George Platt Lynes 1930s Photograph of Princess Natalie Paley

Remie Lohse was born in Puerto Rico, studied painting in Denmark, and settled in New York in 1928, where he became a professional photographer. In the 1930s he was a freelancer who specialized in advertising and magazine features, and shot covers for Vogue. If he often focused on the high life, seen in this couple stepping out on the town, he also shot humble subjects. He was more interested in his art than a particular milieu, and many of his photographs are little masterpieces. His contemporary Gilbert Seldes, the noted Vanity Fair media critic and “public intellectual” (not to mention father of actress Marian Seldes), featured Lohse in his 1934 book 'This is New York, The First Modern Photographic Book of New York.' In 1939 Lohse came out with his own book titled 'The Miniature Camera in Professional Hands.' Our photograph was one of three shot by Lohse for a 1934 Vogue article titled “High Spots and Low Music." If the photograph (image size 4 1/4" x 6") show a couple making the nocturnal rounds of Manhattan restaurants, bars, and jazz clubs, the story itself also covers the daytime meeting places of the ladies who lunch. The twist is that Lohse’s model was the author herself, Elena Mumm Thornton, and her husband James Worth...

Véronese was established in 1931 by Marcel Barbier. The firm was unique in having a design office in Paris and a glasswork on Murano. They developed a product line of clear translucent glass that was promoted through extensive advertising, and sold from striking modern showrooms in Paris and Nice. Their master glassblower was Giovanni Veronese, but the name was probably meant to evoke the 17th century Venetian painter Paolo Veronese, who depicted glassware and other luxury goods. Launched during the Depression, Véronese devised a lean business model. Rather than having an in-house art director they commissioned designs from independent architects, like Marcel Roux...

A translucent alabaster lamp of the same model was featured in the July 1938 issue of Domus magazine, which was established and edited by Gio Ponti. They were made in the Volterra wo...

This 1930s Italian bench is so over-scaled, and monumental in appearance, that it seems to have been made for the large room it was destined, rather than the comfort of a typical sitter. As such, it would function equally well as a low side table or a high cocktail table. We’ll allow the buyer to determine its use. The designer was Pierluigi Colli, and the fabricator Martinotti, the Turin furniture and interior decorating firm that was established in 1831, and exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair. Colli’s family owned a textile company that supplied Martinotti with upholstery fabrics, suggesting nepotism had something to do with his being hired as the firm's director in 1926. Nevertheless, he proved himself worthy as a designer and a businessman. Having studied in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, he befriended leading French designers, and arranged for Martinotti to retail Lalique glass and Jean Perzel lighting. In addition, the quality of their work, and Colli’s dedication to the modern design movement, prompted Carlo Mollino, Gio Ponti, and Gino Levi-Montalcini, among others, to have Martinotti fabricate some of their furniture. Colli’s claim to fame, however, is his own work as a designer, and his ability to master the vocabularies of every trend from Art Deco to midcentury modern. During the Great Depression, when nearly every nation floundered economically, fascist Italy...

This late 1930s Venini chandelier has two rings of curved-glass elements suspended from a brass frame. It appears to glow magically from within because the glass elements are infuse...

These earthbound chairs appear to be weightless. Such is the illusion that the designer René Prou was able to create in 1930s Paris with the aid of a highly-skilled upholsterer. Befo...

This silver gelatin photograph was printed in New York City in the 1990s from the original negative. George Platt Lynes (1907 to 1955) was a legenda...

This silver gelatin photograph was printed in New York City in the 1990s from the original negative. George Platt Lynes (1907 to 1955) was a legenda...

This silver gelatin photograph was printed in 1999 from the original negative by the Robert Miller Gallery in New York City with permission from the estate of the artist. George Platt Lynes...

The silver gelatin photograph was printed by the photography department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the 1990s frim the original negative. George Platt Lynes...

Vintage photo gravure by the photographer George Platt-Lynes, circa 1940. Wood frame with passepartout and high quality museum's glass. In original co...

Photograph taken of an Art Deco figural mural painting by Oswald Fell (20th Century) Germany/Texas in the 1930's. Single photograph with 2 images on it, from the artists estate. Unf...