The Art Newspaper

Antiques from Metropolitan benefactor’s home fetch over $8 million

The wife of the late Oklahoma oil titan, Jayne Wrightsman built a formidable collection of 18th-century French antiques and continues to influence designers and tastemakers

By Brook S. Mason. Web only
Published online: 29 April 2010

NEW YORK. When Sotheby’s hammered down the contents of Metropolitan Museum of Art benefactor Jayne Wrightsman’s London home, the results confirmed her importance globally. The sale reached $8,457,967, far surpassing its $2.7m-$3.5m estimate. “With her timeless taste, there were buyers from US, UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” said Elaine Whitmire, Sotheby’s specialist in estate sales and senior vice president of 19th-century furniture, sculpture and works of art.

The wife of the late Oklahoma oil titan, Charles Wrightsman, Jayne, now 90, built a formidable collection of 18th-century French antiques and paintings, some enshrined in boiserie panelled rooms in the Metropolitan. In addition, she quietly played a pivotal role as an American tastemaker equivalent to that of royalty. She introduced First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to Stéphane Boudin, head of the Jansen decorating firm, who transformed the White House.

Although the salesroom was sparsely attended, phone activity was rampant with 26 Sotheby’s employees manning the phones. In the room were Wrightsman loyalists like designer and author Carolyne Roehm; Julie Britt, wife of decorator Thomas Britt; Vogue editor Hamish Bowles; and surprisingly, Charlene Marshall, wife of the beleaguered son of Brooke Astor. Luring bidders were low estimates, which helped a total of 85.5% of the 367 lots go over their high estimates.

Among the paintings in her three-story home on St James Place, Ernest Ange Duez’s oil Au Restaurant le Doyen, 1879, soared to a stunning $1,058, 500 (est $60,000-$80,000). At the $260,000 level, two new phone bidders appeared and competed in a lengthy battle to secure the work.

The furniture, much it from impeccable dealers like Kraemer et Cie and Aveline in Paris had a number of pieces cited in F.J.B. Watson’s multi-volume catalogue The Wrightsman Collection, 1966. Yet like the contents of many second homes, much was of lesser importance, although some was highly sought after.

For example, a Regency two-handled, ormolu trimmed Blue John vase, 1805, climbed to $266,500 (est $30,000-$50,000). Sparking that hike in part was its similarity to one in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. Also 18th- and 19th-century Blue John vases are known as the ultimate tabletop trophy among certain Wall Street titans. Wrightsman’s Louis XV giltwood dog kennels, 1765, upholstered in French silk scored $86,500 ($25,000-$35,000).

Further demonstrating the almost regal characteristics of Wrightsman’s holdings, bidders fought over her Sèvres porcelain. An 18th-century plain white and gilt dessert service leaped to $62,500 (est $2,000-$3,000) and an incomplete Sèvres dinner service commissioned for Louis-Philippe made $116,500 ($30,000-$50,000).“She continues to exert a powerful mystique, aura of elegance and absolute sense of connoisseurship over even the younger generation,” said Hamish Bowles, who walked off with an Empire porphyry plaque.

When the contents of her vast Fifth Avenue apartment are on the block, museum curators no doubt will also be bidding.