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| Axel Vervoordt: Timeless Interiors | 
 enlarge | Author: Armelle Baron
Creator: Christian Sarramon
Publisher: Flammarion
Category: Book
List Price: $75.00
Buy New: $44.32
You Save: $30.68 (41%)
Buy New/Used from $44.32
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 12849
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 12 x 8.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 2080305352
Dewey Decimal Number: 747
EAN: 9782080305350
ASIN: 2080305352
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Release Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
Timeless Interiors Vervoordt November 27, 2007
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
Simply fabulous. You can hear a pin drop in these hushed interiors. Beautifully presented and photographed. Rush to buy now, dahling!
Stylemaven
Gorgeous November 2, 2007
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
A beautiful book with perfect interiors atmospherically lit and framed. The soft half-light does leave me trying to decipher the detail a lot of the time, but I suppose that is not the purpose of these pictures. The interiors are wonderful - sparse, minimal and perfect, with the texture of old wood and stone blending together like a gentle whisper of the passage of time. Truly gorgeous, and a visual delight.
One of the great pleasures of interior design books is the chance to see private collections in their native settings, and my only regret about this volume is that all the houses are either full of "Axel objects" rather than individually chosen works of art reflecting the taste of the owners (with one sparkling exception full of modern paintings and classical antiquities), or pieces cannot be seen because of the lighting. A small enough sacrifice.
Axel Vervoordt as decorator and antiquaire October 7, 2007
87 out of 93 found this review helpful
Like the author (and almost everyone else in the world of antique collectors), we first discovered Axel Vervoordt of Antwerp at the 1984 Paris Biennale des Antiquaires where his display of Ming porcelain that had recently been recovered from a ship lost in 1645 in the South China Sea created a sensation. His huge display of table after table of the blue and white Ming in a large booth at the center of the Grand Palais was the immediate focus of attention for everyone as they entered the fair.
We were fortunate enough to have bought a few pieces, very reasonably priced in part because of the extraordinary number of pieces recovered (surprisingly well preserved by being packed in rice hulks which presumably cushioned their fall and with grains of sand from firing still stuck to the bottom rims of most pieces) but also because centuries in salt water had given the pieces an unusual semi-matte finish. The larger pieces were sold almost immediately, in huge numbers, and the talk around the fair was that the buyers were several Saudi princesses seen hitting the booth at the opening and going over the material at length.
Vervoordt, relatively young (37) at the time, had already been avidly collecting antiques for over twenty years, focusing principally on European pieces from the Renaissance to the present, but also including ancient arts from Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The 1984 Salon launched him into a greater orbit and allowed him to acquire a huge castle in the Belgian countryside which he very tastefully restored over the next four years, using it both as a home and as a shop, albeit one covering acres and acres. More recently, he has refurbished a huge industrial complex on a canal in Antwerp, the Kanaal, to provide a series of shops, work rooms and storage, both indoors and out, for the thousands of pieces in his inventory and to create a large decorating practice.
This new book, by Armelle Baron and published by Flammarion, shows the interiors Vervoordt has created for connoisseurs who share his sophisticated, eclectic interest in beautiful objects (and possess large pocketbooks). The 250-plus pages are full of large format, color photographs showing some twenty homes around the world, where Vervoordt has beautifully incorporated a collection of Basquiat paintings with country furniture; furnished magnificent chateaux for the Queen of Belgium and for the merely wealthy; decorated a Dallas home with sophistication we doubt Texas has ever seen before. All appear very comfortable. Some of the homes featured are not at all grand but are every bit as tastefully done: a Swiss chalet, a Provencal farmhouse, a Palladian-style home on a Florida waterway.
The present book comes six years after "Axel Vervoordt: The Story of a Style", 2001, published by Assouline, which provides a magnificent introduction to his aesthetic as well as his collection, his castle and his extraordinary skill at mixing styles and periods. This is a taste which flawlessly displays a huge Anish Kapoor sculpture (maybe fifteen years old at the most) next to ancient Thai carvings, Renaissance bronzes and wonderful European furniture, all in a gorgeous stone interior.
The current book would be a wonderful gift for anyone interested in interior design or antiques. My only quibble would be the interior photography; some of the many photos do not show sufficient detail across all of the image. The 2001 book from Assouline would be the better choice if you were principally interested in antiques (and has better photography, on a par with the Givenchy monograph of a few years ago). Vervoordt has a different aesthetic than Bunny Williams or John Fowler; think Rose Tarlow working with a very sophisticated European client in the French countryside or a Greek isle instead of Beverly Hills.
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