BILLY BALDWIN, on my mind

BILLY BALDWIN

One of my biggest inspirations and favorite decorators of all time, William Williar Baldwin, known as "Billy" - is the subject of todays post, a great look back in order to gain fresh perspective for a new month! 
Way back in 1977, I had the chance to meet the master, but little did I know, I had spent the last two years studying under an early protégé of his- Stan Topol! (1975-77). 
My grand tour chaperone, Robert Morring, placed a call to BB's office from our New York hotel suite, to arrange the meeting- and alas, Billy had already left for Sconset- (Nantucket). 
After a brutal beating by the IRS, the most prominent designer in American decorating was left with very little- and ended his days in a small dependency at the kindness of his friends Michael Gardine and Way Bandy. 
The bookkeepers had not been managing Baldwin's business properly, and it's a minor scandal that dear Billy had to end as he did.  (Albert Hadley was a millionaire at the time of his death, and left substantial bequests to several New York institutions).  Here, a few images to look at and be inspired by- representing the genius of Baldwin!  Enjoy!  DF *****

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

BILLY BALDWIN

Chanticleer, one of BB's favorite spots on Nantucket, see here is very high on my bucket list of places to visit NEXT summer!

Chanticleer, Nantucket

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Fantasy in Decoration VII

Tony Duquette

RR Corniche 

Billy Baldwin AD

Mary Wells Lawrence, Great Book!

Mary Wells Lawrence

La Villa Fiorentina when the Lawrences owned it

Mr. Baldwin's role in Mrs. Lawrence's domestic education was inestimable. ''Billy was very naughty, but so amusing,'' she said. ''He'd say things like: 'You don't know anything about this -- I'm going to tell you how to do it. This is how you sit in this chair. This is how you eat at this table.' He'd tell us how to live in a certain room. He thought dining rooms were boring, and you should eat everywhere.''

Blonde beach boy

Nantucket

Mr. Baldwin had already left for Nantucket, the secretary said, when my chaperone for my grand tour, Robert Morring, an antiques dealer from Atlanta, phoned his office.  So, we left our hotel and went to a very smart party at the Sutton Place apartment of Joseph Braswell~ this was back in 1977 or so...three years later I was back from Europe, and living in Manhattan, studying interior design with the old Parsons faculty !  My life was terribly exciting, dangerous even~

Billy Baldwin

New painted brick masonry, made to look old

I adore the fantasy look of this house~ A lot of the older homes in Winston-Salem, where I grew up, look like this one- only with more vines attached.  
When Mary Berg, later to become famous as Mary Wells Lawrence, was growing up in the small town of Poland, Ohio (near Youngstown) she had a recurring dream about a white house perched on a cliff above an ocean~ thirty-five years later she purchased La Villa Fiorentina, on the French Riviera and spent the next thirty years entertaining there.  
But it was ten years of work before she got to spend even a two week holiday in the house, since she had become the top advertising executive in the United States, as head of Wells, Rich, Greene. (NYSE)  I've always been intrigued by her Pygmalion-like success story.  Inspiring!  Cheers!  DF *****

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