On of the really enjoyable showrooms at Highpoint this year was Baker -- especially fabulous were the Tony Duquette and Michael S. Smith vignettes and it wasn't just that they were serving cocktails...
Below are the pictures I snapped of some of the selected pieces of the late, great, Tony Duquette (1914-1999). An acclaimed designer and artist, Duquette is considered a style icon whose now pricy works were never available during his lifetime to the public. Discovered in the 1940's by Elsie de Wolfe, he was a multi-talented designer and whose works were chosen by the Louvre to represent the decorative arts of the mid-20th Century. In his neo-Baroque interiors, Duquette used discarded everyday items to imitate the luxurious and expensive: He transformed lemon squeezers into golden finials, cardboard egg cartons into coffered Moorish ceilings, and bunches of spray-painted twigs into coral reef centerpieces.
Duquette was a true genius whose design legacy continues through his company under the direction of Hutton Wilkinson, his longtime business partner and biographer. You can read more about him here. If anyone out there is shopping for a gift (hint hint), you might want to consider either of these Tony Duquette books: More Is More: Tony Duquette, by Hutton Wilkenson or Tony Duquette, by Wendy Goodman (both published by Harry Abrams in 2009 and 2007 respectively. Enjoy!
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| The Selected Works of Tony Duquette from Baker |
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