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Lot Essay
This lot will be sold with a certificate of authenticity from the Comité Jean-Michel Frank.
The desk offered here is the result of the collaboration between the client and designer,
both of whom were extraordinary individuals. The former, Helen Lansdowne Resor
(1886-1964) is recognized as being the first woman of note in the history of American
advertising. Beginning her career at a small Cincinnati advertising agency, Ms. Lansdowne
was hired by Stanley Resor to be the first female copywriter for the local branch of the J.
Walter Thompson Company in that city. Resor and Lansdowne were married in 1917, a year
after he had purchased the entire company. Stanley focused on running the business while
Helen was in charge of preparing the ads.
The firm quickly achieved enormous success under their shared leadership. Introducing
celebrity endorsements, Helen Resor was responsible for what are acknowledged as some
of the top advertising campaigns of the 20th century. She was also a pioneer in employing
artists in developing advertisements. Resor hired Norman Rockwell to illustrate several
ads and signed photographer Edward Steichen to an exclusive contract in 1923. With
her innovative view of design, it is not surprising that she turned to Jean-Michel Frank to
decorate her Connecticut residence.
Frank, by the mid-1930s, had already achieved international fame as an interior designer.
Born to wealth, he decided to travel the world from 1920-1925, befriending the Surrealists
as well as Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Frank was introduced to the Chilean poet Eugenia
Errazuriz in Paris around 1927 and was deeply influenced by her belief in modernist
minimalism. His designs quickly evolved and in 1932 he opened a gallery with the Parisian
decorator Adolphe Chanaux at 140 Rue du Fauborg Saint-Honoré. This was the beginning
of a highly productive ten-year collaboration, resulting in international commissions from
such leaders of society as the Rockefellers and Guerlains.
Mrs. Stanley Resor sent her agent to the gallery in July 1934 and began a six-month
correspondence with Frank, discussing all elements of the joint project and the designer’s
ideas. Frank would not alter his basic concepts, but it is interesting the number of options
he presented to the client on the desk alone. He sent Resor photographs and a price list
from Hermès, along with leather samples, to get her opinion on what she would want on
the top surface. Frank also asked for her thoughts on whether or not gilt bronze hardware
might look “heavy.” The design was finally agreed upon, but Frank, ever the perfectionist
required Hermès to redo the leather covering twice before he was completely satisfied. In a
letter to Mrs. Resor dated December 8th 1935, he wrote “At the last moment something is
often not really the way I wanted it and I have to make even small changes which delay the
completion. (The leather covering of the desk for instance was redone twice by Hermès.) I
do hope you will like the things.”
This handsome desk, identical to one in Frank’s own apartment, with its clean lines, gently
tapered legs and recessed central drawer is emblematic of the designer’s ability to create
a relatively simple, yet highly sophisticated object. The leather tablet beautifully contrasts
with the sanded oak, as do the bronze-encased feet. In its understated luxury, the desk
brilliantly exemplifies Frank’s ultimate credo: “Throw out and keep throwing out. Elegance
means elimination.”
The desk offered here is the result of the collaboration between the client and designer,
both of whom were extraordinary individuals. The former, Helen Lansdowne Resor
(1886-1964) is recognized as being the first woman of note in the history of American
advertising. Beginning her career at a small Cincinnati advertising agency, Ms. Lansdowne
was hired by Stanley Resor to be the first female copywriter for the local branch of the J.
Walter Thompson Company in that city. Resor and Lansdowne were married in 1917, a year
after he had purchased the entire company. Stanley focused on running the business while
Helen was in charge of preparing the ads.
The firm quickly achieved enormous success under their shared leadership. Introducing
celebrity endorsements, Helen Resor was responsible for what are acknowledged as some
of the top advertising campaigns of the 20th century. She was also a pioneer in employing
artists in developing advertisements. Resor hired Norman Rockwell to illustrate several
ads and signed photographer Edward Steichen to an exclusive contract in 1923. With
her innovative view of design, it is not surprising that she turned to Jean-Michel Frank to
decorate her Connecticut residence.
Frank, by the mid-1930s, had already achieved international fame as an interior designer.
Born to wealth, he decided to travel the world from 1920-1925, befriending the Surrealists
as well as Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Frank was introduced to the Chilean poet Eugenia
Errazuriz in Paris around 1927 and was deeply influenced by her belief in modernist
minimalism. His designs quickly evolved and in 1932 he opened a gallery with the Parisian
decorator Adolphe Chanaux at 140 Rue du Fauborg Saint-Honoré. This was the beginning
of a highly productive ten-year collaboration, resulting in international commissions from
such leaders of society as the Rockefellers and Guerlains.
Mrs. Stanley Resor sent her agent to the gallery in July 1934 and began a six-month
correspondence with Frank, discussing all elements of the joint project and the designer’s
ideas. Frank would not alter his basic concepts, but it is interesting the number of options
he presented to the client on the desk alone. He sent Resor photographs and a price list
from Hermès, along with leather samples, to get her opinion on what she would want on
the top surface. Frank also asked for her thoughts on whether or not gilt bronze hardware
might look “heavy.” The design was finally agreed upon, but Frank, ever the perfectionist
required Hermès to redo the leather covering twice before he was completely satisfied. In a
letter to Mrs. Resor dated December 8th 1935, he wrote “At the last moment something is
often not really the way I wanted it and I have to make even small changes which delay the
completion. (The leather covering of the desk for instance was redone twice by Hermès.) I
do hope you will like the things.”
This handsome desk, identical to one in Frank’s own apartment, with its clean lines, gently
tapered legs and recessed central drawer is emblematic of the designer’s ability to create
a relatively simple, yet highly sophisticated object. The leather tablet beautifully contrasts
with the sanded oak, as do the bronze-encased feet. In its understated luxury, the desk
brilliantly exemplifies Frank’s ultimate credo: “Throw out and keep throwing out. Elegance
means elimination.”