A Large Majolica Serving Platter Owned by Brooke Astor

A Hand Painted Dish Owned by Gordon and Ann Getty. Part of the personal collection of Ann and Gordon Getty - bought at Christie's South Kensington Auction on July 28, 1995; Lot 25. A treasured find for collectors and enthusiasts of unique and one-of-a-kind pieces with a story to tell! Ann Getty was a paleoanthropologist, arts patron, interior designer, author, and one of America’s most legendary tastemakers. She married Gordon Getty, the 4th son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, billionaire philanthropist and classical music composer. They were chic, intellectual, San Francisco socialites, who spent a lifetime supporting and advocating for the arts, music, science, and education. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, and Getty Villa exhibit J. Paul Getty’s private art and antiquity collections, the J. Paul Getty Trust fund is the world’s wealthiest art institution. Anne was raised on a farm in northern California, then graduated from UC Berkeley with dual degrees in biology and anthropology. She worked on and passionately supported archaeological digs in Ethiopia and Turkey, searching for human fossils and artifacts, studying genetics and DNA structures. She was unpretentious, hands on, physically and intellectually in synch with scholarly scientists, craftsmen, and artists. There’s a photo of her restoring an ancient buffalo’s fossilized horns at the National Museum of Ethiopia. These very same personality traits and mannerisms, her curiosity, keen eye, and great attention to detail are apparent in her approach to collecting furniture, art, textiles, pottery, etc. She spent decades fully immersing herself, studying international art and antiques, first a student, then connoisseur. She knew the provenance and story behind every piece she bought. She taught herself by observing, experimenting, and absorbing everything. She employed artists that became her greatest teachers. Before launching her interior design firm, she hired legendary designers, Albert Hadley and Sister Parish, and John Stefanidis to design her San Francisco estate in Pacific Heights, an early 1900’s sprawling Italianate mansion with views of the golden gate bridge, designed by architect Willis Polk. The estate was nicknamed the “San Francisco Embassy” for its lavish political and cultural parties. Shortly after opening her interior firm, she launched The Ann Getty House Collection, offering original and authentic furniture reproductions from her own collections and inspiration, produced by Luis Rossi, of L. Rossi Antiques...

A large, oversized, Persian copper plate. Meticulously handcrafted, the plate has an intricate embossed design with great attention to detail. A...

A fabulous set of antique Majolica Pottery, with a storied heritage and provenance, owned by Legendary Fashion Icon André Leon Talley! These plates are a glamorous way to elevate your home with high style and a fabulous story to tell! André Leon Talley (1948-2022) was one of the fashion world's first African-American Tastemakers. A towering 6’-6” tall, elegant, flamboyant, fashion icon and celebrity with impeccable style, known for his signature capes and kaftans. For six decades he was an integral part of fashion's history, as a journalist, author, stylist, creative director and editor-at-large. His career started in 1974, when he apprenticed with legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. They created magic, on and off stage, sharing an extraordinary life of fashion and friendship. After the MET, he worked at Andy Warhol’s Factory, through Vreeland’s introduction. He was hired to answer the phone, which opened the door to New York City’s most glamorous socialites. Although private, he was part of Studio 54’s glamours scene in the 70s, disco dancing with models, fashion designers, artists, and celebrities. After Warhol’s Factory, at the young age of 27 he went to Paris to run Women’s Wear Daily, he also wrote for a few other publications prior to Vogue Magazine. He was Vogue's first African-American Creative Director, then Editor-at-Large. He broke boundaries in an industry dominated by white women. He was a prominent diversity advocate for Vogue, on and off the runway, supporting emerging designers and models. He had style, good taste and southern charm, spoke French eloquently and loved his church, a very soulful person with a big heart. Raised in the (then) segregated deep south, by his strict, loving grandmother - who worked as a maid at Duke University. Going to church was the most important thing in their life. André’s childhood was wonderful and complex, despite impoverished beginnings, he earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree from Brown (both) in French Literature. From there, he went to New York, for a volunteer internship at the Costume Institute, where he apprenticed under Diana Vreeland. He met fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg early on while he was still interning at the MET. They became and stayed very, very good friends, like family until his death. When he was about to lose everything to pay debts, including being thrown out of his colonial home on 75 Worthington Road, White Plains, New York - Furstenberg lovingly, graciously took care of the situation for him. Almost immediately after that, he died in the hospital while under treatment for COVID. Ironically, less than a year later, the street on which he lived for eighteen years, the one he was nearly thrown out of - was renamed to "André Leon Talley Way" in his honor! It is this house that the items we acquired came from. We know, it’s hard to find, one-of-a-kind pieces! Shop our listings for new inventory, curated from an Interior Architect and Designer’s POV. THE TASTEMAKER SHOPPE offers an exclusive mix of ‘new and old’ furnishings, founded solely on good taste, not limited by any style or era. Chrysanthemum & Cherub Plates...

A vintage, soft ivory-white, matte ceramic tray, designed and made by Waterworks. This unique tray has a feminine, curved, scalloped edge detail, resting ...

Green majolica plate covered in leaves and flowers, made in England around the 1920's.

Elegant pink Majolica serving dish decorated with a three green vine leaves, the handle formed as a fox peering into the bowl with its tail appearing on the mottled underside signed ...

Rare Majolica palm plate Sarreguemines, circa 1880.  

Large French Majolica oyster plate signed TN Bavent, circa 1920. Vibrant emerauld green colors. Diameter / 10.5 inches. Rustic style.