Pietre dure for an American palace: a dining table for Mar-A-Lago

Magazine Antiques, March, 2003 by Rachel Layton Elwes

(5.) Quoted in Rubin, American Empress, p. 174.

(6.) Wyeth to Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, December 2, 1925 (Hillwood archives).

(7.) That Post was interested in documenting the historical aspects of her interior is supported by the fact that in 1966 she noted in a memorandum that she had asked Joseph Urban to photograph the Chigi Palace room "to complete her record" (ibid).

(8.) Invoice from Richard W. Lehne Antiques and works of Art, New York City, to Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, November 19, 1926 (ibid.).

(9.) Nicholas and Hughes Interior Decorators, New York City, to Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, October 30, 1926 (ibid.).

(10.) Bill from Urban and Wyeth, November 1, 1926; handwritten notes on a bill from Nicholas and Hughes of February 15, 1927(?): and letters from George Gordon Battle, the solicitor for Nicholas and Hughes, to Edward F. Hutton and Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, May 5,1927 (all ibid.).

(11.) "Telegram hem Marjorie Hutton to Alice Nicholas, February 4, 1927 (ibid.).

(12.) Ibid., February 7, 1927 (ibid.).

(13.) H. A. Cousins Incorporated, New York City, to Nicholas and Hughes, February 9, 1927 (ibid.).

(14.) Battle letters to Edward F. Hutton and to Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, May 5, 1927.

(15.) Invoice from Elsie Sloan Farley Interiors, New York City, to Mrs. E. F. Hutton, February 29, 1928 (ibid.).

(16.) For more information on pietre dure, see Annamaria Giusti, Masterpieces in Pietre Dure Palazzo Pitti, the Uffizi and Other Museums and Monuments in Florence, trans. Deborah Hodges (Electa, Milan, 1989); Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1977); and Anna Maria Massinelli, Hardstones: The Gilbert Collection (Philip Wilson Publishers in association with the Gilbert Collection, London, 2000).

(17.) They were sold at Property from Mar-A-Logo, Christie's, New York, Lots 199 and 38.

(18.) Copy in Italian of a letter from Gommi to a Mr. Michelucci of Florence, May 3, 1930 (curatorial files, Hillwood).

(19.) Societa Civile, Arte del Mosaico, to John G. L. Cunningham, New York City, December 10, 1930 (ibid.).

(20.) Ibid.

(21.) Rubin, American Empress, p. 161.

(22.) Quoted ibid.

RACHEL LAYTON ELWES is an independent decorative arts historian and curator based in London.