EAST & ORIENT, Betty Gertz and Axel Vervoordt

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

AND in the spirit of the season - in order to give thanks to good interior design, here’s a story about what good design is all about.

For years, a shopping trip to Dallas’ Design District included a must visit to East & Orient Company, the 18,000 sq ft, antique décor shop owned by Betty Gertz.

 

Opened in 1979, it remained a Dallas institution until Gertz shuttered its doors, after holding a final store wide sale in late 2016.

A Google view of the East & Orient shop – covered in ivy with a green and white awning.  Past the front door, you entered an courtyard filled with plants and trees.  This type of courtyard entry will be repeated in Gertz's newest home.

Inside the front courtyard of East & Orient.

A few years ago, in 2015,  Architectural Digest published a story on Betty Gertz new home decorated by the one of the world’s most admired designers, Axel Vervoordt.  The Architectural Digest house was actually the second project that Vervoordt and Gertz had worked on.  Their first project was published in Southern Accents, back in 2002.

It’s not often that you see work by Axel Vervoordt in Texas.  I never even imagined that he had even been here, but there it was  - the proof in the 2002 Southern Accents.   Decades before, the Belgian designer who had turned the world of interior design upside down, had met Betty Gertz and her husband Melvin at the Paris Biennale des Antiquarian.   After that meeting Betty and Axel became collaborators and friends which led to him designing her Georgian styled house on beautiful Beverly Drive in Highland Park.   Betty stocked her shop with goods bought from Axel.   After the long hours shopping, she stayed over with Axel and his family at the Vervoordt's castle where their friendship deepened.

The Vervoordt’s Castle – gorgeous.

Perhaps Betty and Axel’s most well known collaboration became known as the “Hatcher Cargo Collection” from 1984.  Christie’s was auctioning off Chinese porcelains from a 1640s shipwreck salvaged by Captain Michael Hatcher.  The sunken cargo netted about 25,000 pieces of porcelain of which Christie’s was offering a few thousand of them.  Axel and Betty were at that auction – and they both made large purchases.   Read about this auction and the subsequent Nanking auction HERE.   Years later Christie’s again auctioned off those pieces - bought by Betty at its original auction.

Betty first displayed her Hatcher collection in the Georgian house on brackets that Axel designed. Later, those pieces were placed in her new home’s pool house,  featured in Architectural Digest.  And of course, many of the pieces were sold at East & Orient.

Gertz’s East & Orient was certainly one of the most respected antique shops in Dallas and with that, Betty Gertz was one of the most respected antiquarians in Dallas. A visit to the shop was a romantic trip with its endless vignettes in beautiful settings.

A list of customers who had shopped at East & Orient is incredible:  Princess Michael of Kent, Bill Blass, Charlotte Moss, Bunny Williams, Viscount David Linley, and the late designers Mario Buatta and Mark Hampton – these are just a few of their discerning clients.

  

Betty and her husband’s personal friends included Moshe Dayan and Aristotle Onassis.   It is a truly amazing group of people – friends and clients - even though I’m sure this is a highly edited list.

  

Betty’s office at East & Orient was hidden behind a jib door, camouflaged in the bookcase.  Her office inside, though, was the crème de la crème: 

 

Betty’s beautiful French office at East & Orient.  Wow.

My jaw just dropped at this photo.  It is so pleasing to the eye, right?

The Sales

After 37 years running East & Orient, Betty decided to sell.  The 18,000 sq ft shop was too large for someone her age to manage and for a while, she entertained the thought that she might open up in another, much smaller space - something she never did.  After her children sold the East & Orient building, the time came to sell its contents.   Antique lovers were shocked but thrilled when the sale opened.  Some bids started at just $1. - there were many bargains to be had.  Over 1,100 objects sold in just two days.  It was a sale that Dallas wouldn’t soon forget.  But there was more to come.

(Read two stories about the closing of East & Orient HERE AND HERE.)

After the 2015 Architectural Digest story on Betty Gertz’s new house, I didn’t think about it again.  Not living in Dallas, I wasn’t even aware that East & Orient had closed.  But, by accident, a few weeks ago, I came across an online real estate ad for the sale of Betty’s Architectural Digest house which reminded me of the AD story.   A fee Google searches later, I discovered the sale of East & Orient and the subsequent Christie sale of the contents of her house and the two auctions of her Hatcher porcelains. 

An article about Gertz noted that she had sold her somewhat still new home,  saying it was too high tech for her.  She never could turn on her TV and at night, she struggled with the lights.  She moved to a smaller place, without the technology.

