![[Americana.]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2006-09%252F22%252F7332891-4-1.JPG%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2012-08%252F09%252F8520323-124-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-11%252F07%252F25776056-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
Darren Sutherland
Specialist
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 172
WHITE HOUSE WALLPAPER FRAGMENT AND FABRIC SAMPLES FROM THE KENNEDY ERA. A collection of one wallpaper fragment from the Blue Room, and 10 fabric fragments left over from the redecoration of the Green and Red State Rooms in the White House. Washington: 1961-62.
14 October 2020, 13:00 EDT
New YorkUS$1,500 - US$2,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
WHITE HOUSE WALLPAPER FRAGMENT AND FABRIC SAMPLES FROM THE KENNEDY ERA.
A collection of one wallpaper fragment from the Blue Room, and 10 fabric fragments left over from the redecoration of the Green and Red State Rooms in the White House. Washington: 1961-62. The French-style wallpaper fragment, 19 x 9 inches, the edges torn, the reverse annotated in blue ink, by Mr. Preston Bruce, "62-64 JFK put it up. LBJ had it removed because it did not suit her tastes. From Blue Room."
The 10 fabric pieces comprise 4 pieces in green silk taffeta (2 long sections, one square section, and a green silk taffeta ribbon), with a short piece of green brocade; The 5 red fabrics comprising two pieces of red cotton satin furniture material, a square piece of moire silk damask (12 x 14 inches,) a short piece of red brocade, and a short 2 inch piece of gold silk decorated tape. The fragments all contained in a plain Manila envelope with an address label, "Mrs. John F. Kennedy, White House, Washington D.C."
A fascinating group of relics from the White House, the wallpaper is annotated with a note that this was from the Blue Room, but descriptions of Jackie Kennedy's redesign of the room do not mention a classic French wallpaper, and it may well have come from another room in the house. The red and green fragments are all left over from Jackie' Kennedy's refurbishment of the Red and Green State Rooms of the White House by Boudin and Parish, between 1961 and 1962. In the Red Room Jackie chose Boudin's choice of a cerise silk furniture fabric for the walls, with a broad band of decorative silk tape to border the panels. In the final version of the room the silk tape was never used. Boudin also chose a cerise silk material for the drapes.
In the Spring of 1962, for the Green Room, Jackie chose Boudin's wall covering of a moss-colored silk in a moire pattern, and the French firm of Tassinari and Chatel were commissioned to make up the fabric.
Jackie loved the redecoration, and artistic renderings of these rooms were used as Christmas gifts by the Kennedys in 1961 and 1963.
The 10 fabric pieces comprise 4 pieces in green silk taffeta (2 long sections, one square section, and a green silk taffeta ribbon), with a short piece of green brocade; The 5 red fabrics comprising two pieces of red cotton satin furniture material, a square piece of moire silk damask (12 x 14 inches,) a short piece of red brocade, and a short 2 inch piece of gold silk decorated tape. The fragments all contained in a plain Manila envelope with an address label, "Mrs. John F. Kennedy, White House, Washington D.C."
A fascinating group of relics from the White House, the wallpaper is annotated with a note that this was from the Blue Room, but descriptions of Jackie Kennedy's redesign of the room do not mention a classic French wallpaper, and it may well have come from another room in the house. The red and green fragments are all left over from Jackie' Kennedy's refurbishment of the Red and Green State Rooms of the White House by Boudin and Parish, between 1961 and 1962. In the Red Room Jackie chose Boudin's choice of a cerise silk furniture fabric for the walls, with a broad band of decorative silk tape to border the panels. In the final version of the room the silk tape was never used. Boudin also chose a cerise silk material for the drapes.
In the Spring of 1962, for the Green Room, Jackie chose Boudin's wall covering of a moss-colored silk in a moire pattern, and the French firm of Tassinari and Chatel were commissioned to make up the fabric.
Jackie loved the redecoration, and artistic renderings of these rooms were used as Christmas gifts by the Kennedys in 1961 and 1963.