Fall Antique and Decorative Art, Nov. 2nd
Lot 191:
Original letter to Mr. Marsh signed by Somerset Maugham. Letter has original letter head from Villa La Mauresque. In 1927, the author Somerset Maugham purchased the property and commissioned the young American architect Barry Dierks to eliminate the villa’s original neo-oriental elements, to classicize the facades and patio, and to modernize the layout by creating a staircase. Villa La Mauresque became Maugham’s main residence until his death in 1965. Becoming a near-obligatory stop for the literary and Riviera society, La Mauresque, from the point of Maugham’s acquisition, received most of the celebrities who visited the Riviera: Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lord Beaverbrook and the Aga Khan mingled with such literary figures as T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Ian Fleming, Noël Coward and even Virginia Woolf. Dimensions: 18" x 15.5"
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