Hutton Wilkinson * Tony Duquette Inc. is a full service interior design firm based in Beverly Hills with current projects in Los Angeles, New York, Palm Beach and Thailand with completed projects in Paris, Venice, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia.
Cow Hollow, San Francisco
Tony and Beegle Duquette’s birdcage Victorian house on Octavia street.
The drawing room with white marble fireplace painted to look like marble (because it was the wrong color) and the walls and ceiling have been similarly marbleized in panels. The Victorian chairs were found on a road trip to Virginia city with Vincente Minnelli in the 1940’s and the antique regency mirror over the mantle came from the collection of the screen writer Zoe Akins. The amethyst crystal chandelier was made by Tony in his Robertson Blvd. studios.
The master bedroom designed using antique hand painted Chinese wallpaper hung on panels with Rajputani clay birds on perches attached. The panels were edged in coral and polychromed Venetian 18th century molding and old Fortuny trim. The bed was hung in hand painted silk, silk gauze and silk brocade and over the bed Tony placed an 18th century Venetian shrine (formerly placed over their bed at the old Robertson Blvd studio) holding an antique statue of the Madonna, as well as his collection of antique russian icons. The red lacquer desk is Queen Anne and the blue toad lamps were assembled using carvings Tony brought back from Bali.
Cow Hollow
The buffet shown here in the dining room was created by Tony using disparate elements including Victorian furniture, 18th century carvings, silvered urns, antlers, mirrors, and old Fortuny upholstery fabric.
The décor for the dining room was inspired by the Amalienburg and Pagodenburg palaces at Nymphenburg in Bavaria. the corner cabinets are 18th century Austrian and hold portraits of the emperor Franz Joseph and his finance minister. These were purchased by Duquette at the famous MGM sale. At the time of the sale, the cabinets had been painted gray (for the black and white films) and the portraits had been reversed in their panels. Duquette who had worked at MGM knew that these were rare 18th century pieces and was able to purchase them reasonably, removed the gray paint, reversed the portraits and restore the cabinets to their original glory. The 18th century red lacquer Queen Anne style venetian dining chairs were from the collection of Frances Elkins and the buffet on the right was constructed by Duquette from diverse elements such as Victorian furniture, 19th century carvings, silvered urns, antlers and antique Fortuny upholstery fabric. The crystal chandelier was made by Tony at the Tony Duquette studios in Los Angeles.
Tony’s upholstered the walls and ceilings with printed Indian cottons and embroideries. The mirrored wardrobe reflects Regency chairs from the collection of Adrian and pierced grillworks from the old studio on Robertson Blvd.