A Journey Into a ‘Dream’ Home — The Collection of Sydell Miller | Christie's

La Reverie was really the realisation of a dream. Sadel Miller and her husband worked incredibly hard in the beauty. They had two great passions. One was art. Mrs Miller built this extraordinary house and filled it with marvels, with extraordinary objects. And it sat right on the edge of the Atlantic. What really, really impressed me was the integration of 18th, 19th and 20th century works of art together in a vision which was entirely personal and unique. For me, this table is one of the most exciting rediscoveries. Ange Laurent, L'art livre de Julie, is really one of the fathers of the Gugrec style. As with so many aristocratic works of art, during the revolutionary period in France, this table was seized and put into storage in the Musée du Louvre. But the first consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, decided to embark on a series of refurbishments of the Château de Saint-Cou in 1800. And such was the importance of this table that he placed it in the Salon, where it is recorded in the 1807 inventory. Sadel Miller had an incredibly unified vision in terms of colour palette. The works are mainly black and gold, and you can see this through the Andre de Broglie commodes, which uses an ancient technique. But it combines the gilt metal also with some voluptuous curves, but in a completely new and contemporary way. Loulan was known as a surrealist artist and always kind of coming up with a thing that's fun and playful. Sadel Miller has this amazing Loulan elephant table. This table has seven freestanding elephant sculptures underneath the tree branches of the table. And these elephant sculptures can be moved anywhere, so sometimes they're placed on top of the table or elsewhere in the home, so it's sort of one mini collection of Loulan all in one. Elephants were Sadel Miller's favourite animal, and since it was so close to her heart, this was a special commission for Sadel. The Loulan sphinxes are a rare and important design. At Sadel's home, they flank the entrance and just as they would in ancient Egyptian and Greek tombs, they would flank the entrances of those. So it marks an important and special place, and the power is in the pair. It's a great group of things that express a personality. There very definitely is a statement here, but the statement is in the name of the house. La reverie means the dream. It is the dream.