Posted 1 year ago
keramikos
(29 items)
Another of my obsessions: a giltwood Louis XVI-style furniture set with what appears to be hand-embroidered upholstery that I've nick-named the "Gigi" furniture, because I first noticed it many years ago in 1958's movie "Gigi."
It wasn't until some time in the 2010s (D'oh!) that I noticed a couple of the chairs from the set in 1939's "Ninotchka."
Then I started noticing pieces of the set in a lot of old movies, and all of them save one (1967's "Fitzwilly") had one common denominator: they had all been produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:
That furniture set must have been perceived as quite a prize, because it was one of only a very small fraction of items in the 1970 MGM auction catalog to have a photograph.
UPDATE 20250306:
CW user JohnofVA commented 20250303 that he owned the couch and two chairs depicted in the 1970 MGM action catalog, and provided some additional information about it:
It was first bought in 1932 by MGM for the 1938 movie "Marie Antoinette" with Norma Shearer & Tyrone Power.
The back of the canape-style couch still has the auction label identifying the movie.
It came with a fragment of the fabric from the movies (however, at some point, the furniture had been reupholstered with a silk print fabric).
He got just the couch and two arm chairs seen in the 1970 MGM auction catalog; somebody else got the additional arm chairs.
Debbie Reynolds had purchased the furniture at the 1970 MGM auction.
Well, after I picked my jaw up from the floor, I started doing more research (in an attempt to clarify the timeline on this furniture set), and had my jaw drop a second time.
Somebody else out there is obsessed with the 'Gigi' furniture set, and found pieces of it in some movies I either hadn't yet seen or hadn't yet noticed the 'Gigi' furniture set pieces:
https://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-sofa-and-some-armchairs-prestige.html
I'll be doing more research; however, for now I'm updating the list of movies wherein pieces of the 'Gigi' furniture set either appear -- or almost appear, but didn't make the final editorial cut:
MOVIES WITH "GIGI" FURNITURE SET PIECES
"Marie Antoinette" (1938)
"Ninotchka" (1939)
"New Moon" (1940)
"Reunion in France" (1942)
"We Were Dancing (1942)
"Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944)
"Mrs. Parkington" (1944)
"Madame Bovary" (1949)
"An American in Paris" (1951)
"Kind Lady" (1951)
"Scaramouche (1952)
"The Swan" (1956)
"Gigi" (1958)
"Two Weeks in Another Town" (1962)
"Made in Paris" (1966)
"Fitzwilly" (1967)
"Gigi" is the film that has the most stills of the furniture set at IMDB:
Gigi on the Louis XVI-style giltwood couch with bird-themed upholstery. ("I Don't Understand the Parisians!")
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm266409217
Gigi and Great Aunt Alicia with the Louis XVI-style giltwood couch in the background and two matching fauteuil chairs in the foreground.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm3370325249
Gigi and Great Aunt Alicia on the Louis XVI-style giltwood fauteuil chairs with bird-themed upholstery.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm145131264
Gigi on the Louis XVI-style giltwood fauteuil chair with bird-themed upholstery.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm262571776
Gigi and Great Aunt Alicia on the Louis XVI-style giltwood couch with bird-themed upholstery.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm245794560
Great Aunt Alicia, Gigi, and Grandmother Inez on the Louis XVI-style giltwood couch with bird-themed upholstery.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm182719745
Grandmother Inez on one of the matching fauteuil chair and Great Aunt Alicia on then Louis XVI-style giltwood couch with bird-themed upholstery.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm3403879681
ASSOCIATED CW S&T POSTS ABOUT THE MGM LOUIS XVI GILTWOOD FURNITURE SET:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/319249-mgm-gigi-furniture-pieces-in-1956s-t
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/321058-madame-bovary-1949-and-the-gigi-fu
CW S&T POST IMAGE CREDITS:
Gigi seated on Louis XVI style couch while singing "I Don't Understand the Parisians!":
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/mediaviewer/rm266409217
Ninotchka sleeping off a champagne-drenched evening in her hotel suite:
https://archive.org/details/ninotchka-1939-3e-3-msf-6-islk
Dowager Miss Victoria Woodworth and her secretary in her office:
A low-tech screen capture from a Turner Classic Movies showing of 1967's "Fitzwilly."
