AUCTION OF THE MONTH
23rd-24th Jan, Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors, Sotheby’s New York
This month we look stateside for our auction fix as the antiques collection once belonging to the ‘Prince of Chintz’ comes up for sale at Sotheby’s New York. Nearly 1,000 pieces of furniture, fine art and decorative objects that once filled the homes of American interior designer Mario Buatta, who died in 2018, will be auctioned over two days on 23rd and 24th January. The sale, entitled Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors, will feature his personal pieces that once adorned the rich and colourful rooms in his Upper East Side apartment in New York City, as well as his historic, gothic-style home in Connecticut.
Born in Staten Island in 1935, Mario enjoyed antiques and interiors from a young age as his aunt, Mary Mauro, would take him antiquing. He was only 12 when he bought his first antique, a writing desk that cost him $13.
On his first visit to England during his studies at the art and design college Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, he fell in love with the English country house style and was inspired after meeting decorator John Fowler. What he particularly loved was the ‘historical clutter’ of English homes, he once told
Architectural Digest, and how they were stuffed with furniture and objects collected over generations.
In 1963 he started his own business decorating some of the finest houses in
America, including Blair House – the president’s guest house in Washington – with his signature maximalist flair. Influenced by Colefax and Fowler, he reinvented English country house style, giving it an exuberant twist, and championed the importance and glamour of collecting antiques. ‘A house should grow in the same way that an artist’s painting grows,’ he said. ‘A few dabs today, a few more tomorrow and the rest when the spirit moves you. When the painting is complete (as no room ever should be), it never reflects the artist’s original conception.’
The Mario Buatta collection includes English pottery and Dutch Delft, English enamels, silver and glassware, lacquered and japanned furniture, as well as canine paintings. Estimates start at $800. 020 7293 5000; sothebys.com