Regarding Kate's mirror on ebay last December, As Amber wrote;
"Certain people need to just... jump IN that fiire.
sadkjaskjhfkjahskj;akjhf."
Well I jumped in that fire. To the tune of $3,600 and I'm still paying for it. Plus the gas money from LA to San Diego. Okay I got the mirror. I bought it from a woman who had it lovingly restored. She bought a smaller home and had no place for it. My good luck. It hangs above a fireplace mantel I had hand carved to match the one in Kate's Turtle Bay living room. No firebox yet because I ran out of money. On the mantel I have two candlesticks that match those on her mantel. They are called Girandoles and represent "Paul and Virginia" from a popular early 19th century novel about the special love between a brother and sister. They were a gift from her Father and I often wonder if they represented for her the special connection she had with Tom. Kate was an excellent interior designer (in addition to all her other talents) and it makes me happy to recreate her designs in my own home. If I ever learn to post pics to the forum I'll do the garden I did that has Kate's garden table. I purchased it from the Sotheby's auction.
Just wanted you to know the mirror went to a good home. A lot of us who went to the auction were blown away by the cost of the stuff. My hope for a painting and a few other things were quickly dashed. Though I have gotten two since then (one on the mantel). Knowing Kate wanted her stuff scattered to the wind made it easier, though it was very bittersweet. I think Judy said as much before. If anyone wants a pic of my recreation of Kate's living room fireplace email me. Regards,
Jim
Hi, Jim:
I'd love to see pictures of your shrine ;D. I haven't created quite the same tableau with my Sotheby's acquisitions, but they are cherished and cared for nevertheless.
Your post made me quite happy all over again to think that so many who were there and who sacrificed a lot of dough - I, too, am still trying to dig myself out of the financial hole I dug for myself those two days in June - made that sacrifice out of a real affection for Kate.
I had not heard that story about the candle sticks, but it's fascinating and quite plausible.
Funny thing about the subject of restoration. Here's my tale of woe....When the mantel I purchased at Sotheby's was delivered, I discovered that the left upright was completely separated from the horizontal mantel. This is something that one wouldn't have known seeing it at Sotheby's because it was up against a wall and who would have thought to examine it?
Anyway, the mantel is so long that the moving company could not get it in the elevator of my building. This, actually, turned out to be fortuitous, but at the time I was beside myself, as it sat on the street in back of the moving truck, with me frantic about what I was going to do. I had them take it back and store it and it sat at the moving company over the Fourth of July week - a full month after the auction - while I tried to figure out what to do. They recommended an antique furniture restoration place not far away so I agreed to have them take it there. What the restoration people told me wat that the uprights were fastened to the mantel with simple finishing nails and that over time they were coming loose - the left upright completely, but the right wasn't far from loosening, too. They asked if I wanted them to refasten with finishing nails but suggested that screws would be better and would keep the whole thing more secure.
So now I had this ridiculous debate with myself. Do I keep it as it was when Kate had it? Or do I have them change the nails to screws? My heart said the former, so I struggled with it.
And while I was struggling, the restoration guys had another question for me. There was a crescent-moon-shaped piece of wood that was affixed at the back of the mantel and that appeared to be sitting on top of it. They wanted to know if I wanted them to remove it because it, too, was very loose.
The wood shape stuck up over the mantel and was fastened to a piece of sheet metal that hung down in the back and would have been right around where the fire box would have been - I assumed to protect the wall from any damage. The metal was all crumpled and sooty - just as it would have been when in use - and they asked if I wanted them to hammer it out.
You can see the wooden piece rising above the center of the mantel in the photo that's in the Sotheby's catalog, but if you look at the photo in the John Bryson book - of Kate lying in front of the mantel at the California cottage - the wooden piece is not there. So clearly this is something she added after California, perhaps when it was installed in Fenwick.
Of course, I told the restoration guys - NO, do not remove that piece. And NO, do not hammer out the metal.
But, curiously, it was THIS little piece of wood/metal that helped me make the decision about the nails vs the screws. Kate kept this thing forever, I reasoned - since the California cottage days and later at Fenwick. If she wanted to modify it with a piece of moon-shaped wood, she did. And if something wasn't right with it - like, if the nails were pulling out of it - SHE'd have patched it up in order to give it a longer life. So that's what I decided to do.
They were then able to remove both uprights and bring it up to my apartment in three pieces and screw the uprights on in place. And they affixed the piece of wood - and the sheet metal is still attached to it, hanging down in the back.
The one thing I regret is that, though I told her time and again not to touch it, my cleaning woman one day took it upon herself to polish it. And in doing so, she wiped off a glob of melted candle wax from the top. That hurt for a long time - and still does now as I talk about it. But, no point crying over that. It's done.
By the way, I do not have a fireplace. My living room couch sits beneath the mantel, where the fireplace would be. Kate's painting hangs over the mantel and the wood often creaks. I've convinced myself it is her just saying hello every now and then.
Oh, and speaking of the expense? The first delivery, storage for two weeks, restoration and re-delivery cost me a little over $1,000 - almost half of what I paid for the piece to begin with!! But, in the end, every time I hear it creak I think, "it was worth it."
Judy