Oliver Messel and ‘Bobo’ Sigrist in the famous Suite he created

It’s got a toilet seat shaped like a scallop shell, a grand double bedroom and more rococo swags, flat columns and baroque touches than a wealthy thespian could wish for. It’s where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton spent their honeymoon in 1964.No wonder American A listers, like Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise and Michael Jackson, have demanded it. We are talking about the Messel Suite, which is all yours for a mere £2,950 a night.

This photo, retrieved from a pile of press shots issued by the Dorchester itself, shows its creator, Oliver Messel, arguably the greatest stage designer from the thirties to the sixties, sitting alongside the twenty-two year old Frederika ‘Bobo’ Sigrist, heiress to the Hawker-Siddeley fortune. It was taken on 28 June 1962 on the occasion of her mother’s marriage to British public relations chief Sir Berkeley Ormerod.

Messel and Sigrist, in an artfully arranged pose, may first have met through their shared association with the millionaires of Mustique. Messel lived in a Barbabos beach house named Maddox, which he had totally transformed and decorated to his own designs , while Sigrist  was part of the Bahamas jet-set. A year after this photo was taken, she married Irish film producer Kevin McClory, who was responsible for the James Bond films.

Boozing with the Victorian Society in Crouch End, Hornsey and Harringay

Found in a box of books is this photocopy of a typewritten guide to a ‘pub crawl’ (walk no 41) of various late Victorian ‘gin palaces’ in North London arranged by the Victorian Society on 16th September 1966. The guides were two architects-- Roderick Gradidge and Ben Davis—both of whom had designed interiors for Ind Coope. Judging by their descriptions of the pubs they planned to visit, both were also passionate and knowledgeable fans of late Victorian architecture and design. The grand plasterwork of the ceiling cornices and Art Nouveau stained glass is pointed out as being of special interest. But the two men also emphasised the ways in which Victorian pub architects tried to make   their interiors both glamorous and homely as a way of getting their (mainly) lower middle class drinkers (mention is made of Mr Pooter’s ‘raffish’ friends) to spend hours away from their more humble abodes, much (we might add) in the way that the designers of Music Halls and northern shopping arcades  (one thinks of Frank Matcham ), and grand hotels, were doing in the same era. Here are the guides admiring the combination of grandeur and intimacy found in the Queen’s Hotel, Crouch End (below):
All the way round there were through views, glimpses of the other bars, and as a result one was able to feel that one was standing in one part of a single large space, large enough to tolerate the considerable height without
become vertical. Since the space was so well subdivided…one could feel secluded in a sufficiently small and enclosed space, but since the proportion of the greater space was horizontal a feeling of repose was retained which could not have belonged to tall, restricted vertical rooms.

© Copyright Julian Osley

This method of subdividing an area into small bars by means of partitions, which were half-glazed  with semi-obscured glass, and were not much above six feet high, was peculiar to Victorian pubs, and goes a long way to explaining the incomparable drinking atmosphere they provide... 

Along with the praise of such period interiors and the predictable imprecations cast on alterations by designers from the 1930s onwards, there are several features of the guide that point to its mid-sixties origin. Firstly, the crawl began at ‘6.30’ and ended at closing time.
So no sign of the 24 hour clock here-- presumably so as not to confuse the older topers in the Society, some of whom may have been born when these pubs were being built.-- though I seem to recall that the 24 hour clock had arrived on bus time- tables in the London area as early as 1962.

Case Study on Arcturus IV (MIT 1950s) for the year 2951

A rare object, just catalogued...

Case Study on Arcturus IV (Product Design 2.734)

Massachustes Institute Of Technology ( Department Of Mechanical Engineering) Circa 1952-1955 First Edition. Wraps., 1955. 4to. About 100 pages printed recto only. A curious production with the printed monogram of M.I.T. on the cover and stapled at the spine like an official report or script. It is a collection of memos, missives and communication from the years 2951 and 2952, mostly about the Massachusets Intergalactic Traders and concerning opportunities for export business with the newly discovered planet Arcturus IV (in the Methania galaxy 36 light years away). There are diagrams, an illustration of an Arcturus native ('Sub Human type') and detailed plans for a food mixer suitable for 'Methanians' (also a carriage incubator and other machinery. ) 

America is no longer mentioned, addresses end 'Terran', presumably Earth was now one country.

