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This November, Sotheby’s will devote three separate auctions to the [Bunny] Mellon collection, encompassing some 2,000 items, including paintings by the likes of Picasso and Rothko and a rare pear-shaped blue diamond. But one of Mellon’s hallmarks was her love of objects both grand and humble. She collected what she found beautiful, and the Interiors auction, by far the largest of the three, includes such items as well-worn walking sticks, English horse engravings, and a vast array of ceramics, from hunt-themed punch bowls to antique tureens shaped like bundles of asparagus. As Mellon once said of her vision for Oak Spring: “Nothing should stand out. It all should give the feeling of calm. When you go away, you should remember only the peace.”
The Beauty of Oak Spring Farm, Garden and Gun (2014)

"The main house's entrance hall."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.

"A set of four tole peinte two-branch wall lights 20th century"
Estimate 2,000 — 3,000 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 271
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A carved elm figure of a reclining hound mid-19th century"
Estimate 1,000 — 1,500 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 282
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A group of nine walking sticks"
Estimate 500 — 700 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 269
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A Victorian white cold-painted cast-iron umbrella stand - second half 19th century" 
Estimate 400 — 600 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 268
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A Regency White-painted and parcel-gilt caned chair-back settee circa 1810"
Estimate  6,000 — 8,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 272
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"Two Louis XVI mahogany cellarettes in the game room."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.

Diego Giacometti
1902 - 1985
Table Aux Deux Oiseaux (Blanc)
Painted bronze 
19 by 32 by 32 in.
48.6 by 81.3 by 81.3 cm.
Conceived and cast in 1972.
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (commissioned directly from the artist)
Estimate  150,000 — 200,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Masterworks - Lot 13
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A pair of Victorian slipper chairs second half 19th century"
Estimate 400 — 600 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 316
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A game room."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.

"A pair of George III gold-painted armchairs circa 1790"
Estimate 2,000 — 3,000 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 317
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"A rare Meissen 'Sea Life' Chess Set"
Circa 1924-34
"Designed by Max Esser, comprising: thirty-two chess pieces modelled as sea creatures and a matching chess board molded on two sides with waves and sea foam and on the other two sides with octapuses, crossed swords and dot marks in underglaze-blue, incised A. 1082 and 1083 and various incised numerals. 33 pieces."
Width of board 20 in.
51 cm
Estimate 10,000 — 15,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 319
Photo via Sotheby's website.


 "Above a small desk in a corner of the living room, a modest 20th-century gilt wall clock presides over two American masterworks: one a Theodore Robinson, Nantucket Pump, and the other a grand Diebenkorn gouache. The warm tones of fruitwood and maple, a basket holding one of Bunny Mellon’s signature topiaries, and a child’s chair complete the ensemble."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (October 2014).

Richard Diebenkorn
1922 - 1993
Untitled
Signed with initials and dated 74
Gouache, graphite, ink wash and charcoal on joined paper
17 by 11 in.
43.2 by 27.9 cm.
Executed in 1974,
Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Masterworks - Lot 24
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"Édouard Manet’s circa-1879 George Moore in the Artist’s Garden overlooks the dining room, created by [John] Fowler and his assistant, Imogen Taylor, in 1966; Leonard crosshatched the walls with lapis lazuli–blue paint, Bunny Mellon conceived the tablecloth’s embroidered tree, and Fowler designed the carpet."
Bunny and Paul Mellon’s Manhattan residence, a 1966 French Provincial–style townhouse by architect H. Page Cross, which was decorated with Paul Leonard, William Strom, John Fowler, Bruce Budd, and others.
Interior and garden photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold. 