The couch and two of the matching chairs seen in the 1970 MGM auction catalog:
https://archive.org/details/19700503-mgm-auction-catalog-copy/page/n7/mode/1up
Gorgeous Louis XVI style furniture esp in last photo, I believe that settee is the one shown with Gigi (Leslie Caron) in 1st pic. Good luck in your quest!
Newfld, thank you. :-)
Yes, it is definitely the same couch in the 1970 MGM auction catalog, and the scene from "Gigi." It's the upholstery that's distinctive, because there's a lot of 18th century style giltwood furniture in old movies.
I suspect that upholstery was embroidered, because I seem to detect subtle variations in the upholstery of the chairs.
There are actually more stills of that particular furniture set in the IMDB listing for "Gigi" than I've seen for any of the other movies, although the movie which shows the most pieces of the set is 1956's "The Swan."
Unless the film makers were both talented and tricky, I think I see six chairs in addition to the couch.
Such wonderful treasures keramikos!! Absolutely stunning pieces!!
jscott0363, Thanks. :-)
Nowadays I'm trying not to collect anything other than information. };-)
On this one, I broke down and bought a hard copy of the particular 1970 MGM auction catalog that has a picture of the couch and two chairs.
I had recently tripped on a Worthpoint listing for the particular catalog that had a picture of the page showing the furniture set, and my heart fluttered.
I decided to have it digitized so that it would be easier to search, and uploaded it to archive dot org as a kind of pay back/pay forward gesture. I've used archive dot org a lot in the last half dozen years.
I own this furniture. It was first bought in 1932 by MGM for the movie Marie Antoinette with Norma Shearer & Tyrone Power. At the time I bought it I was told that it was purchased in the MGM auction by Debbie Reynolds who later sold it on. The back of the canape still has the auction label identifying the movie. I got it with a fragment of the fabric from the movies but by then it was covered in a silk print . Thanks for the info you provided.
JohnofVA, You own this furniture set? Color me mind-blown.
Yes, I can well believe that Reynolds bought the set at the auction, because IIRC, at one time she had ambitions to create a museum of Hollywood artifacts. That never came to fruition, so that's probably why she sold it.
You are more than welcome for any tidbits of hitherto unbeknownst to you information I may have provided.
In case you didn't see this one, I have another MGM 'Gigi' furniture post:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/321058-madame-bovary-1949-and-the-gigi-fu
I hoping that you'll indulge me by providing a couple of tibits of information about the furniture set:
The MGM auction catalog shows just the couch and two chairs.
Is that what you got, or are there more chairs in the set?
You say that the set has been reupholstered, but you have a fragment of the original upholstery fabric.
Is the original fabric embroidered, or painted?
Oh, and I've seen "Marie Antoinette" with Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power, but never noticed the 'Gigi' furniture, though.
That's the way it goes with me. A lot of times I'll be idly half-watching an old movie over my morning coffee, and suddenly "Bam!" There a piece of the 'Gigi" furniture will be.
You can rest assured that I'll be recording that movie and watching it like a hawk the next time it's shown.
I only got the canape and 2 chairs some one else got 4 chairs. The fabric was a combination of paint and embroidery sort of glued on a base. I have a black & white still of the set with a sign saying "DuBerry Salon" the scenes may have been cut from the final movie. I also found a picture showing it sitting in the MGM furniture warehouse.
JohnofVA, Thank you so much. :-)
This post needs some more spiffing up when I get time; however for now, I'm going to mark it as a "SOLVED MYSTERY," thanks to you.
Incidentally, I chased down a bit more information about Reynolds and the auction/museum:
https://www.debbiereynolds.com/academy-museum
https://ew.com/movies/2016/12/29/debbie-reynolds-hollywood-memorabilia/
JohnofVA, Welp, there they are, hiding in plain sight at IMDB dot com:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030418/mediaviewer/rm1258060288/
It's the couch and one of the chairs from the 'Gigi' giltwood Louis XVI style furniture set, and the photo isn't a still from the movie, but rather a production still, because there is a slate/placard in the photo labled:
DUVIVIER
1030-05
DU BARRY
SALON
Duvivier was Julien Duvivier, a famous French director.
Ultimately, 1938's "Marie Antoinette" was directed by W. S. "One-Take Woody" Van Dyke, so it does seem likely that any scene involving Madame Du Barry's salon was cut from the final film.
I've been collecting more tidbits, but they still need more research.
Apparently, MGM Associate Art Director Edwin B. Willis spent three months in France buying antiques, etc., for the film.