About the Item
Everyone can have a taste of iconic Dorothy Draper Hollywood Regency style with this perfectly sized and oh so elegant Viennese Collection Secretaries Desk Breakfront. Regal. Whimsical and gregarious flair. The scroll cornice of the cabinet recalls some of the mill work Dorothy designated in her iconic hotel design work. A more petite version of Dorothy Draper’s Viennese China Cabinet, this Draper Secretaries Desk not only offers display space for personal effects and three drawer storage for linens, it also morphs into a great out of sight work space. Folding desktop with plenty of drawers and storage compartments for everything you need to stay organized. Pull up a chair and write out those thank you notes you’ve been meaning to get to. The base has a Bombe form and superbly ornate brass hardware. The cabinet has a slim depth, allowing it to fit in tighter spaces. Each shelf offers customized single bulb lights with individual controls. This Dorothy Draper Secretary’s Desk was newly refinished from top to bottom. Lacquered in black with hand painted gold accents and details. Original mesh fronts painted gold. But we can lacquer in any color combination you like. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks lead time for refinishing. Price includes refinishing as shown or in any custom color of choice. Photographed along with and also currently available in our shop – Sculptural Pair of Fully Restored Post Modern Slipper Chairs in Leopard Velvet Curtis Jere Tic – Tac – Toe Onyx and Metal Sculptures or Bookends Mid-Century Modern Greek Key 22K Gold Cocktail Mixer and Set of 6 Rocks Glasses Rare Pair of Tall Parzinger Style Brass Lotus Candle Sticks by Feldman, c. 1960s Midcentury Etruscan Brass Horse Sculptures in the Style of Frederic Weinberg Hollywood Regency Brass Neoclassical Side Chairs in Leopard Velvet & Leather
About the Designer
“Few would argue with the statement that Dorothy Draper was the most influential American interior decorator of the past century. They might make a case for Elsie de Wolfe, who had banished heavy dark furnishings and finishes from late Edwardian-era rooms, or plump for Sister Parish, and her easeful gentrified look. But Draper simply was the face of decorating. Savvy, decisive and trim — she looked the part. And her 1939 book Decorating Is Fun! and a regular column for Good Housekeeping maintained that public image. As did, of course, her work.
Born to wealth in Tuxedo Park, New York, Draper received little formal schooling but did travel extensively in Europe, where she refined her eye and tastes. Draper invented the interior design style known these days as Hollywood Regency. She loved bold vibrant color, which she deployed in unusual combinations (pink paired with eggplant was a favorite). She had a penchant for black-and-white checkered floors.
Draper liked a room to have a statement piece on the wall, preferably a plaster scrollwork-framed mirror. But most of all Draper liked such things as huge moldings brimming with Baroque detail; upholstery fabrics with overscaled florals, such as her signature print called “Cabbage Rose.” Draper could keep it simple. Many of her chairs are unfussy slipper or club chairs, with maybe a little tufting. Her cabinets and other case pieces are equally elegant — the quiet España chest, which has three drawers with round brass pulls, has been a staple of classic decorating ever since Draper designed it in 1953.
During a heyday of production in the mid-1950s, Heritage entered into a partnership with Draper, while Frank Lloyd Wright created several lines of furniture for Henredon — the works by both designers, which included Draper’s España line and Viennese furnishings group, were marketed under the Heritage-Henredon name owing to a cross-licensing agreement between the brands.
Because of her passion for scale and grand gestures, most of Draper’s commissions were for hotels, resorts and apartment towers. In these spaces, she could follow her whim and produce such extravagances as the massive, playfully modernist chandelier in the lobby of the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia; the wildly Baroque fireplace in the lounge of New York’s Hampshire House; and the towering lacquered doors of the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in California. The woman thought big.”
