Page 28 - VE Magazine - Issue 42

‘He was a womaniser with a bad temper, who frequently entertained the mob in his apartment with private floorshows full of girls’
Above: Opium Den Sofa in oak, c.1950. The sofa’s platform has a soft white rubbed patina and a beautiful texture. One of Mont’s first pieces using cerused oak, is a wonderful early example of his iconic ‘Chinese Modern’ style
Left: Cinnabar Lacquered and Gilt Chinoiserie Server, c.1950s
Opposite: Many of Mont’s preferred touches and signature motifs are united in these elongated white gold-leaf shelves, including stylised bamboo, expert gilding, and reinterpreted Asian forms. The pagoda shelf would reappear in several different guises throughout his career
entertained the mob in his apartment with private floorshows full of girls. In 1940 he was sentenced to, and served, five years for “savagely thrashing” lampshade designer Dorothy Burns who had refused his advances. She felt so humiliated – she hung herself during the trial.
Mont created true Hollywood glamour using bold, exotic, often Chinese-inspired pieces and luxurious materials, such as gold and silver leaf, lacquer, faux animal skin with expensive and lustrous finishes. Pieces often had four different undercoats in different colours, then three or four layers of gold or silver leaf, followed by graining with wire wool to create an antiqued look. Understandably, his one-off pieces were expensive for the time.
As a custom designer, his taste always ran to opulence and drama – producing pieces that were large, exquisitely crafted, and fabulous – for people who had, or wanted to look as if they had
28 / October-November 2018 / ve
www.vintagexplorer.co.uk
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