Images from Hutton Wilkinson’s new book, More Is More. Courtesy of Abrams.
Hutton Wilkinson is one very busy gentleman. The day I popped by for a visit at his iconic Dawnridge Estate, the former Los Angeles home of Tony Duquette, Wilkinson was entertaining guests, pouring champagne, giving tours of the house and gardens, and feeding his fish—all while his patient wife, Ruth, lightly reminded him he had to drive off to dinner in less than an hour. But I believe Hutton thrives on the same kind of energy that his mentor Tony Duquette once did.
Duquette was one of America’s design icons. Not only was he the first American artist with a one-man show at the Louvre, but his art, costumes, interiors, jewelry, and furniture made him a favorite of the Hollywood social set and of such Über-arbiters of style as Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl, the Duchess of Windsor, and the eccentric San Francisco socialite Dodie Rosekrans. The parties he hosted with his wife, Beegle, at his Los Angeles studio are still ranked among the swankest and most amusing gatherings Hollywood has seen.
At age 18, Wilkinson began working for Duquette, and after the designer’s passing in 1999, Wilkinson became the owner, creative director, and president of Tony Duquette, Inc. Today, in addition to running the Duquette empire, Wilkinson serves as the president of countless foundations, has a swinging collaboration with Baker Furniture, and is now debuting his second book about Duquette, More Is More (Abrams). With an introduction by John Galliano, the epic book is a more intimate look at Duquette’s personal life than the best-selling Tony Duquette (Abrams), which surveys the designer’s dazzling oeuvre. In Wilkinson’s latest project, the reader can sink into stories about how the Duquettes entertained and lived. Herewith, Wilkinson gives VF Daily 14 personal stories behind the pages of More Is More.
“Tony and Beegle entertained all the time. Tony didn’t like what he called ‘a mixed bag’ of guests. He mixed people up, but he was very careful about it. He had a workman at his old studio on Franklin Avenue, in Los Angeles, where this photograph was taken. Oftentimes they would work all day to set up for these ‘family’ parties. After one particularly glamorous gala, the workman greeted Tony the next morning with the question, ‘Did the folks have fun last night?’ Tony loved that and laughed and laughed. As he retold the story, ‘the folks’ were Mary Pickford, Doris Duke, Leonard Pennario, Vincent Minnelli, Adrian and Janet Gaynor, Beena de Rothschild, and Baron Max de Henckle. As Tony would say later, ‘Just folks!’”
“In the 1960s, Tony and Beegle were out every night in black-tie, caftans, and jewels dancing at the factory, attending sometimes three parties a night, and of course entertaining at home in their constantly changing studio on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. Here the studio is arranged in their rich-hippie look. Tony had an electric streetlight that was constantly changing as well as a professional light show, which cast colored lights and patterns on the ceiling. Whenever Rudolph Nureyev came to visit, he wanted to work the light show, which delighted Tony to no end.”
“Tony wanted to buy a stuffed Argus bird from the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. They said he could buy the bird, but he would also have to buy all of their stuffed birds so he did. He then set about dressing the birds with headdresses and collars and even hung valuable baroque pearls from their beaks. He used these in glass cases for a large dinner-dance given by George Frelinghuysen. To his horror, Tony watched as guests carted away the decorations ‘like party favors.’” Frelinghuysen was very generous and paid for all the dressed birds that had disappeared.
“Adrian and Cissy Hellis were the daughters of a Greek shipping tycoon. The two sisters attended Tony and Beegle’s wedding at Pickfair, in 1949. At the wedding, they told Tony that they were going to give him a silver tea set as a present. ‘I don’t want a silver tea set,’ Tony said. ‘I want the front doors of your house!’ The two sisters dutifully sent over two pairs of 16th-century Spanish doors [shown here] and a 17th-century Italian doorway, which Tony installed in the drawing room at his Dawnridge Estate. MGM executive Winfield Sheehan originally brought the doors over from Europe and used them at his Holmby Hills residence, which at the time of Tony and Beegle’s wedding, was owned by the Hellis sisters.”
“Elsie de Wolfe discovered Tony Duquette in 1941. She never stopped calling him a genius and recommending him to her friends who needed houses and hotels decorated, parties orchestrated, and jewels set. Elsie called Tony ‘the kid,’ and for the last 10 years of her life she molded him, enlightened him, and taught him everything she knew about art and design. Most importantly, she told him, ‘You work for who you see, you are in a luxury business, no point living like a starving artist in a garret. Nobody is going to hire you if you live worse than they do!’ Elsie’s advice instilled in Tony his need to live in the same manner as his clients—if not better—and gave him the courage to do so.”
