Chicago auctioneers Leslie Hindman has announced a sale of the Property of the popular American songwriter Cole Porter. It will be included in a February 12-14, 2012 Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts auction. The is a fun opportunity for the art collector of Art Kabinett network to acquire some important memorabilia.
The sophistication evident in Cole Porter's musical compositions carries over to his masterfully cultivated collection of furnishings.
The forty-one lots include Continental and Asian furniture, Chinese ceramics, English silver, Baccarat and Steuben stemware, and other fine table wares. A pair of Italian bergères come from Porter’s Manhattan library, which the decorator Billy Baldwin famously outfitted with brass étagères fabricated by P.E. Guerin.
The property comes to the auction house from the living trust of Porter’s first cousin’s daughter, Louise Cole Schmitt.
Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891 in Peru, Indiana, the only child of a well-established family. Porter’s talent and affinity for music became evident at a young age and was central to his studies at Worcester Academy and Yale University. After his education at Yale, he moved to Paris where he kept a luxurious apartment.
It was there that he met his wife Linda Lee Thomas and received his first commission for music. Cole Porter’s brilliance as a composer and songwriter, in particular for Broadway musicals, made an indelible impression in the history of American popular music.
His first Broadway show was 'See America First,' which was a 1916 flop despite the social luminaries in the early audiences -- a feature of hiring Bessie Marbury as theatrical producer.
In July of 1917, he set out for Paris and war-engulfed Europe. Paris was a place Cole flourished socially and managed to be in the best of all possible worlds. He lied to the American press about his military involvement and made up stories about working with the French Foreign Legion and the French army.
This allowed him to live his days and nights as a wealthy American in Paris, a socialite with climbing status, and still be considered a "war hero" back home, an 'official' story he encouraged throughout the rest of his life. The parties during these years were elaborate and fabulous, involving people of wealthy and political classes.
His parties were marked by much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians, and a large surplus of recreational drugs. By 1919, Cole was spending time with the American divorcee Linda Thomas.
The two became close friends quickly. Their financial status and social standing also made them ideal candidates for marriage as a business contract, not for passion. The fact that Linda's ex-husband was abusive and Cole was gay made the arrangement even more palatable.
They married on December 19, 1919 and lived a happy friendship, a mostly successful public relationship, but a sexless marriage until Linda's death in 1954. For those interested in the poets, politicians, patricians, and places Cole knew in the next two decades, they were fairly well documented.
Cole Porter passed away in 1964. He is buried with his wife in his hometown of Peru, Indiana and his property has withstood descent through the family for more than forty-five years.
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers conducts the sale of these objects in memory of one of twentieth century music’s greatest luminaries.
Preview exhibition for the sale begins February 8. For more information please contact Corbin Horn at 312.280.1212.
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers has been an industry leader combining recognition as one of the nation’s foremost fine art auctioneers with a global base of buyers.
Founded in 1982, sold to Sotheby’s in 1997 and reopened in 2003, Leslie Hindman has been a force behind high profile auctions of everything from contemporary paintings and fine jewelry to French furniture and rare books and manuscripts.
