A Special Find

Often times while chatting with clients in the shop, they will say things like "this piece takes me back to such and such", "I remember my favorite aunt had a similar piece that sat in her living room", "I always wished I could have lived during this period", etc.  That is one of the great pleasures in doing what I do.  Sometimes pieces open up the mind, memory and imagination to wonderful personal life moments of the past, historical events, or even bring us closer to people we have admired and perhaps never met.  This weekend there was an auction in Palm Beach of some personal notes and letters written by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to designer and friend Bill Hamilton and also to her interior decorator and friend Richard Langham.  In going through the catalogue, one set of notes struck a chord and really resonated.  The notes were both written to Richard Langham.  The first was a thank you note for a Moravian star which she thought was "graceful and beautiful" and "the most perfect Christmas present".  She goes on to wish him a Happy New Year and wish him "a zillion clients who are NOT doing their first apartment".  He helped decorate her first apartment in New York.  The note is written on her trademark blue Crane stationery from 1040 Fifth Avenue and dated January 9, 1989.  I have always admired her character, strength and of course her style.  Having grown up in Bethlehem, PA and worked at the Moravian Bookshop, moved to NYC in 1989, and attended a breakfast while working at Tiffany where she was a guest, I needed to give it a shot and bid on this wonderful piece of American, design and political history.  As luck would have it, the stars aligned and I am now in proud possession of one of the most special finds of my career.  Also with this note was another thank you note written to Richard by Mrs. Onassis' secretary thanking him for flowers sent after an operation in 1994.  I am very much looking forward to having these notes suitably framed and displaying them in a place of honor in the new shop.

Link to CBS Morning piece on the collection:

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-letters-to-top-designers-up-for-auction/