The fantasy of the fantastic trade opportunity is sustained throughout. The cover reads 'Pre Publication Copy - Not to be Reproduced.' No copy located at WorldCat or any other world library database. There is precious little about this project on the web (an article by Katherine Pandora) but it was the SF brainchild of MIT professor John E Arnold to encourage design creativity among students. It had good coverage in LIFE magazine and prompted a 1952 article in Popular Science. It was also praised by SF supremo John W Campbell, Jnr of Astounding Science Fiction. A fascinating and very scarce item in very good shape. 

Herbert Horne (1855 - 1916)

An article from the long defunct Anglo - Italian Review, October 1918. Edited by Edward Hutton, an English  Italophile who wrote several Italian travel books and featuring articles by Nobel Prize winner Grazia Deledda, Norman Douglas & Benedetto Croce. This piece is by the novelist Reginal Turner and is an affectionate tribute to his friend Herbert Horne - art historian, art dealer, architect, typographer and Arts and Craft movement designer. The photo below is of him with his friend and colleague the architect  A.H. Mackmurdo (standing) and an older woman, possibly AHM's mother at a house ('Brooklyn') in Enfield. The story of Horne finding  two Michelangelo drawings for a penny each in the Fulham Road is hard to top...

HERBERT PERCY HORNE, who died in Florence

in May, 1916, belonged to the numerous band of

interesting Englishmen who made Italy their home,

and the memory of whose sojourns there does not

pass with their death. He did not found a family

there as did Walter Savage Landor. He took no

part in public life as did Waddington, who went

casually to Perugia and remained there to become

Syndic. It may even be said that to the majority

of Italians as to Englishmen his name was unknown.

He had an almost morbid love of retirement ;

those who knew him well could not but be amazed

at his slight suspicion--there is no other word-

of hospitality. Yet Herbert Horne was known to

a large circle which included some of the best-known

and ‘many of the most talked about of his contem-

poraries: most of them loved him, all of them

respected him, and he was recognised by them as one

of the most learned, one of the wisest, and one of the

most reliable men of his time.

Horne was indeed a “ character,” a very rare

personality, full of magnetism, yet lacking the

desire or the power of spreading it over a wide area.

It is seldom perhaps that a man of such a solid

reputation as he had among those who knew him

has been so little known to the general public, for

he .lived in an age when more things were known

about eminent people than they knew about them-

selves. He had to a peculiar extent the power to

“ pass in a crowd ” ; it was more peculiar in him that

he desired to do so; and the crowd remained quite

unaware of the stir he created among his friends

and those acquaintances with whom his learning

brought him in contact.

Fax from David Hockney

A fax from David Hockney's LA Studio November 1995. The numbers are now defunct and the message private. It was to tell the secretary of a rich scientist wanting a portrait of her boss that 'Mr Hockney will not be able to accept the commission. It is not a normal policy for Mr Hockney to accept commissions for portraits, as he wishes to choose his own sitters. We trust you will understand...'

At some point in the 90s Hockney was doing 'fax art' and presumably the header of this fax is his work or was chosen by him. The fax has not faded and is as bright as the day it was sent.

Goddesses Never Die (1969)

Goddesses Never Die by George B. Mair. (Jarrolds U.K. 1969) Dust wrapper by Michael Johnson. An espionage thriller with a lot of 1960s references. Rather rare - none listed on web book malls and this copy with a signed presentation from the author...

The dust wrapper blurb reads:

Set in the Himalayas, this seventh David Grant thriller has all the narrative power and exotic colour for which the George Mair has been acclaimed in five continents.