"An assorted group of embroidered table linens"
Estimate 600 — 800 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 644
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"In the home’s pink living room, John Singer Sargent’s 1882 Miss Beatrice Townsend hangs above the mantel, which displays a Jean Schlumberger jeweled tree."
Bunny and Paul Mellon’s Manhattan residence, a 1966 French Provincial–style townhouse by architect H. Page Cross, which was decorated with Paul Leonard, William Strom, John Fowler, Bruce Budd, and others.
Interior and garden photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold. 
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"A painted lead sail boat-form weathervane"
Estimate 1,000 — 1,500  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 343
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"The rococo Gothic-style embrasures in Paul Mellon’s study were joined and carved by Oak Spring estate carpenters from timber cut on-site. The Meissen draft horse standing among flowers and the punch bowl and punch pot—all on the next-to-bottom shelf—speak to Paul Mellon’s wit and his highly articulated love of England, sport, and good times in the countryside."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (October 2014).

"A Meissen figure of a cart house - circa 1750"
Estimate  5,000 — 7,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 690
Photo via Sotheby's website.

"Understatement and comfort set the note in the dining room, from the handsome but unmatched caned armchairs that invite a diner to lean back, converse, and sip, to the Nicholas de Stael painting of a salad over the sideboard. The dinner plate armorials showing two little topiaries per plate could have been painted for Bunny Mellon—she was a fan of dotting her gardens with topiary designs—but in fact date from 1800. The pumpkin tureen table centerpiece and the knobby cauliflowers on the sideboard are rarities; the dusky portrait near the window of a woman reading is a Gwen John. The other works of art—an O’Keefe, a Diebenkorn—are more immediately recognizable."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.
Text by Mac Griswold.
"Bunny Mellon's Breathtaking Private Collection on Sale at Sotheby's"
Architectural Digest (October 2014).

"A Regency mahogany two-pedestal dining table"
Estimate 2,000 — 3,000 USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 508
Photo via Sotheby's website.


"A rare Dutch Delft pumpkin tureen and stand"
Circa 1760
Het Oude Moriaenshooft factory, Geertruy Verstelle, naturalistically modelled resting on a leaf-form stand, the stand with GV:S mark in blue.
Length of stand 15 in.
38.1 cm
Estimate  10,000 — 15,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Interiors  - Lot 474
Photo via Sotheby's website.

Here is a photo of the Georgia O'Keeffe painting that hung in Bunny Mellon's dining room:

Georgia O'Keeffe
1887 - 1986
White Barn (White Barn, No. 1-Canada; Barn No. 2; White Barn Canada #1; White Barn No. III)
Signed with initials within the artist's star device and inscribed by Alfred Stieglitz “White Barn No. 1 [III written above 1 by Doris Bry]—Canada—1932 / by Georgia O’Keeffe / An American Place / 509 Madison Ave—New York, N.Y.” on the original backing
oil on canvas
16 1/8 by 30 1/8 in.
41 by 76.5 cm.
Estimate  1,500,000 — 2,500,000  USD
Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Masterworks - Lot 16
Photo via Sotheby's website.

Georgia O'Keeffe's White Barn reminded me of this horse barn at Oak Spring Farm:

"Once home to 150 horses, including Sea Hero—the 1993 Kentucky Derby winner—the farm has extensive equestrian facilities."
2,000-acre Oak Spring Farm, Bunny Mellon's home in Upperville, Virginia.
Photography courtesy of Washington Fine Properties.
Text by Jennifer Tzeses.

"The main residence, known as the Brick House, was designed in 1941 by architect William Adams Delano of Delano and Aldrich. The neo-Georgian-style home was later turned into a gallery to showcase Paul and Bunny Mellon’s world-renowned art collection. It features wide-plank floors, nine fireplaces, three levels, and a spacious two-bedroom apartment. Just off of the main house is an enclosed pool with his-and-her cabanas."
2,000-acre Oak Spring Farm, Bunny Mellon's home in Upperville, Virginia.
Photography courtesy of Washington Fine Properties.
Text by Jennifer Tzeses.

