Tasteful Friends: Chrisitie's auction of Givenchy's nice things coming soon

Some of the objects as Givenchy snd his partner Philippe lived with them in their homes.

More info and lovely photos of Hubert's and Philippe's propterties.

I envy these two. What a magnificent life they lived together.

We can have his stuff!

At a considerable price, yes

The auction is on YouTube. I wish I could have seen it live but I was in meetings.

More on his collection. Hubert and his partner had excellent taste. Their home is divine.

Thats one of the reasons I always wanted to be that rich.To be surrounded by exquisite beauty.

Because mere beauty is not enough, R7, you deluded Philistine?

Givenchy’s Chateau

Givenchy’s Rue de Grenelle Paris apartment

He had the best conventional taste in interiors. Everything was perfectly done. Love his greens.

I suppose it's well done of its sort.

Almost time for Day 2 bidding. Yesterday was quite impressive. Some prices out of this world like over a million for small garden bird statuettes. I foolishly hoped I might secure one.

I see that Chinese and USA bidders are taking away quite a bit.

r13 Has that amazing desk sold yet?

The desk sold for EUR 2.142,000

Did you notice the famous / notorious historic staircase with its balusters of phalluses in his Paris home the Hôtel d'Orrouer.

You can get a better view of them at the link.

I used to visit a straight couple who owned a house with french doors featuring enormous stained glass art nouveau penises. Absolutely fabulous, and a real talking point.

Watching the auction presently- so far everything is going for way over the estimates.

Good lord, the Giacometti console went for nearly €1.7M!

On Misia Sert, ‘Her apartment was like an Ali Baba’s cave,’ he recalls, ‘and it was incredible. The taste of her close friend Coco Chanel was in fact the taste of Misia – rock crystal, coromandel, gilt bronze and Boulle…and there was a particular Boulle armoire…’ After Misia’s death in 1950, Sert’s former secretary, the journalist Boulos (Pierre Ristelhueber), contacted Givenchy to ask him if he knew anyone who might buy the armoire as no one seemed to be in the least bit interested in Boulle. ‘On the front of the armoire was a chariot of Apollo and the bronze was of extraordinary quality – I would dream in front of that bronze,’ sighs Givenchy.

He asked around, offering the piece to Helena Rubenstein, the Princesse Gourielli. ‘One day, Boulos said: “Every time you visit you touch the armoire and caress the horses. Why don’t you buy it?” I said the price is impossible and I have nothing like it! In fact, when he told me the price I was so surprised that I said yes.’

"M. de Givenchy had planned to live upstairs for part of the year and downstairs in the summer but said that plan only worked for seven years because his then dog became ill and could not climb the stairs anymore. That’s when he decided to “abandon the second floor and sell everything that didn’t go with the less pompous, more intimate approach I could already see on the horizon.”

"I believe that sometimes the objects you love come to you,’ he says, ‘there will be a piece that you admire in a friend’s house, then it turns up at a sale; or someone knows you love an object of theirs, and when they decide to dispose of it, they ask if you want it.’ The phenomenon has affected his collecting career more than once, he confesses. ‘I remember once dining with a friend who had a wonderful house in Neuilly,’ says discreet Hubert, ‘and after dinner, she told me she wanted to sell her Rolls Royce and asked if I wanted to see it. I told her I wasn’t interested but she insisted on waking up her chauffeur at midnight so that we could go to the garage to look at it, which we did. I told her again that I really wasn’t interested in a Rolls, but joked that if she had offered to sell me her dining table, that would be another story. Two years later, her son called to say that in her will, she’d stated that if none of her kids wanted the dining table, it should be offered to Hubert de Givenchy before anyone else.’ “

Buy them, sell them, lose them, leave them. Oh what's the point. Simple living, high thinking, folks.

All the glamour is gone at Le Jonchet since Givenchy's nephews who live primarily in the States inherited it. Scroll down to see pix of a few rooms today. Sad.

It's a pity the family couldn't hold on to the majority of furniture and objects, but they'll need a great deal of cash to maintain this property. I predict they'll have to sell it before too very long.

Holy fuck, those prices are insane. Just shows how silly 'guide price/ estimate' are. r21 str8s ruin everything.

I'm hoping I might be winning bidder on at least one item at the online sale but it's unlikely. 7 days to go and already bidding is quite high.

