Mario Buatta's Mega Chintz Collection is Now Up for Auction
“The average auction for a sale like this has between 250 to 300 lots,” says Dennis Harrington, head of English and European furniture at Sotheby’s. “Mario Buatta has over a thousand.”
In life, legendary decorator Mario Buatta loved to collect—“I am the original hoarder,” he once admitted—and the collection he left behind after his death in 2018 is, if not museum-worthy, then museum-lover worthy. Buatta was an Anglophile and particularly obsessed with the concept of an English Country House, rambling homes filled not only with British antiques, but found objects and art from around the world, particularly Asia.
“Mario Buatta believed, as [his mentor] John Fowler did, that homes should feel comfortable, like a good old pair of shoes or perfectly worn overcoat,” says Harrington. The auction on January 23, "Mario Buatta Prince of Interiors,” is comprised of his personal collection, pulled from his two homes (and several storage units) in New York and Connecticut. (A public exhibit opens today.)
Highlights from the sale include Chinese and Japanese lacquered cabinets, a staple in the Buatta interior. He also collected pieces from those he admired: Sister Parish, John Fowler, and Nancy Lancaster. “He had a piece from every single one of Nancy Lancaster’s homes,” says Harrington. This includes Venetian Etched Glass Mirrors from her iconic “Butter Yellow” room in London.
There are also pieces that Buatta loved to collect in masse: fruit, vegetable, and floral ceramics, portraits of dogs, particularly of Cavalier King Charles spaniels (he would jokingly refer to them as his ancestors and owned over 50 of them), and, of course, heaps of English antiques. “It all comes together in a coherent way,” says Harrington. “He was a true collector and just kept buying and buying, but there are clear themes and motifs throughout. He was consistent—he didn’t have a modern or a contemporary phase.”
And of course, there will be chintz. Not only in his collection of textiles, including chintz curtains from the 1984 Kips Bay Show House Room, but also in a set of chintz teddy bears, and, as a grand finale, his chintz cape. The auction will be sold without reserve.
“I think Mario would have liked that," Harrington says. "It feels like we are honoring his legacy by allowing the sale to be more accessible to a young generation of designers.” According to Sotheby's, estimates range from $500 to $50,000.
So, set aside those 2020 organizational goals, there is enough Mario Buatta to go around, and then some.
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