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The drawing room |
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| Another beautiful room by Rose Cumming |
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| Biltmore Estate, property of the Cecil family |
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| Tom Britt's drawing room |
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| Carisbrook, by Rose Cumming, through Dessin Fournir |
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Decorative Richness, Rose Cumming
I finally received my fabulous copy of the new Jeffrey Simpson book called "Rose Cumming Design Inspiration" - (Rizzoli) ! What a delicious treat. This is a great history and Roger Comeau of Dessin Fournir, has saved the company- Christopher Petkanas also did a fabulous piece on Rose in the NYT...
I felt a personal connection to the new book, since I knew Ron Grimaldi, and met Mrs Cecil, the sister of Miss Rose. Too, Albert used to talk to me about knowing Rose, and of course, I was also exposed to her by another fab mentor, Tom Britt...and when I was a young man of about 17 or so, I very serendipitously discovered her ancient and mysterious shop, on Park Avenue, near 53rd Street- (since demolished). And- my friend Marcy, has a sister, Mary Jo, who married into the Cecil family- related to the Vanderbilts by marriage- as in BILTMORE...
I recall Ronald or someone telling me that Gloria Vanderbilt, (whom he helped to decorate her Sutton Place apartment) once paid about $16,000.00 for one pillow, and I adore shocking my clients and customers off the street with this little tidbit of decorating trivia! I also was most interested to learn that my idol, Michael Taylor, placed a large order for "Carisbrook" and that is what launched the revival of Rose's fabrics after her death in the sixties, fostered by Ron Grimaldi and Eileen Cecil.
The beautiful and exotic birds in Tom's upstairs salon, once hung in Miss Rose's "Ugly Room" a space she created to show how anything from nature was valid, and to express her unique point of view- there is a colour plate of this room in the famous book "The Finest Rooms" and I would urge you to reference the book, and the image I am describing, to get the full impact of how special the work Miss Rose did really was. Enjoy the day, wherever you are! DF *****
