THE ORMOLU POSSIBLY GERMAN, CIRCA 1745, THE PORCELAIN 18TH CENTURY

Without doubt, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were one of the most fashionable, and controversial, couples of the twentieth century. Their lifestyle was a curious amalgam of English county house chic, eighteenth-century Bourbon grandeur, and modern Hollywood glamour. The Windsors were admired for their personal aesthetic and in an interview in 2000, Jayne Wrightsman, the grand doyenne of New York social life, noted that the duchess 'had the best taste of all'. In fact, with the help of the most influential trendsetters and purveyors of their time such as Maison Jansen, the couple developed their own distinct look known as the Windsor Style. Throughout their marriage, they owned a number of residences, including those at 24 boulevard Suchet in Paris, the Moulin de la Tuilerie, 4 Route du Champ d'Entrainement in Paris's Bois de Boulogne, and the Château de la Cröe in Antibes. All Windsor homes adhered to the 'very elegant stage for a very elegant play' rule when it came to interior decoration, and all of their houses were outfitted with a playful mixture of furnishings set in rooms in an array of styles from Directoire to German Rococo.