"More than 2,000 acres of rolling green pastures form Oak Spring Farm. The historic property, originally 400 acres, was purchased in 1931 by financier Andrew Mellon for his wife. The couple’s son, Paul, bought the farm with his wife, Bunny, in 1936 and expanded it to include neighboring farms. Located in Upperville, Virginia, some 50 miles from Washington, D.C., the farm showcases distant views of three mountain ranges: the Blue Ridge, Cobbler, and Bull Run Mountains."
Offered for $70 million by Washington Fine Properties.
Photography courtesy of Washington Fine Properties.
Text by Jennifer Tzeses.

"A hardy orange tree flanks Oak Spring’s library, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes."
Credit Charlotte Moss.
"The Eloquence of Silence" by Charlotte Moss.

"Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange), Mark Rothko, 1970; estimate $20 million to $30 million.
Purchased by Mrs. Mellon herself in 1970, Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange glowed in the second floor gallery of her Oak Spring Garden Library in Upperville, Virginia."
Photo via Sotheby's website.


"In the library, a 1954 Mark Rothko work glows against a wall of painted stone."
Oak Spring Garden Library.
Interior and garden photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold. 
Architectural Digest (June 2014).
This work will not be offered in Sotheby's auction because it was sold privately earlier this year. 
A second Rothko in the private sale "was a 1957 8-foot-tall vertical, blue canvas No. 14 (White and Greens in Blue), which was previously owned by Nelson A. Rockefeller. . . .The deal is significant because it’s one of the largest transactions in the art market and may have set personal records for the two postwar artists [A work by Richard Diebenkorn sold privately in addition to the two Rothkos.] It also gives a glimpse into private sales, a secretive part of the opaque $66 billion art industry. Unlike auctions, where final prices are public, private sales are confidential, making them unknown to most market outsiders." ("Bunny Mellon’s $250 Million Rothkos Sold in Private Sale"
by Katya Kazakina, Bloomberg, September 5, 2014).


"At Oak Spring, ‘Mary Potter’ crab apples are cordoned over a pergola that leads from the walled garden to the greenhouses (doors shown)."
Interior and garden photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold. 
"Tour the Exquisite Homes and Gardens of Late Design Legend Bunny Mellon" produced by Mitchell Owens.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).


"A Verdura 14K-gold, platinum, diamond, and ruby brooch designed as an espaliered apple tree; estimate $2,500 to $3,500."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.
Text by Mac Griswold.
"Bunny Mellon's Breathtaking Private Collection on Sale at Sotheby's"
Architectural Digest (October 2014).


"A cast metal rabbit by Jane Sage Canfield."
Photography courtesy of Sotheby's.

The Mellon auctions will commence on 10 November with an evening sale dedicated to a curated selection of Mrs. Mellon’s fine art, which encapsulates her sophisticated eye and approach to collecting. The pieces on offer in the Masterworks auction span four centuries, led by two incredible paintings by Mark Rothko that are estimated at $20,000,000-30,000,000 and $15,000,000-20,000,000, respectively. Sotheby’s will present Mrs. Mellon’s collection of Jewels and Objects of Vertu in a dedicated auction beginning in the evening of 20 November – featuring a spectacular Fancy Vivid Blue diamond that is estimated at $10,000,000-15,000,000 – and continuing the morning of the 21st. The series will culminate in a three-day Interiors sale from 21 – 23 November, offering fine art, furniture, porcelain, silver, glassware, decoration and more from the Mellons’ residences, providing an intimate portrait of their daily lives.
The more than 2,000 individual items on offer in the November auction series are drawn from the Mellons’ residences in the United States and abroad, and were acquired over a lifetime. Together the auctions are estimated to achieve in excess of $100 million. Proceeds from the sales will benefit The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, a charitable entity established by Mrs. Mellon in memory of her father. The Foundation supports horticultural and educational endeavors.
Auction details from the Sotheby's website

For additional photos, please visit my July 2014 blog post - From the Garden of Bunny Mellon

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