So very fussy

The French furniture is très chic and elegant but boringly so. I wouldn't mind the chinoiserie.

High sale prices because the rich have money literally to burn nowadays.

I'm not understanding how Givenchy amassed so much wealth. True his partner had his own clothing line as well but this is GREAT wealth. Homes in Venice and Istanbul as well plus a yacht. I think these 2 are my fave gay couple of all time.

It sounds like Givenchy was downsizing even in his lifetime, including selling his brand in 88. It is touching he changed some of his plans when his dog because ill.

Became ill.

He was great friends with Bunny Mellon. She designed the gardens at Le Jonchet.

Not in love with this auctioneer. Cute but not great.

Mellon. Limitless wealth. From Listerine. Money is a strange concept.

R26, the Chinese have been out of control with the auctions, and I'll bet many Russians need to move cash.

G's Femme qui Marche sold for 23.5 M. I can't get over it.

Givenchy acquired property and decorative arts post WWII when prices were a fire sale. Now you need zillions to own such properties but not then.

Not really. He bought Le Jonchet, for instance, in the 70's. Onassis contemplated purchasing the property at the time. Givenchy was an Aristo, but not a wealthy one. He had to work.

I’m watching the Day sale currently online. The first 4 auctioneers were all annoying.

And do you happened to know the purchase price of le Manoir in the 70s?

Givenchy was like Versace in that they were raised by loving mothers who recognised early on that their sons were gay and they liked to make clothes. Their mothers encouraged them

The 70s were not post war, of course.

The Giacometti sculpture, bidding increased in €1 million euros jumps, then by €500,000.

It’s just a whole ‘nother planet. I think I have good taste but so far (I’m skimming through) there hasn’t been a single item that if I were a billionaire, that I’d want. Send it all to a museum. The hotel itself, beautiful but everything in it was much too elaborate.

Apparently he bought Hôtel d’Orrouer from Susan Gutfreund in the 80s. Ok, my theory was crap. Mea culpa. And when was the last time you thought of Susan Gutfreund!

..................

Gutfreund is a great example of the golddigger who thinks she's on the rise, when in fact the scoundrel has met her on her level, she just doesn't know it yet.

Who bought all the blackamoor tchotchkes?

The G dove tableau seen here over the fireplace sold for 3.5 M. Good grief. I can reproduce this for you in the garage for 900 bucks if you're interested.

Didn’t Givenchy inherit from Balenciarga? He was his toyboy for a while. And his father was a marquis, so presumably there was family money.

The gay couple whose lifestyle is astouding (apart from Valentino) is Jacques Grange. He and his boyfriend live like Sun Kings: their estate is mindblowing.

I would like a cigarette holder, a tchotchkes ... something small and meaningful.

I have $5,000 to burn... 😆

Very close to our own Paris residence, R10

Grange's "Colette Appartement" is modest. Where are the couple's palaces?

“ After the disappearance of the Count of Orrouer in 1752”

Could be a story there but briefly googling, it says he died in 1752.

In the spring and summer months, she tended to bring out her 400-plus-piece Royal Copenhagen porcelain dinnerware, in the “Flora Danica” pattern.

“That gave me great pleasure,” Susan said of the set — which, with an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000, is expected to be the most expensive lot in the auction.

“This is a particularly extensive service,” said Strafford. “That’s what makes it so valuable, because usually we sell fragments of services in our sales — sets of 15, 20 plates or a couple of serving pieces.”

r42. expensive dining ware is of little interest in these times. It is typically the first stuff to go when people downsize.

A door knocker sold for 151,200 euros!

I love the bronze stags! They sold for relatively reasonable prices, €200k and €250k.

I don’t know why they’re so cheap while the bronze birds sold for approx a million euros each.

it's unlikely Givenchy inherited anything from Balenciaga who left his estate to his nephews. Plus by the time B died G had already been with Venet a number of years. G already had considerable wealth by then.

Givenchy as stated above, yes, was an Aristo, but not a wealthy one. He created his wealth on his own.

The stag was Givenchy's favorite animal to compliment Le Jonchet. Here you see where he added them to the edifice. Perfection.

Givenchy's nephew in court in NYC for drunk and disorderly and punching a cop. This is one of the trashy brothers who now own Le Jonchet.

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Suzi de Givenchy, widow of another nephew (also named Hubert) is quite lovely.