French Desk Sets

Rhinostellation, Crystal Paste & Solid Silver by Richard Texier, Daum France

In 1938 Mrs. Georgia Oates — a former southern belle and a recent divorcee — plighted her troth with Mr. Philip Green Gossler, then on his third marriage. If he was, as they used to say, “a caution,” he was also a man of substance. A utilities magnet, he was “one of fifty-nine men who rule America,” according to his 1945 obituary in The New York Times. This 1930s Tiffany desk set belonged to him, and his initials “P.G.G.” are engraved on all of its parts, except for the notepad holder that didn't have a blank field large enough for it. Born in Columbia, Pennsylvania, Gossler attended the local university before studying electrical engineering at Columbia. Making a name for himself at Edison General Electric, he went on to Royal Electric in Montreal. Returning to New York, he rose through the ranks of Columbia Gas & Electric to become chairman, and, along the way, he orchestrated the mergers and acquisitions that made it one of the largest utility cartels in the world, with thirty-four companies in eight states. Appointed a director of the Guaranty Trust Company, he was admitted to the Metropolitan, University, and Piping Rock clubs, as well as the Royal Sailing Club in Nassau, where he wintered on his Hog Island estate. Gossler may have kept this desk set at his office, his East 65th Street townhouse, or his Nassau house. In any case, it was made from sterling-silver-mounted Portor marble. Portor is mined in Italy where it's known as Portoro. It was the French, however, who most favored its striking coloration of black, yellow, and white. That's why they often used it to top off their tables from the 17th century on. We believe our 1930s desk set was made for Tiffany Paris, not Tiffany New York, because it bears the Tiffany hallmark but not the so-called maker’s mark, which is found on all Tiffany New York silver. In addition, its au courant design is more in keeping with the work of the Paris Art Deco masters than the more traditional New York designers of that day. Among the Paris designers who had worked for Tiffany there were André Groult and Armand Rateau, who had designed their Avenue de l’Opera showroom. This isn’t to say that Gossler’s desk set was necessarily purchased there, since the Paris-made goods were also shipped to New York, where, it was hoped, they might catch the eyes of the discerning few who could still afford to buy luxury goods in the Depression. When Gossler died in 1945 the desk set was presumably passed on to his widow, and then, when she breathed her last, to her beautiful daughter Marion, who expired in 2018 at the age 99. That Marion had bothered to keep it says more about her love of the beautiful than her fondness for her stepfather, whom she didn’t much like. This, in spite of his having footed the bill for her extravagant 1938 coming out at his townhouse, and the St. Regis rooftop supper dance that followed. She too, as it turned out, was “a caution,” painting her fingernails black to match her dark moods, earning her the sobriquet "Black Marion." Back then, her name was Marion Oates, which changed on her marriage to Thomas Leiter, a Marshall Field & Company heir, and then once again following a divorce and a remarriage to Robert H. Charles, Assistant Secretary of the US Air force. Those marriages gave her the wherewithal to become Washington, D.C.’s most celebrated hostess, Oatsie Charles (a sobriquet bestowed by her by fellow debutante Brenda Frazier). There, she regularly hung out a ham for the likes of Jackie and John Kennedy, Ian Fleming, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and Deeda Blair...

19th century French sterling and enamel dresser set Lovely set. Various pieces. Brushes, mirror, shoe horn, etched glass bottles. Good anti...

Saddle-stitched green/black leather desk set consisting of a writing pad, storage box and a blotter. Stamped “Hermes” Writing Pad: 18” x 13.5...

Ornate leather boxed French Empire three-piece writing set. Included in the box is a letter opener, dip pen and wax seal which is not engraved. Stamped Fra...

1980s desk set by Pierre Cardin, with original address book and notebook unused and in mint condition. The black fabric folder with embroidered Pierre Cardin signatures has a front c...