LONDON.- The summer season at South Kensington will include an innovative sale on 4 June that celebrates decoration with an international reach and universal appeal. Following a very successful collaboration last July, Christie’s invited Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Brook Street, Mayfair, to contribute to this sale which celebrates the best of international interior design and decoration. The sale combines a carefully curated selection of 60 lots which exhibit the quality, elegance and world-class reputation of the Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler name alongside a collection formed over the course of a lifetime by the late Melbourne-born interior designer Lex Aitken and his partner, the esteemed fashion illustrator and designer Alfredo Bouret Gonzalez. The sale will appeal to both first-time collectors and aficionados of design who will be attracted by the good taste synonymous with each contributor. The auction will include furniture, ceramics, pictures, lighting and decorative objects with estimates from £300 to £80,000.

Lex Aitken’s international career is reflected in the diversity of countries represented among the objects in this sale. Yet the influence of London is evident throughout as it was where he built his reputation in the 1960s as Lex Aitken Antiques, his eponymous business on the capital’s road of designers, Pimlico Road. Aitken’s integrity and flair endeared him to clients - including luminaries such as Lucien Freud, who shared his contagious enthusiasm for works of art, furniture and design. Alfredo Bouret Gonzalez, Lex Aitken’s long-term partner, shared his taste and connoisseurship honed in Paris where he sketched for the great couture houses and Vogue and was granted unique access to the reclusive genius Balenciaga. Gonzalez moved to London where he established his boutique, ‘Mexicana’, importing peasant shirts and other Mexican wear to a delighted London audience, which included HRH Diana, Princess of Wales and Valentino. Both Aitken and Gonzalez were generous supporters of the arts. After they retired to Aitken’s native Australia, settling in Sydney, they contributed to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the RMIT University and the Powerhouse Museum, Melbourne.

The sale is led by two fine portraits, the first by Jacques-Emile Blanche (French, 1861-1942), entitled Jeune fille à la fenêtre, a charming full length oil (estimate £15,000-25,000) and a striking depiction of Mrs Moody, three-quarter length, in a white dress, holding a dog in her lap, in a landscape by British master George Romney (1734- 1802) with an estimate of £50,000-80,000. The Romney can be seen hanging above the sofa in the Sydney home of Mr. Aitken and Mr. Gonzalez.