STORY OF THE PIONEERS OF THE BRIGHTER FURNISHINGS IN VOGUE TO-DAY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 367, 23 February 1937, Page 2

STORY OF THE PIONEERS OF THE BRIGHTER FURNISHINGS IN VOGUE TO-DAY

“I had started with a capital of £lOO, and spent about £6O on decorations. In nine months I had taken over £3OOO. It is not an exaggeration to say that during this period what is known as ‘the whole of London* came to my little house in Elizabeth Street," states M. Boulestin.

Although Mon. X. M. Boulestin in his autobiography, “Myself, My Two Countries," tells the story of his own life, it it also a tribute to Great Britain. M. Boulestin had the gift of inducing British people to adopt just those French dishes which were likely to have permanent popularity, while his decorative schemes for flats and houses constitute what is generally termed “the twentieth-century ■tyle.” In describing the first small exhibition house which he opened in 1913 to show what could be done, he says:— “At this time modern decoration did not exist in England. . . . My ttock was not large, but it was first rate, and I had made no concessions, everything was modern. “I had silks, velvets, linens, bibelots from Fartine, Andre Groult and Tribe, materials from Darmstadt, Munich and Vienna, odd papers from Berlin and Florence, all sorts of unusual and amusing vases, china, glass from Paris. One of the rooms was decorated in yellow and grey, simply but effectively, the other was more striking with ceilings' and walls in ultra-marine blue, black paint and vivid purple curtains. Purple Colour Scheme, “A large divan with cushions took up the colour scheme at the purplcand finished it with a note of scarlet, and magenta; the shades, the lamps, th wall brackets, were made to my desigm, and the decoration was completed by works of art I had on sale or return—paintings on silk by Albert Bothenstein. photographs by Adolph" Meyer (he had then just started his. fine studies- oC Nijinsky and his Still Lives), bindings, rare ■ editions and specimens of negro art “In another room upstairs I kept all the patterns of materials, wallpapers and the things that were actually for sale. For in my d corated rooms a great number of books, ornaments, vases, cushion!, my own and only there as samples. I had to fight sometimes, for some of the things could not be replaced, and I did not wanf to part ifith them. “In the blue room on the mantelpiece was a pair of slender vases in green opaline, probably early Victorian, then without any value whatso ver, which I had. bought at , Newbury for Half a crown. B.fi against that "till they wore perfect. Many people thought so, too, but 1 I had triumphantly resisted all attacks, ■ till one day Mrs.- Wellcome (not yet ‘Syrie Maugham') fell for them We : argued for days: she wnrt°d them, i ■he said, at any cost. By way of a : joke, to end the incident. I said: ‘All ■ right then, two and a half guineas.’ ! To my amazement she accepted “That was the only time when my I profits were abnormal and to me ‘ annoyir r. The mantclpi: co never looked as well again." Making a Fresh Start, Then the Great War broke out and M. Bouleatin returned to France. On his return to London he had to begin j all over again. “In a decoration shop." he writes i "I saw some pap r which struck me as somethin.? new and beautiful. I * went In and bought a few sheets with the intention of using them for bnitling books A little folly of that kind when one is hard up does one good. I came back to London with 25/-. Only at one moment did I feel helpless, when, having telephoned to some friends to ask if I could come and see them (that was the evening of my return) they suggested my coming in at 8.30. When I arrived they had already dined and were having coffee. . . . Then for a few

minutes did I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. “The following morning, looking at and fingering my precious papers, I happened to lift one against the window. It was a sunny day and in the light it was beautifully transparent With even rich' r and finer colours. I tried them all over an electric lamp —the effect was magnificent. “I took a pair of nail scissors and cut out some candle shades. It wat on those few paper shades that I rebuilt my fortune. “I went and saw all the people I knew; they all gave me orders, so did their friends, and friends of their friends. The candle shades I made myself. I had some large ones made to order by shade makers. I had orders from shops. Dolly Mann, then at Willetts, was one of my first supporters. No one knew these papers, v.hich were the famous German-made ‘Java’ papers; 18 months afterwards they were all over the place. Buit I had ben the first in the field. Moreover they are Etill beautiful, and do not date.” Th"t was the start for the new days. M. Boulestin is now recognised not only as a decorative artist but one, too, who is a culinary expert supreme in his own field.