I thought you might want to revisit the 2002 story on the Georgian house and a look at the real estate photos of the Architectural Digest house – both designed by the incomparable Axel Vervoordt.  Vervoordt in Texas?  It’s such a rarity, it deserves a second look.

               The 2002 cover was of the Georgian house designed by Axel Vervoordt.

           

   From Southern Accents.  The white Georgian was built in 1913 on the toniest of streets, Beverly Drive in Highland Park.  The Gertzes raised their family here.  Later, as a widow, Betty sold this house and moved to the smaller house featured in the 2015 Architectural Digest. 

This house is such a beautiful classic - so what happened after Betty moved out was somewhat of a shock:

In this Google view from 2008, you can just barely see the Georgian house behind a white brick fence and thick foliage.

No sooner had the house been sold than it was TORN DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!  SERIOUSLY!!!!!!

Here is what it looks like now.  A big behemoth of nothingness.  WHY?!?!?!?!?

The property is now taken up with a newly built Faux Frenchifried Chateunail on a corner lot, no less.

Let’s look at the Georgian house, inside, before it was demolished.   The Gertzes had asked their good friend Axel Vervoordt to design the house.  Was this a Texas first?  The house was painted white, inside and out, decades before it was in vogue. 

Through the front door with its fan light, is the foyer with a classic black and white marble floor.  George II console (!) and bookcase.  William and Mary torchieres flank the front door.  Beautiful staircase.

Years later this console would be listed at the Christie’s Living With Art auction in 2017.  Final price was $3,500.  The sofa and the candlesticks were part of the sale, too.

The console, from the catalogue.

At the left side of the house is the large living room, filled mostly with English antiques. 

A view of the front corner with the secretary filled with the Hatcher blue and white porcelain.  I love the rug covered table!!  The book stand in the corner is pure Axel.

Years later, the secretary and yellow chair would be included in the Christie's sale.

At the opposite of the living room is this corner cabinet lavabo, used as a bar.  The champagne is cooling in the receptacle.

This distinctive piece was used to great elan in the new house’s bathroom.

The dining room – what is amazing is the house had been designed by Dorothy Draper at some point and this wallpaper was the only remnant left of that project.   I tried to find photos of the Dorothy Draper design – I looked everywhere.  I’m sure there are photos somewhere, but I couldn’t find any.  Dang it!!!!

You can read the caption here, that Betty was advised to remove the paper because it was torn and dirty – but she refused because she loved Draper's paper.  The dishes on the table are the 400 year old plates from the Hatcher shipwreck.

These plates were copied by OKA – fabulous!!

To see OKA’s line of Kraakware China, go HERE

The designer Michael S.  Smith uses the OKA dinnerware at his own home.

And one of the most interesting items in the Christie's 2017 auction "Living with Art" were these 10 framed 19th century, Japanese wallpaper panels.  Four large and six small panels sold for $21,250.  The provenance?  "From a Dallas home, decorated by Dorothy Draper, c. 1919."

The wallpaper that Gertz loved too much to remove - was salvaged when she sold the house.  Since the house was torn down, she was smart to remove it and have it framed.  I'm not sure if she first used the framed panels in her own new AD house, but, regardless - the wallpaper lives on!!!!

The sparse and modern Solarium was added off the living room.  An antique chair sits next to a 14th century bronze.  Later this bronze would be sold for a huge price at auction.

  The niche in the Solarium is the real showstopper:

 

In the niche designed by Vervoordt, Hatcher Ming vases are on display.  Isn’t this incredible?

The library is so cozy.  Notice the carved mantel.  AND in between the fireplace and sofa – notice the salesman sized upholstered chair!!  Fabulous.  This tiny chair was sold at the Christie’s auction, as was the painting over the mantel.  On the ceiling is a sepia toned map marked with places the Gertzes have lived.

The other side of the library.  Those velum books!!!  There are just treasures everywhere.

The salesman model!  Wow!!!!  This was later auctioned off at Christies.  It sold for just 875.

In the breakfast room, Vervoordt used 18th century Georgian chairs, while a pine cabinets holds blue & white porcelain.  I love the scalloped console in the bay window.

In the 2002 house – Axel used antique Delft tiles around the stove.  Blue and white checked curtains match the porcelains.

Now, let's look at the new Gertz house in Architectural Digest.

In late 2015, AD featured a new house owned by the now widowed Betty Gertz.   When Betty first showed Axel her new house, he hated it.   In AD he said most houses in Dallas had beautiful exteriors and ugly interiors.  He wanted to reverse that.    Today, the 1984 house is now hidden behind ivy and bushes, barely visible from the street and this is exactly how Axel planned it. 

