In May 2012, Gerald Bland was honored to present and curate the estate sale of his friend and mentor, iconic designer Albert Hadley. Presented on One Kings Lane, the three sales featured pieces from his Southport, CT home, his 85th Street apartment in New York and his collection of sketches.
Albert Hadley: Southport, Conn.
The cottage on Pequot Avenue in Southport, Conn. was Albert’s fourth and last country house. Much of the furniture, objects and art seen here can be found in photographs of his earlier houses in Dark Harbor, ME, Fort William on the Rockefeller property in Tarrytown, NY, and the Station Masters House also in Southport. Among the items offered are a pineapple-form ice bucket, gift of Nancy Lancaster; a contemporary sculpture, gift of Natalie Davenport of McMillan; and works by Gary Hager and James Lamantia. Also included are pieces designed or redesigned by Albert. - Gerald Bland
Albert Hadley: New York
The apartment on East 85th street served as a design laboratory for Albert for over 30 years. Immediately he transformed it from a standard prewar to a model of modernist perfection, in which the arrangements and contents changed often.
Many iconic AH items are included in the sale: an Italian standing lamp, a gift of Van Day Truex; Mark Scharillo’s Sunburst Mirror; and Albert’s “ants in your pants” chair with fabric designed by Robert Yoh. Among his possessions that amused him most are a portrait of Elsie de Wolfe on Anne Morgan’s body and his group of photographs commissioned from Dennis Krukowski of Richard Hambleton’s Shadowmen. - Gerald Bland
Albert Hadley Sketches
The sketches included in this sale are mainly from his Parish Hadley years. While they cover a wide variety of styles reflecting the tastes of the period they are consistent in their modernist approach. Often done in minutes, his design process flowed from the tip of his felt tip pen and provided his clients with his vision of a project. The sketches were so convincing, his staffers often had trouble finding the objects illustrated, as they only existed in Albert’s head. Done with materials at hand, many are on tracing paper, legal pad, graph paper and his trademark “Don’t Forget” pads. - Gerald Bland
As seen on One Kings Lane.