Gerald Bland is pleased to announce his fall opening featuring a small but exquisite group of rare furniture by John Vesey and Howard Dilday. The works are from the extraordinary collection of the late Countess Consuelo Crespi and will be offered alongside decorative objects and smaller pieces of furniture beginning September 29, 2011.
The Crespis commissioned the pieces from Vesey and Dilday, two American designers, their apartment at the Palazzo Odescalchi in Rome, designed by Renzo Mongiardino in the 1960’s. Some of the resulting works traveled with them from Italy to when they moved to New York in the 1970’s, eventually residing in an apartment designed by Mark Hampton.
Consuelo Crespi was a tastemaker and style icon who, from an early modeling career, went on to be Italian editor of Vogue under Diana Vreeland. Together with her husband, PR titan Rudi, she was instrumental in promoting Italian fashion designers and in doing so became a social and fashion luminary herself. In a succession of glamorous palazzo apartments in post-war Rome, the Crespis played host to the most glittering international set of dignitaries, socialites, and Hollywood stars.