Tony Duquette

I was recently reminded that Baker is reproducing a small collection of furniture, lighting and accessories designed by the late Tony Duquette (1914 – 1999), the brilliant and eccentric California designer of interiors, stage sets, costumes and jewelry.

I first became aware of Tony Duquette about the time that he passed away.  I was involved in an interior design project in California and the client saw some rock crystal holders in a magazine that she really liked.  It fell to me to find out if they were something that we could purchase (they weren't.  They had been made specifically for the photo shoot).  Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I saw what turned out to be the Biomorphic Console featured in a contemporary home in another magazine.  I was fascinated to find out that this too was a Tony Duquette design. 

In the 1940"s Tony Duquette created costumes and settings for many MGM productions in Hollywood, working with the celebrated director Vincent Minnelli and, one of my favorite costume designers, Adrian.

He designed costumes for the original Broadway production of "Camelot" starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet for which he wan a Tony Award for "Best Costume Design", and also extraordinary one of a kind jewelry for the Duchess of Windsor, Oscar de la Renta, and others.

It is from his interior design projects, many of which were for a host of Hollywood luminaries, that the pieces for Baker were selected.  My favorite of his interiors was for the Charles and Palmer Ducommon residence in Bel Aire.   The Abalone Chandelier, originally designed for Duquette's one man show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, became part of the Ducommon Bel Aire residence, and eventually ended up at Duquette's own home, Dawnbridge after being purchased back from the estate. 

He also designed the Biomorphic Console for the Ducommon residence.  This, I think, is my favorite piece.  The Baker version should, however, in my opinion have  the original rectangular shaped glass on top instead of their elliptical shaped top.

In 1999, the year Tony Duquette died, Amy Spindler, the style editor of The New York Times magazine made this observation – "When a Banana Republic catalog starts to look like the trendy, vacuous pages of Wallpaper, and Club Monaco is indistinguishable from Prada," she wrote, "you know it's time for high style to move on".

The reproduction of some of Tony Duquette's creations is perhaps, a reminder to a market dominated by monotonous status goods that nothing is quite so luxurious as the individual eye.   And it doesn't mean defining luxury by cost as many of his fantastic creations were made from commonly found materials.  He had an unfettered and rule breaking approach to design which we could use more of today.

That being said, I am not a fan of all of his work.   Some of it is just too far over the top, and in some cases kind of "godawful".  But pulling out a piece, for instance, like the Sunburst Torchere standing at a commanding 74" high, and putting it in a more contemporary setting enhances the jubilant creativity of the piece and creates a tension where you look at it and go "WOW"!

You can find out more about Tony Duquette on his website:  www.tonyduquette.com

Submitted by Donneen Torrey