Collecting the old-fashioned way

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 1998 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Less well known but just as interesting as a collector is Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), the heiress of the Post cereal fortune. Hillwood, in Washington, D.C., was her last residence and today has an excellent collection of Russian and European decorative arts. Hillwood is closing for renovations for the next eighteen months, and the administration has, with the aid of Art Services International, organized a traveling exhibition of more than 180 of the most interesting and important objects in the collection. The show, entitled A Taste for Splendor: Russian Imperial and European Treasures from the Hillwood Museum, opens at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 13, where it may be seen until March 15. This is particularly appropriate because Posts extravagant 114-room mansion Mar-Alago is also situated in Palm Beach. The show provides a wonderful opportunity for those interested in the decorative arts, since objects in house museums can often be seen only at a considerable distance.

Marjorie Post began collecting in the 1920s and never looked back. Her first interests were French furniture, Sevres porcelain, and European tapestries. Like so many collectors of this period, she relied on the dealer Joseph Duveen for her acquisitions Of art and antiques and French and Company for advice about the interiors of her many houses.

In 1935 she married her third husband, Joseph E. Davies, a specialist in international law and a friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In August 1936 Davies was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union, and they moved to Moscow in January 1937, where they remained (albeit with much traveling in Europe aboard their large yacht) until June 1938. In the Soviet Union, Post embarked on what would become a lifelong passion - collecting Russian decorative arts, particularly pieces with royal provenances. For the first time in what would be four marriages, her husband shared her interest in art, which encouraged her collecting considerably While she initially bought pieces in the Soviet Union she later patronized the leading dealers in this field: A La Vieille Russie and Hammer Galleries (both in New York City) and Wartski in London. A fascinating essay in the catalogue for this exhibition, by Anne Odom, chronicles how foreigners were able to buy important Russian objects in the 1920s and 1930s.

Like other collectors of her generation, Post in 1952 began to consider transforming Hillwood into a house museum, and by 1958 she had hired a full-time curator, Marvin Chauncey Ross. She formed a foundation in 1967, and two years later donated the house to the Smithsonian Institution, retaining a life tenancy. Post died in 1973, and three years later, finding it too expensive to open to the public, the Smithsonian deeded the house back to her foundation. Hillwood was finally opened as a house museum in 1977.

The catalogue of the exhibition contains essays by six scholars and is available for $55.00 (hard covers) and $39.95 (paper covers) from the Society of the Four Arts at 561-6557226 or from Art Services International at 703-548-4554.