New York's Waldorf Astoria is auctioning off furniture from Wallis Simpson and Winston Churchill's beloved suites

the sofa that their male whores came on ??? he loved em and she dug watching, jus ask scotty bowers....

has any one notified Meghan & Harry?

saw this in the news....

I went to the one for Plaza hotel in NYC. I bought a few things.

I had my eye on a little period end table until I noticed Wallis had carved a tiny swastika and "HRH 4-EVUH" onto the surface.

Stayed there once and still recall the pungent scent of stale fart from the crowded and overstuffed upholstered furniture. Asked to change rooms and was ‘upgraded’ to a suite with even more overstuffed stinky sofas.

There was something charmless about the Waldorf-Astoria. Or rather it had all the charm of the Truman renovations of the White House.

Too big to feel exclusive, too big that feel that you had arrived at teh right place or even at the right door. Neither good Art Deco nor good Art Moderne. Too pared down. Too many corners cut. Too much a place for big conventions and catering events and too little a hotel that was a destination in itself.

The frost-bit Frenchified suite for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was perfect for those dreary icebergs (having so much bad French furniture shoved at them all their married lives must have been a considerable punishment in itself, or at least their grim faces said so.) I imagine even Churchill, who knew good things even if he didn't care (too much) about them must have turned his nose up at his suite, even if decidedly more British and jolier, even.

I stayed there once, after the 67th renovation of the place and its thrill was long gone, and all through my lifetime it was an important name but not an important place.

Joseph Pennell in a quick charcoal sketch (1904-1908) below of the previous Waldorf part of the Waldorf-Astoria showed a place that bristled with a bit of Stanford White New York energy. The new Waldorf-Astoria of 1931 feels instead the pain of its history, its contract signed on the day of the 1929 crash.

In that picture, the Duke looks amazingly like the Senatrice from South Carolina.

I was only inside the WA once, for an event in the late 80s.

Incredibly disappointing: shabby, dreary, dirty. A lot of NYC was looking rundown in those days, but having grown up with the legend of the Waldorf in my mind, I couldn't imagine how the real thing had ever looked really beautiful like the fantasy.

R6 and R8's evocative posts have inspired me to hijack the thread. I want to hear impressions of NYC hotels. Who's got stories about the Algonquin and the Carlyle?

whores say she/he did not even tip.....stinkers

I stayed there maybe 5 years ago. I had a lot of Hilton Points so I used those. The room was overwhelming and a bit weird. HUGE sofas, as someone posted upthread and a telephone in bathroom!! I did love the big fluffy robe though. I think it's surviving on its name and history.

The Duke of Windsor died in 1972 , the suite they frequented has been redecorated since, and in any case, The Windsors had their own furniture moved in for their tenure each year, so I highly doubt any of the furniture being auctioned was actually used by them at all.

They should burn it all. It’s probably soaked through with Nazi chlamydia.

what happened to the legendary Chelsea Hotel....it just a reg hotel now? bummer

The Windsor Suite was used by them up until the Duke's death. After he died, Wallis took over a smaller (and less expensive) suite on a lower floor. The couple did have their own furniture stored at the Waldorf when they weren't in residence. Most of it was sold by the Duchess, so only a few pieces remaining in the Windsor Suite after Wallis' death actually belonged to them, but guests were always allowed to believe the Suite was kept exactly as it was during the Windsor years.

r15 meet r12

Proceeds from this auction are going right across street to St. Bartholomew's church conservancy fund.

Wonder what bit of arm twisting and or tax breaks are responsible for that bit of charity.

Another thread about New York and another thread about royalty, all in one. Sigh.