Hashish and LSD are the weapons chosen by the Mafia and Cosa Nostra to corrupt western society on a global scale and to promote a world take-over by permissive politicians assisted by hippies, beatniks and flower people. A remote Himalayan village controlled by a woman who was once a living goddess in Kathmandu's Kumari Devi Temple becomes a headquarters for organised world revolt – and David Grant, on leave from his duties as NATO's special intelligence agent, is drawn into one of the most dramatic episodes of his career.

A casual meeting with Harmony Dove – socialite, mystery woman and man-hunter – involves Grant in a fantastic battle of wits in which civilisation itself is at stake.

[Backflap, with pic of the writer aged about 50] George Mair specialises in creating drama from existing situations, and his intimate knowledge of over 70 countries enables him to write with authority – whether his  setting is the West Indies or Chile, the Soviet Union or the Sahara.

His scientific training also enables him to see the potential in weapons ranging from drugs to nerve gases while his instincts as a newsman guide him in choice of plot.

His fantasy is always close to 'what may happen tomorrow' and he is an expert in blending fact with fiction.

Misha Black - early work

Misha Black (born 1910 in Bacu, Russia died 1977) designed posters for London Transport 1936-1947. He was one of the most influential exhibition and product designers of his time. He designed posters from the age of seventeen. In 1928, he designed the stand for the Rio Tinto Company at the Seville Exhibition. This cover to the Cambridge magazine Experiment

is from the same year and must be one of his earliest published works. He was 18. The magazine was edited by William Empson, Hugh Sykes Davies, Humphrey Jennings and William Hare (Lord Ennismore) and Jacob Bronowski. See recent Man Ray post for an extract from it. He was later responsible for designing Westminster's iconic street name signs. He is covered on various design sites and at Wikipedia but information on his earliest work is sketchy.

Books from the Library of Eileen Gray

Sold on the internet about 2001 - some of the cult designer's books.

Photo (below) of Le Corbusier and his wife taken by Gray at her house E-1027. Designed by Gray and built at Roquebrune Cap Martin in 1929. Oddly Le Cobusier died of of a heart attack while swimming off the rocks beneath E-1027 in 1965.

 Small archive of books from her library and books about her. 21 books in all--9 books from her library dated from 1885 to 1961 and 12 books and pamphlets about her mainly 1970s and 1980s, mainly in English. These books were inherited from the designer Eileen Gray by her niece and executor the English painter Prunella Clough.  Books from Eileen Gray’s library include 1.‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (56th thousand) presented to her and her sister Thora from her brother Jim. 2. Whistler's  - The Gentle Art of Making Enemies  (boldly signed by her on the half title)  1904 reprint 3rd ed. 3. Her copy of Walter Pater 1901 edition of ‘Greek Studies signed by her in pencil in 1903. 4.  William James ‘Text Book of Psychology’ 1892 with bold ownership signature. 5. A small leather bound New Testament (about 1890) presented to her by her mother in 1907. 6.  A ‘Works of Browning’ handsomely bound by Sotherans presented to her by her brother Jim on her birthday in 1905. 7. Her own copy of the French wraps edition of Antonin Artaud’s ‘Van Gogh. Le Suicide de la Societé.’1947. First ed. 8. G.Constant Lounsbery. Buddhist Meditiation in the Southern School.1950 Signed presentation copy from GCL to Eileen Gray  ‘in  admiration of her pursuit of beauty.’  9. ‘The Universal Self . A Study of Paul Valery’  by Agnes Ethel Mackay (1961) with a signed presentation to Eileen Gray  from the author ‘with affectionate homage.’ There are also 12 modern books and pamphlets on Eileen Gray collected by Prunella Clough including auction catalogues, a copy of a thesis ‘Eileen Gray, Un Autre Chemin pour la Modernité...Un Idee Choreographique’ in which the author mentions her indebtedness to Prunella Clough. Also the magazine Archithese, August 91 special Eileen Gray issue and an 1994 academic offprint ‘E.1027: The Nonheroic Modernism of Eileen Gray’ which is a signed presentation copy to Ms Clough.