Earlier this month, we shared the news that Howard Zar, the executive director of Lyndhurst, would be participating in an auction in hopes of adding to the Tarrytown mansion’s holdings related to the Gould family.
Well, it turns out Lyndhurst’s efforts were successful, with the National Trust for Historic Preservation site adding three items to its collections by the conclusion of “Boniface de Castellane et Anne Gould – A way of life.”
The March 7 sale conducted by Christie’s auction house in Paris consisted of 275 lots. Featuring personal accessories, home furnishings and decorative goods that belonged to the Lyndhurst heiress and her first husband, the auction offered a captivating glimpse into their lavish Parisian life.
Anna Gould, Duchess of Talleyrand was a daughter of Jay Gould, the famed railroad baron and financier in residence at the Hudson River mansion toward the end of the 19th century.
The auction yielded the site three items, as shared by Lyndhurst:
- A French Art Deco evening bag from the 1920s with a diamond-and-ruby clasp;
- A gold pocket watch from Tiffany’s made in 1895 that was Anna Gould’s wedding present to her husband the Count Boni de Castellane. The watch features an engraving of Gould from one of her favorite pre-wedding photographs with the reverse showing the de Castellane family crest in enamel. The interior of the watch is also engraved with the 1895 wedding date.
- A pair of gold cufflinks with pictures of Anna’s children from her second husband, the Duke of Talleyrand.
Zar had told WAG that if Lyndhurst was able to secure any items, it hoped to showcase them in this summer’s edition of its costume exhibition, “Defying Labels: New Roles, New Clothes.”
The inaugural edition, featured in our June 2016 issue, was devoted to the wardrobes of some of the women in Jay Gould’s life – Anna Gould; his other daughter, Helen Gould; and his daughter-in-law Edith Kingdon Gould – and by extension, what these fashions told us about these women, their lives and society in general.
So, hearty congratulations to Lyndhurst on its winning ways – and we look forward to seeing these new acquisitions when they go on exhibition in mid-June after their journey from Paris.
For more, visit Lyndhurst.org.
– Mary Shustack
