Monday, February 15, 2010

Dorothy Draper who knew?


Recently we have acquired right many of Dorothy Draper designed pieces. When I looked at her pieces and where she worked who knew that a lady of my grandmother's generation could accomplish so much in a time when ladies stayed home and kept house. Sure ladies in the twenties and thirties worked, but usually they had to work. They were our maiden aunts or they had the misfortune of losing their husbands. Most women of that period did not work. Dorothy Draper not only worked , she flourished. She was married to a doctor in fact he was President Roosevelt's personal doctor after he contracted polio. Coming from a wealthy family she grew up with Eleanor Roosevelt. It was perhaps because of her social connections that she began to achieve something that many other women of her era were unable to do. One connection led to another. The Homestead Hotel in West Virginia is perhaps one of the most noted places she decorated. We have a lot of pieces from the Homestead Hotel. We have been partially "Draperized" the term that other decorators of the era used when discussing her design work. Her work is also referred to as Modern-Baroque. The book "In The Pink" about Dorothy Draper by Carlton Varney reintroduced Draper to decorating and her work has influenced modern designers such as Kelley Wearstler.

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