Want To Decorate Like Babe Paley? Don't Miss This Billy Baldwin Sale
If you aren't familiar with the late Billy Baldwin's decorating style, all you have to do is take a look at Empire of Taste, Un Appartement Madrilène par Billy Baldwin. The sale put on by Christie's features the contents within a Madrid home designed by the late interior designer who was a 20th-century socialite's go-to; Babe Paley, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Pauline de Rothschild, Greta Garbo, and Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon are just a few whose homes were decorated by Baldwin.
This apartment was commissioned by a Spanish family in the late 1960s, only a few years before Baldwin retired. "This property is unusual as it was one of only two commissions that he ever did in Spain," Tancredi Massimo di Roccasecca, a specialist at Christie's Paris who is working closely with the sale, tells T&C. "It encapsulates his cross-continental appeal and whilst perusing his letters that he continuously wrote to the clients during the creation process for this apartment, one could see his tireless commitment to getting things right." According to di Roccasecca, Baldwin continued to suggest improvements for the house, further emphasizing his close personal relationship with his clients.
The sale includes a mix of traditional European furniture and art as well as modern home items. Some stand-out paintings include works by Maurice Utrillo and Bernard Buffet, two major artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There's also the work of Anglo-Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. On the interior design front, there's a pair of ormolu and rock crystal six light girandoles (est. $42,000-$64,000), a mother-of-pearl and brass Boulle Marquetry pendule (est. $26,000-$42,000), and a set of tiger print armchairs by Maison Le Manach at a highly attractive price of $1,200-$5,300.
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"Most of the things that he chose for this apartment did in fact come from the US as that is where he did most of his buying when it came to his choice of objects," di Roccasecca says. "However, he liked to use local artisans for both fabrics and the finishing touches to the wonderful worlds he created. His motto and indeed the name of the sale was 'Empire of taste' perfectly explained in the following quote by Baldwin: 'We can recognize and give credit where credit is due to the debt of taste we owe to Europe, but we have taste too in fact, we’re a whole empire of Taste. That’s my flag and I wear it.'"
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