Stephen S. Lash has been an avid collector of artifacts from the great ocean liners from the art deco era of the 1920’s and 30’s. Having served at Christie’s for over 40 years—including his current stint as the Chairman Emeritus—the Boston native has developed a discerning eye for art, the sea and architecture. Lash was also recently appointed the first Ocean House Advisor to the Arts in Watch Hill, R.I.
Next week, he’s bringing his knowledge and passion for ocean liners of this era to an intriguing talk at the Atheneum’s Redwood Library in Newport on Thursday, Oct. 24, titled, “Floating Palaces of Art Deco: A History of Transatlantic Ocean Liners.”
Mr. Lash spoke with “What’s Up Newp” about the importance of long-term relationships in the art world, his passion for collecting ocean liner memorabilia, growing up in New England (he’s a Yale grad), his connection to Newport, his fascinating tenure at Christie’s, how he feels about waning elegance and what he considers good art.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
I just came back from Las Vegas, where I toured the “Princess Diana & The Royals” exhibit, which featured replicas of her 79 dresses that were auctioned off at Christie’s International in New York City in 1997.
I was there for that event. It was an exciting moment. Princess Diana was a good friend of then-chairman, Baron Hindlip. It was one of those great auction moments with lots of press and flashbulbs.
What was your position at Christie’s at the time?
I was called executive vice president. I joined Christie’s in 1976 with the idea that they should start holding auctions in New York.
I lived in London, working for a bank. My wife says I had a real job in those days [laughs], and I’ve always been interested in art and auctions. There are only really two major auction houses. One is Sotheby’s: They once offered me a job, and I turned them down because I thought it was too much fun, and I’m from Boston.
I was introduced to the chairman of Christie’s in London. We got along well, he offered me a job. My first job was to find a location where Christie’s could hold auctions.
Most important of all, our first important piece of business came to us from a place called Newport, Rhode Island. And that was the estate of a woman called Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll. She had a wonderful house which survives on Narragansett Avenue, called Bois Doré.
I know it, I visited the house during Newport Design Week.
It’s a beautiful house, and as a result, I’ve always had great affection for Newport, because, frankly, Newport gave us a start when we were the new people.
Our first sale in Newport was 46 years ago. We’re still in touch with a number of those clients, a number of people in Newport, and we love staying in touch with them. And it’s been one of the real pleasures of the job. You can’t be someone’s auctioneer, really, until you’re their friend.
The other thing is that we, my wife and I, have a small weekend house not far from Newport, in Stonington, Connecticut.
You’re here during what I consider the nicest time in New England, the New England fall is just so iconic.
It’s lovely. But I like Newport year-round, I really do.
I think there are different resonances with different people. Then there’s the connection with the sea, and then close behind is the connection with wonderful architecture.
I also love that this lecture is evolving around Art Deco, which is actually one of my favorite artistic time periods. I’m a big fan of the “Jeeves and Wooster” novels. I also grew up in Florida, and I always loved all the art deco nods in Miami. Why is there such a fascination with that time period?
I think if you place that period with a an important exhibition in Paris called the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs [et Industriels Modernes], it was in 1925 in Paris, and it was a wakeup call to the world from France that there was interesting things to do in design, which had never been done before.
in a world where the communication was limited, the way a country like France would advertise and how advanced they were was by building transatlantic passenger ships like the Ile de France and the SS Normandie, which became floating national symbols. They were much more than passenger transportation. They were a way of showing the world that France was the head of other countries, and it was an exercise in political public relations.
I feel like with ocean liners, there’s this great fascination with the elegance and charm of them, similar to the Orient Express train. Can you tell me more about this glamorous era particular to ocean liners?
In the design of the ships, particularly in the early days before this period of glamor, the ships started out trying to make you feel that you were in Europe before you got there. So if you stepped on board a French, German or English ship, the design characteristics made you feel you were inside a country house in Britain or a chateau in France or a Palazzo.
First class was glamorous, but there was also second class, called cabin class.
The way the shipping lines really made their money in the early years was from immigrant travel, the third the steerage class. In the period the first years of the 20th century, 10 million people from Europe immigrated to the United States, and they did not come in any glamorous fashion. They were living in dormitories way down in the hold of the ship.
Whereas, in first class, there was a very grand dining room. You could order anything you wanted. You didn’t have to pay any attention to the menu, and it was even caviar every night. The passengers in first class were often glamorous people.
Amazing.
I’ll tell you two funny stories about my wife. We came back on one of the last voyages of the SS France in (I think) 1969 and Alfred Hitchcock was on board.
Wow.
One night, we were waiting for the elevator to go down to dinner and the doors open and there was Mr. And Mrs. Hitchcock, and my wife was never at a loss for words. She turned to him and said, ‘Boo!’ He held his index finger up to his mouth and said, ‘shhhh.’