Before – the house was orientated on a corner lot, with the front door on the side street.   You can see the house was once peach.  Under Axel’s changes, this empty front yard becomes a circular driveway with a hidden courtyard that camouflages the front door.

After:  Here you can see how the orientation now faces the main street with the added curved driveway, hidden by a large hedge.  The front door is now off the curved drive – you can barely see it here.   When you enter this front door, you actually travel through two courtyards before you arrive at the house.

AFTER:   Real Estate Photo.   This is the view of the side street as it looks today.   Axel painted the once peach house white and he installed luscious landscaping which further screened the house from the street.  This tall fireplace is one of two matching ones in the living room. And, the small window seen here is the kitchen.

Before:  Same view!   Tiny, blurry before photo – the house was peach.  And you can see how the front door was on the side street.  This was moved to the front street.

AFTER:  The antique front door, off the new circular drive, that leads to the first courtyard.

AD:   Looking back at the front door towards the courtyard.  This brick courtyard leads to yet another courtyard and then to the foyer.  Above the courtyard are a series of wires that allow for vines to grow over the area, further shading the courtyard.

REAL ESTATE:   Looking the other direction, from the front courtyard into the second, inner courtyard.  Compare this photo from the Real Estate brochure to the photo from Architectural Digest, below.  Quite a difference – which shows again how much more talented professional photographers are.

The same view – as seen through the lens of AD.  Looking into the second courtyard. 

Real Estate – Inside the second, larger courtyard that leads to the front door. 

Real Estate:   The foyer is actually a large solarium with old Carrera marble floors brought here by Axel.  All furniture in the new house was once in the Georgian house, including this Khmer sculpture that was in the Georgian solarium. 

AD:  A much more artistic photograph of the foyer, showing the sculpture and a wonderful root planter. 

  A jib style door leads to the bedroom.   The 13th century bronze netted $47,500 at the Christie’s auction.    There were two root planters, this one and another – and together they went for $5,000.

 

 

AD:   A Chinese root table sits under a painting by Axel himself!!

The root table netted $13,750 at the Christie’s auction.  Wow.  Underneath the table, the two Indian Lingam stones went for $2,000.  

AD:  The house has a long, narrow design – with this hall running from front to back.

Axel designed this space that leads from the foyer/solarium through to the back living room.  New skylights add to the romance.  You can see the front door here, at the back of the hall.  Bougainvillea grows wild over the walls and ceiling.   The  walls are lime painted plaster.   Most interesting are the pieces that were not sold at the auction, such as this console.  

Real Estate:  Same view.  But, here you can see the holes in the floor where the vines are planted!!!  You can not see that in the AD photos.  Really amazing.  Notice how the tiles are accented around the holes in the ground – I suppose to bring attention to the holes?   Across from the console is an arched opening.  And on the other side is the kitchen.

Notice the early 17th century Flemish marble relief  subtly lighted on the wall?  It was in the solarium in the Georgian house.   At the Christie’s sale, it was bought for $11,250.

 

Real Estate:  AND, looking the other direction – from the foyer to the long hall to the living room – which overlooks the back garden and pool house.   From the front door – you can see all the through the house to the back.

Before:  Orange brick walls and one large skylight.  Axel replaced the one skylight with several square ones. So much better!  This older skylight looks so old fashioned – while the square lights look classic.    I just wish these BEFORE photos were bigger!!!!  Even with this small photo – you can see how this long hall looks like an office space, where as Axel’s hall looks absolutely amazing!!!!!

AD:   The kitchen is beyond fabulous!!!!  The marble floors continue in here while the cabinetry came from an 18th century Bordeaux apothecary!!  Whomever bought this house from Betty got a steal of a deal!!!  Look at this kitchen.  Gorgeous.   The chairs came from the old house and the Belgian blue and white checked fabric was repeated here too.   The stools are early 17th century.  The refrigerator is hidden in the cabinet and notice the sink cabinet.  I’m so in love with this, it looks just like a Dutch kitchen.

AD:   The view of the range flanked by the two windows. I think this kitchen is pure genius.  Compare this kitchen to a typical new kitchen in a typical house or mega mansion.  This is just genius.   Photography for the AD photos is by Björn Wallander.

Real Estate:   I hate to even show this photo.   The chairs are gone, probably sold in one of the auctions.  Sad.  All the lights are on and it’s just a terrible photo compared to the AD ones with the natural light.

Betty says the kitchen is her favorite room and where she spent most of her time.

Before:   A tiny blurred before of the kitchen.  You can see the ceiling in much of the house was once pitched with beams – that is all gone now.  Interesting that Axel didn’t want to use the beams in his design.

