang of it. Held twice yearly in Parma, Italy, this is the country’s largest antiques show and one of the biggest in Europe. Claiming largest is the Marché aux Puces, off the Clignancourt metro stop in Paris and well-trodden by designers and tourists alike. Parma, less so. Perhaps because until recently Italy had stringent regulations about taking antiques (its patrimony!) out of the country. Those rules have relaxed since 2020, however, and only items valued at more than €13,500 ($14,599) require registration. Now word is getting out. And there are the charms of the city itself. At the heart of…

ARCHITECT PAUL McCLEAN has observed that clients building new homes later in life tend to go in one of two directions. “People either seem to hunker down and nest more and more,” he says, “or they want to go radically different and try something new.” The Los Angeles couple who approached his firm about creating their dream house fell squarely into the latter camp. McClean Design is best known for emphatically modern residences marked by bold horizontality, deep roof overhangs, free-flowing indoor and outdoor entertaining spaces, and vast expanses of glass for maximizing light and views. These clients, who are British and raised their children in Beverly Hills, had always leaned fairly traditional but wanted to modernize their environment. So McClean recommended interior designer Ryan Gordon Jackson, whose work is…

NEVER! Devaluing is a sin. Among the designers we polled, several served up nuanced pleas for preservation. First, a value-based case for living with original finishes: “Any fine antique should never be painted or lacquered,” says Palm Beach–based interior designer Shani Core. “I recently had a white-lacquered, 18th-century English Chippendale mirror appraised. Without the lacquer, the mirror would have been valued at over $18,000, but adding it dropped the value to less than $2,000!” Core prefers small updates that won’t compromise an antique’s integrity, like refreshing drawers with soft-close glides and lightly scented liners. Of course, more than money is at stake when deciding whether to modify. L.A.-based designer Kishani Perera occasionally considers a piece’s personality over practicality. Take a 19th-century French dining table she sourced in Paris. “It…