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I absolutely adore porcelain anything, and Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg is the dream stuff is made of. They have been churning out the finest porcelain in the world since 1747. Inextricably linked to Germany’s Royal Bavarian Wittelsbach family, the house produces all of its figurines and serving pieces using original methods at the Nördliches Schlossrondell Palace in Nymphenburg. Schloss Nymphenburg was built in 1664 as a summer residence for Elector Ferdinand, and is still owned by the Bavarian royal family.
No other factory in the world still manufactures its products the way that Nymphenburg does. It’s one of the last places where all products are made entirely by hand, and the term “manu factum” really does mean what it says. The conscious decision not to use any type of automated process has produced the most breathtaking pieces. The porcelain paste – which other companies buy as a semi-finished product – is made on site. Nymphenburg also creates and mixes its own paints; its porcelain painters work without templates. Each item is shaped and painted by hand, each ornament individually applied and all designs, regradless of how intricate, are cut with tiny blades into the unfired porcelain. Nymphenburg consciously decided to only employ manual production methods, and since the 18th century has refined them to near perfection. Clients are often amazed to hear that delivery of a four-part food service will take two years.
The buildings and workshops are as much works of art as the pieces they produce. I could live in the Paste Mill or Gilding Room. The spaces are so magnificent, they are available to rent out for events and film shoots. Can you imagine???
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I keep a little of file of great rooms I’d like to sit around in for a while. Here are a few.
I’ve been thinking alot about Paris lately.
Café de Flore on the corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Rue St. Benoit will always be one of the most special places in the world to me. The classic deco interior of all red seating, mahogany and mirrors is original to World War II. Although Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir would meet here and discuss their philosophy of existentialism over a drink, there’s nothing mlre pleasing than a lazy breakfast of oeufs en cocotte here with someone you love and making plans for the future.
Quite possibly the most beautiful room in new York City, Café Pierre (or the Rotunda) at The Pierre hotel is a perfectly executed exercise in lavishness. The trompe l’oeil murals created by American artist Edward Melcarth play backdrop to the most fabulous afternoon tea this side of the Thames. Have some Earl Gray with a lover under the dome and discuss the 253-room hotel’s luscious history (including tales of founder Charles Pierre and original financiers Otto H. Kahn , Edward F. Hutton , and Walter P. Chrysler ,) its infamous bankruptcy in 1932, and eventual purchase by oilman J. Paul Getty for $2.5 million in 1938.
If the top of the building looks familiar its because it was modeled by archtects Schultze and Weaver (The Breakers Palm Springs, The Waldorf-Astoria, The Sherry-Netherland) after Mansart’s Royal Chapel at Versailles . Permanent residents in the few apartments have included Elizabeth Taylor , Viacom entertainment company chairman Sumner Redstone , Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed , and the late designer Yves Saint-Laurent .
In 2005 The Pierre was acquired by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces , an India-based global chain of fine luxury hotels and resorts, yet it still retains its forever charm. I spent the night of my birthday there right after the purchase so I can attest to it.
I first visited Chichén-Itzá about six years ago and cannot fathom why the entire United States is not obsessed with this major mystical and architectural wonder located a mere 1500 miles from downtown New York City. Perhaps it’s the Mayan blood I have running through my veins, but I’m pretty proud that while Europe was still in the midst of the Dark Ages , these amazing people had mapped the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas , and became masters of mathematics. They invented the calendars we use today. Without metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel they were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety. The Chichén Itzá complex is unbelievably extensive and includes ancient temples, pyramids, steambaths, sacred watering holes, a marketplace, and a mindblowing observatory. Their legacy in stone, which has survived in a spectacular fashion at places such as Chichén Itzá, (and Palenque , Tikal , Tulum , and Copan ), lives on as do the seven million descendants of the classic Maya civilization – including me!
Given this insanely rich history, and its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , it astounds me that most people I know have never heard of one of the greatest (and conveniently located) Pre-Columbian centers our hemisphere has ever known. So next time you are planning a long weekend in Cancun , rent a car and take a drive 150 miles down the coast, drop your bags off at the magical, sustainable, and impeccably green Hacienda Chichén , and educate yourself, man.
James Burden is known for little more than marrying Florence Sloane, the daughter of William D. Sloane , a rug and furniture magnate and a descendant of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt . That marriage resulted in Adele’s father commissioning the James Burden Mansion for his daughter and her new husband, and giving New York City one of its more underexposed Beaux-Arts gems.
Daddy William Sloane also purchased an adjoining parcel and built a second mansion for his daughter Emily when she married her husband John Hammond. Andrew Carnegie lived in the mansion next door (now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum .) Upon Mr. Burden’s death, Mrs. Burden remarried, leasing house to John Jacob Astor VI , who had been born in 1912, shortly after his mother, Madeleine Astor , was rescued from the sinking Titanic . In 1916, banking magnate Otto Kahn bought the corner lot and built the Otto Kahn mansion on it. Quite a Peyton Place. Get the whole story »
I’m into houses of worship. I’m probably one of the very few people in my age group who still goes to church every Sunday. I of course go for the spiritual sustenance, but the incense-laden pomp and circumstance of a high mass don’t hurt. Say what you want about the church these days, I love being a part of a ritual that goes back thousands of years.
I also love visiting other sacred sites, both for the history and the design. Il Duomo (the main cathedral) in Florence is pretty spectacular, but for interiors, I think Il Duomo in Sienna (by far my favorite Tuscan town) takes the cake. Amazing how the striped black and white marble is still a magnificently relevant design.