ALSO, the wall between the kitchen and the living room which runs from side to side was open here.  Axel closed this wall up.  You can see the gold chair and rug and bookcase behind it – this is actually the living room.

AD:   Here, Axel used a mix of old parquet wood floor, taken from seven different houses!!!  This is a double sided room.  There are two fireplaces and all her antique chairs and chaises and tables from the Georgian house were used in this room.  Purple walls are a surprise, but again – the room looks like it is in a Belgium home.  The living room is also a dining room.  Beautiful photo!

NOTE:  The wall on the left – this is the wall that was once open up to the kitchen.

AD:  And the other side of the room, with the sofas and large, tapestry covered table. 

One mantel is an original antique, one was made to replicate the original.  Here you can really see how the floor is mismatched but that’s all Axel.  It looks beautiful.

Look at this antique architect’s desk!!!!!  Isn’t it fabulous!!!  I wonder if that is a TV hiding behind that two part screen??? 

The French mirror went for $8,125! 

A view to the back corner.   I wonder where that large cache of vellum books are?

And the real estate photos show the back windows.

And across the room, towards the front.  I wish there was one photo of the entire room with both fireplaces showing!!!

The chaise was sold at Christie’s for only $1,125.  Someone got very lucky. 

AND, get this – the leather chair, George III, mahogany – 1760, sold for only $1,750.  You would pay more for a new one.  That is a steal. 

And here, by the fireplace is the little salesman’s sample – the upholstered chair.

OHHHHH, I just found the collection of the vellum books!  By the window, in a special bookcase. 

This painting over the mantel was in the Christie’s auction.   It netted $6,875 at the auction.

Two terrible tiny blurred BEFORE photos of the left side of the living room, showing the roof line before it was lowered by Axel.

Not seen in AD, the powder room.  You can see how charming this is – the foyer with a stone fountain.  Love the marble floors.

The wood candlesticks, William & Mary, circa 1690.  1690!!!!  And they sold for just $1,000.

 The AD photo just showed a small part of the bedroom.   The side table, an 1825 yew Regency etagere, went for $2,000 at auction.    The beauty though is the piece at the left – an antique Belgian secretary.  Gorgeous.

This piece was not shown in the auction.

Real Estate:  A much larger photo.  The bedroom is covered in either a paper or a paint technique – I can’t tell. 

AD:  The bathroom just kills me!   The finest pieces of furniture were placed in here.  The paint color is a deeper shade of the bedroom walls, but it makes me wish the bedroom was this shade too.  In the corner is the fabulous piece that was in the living room of the Georgian house – all lit up with votives and champagne resting in the plant bin.  It looks like Axel chose one type of the Versailles floor in here – culled from the same house.

In the corner, the stunning Dutch lavabo from the 18th century sold for $5,626. 

The Real Estate photo of the bathroom shows the white marble shower through the beautiful wood door.

The George II secretary after a Thomas Chippendale design sold for $10,625.   The secretary was also in the living room in the Georgian house.

The beautiful backyard.  Here the view looks back on the house, where the living room is.  You can see the two chimneys there.      The brick was opened up in order to plant boxwood at the pool line while a new limestone coping was added.  Beautiful landscaping – rows of Magnolia trees were planted, shaped like evergreens.

 

Before:  A photo of the back of the house with the old roof line.  Whoa – I really like the flat roof better than it was before.  It was a daring decision to flatten and raise the ceilings, but it was worth it.   At the left is a pergola that was also removed.

There is a pool house, below.

Facing the house is this darling pool house.   I think this is also the garage.   Notice the front door and surround.  This is from the old Georgian house.  Now, remember I showed you that the new owners tore down the Georgian and built a faux chateaunail instead.  The door came here with Axel and Betty!  Not sure where the round window came from, probably from the white house too.  Looks like a slate roof?  Looks like the Hamptons. 

Here’s the old Georgian and the front door that was salvaged. 

Inside the pool room, Axel designed these white pedestals for the Kraakware plates and urns for the poolroom!!!  I wish there were more photographs from there! 

                                                          

Betty Gertz sits at the incredible architect’s desk.  I don’t think she lived in this house for very long – maybe five years or less.  Even though the floors were heated and the pool was kept at a toasty 90 degrees – she complained that the high tech confused her.   She moved to a smaller, less confusing place.  Where?  I have no idea.  She deserves her private retirement, she worked until she was in her 90s.    She sold many of her pieces at the Christie’s auctions, including the two blue and white Hatcher shipwreck sales.  I just hope she kept enough for her new home!!

To see the Christie’s auction go here.