“The Rosekrans’s Arabian Nights ball was given at the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, in San Francisco. Alma Spreckles, John Rosekrans’s maternal grandmother, had built the museum and given it to the city of San Francisco after the first World War. The party that Tony and I designed for Dodie and John Rosekrans was in honor of their 18-year-old granddaughter, Jennica. Of all the parties Tony and I designed together, this was indeed the most extravagant. The Rosekranses sent Tony and me around the world five times to amass the specially made decorations, which filled the glassed-in courtyard of the museum. The greatest extravagance for this party was covering the glass pyramid in the center of the courtyard with a wooden stage, on top of which sat an Indian temple for Peter Duchin and his orchestra to play under. This party was more of an extravaganza than the party we did in San Francisco for Daniel Steele, who asked us to re-create the snow scene from Doctor Zhivago by building a glass ballroom within the ballroom where dead tree branches had broken through the French windows and snow covered everything!”
“The last great job Tony and I did together was the interior of the Palazzo Brandolini for John and Dodie Rosekrans. Working in Venice was a dream come true. The biggest challenge was the day that the barges arrived at the palazzo, laden with all of the treasures that we had selected from the Rosekranses’ warehouses, as well as the pieces from our own warehouses, all of which we had sent over from America. Word got out that a rich American was moving into a palazzo on the Grand Canal, and all of a sudden antique dealers starting arriving with their own things. They pushed our stuff out of the way and installed their own pieces. Dodie didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so she let them leave the stuff on memo. Before the Rosekranses officially moved in, I called them and told them that I had put everything back exactly where Tony and I had planned to put them and that most of the ‘borrowed’ stuff had been removed. I told the Rosekranses, ‘You need to let us see it just once the way we designed it, and then if you want to move it all around and bring in all that other stuff, that is up to you!’ John and Dodie arrived the next day, liked what they saw, and never moved one object after that.”
“The house Tony designed in the late 1960s for actor James Coburn was amazing. He told me it was the first time the clients had left him alone with a large budget to do anything he wanted. Their only criterion was that the house wasn’t to be published. Tony did all the work himself and the Coburns loved what they saw. Later, while traveling in Europe, the house was published without Tony’s knowledge, and Mrs. Coburn told everybody that she had done it all herself! My favorite thing is the mirrored disco ball in the center of the chandelier Tony made for the stair hall—genius!”
"I always loved Tony and Beegle’s postage stamp-sized garden in San Francisco. Tony made a decorative screen across the back of the garden from discarded Victorian architectural elements that he picked off of demolition sites in the neighborhood. He paved the garden with old cobblestones torn up from San Francisco streets and planted it with succulents and bromeliads in variegated shades of green. It was a magical shady space to sit or dine in, or just to look out over from the upper floors of the birdcage Victorian house that he called 'Cow Hollow.'"
“The covered and screened-in porch that surrounded Tony’s ‘Frogmore Hall’ at his beloved ranch in Malibu was a magical place. It was furnished with antique Adirondack twig furniture upholstered in tiger corduroy and Rudi Gernriech knitted green-and-black checked fabrics. Old paneling covered the walls, which retained the mirrors, antique Austrian peasant furniture, and carved horses from India that all lived side by side with Tony’s own sculptures, such as the lighted ghost snail, which is by now being reproduced by Baker Furniture. My favorite thing was how Tony added the carved wings to the horses’ heads. This is what he did. He individualized everything in the most creative and amusing ways. He had no fear, and cut, glued, and painted costly antiques as well as found objects with equal enthusiasm to adapt them for his individual vision and aesthetic. ‘Beauty, not luxury, is what I value,’ he would often say.”
“I love living at Dawnridge now and don’t miss at all the mountains of 18th-century furniture and paintings that I was forced to sell through Christie’s in order to settle Tony’s estate. I have redecorated the house using only things made by Tony and Beegle and have put the interiors together with sensitivity as a tribute to my dear friends. In this photo are the sunburst screens, which I created using hubcaps and metal sunbursts by Poilerat. The walls have been hung in ‘Golden Sunburst,’ an original Tony Duquette that I put together for Jim Thompson Thai Silk; it is available through designers in showrooms around the world.”
“My new favorite room is the sunroom at Dawnridge. It has been redecorated with the banquette sofas, which Tony originally designed for his house in San Francisco, and giant blowups of Tony’s original pen-and-ink drawings of Venice circa 1947.”
“When I first went to work for Tony, in 1971, I used to spend my spare time going through his archives and file cabinets. One of the first things I saw was [an image] of the chandelier in this picture. He had created it for the bridal salon of Buffums Department Store, in Pomona, California. I thought it was the most beautiful chandelier I had ever seen. Many years later, when Buffums was going out of business, I was able to buy all the Tony Duquette chandeliers in the store. I installed the two starburst chandeliers from the bridal salon in my living room at the ranch. They are still my favorite chandeliers in the world.”
“The lake at Dawnridge and the Indian temple that I created next to it are my newest favorite additions to Dawnridge. The area at the very bottom of the garden had always been neglected by the Duquettes and had always screamed for water. By putting this garden and pond together, I have altered the look and use of the garden immeasurably. I think Tony and Beegle would be pleased!”
