A few weeks ago, I traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to view the first house sale that Sotheby’s has staged in the US for decades. The home in question belongs to Patricia Kluge, a one-time belly-dancer and nude movie artiste. Patricia's second husband made her the world’s wealthiest divorcee, with a settlement of $1.6 billion after 9 years of marriage. Yes, billion, not million. And that was in the 1990s.
The Kluges had enough money to try to buy Taste. They hired David Easton to design and furnish a Georgian-styled English country house, complete with vineyards, stables, exquisite landscaping….you get the picture. Money was rolling in those days, and the Kluge’s and Easton scoured the world to find the finest antiques to decorate this Monument to Self. Included among the contents (which fetched over $15m at auction) was Staffordshire pottery. I viewed the catalog and there was nothing I hadn’t encountered before…with one exception: a pair of figures of dancing maidens--I called them Dancing Queens (the Abba song). I had to see them. Hence my trip to Charlottesville.
The Kluges had enough money to try to buy Taste. They hired David Easton to design and furnish a Georgian-styled English country house, complete with vineyards, stables, exquisite landscaping….you get the picture. Money was rolling in those days, and the Kluge’s and Easton scoured the world to find the finest antiques to decorate this Monument to Self. Included among the contents (which fetched over $15m at auction) was Staffordshire pottery. I viewed the catalog and there was nothing I hadn’t encountered before…with one exception: a pair of figures of dancing maidens--I called them Dancing Queens (the Abba song). I had to see them. Hence my trip to Charlottesville.
Dancing Queens, sold by Sotheby's NY for Patricia Kluge
What a disappointment. The Kluges may have bought the finest furniture and silver, but when it came to pottery something went very wrong. The figures were less than mediocre, and a restorer had been kept very busy making them marketable. The prices reflected the heavy restoration on most. Prominently displayed in the main bedroom was, to my eye, a rather late pair of copper luster Staffordshire spaniels. I believe I could find a pair on eBay for $150…yet they made $750. And what of the Dancing Queens that had lured me to Charlottesville? Heavily restored. Like all the other early pottery, they made a price that reflected a chequered past. My trip was not wasted. I was thrilled to see a figure form I have never seen before. And now I will wait for a near-perfect example.