That’s hilarious.
Another time, we were returning home from England in the late 60s. We’re dog lovers, and we had both a dog and a cat in the kennel. At the kennel I got to know the valet of the Duke of Windsor, who was traveling on the ship. And I said to the valet, ‘It’s ironic that I should meet you because I’m reading a book about the Sassoon banking family, who apparently were great friends of your boss.’ So I lent him the book, and a few hours later, the phone rang in the cabin. My wife put her hand over the receiver, and she said, ‘Someone says he’s the Duke of Windsor.’ He was calling to thank me for the book. He said there were two errors in it which he had corrected and initialed. ‘In that case, sir, I’m not giving the book back to my firm library.’ And we then subsequently met them that evening after dinner in the lounge.
What inspired you to develop this lecture and decide that this needs to be shared with the public?
It was because of my collecting in our family. My parents were minor collectors of 18th century English and American furniture, so I grew up going to auctions with them, and I married the interest in collecting with a passion for travel. And now I have a large collection of ocean line memorabilia and in particular, objects that relate to the architecture and design of ocean liners.
How did you get into art? I’m fascinated to hear about your journey on how you segued into art and art sales.
I picked my parents very carefully [laughing], and by that, I’m not talking about having a vast fortune or anything, but they had the interest, and it was fun for us as children to be taken to museums, auctions and dealers. It was an interest I developed very early on.
What are some of the sales at Christie’s that you participated in that you were proudest of?
Well, I think there’s one that really stands out, which is the Bloch-Bauer collection of Gustav Klimt paintings from Vienna. They were looted by the Austrians at the outset of World War II, and I was contacted by a lawyer representing an incredible woman called Maria Altman, who is prominently written about in the film, “Lady in Gold” [starring Helen Mirren]. The “Lady in Gold” was one of five Klimt paintings that had been looted from her aunt and uncle’s house. The aunt and uncle in Vienna had no children, and she was to inherit these works. And only after the Freedom of Information Act, after the development of the computer and everything, was the technology and knowledge sufficient for her to sue the Austrian government for the return of these paintings, which I originally saw hanging in the Belvedere gallery, in Vienna.
We worked with Maria Altman. She, in fact, ended up becoming a very, very close friend of mine. I love that woman, and it took eight years for her to process that case. It ended with a Supreme Court hearing, and I went to the hearing with her.
What was interesting was to watch the body language of the justices, and it was clear this decision was going to come down in her favor.
That Bloch-Bauer collection, incidentally, did sell for $300 million.
Incredible.
I have a great career. It’s not only the objects, it’s people.
The people that we deal with and that we work with are, frankly, more important to me than the objects.
You must have seen such amazing things throughout all this history. Is there a particular story that stands out?
We do free appraisals for lots of people. We were called in to do a state appraisal of the contents of a New York apartment. As far as we were concerned there was nothing there. And as we were leaving, the guy who did the books said, ‘Is there anything else?’ And they said, ‘Well, you know, there’s some old letters in the desk drawer. We were wondering about those.’
One was a very famous Abraham Lincoln letter, it had some very poignant Lincoln quote. And it was just sitting in a desk.
That’s incredible.
What do you consider to be good art? Feel free to interpret that question any way you’d like.
It’s a very personal decision, and it’s the art you fall in love with.
And if you don’t end up getting cash dividends, you’re going to have tremendous psychic dividends. This is not a practice run for another life, we might as well enjoy it.
We were talking about glamor before. What do you feel about glamor kind-of missing in our times?
I think the elegance of that period is simply not as prevalent. You know, I walk on Fifth Avenue in the morning, and I’m struck by how few suits and ties are worn on the streets of New York. I can remember growing up and when my mother came to New York from Boston, she would wear only black dresses and white gloves.
Things are different, but there are still elegant experiences and you see them in a place like New York. We live in, I think, the greatest city in the world, and It’s a privilege to be here, even if you know the lifestyle isn’t quite the same as what it was.
What do you like to do in your spare time besides collecting art?
I love Jack Russell terriers, and I think everybody should have a dog.
I decided that if you’re ever at a dinner party and the person on your right or left is just not answering your questions, just raise the subject of a dog.
And I love gardening. I think there’s a real overlap between a love of art and a lovely garden.
Lash’s lecture, “Floating Palaces of Art Deco: A History of Transatlantic Ocean Liners,” will provide insight into the great interior spaces of the ocean liners of the golden age of transatlantic travel. The great vessels harken back to a bygone age of glamour and are considered remarkable repositories of art and design.
Mr. Lash’s lecture will take place at the Redwood Library & Atheneum on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 6:00 p.m., preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. The Redwood Library is located at 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, RI. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.
