An authoritative book published in collaboration with Christie’s, featuring photographs of the Bergé Saint Laurent collection in situ, complete with estimated value information and final auction prices.

In February 2009, 733 pieces from Pierre Bergé’s and Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection - one of the world’s largest private collections - was auctioned off in a record-breaking sale of the century.

Modern paintings, baroque bronzes, antique silverware, statues, cameos, and minerals comprise this diverse collection that furnished the pair’s two luxurious residences in Paris, and included major works by Picasso, Brancusi, Matisse, Mondrian, in addition to furniture by the Art Deco masters Eileen Gray and Jean Dunand. Many works sold for prices far exceeding the highest estimates.

The five-volume catalog published by Christie’s for the event sold out before the end of the auction, leaving collectors and art connoisseurs the world over empty-handed.

This new book features one hundred of the most important pieces from the collection with detailed commentary by Christie’s experts. An introduction by Christie’s vice president François de Ricqlès revisits the intense three-day auction at the Grand Palais. An appendix includes images of the works sold, accompanied by their estimated values and final auction prices.

Publication coincides with the auction of the collection from their Château Gabriel property in November 2009.

Christiane de Nicolaÿ-Mazery’s What a Beautiful World! offers an intimate look inside the boldly designed spaces of Isabelle d’Ornano’s life, from the personal to the professional.

Isabelle d’Ornano, cofounder of the French skin care brand Sisley, has created places in her life as unique as they are exceptional. For the first time, d’Ornano opens the doors to her personal, family, and professional spaces — from the heart of a Paris apartment to a country house and genuine paradise in nature — in this beautiful, richly illustrated book. This intimate journey goes to London and ends in Paris in the headquarters of Sisley, which she created with her husband, Hubert.

In each of these places, the magic encompassing the luxurious and the spectacular introduces us to the artists and personalities whose friendships bookmark the milestones of d’Ornano’s life. Here, beauty reigns and lives through collages, paintings, watercolors, and sculptures, and even on cushions adorned with messages embroidered by d’Ornano. Punctuated by d’Ornano’s words and mantras, this book is a formidable source of inspiration for decoration enthusiasts and for those attracted to the contrasts, boldness, and talent of Isabelle d’Ornano’s life.

About the Author:

Driven by a passion for lifestyle, decoration, and the history of great families, Christiane de Nicolaÿ-Mazery spent 25 years in a major French office at the Hôtel Drouot and now works as artistic director for Christie’s France, the world leader of auction houses.

A dozen aristocratic French families invite readers to experience their elegant lifestyle, from the royal stag hunting tradition of Louis XI and Louis XIII at the Château de Champchevrier to Hubert de Givenchys elegant Parisian townhouse imbued with grandeur and comfort in the style of Napolean III.

The featured houses, illustrated with specially commissioned photography, represent key periods of French decoration. The exquisite Renaissance architecture of Château dAnet and its sumptuous interiors with great fireplaces, silk upholstered sofas, and soft lighting exude the notorious ardor between Henri II and Diane de Poitiers.

The hidden sanctuary of a Parisian manor reveals a dignified library and a harmonious blend of antique and contemporary fabrics and sculptures.

A grand salon with Versailles parquet is illuminated by a Louis XVI crystal and amethyst chandelier. Meticulously planned gardens beckon contemplation and dining tables replete with crystal and silver are a visual feast.

From the architecture, garden designs, furniture, textiles, and art collections, these exclusive private homes are a rich source of interior design inspiration.

About the Author

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery spent twenty-five years at the leading Parisian auction house, Hôtel Drouot, before joining Christie’s France, where she is a board member. She has published many books, including Private Houses of Paris and French Interiors: The Art of Elegance.

Francis Hammond is a renowned lifestyle photographer. His work has appeared in many international magazines, including Elle and Martha Stewart Living, and in books such as Historic Houses of Paris: Residences of the Ambassadors and Versailles: A Private Invitation.

The French Country House celebrates what the French call l'art de vivre (“the art of good living”) within the intimacy of private dwellings deep in the countryside. Here are places of retreat—old manor houses, small châteaux, stud farms, even a former convent—that, because of their great age and accumulated memories, are beloved by their owners and provide no end of delight for family and friends. Each country house is a treasure trove of history, with beautiful furnishings as well as family albums, faded love letters, attics full of old toys, fancy dresses, retired pianos, left-over brocades and wallpapers—even libraries hidden at the tops of towers. With 220 photographs in full color—illustrating rooms from the salon to the kitchen below and the attic above, together with details of silver, crystal, tapestries, paintings, and much more—The French Country House is rich in the colors, textures, and history of these treasured homes. Franco- philes as well as lovers of décor, architecture, and gardens will be captivated by this inside look at life in the French countryside.

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, a specialist in furniture and antiques at Christies and Honelon, invites her readers to enter the elegantly luxurious interiors of some of France's most exclusive abodes. From the classic taste of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the creativity of the nineteenth century, she traces the path to the finesse of the twentieth century, which combines tradition and modernity.

The interiors portrayed in these nine exquisitely illustrated chapters pay tribute to the refinement of French taste, a savoir-faire that has been continually renewed. Classic hotels particuliers in the heart of Paris and romantic chateaux, as well as a surprising isba--a traditional rural log house in the Russian style - are but a few of the examples of the kinds of interiors that will inspire readers as they marvel over the art of French designers, including Madeleine Castaing, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Jacques Grange, Francois Joseph Graff, and Pierre Berge.

Unlike most books on French style on the market, this book is not only a testimony to timeless French elegance, it is an invitation to discover a synthesis of contemporary and classic decor, in some of France's most exclusive residences, firsthand.

About The Author

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery was born in the west of France where she spent her childhood between her family property of Montfort le Rotrou and that of her paternal grandparents at the Château de Lude, one of the jewels of French Renaissance art. As passionate for the "art de vivre" of France's well-heeled families as she is for their history, she has already published several works, including The French Château: Life, Style, Tradition (Thames & Hudson, 2001) and Private Houses of Paris: The "Hôtels Particuliers" Revealed (I.B Tauris & Co.). A specialist in furniture and antiques, de Nicolay-Mazery works at Christie's in Paris.

Photographer Christina Vervitsioti-Missoffe has worked for many Greek, British, and French magazines, including Elle Décoration and Géo.

The French Château provides a privileged view into the special world that lies within France's grand historic houses; a view hitherto afforded only to a select circle of the French aristocracy and their friends.

These stately residences are not dusty uninhabited museums,
but real homes. Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, herself born and brought up in her family's magnificent property at Montfort-le-Rotrou, takes us across France to visit the great châteaux she knows so well, giving us an intimate view of the unique way of life that goes on in them through the seasons.

We attend a wedding at Jean de Beistegui's Château de Groussay; we see the drawing-rooms, bedrooms, linen-room, hot-house and orangery of Le Lude; we visit the Château d'Haroue in Lorraine as guests of the Princesse de Beauvau-Craon; we follow the hunt with the Marquis and Marquise de Brissac, returning for dinner to the Château de Brissac. Baron Eric de Rothschild opens his cellars to us at Château Lafite. We celebrate the onset of winter with a boar hunt at the Château de Courances, lunching in the forest in the company of the Marquis and Marquise de Ganay.

The magnificent colour photographs of Jean-Bernard Naudin capture all the beauty and charm of these châteaux and the elegant lifestyle of their inhabitants.