Dudley Poplak: interior designer
Michael Rhodes
died on 19th February aged 74. Funeral on 21st March at Mortlake
Crematorium at 3.30pm...."
Is this THE Dudley Poplak, the South African-born interior designer
responsible for refurbishing Highgrove, the country seat of the Prince
of Wales, in 1981?
Mr Poplak, who lived in Eaton Place, Belgravia, arrived in Britain in
1959. His work included the redecoration of the late Lord Plunket's
house in St. James's; and he worked with American interior designers on
the famous refurbishment of the American ambassador's residence in
1969. (The ambassador then was Walter Annenberg, and you may remember
his delightful aside to the Queen when he was presenting his
credentials. His residence he told Her Majesty was "undergoing elements
of refurbishment".)
Poplak also worked for the Queen - with material for the Queen's
Gallery -and Queen Helen of Roumania.
Poplak's pied-a-terre was an impressive mixture of Georgian woodwork,
delicate Chinese pottery, inlaid cabinets and sought after modern oils
and water-colours.
He started work at Highrove in February, 1981 (coinciding with the
announcement of the engagement of the Prince to Lady Diana Spencer),
and his commission there took him until August, when the royal
honeymoon ended.
In 1981 he said: "I like to bring the personality of the client out. I
don't like the places I work in to look as if a decorator has even been
near them. I like things to be absolutely natural."
--
Sacha
1110879966.1...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com, "Michael Rhodes"
<migx73all...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> A death notice from The Times, March 14, 2005, states: "POPLAK Dudley,
> died on 19th February aged 74. Funeral on 21st March at Mortlake
> Crematorium at 3.30pm...."
>
> Is this THE Dudley Poplak, the South African-born interior designer
> responsible for refurbishing Highgrove, the country seat of the Prince
> of Wales, in 1981?
>
<snip>
It sounds as if it must be him, I think. But that's an awfully long delay
between death and cremation, surely?
--
Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)
Psyche's Knot
He was retained by Diana on recommendation of her Mother because he had
done up one of the Shand Kydd homes and that of Diana's Sister, Lady
Jane Fellowes.
She had him assist with the refurbishment of the Wales' Kensington
Palace apartments as well.
For the country, Diana had chosen bright floral chintzes for the sofas
and chairs, and silk pastels for the walls, cheery and elegant...quite
traditional really.
The rooms at Kensington were on a far grander scale and she took a
different approach there, with one given, Charles insisted on the grey
carpet with his white feather logo for the entry and large hall...Diana
thought it more appropiate for his public rooms, say at St. Jas, rather
than a private residence.
Almost a year and a half before the Wales' seperation in 1992, Camilla
and Michael The Fence Fawcett had all of Poplak's work ripped out of
Highgrove, where she had become the official 'hostess', and eventually
replaced with the muddy colours of Robert Kime's taste.
Israel Zohar, later commissioned to paint a portrait of Diana for the
Russian Hussars, said that the way in which Diana with Poplak's
assisitance had integrated the historic paintings and antiques was
'like seeing the chain of what makes the culture of a nation, of
humanity grow and develop through art and furniture." Diana was only 21
and though she had the good Dudley to guide her, all the decisions were
hers.
Dudley Poplak had many prestigious commissions, among them were
Winfield House in Regent Park, residence of the Ambassador of the USA
to the Court of St. James albeit Poplak must be held accountable for a
not so laudable distinction, it was he who gave Charles the infamous
book on healing cancer by dietary means sans conventional treatment.
Alas.
Michael Rhodes
That's what I thought. I checked the announcement and that's what it
says.
Sacha
1110902500.8...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, "Michael Rhodes"
<migx73all...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
I happened to see the Daily Telegraph today, so I checked it, too! It's a
very peculiar thing but perhaps a post mortem had to be held or his body
shipped back from abroad - something of that sort. For some reason,
funerals which end in cremation seem often to be very delayed. We have to
attend one which has taken ten days to arrange. I've got a horrid feeling I
read somewhere that this is a matter of economics in terms of firing up the
equipment. But perhaps I'm imagining that. I rather hope so! I'm as sure
as I can be that when I was a child it was expected that funerals would take
place within three days of death and that this was something to do with
Christ rising on the third day?
hey...@hotmail.com
year but due to the proximity of christmas and the travel difficulties
posed for certain family members living abroad, the funeral and
subsequent cremation (also at Mortlake) didn't take place until January
12th.
Rafal Heydel-Mankoo
Michael Rhodes
funeral of Mr Poplak.
Psyche's Knot
Hyfler/Rosner
March 29, 2005
Dudley Poplak
Discreet designer of grand interiors for loyal
(and royal) clientele
A SHY and private man, Dudley Poplak had a
preponderance of high-profile clients, for many of whom his
courtier-like discretion and marked reticence with the press
were major parts of his appeal. "I don't know how you found
out," Poplak told The Times in 1989 when this newspaper
broke the story that he was refurbishing Highgrove House for
the soon-to-be-wed Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.
"And I certainly won't tell you what the colour schemes are.
That would be like disclosing the design of Lady Diana's
wedding dress."
Equally popular at the top end of the interior
design market, where he operated, were his flawless taste,
the empathy that allowed him to tailor his work to each
client's image, and his unfailing insistence, which his
patrons could afford to share, that only the best would do.
And his devotion to his clients' interests and his personal
charm combined to ensure that he maintained working
partnerships with many clients for decades, and that
ambassadors' wives and duchesses alike claimed him as a
friend.
In 1959, when the 29-year-old Poplak arrived on
the London scene from South Africa, Britain's interior
designers were only just emerging from their postwar
doldrums, and Poplak (who was soon to acquire British
citizenship) stole a march on many of his rivals with a
seemingly intuitive understanding of the needs of his
prosperous and prominent clients. Given his patrons' social
and business lifestyles, their homes, he knew, had to have
some degree of formality, but a great strength was that he
realised, too, the importance of cosiness where appropriate,
and could produce grandeur and/or comfort to order.
Friendships were an important part of his
success, and he nurtured his friends every bit as much as he
did his clients. An important meeting in his early days in
London was with the lampshade-maker Betty Hanley, through
whom he made many influential contacts. Crucially, Hanley
introduced Poplak to the then Countess Spencer (later
Frances Shand Kydd), who was to phone him years later, in
1981, asking him to work for her daughter Diana in the
run-up to her marriage to the Prince of Wales. Another of
Poplak's enduring friendships was with Francis Egerton,
chairman of antique dealers Mallett of New Bond Street, who
regularly recommended Poplak to his clients, and stalwartly
told The Times in 1981: "Rest assured, there will be nothing
vulgar about Highgrove House."
It was the widely viewed 1969 television
documentary The Royal Family that first drew the nation's
attention to another of Poplak's major projects: the
substantial improvements made in that year to Winfield
House, the official residence, in Regent's Park, of the US
Ambassador to Britain. To the amusement of plain-speaking
Britons, the then US Ambassador Walter Annenberg (who, with
his wife Lee, generously funded this work) featured on the
programme, presenting his credentials to the Queen and
grandiloquently informing her of his "discomfiture as a
result of the need for elements of refurbishing and
rehabilitation".
Working alongside the veteran American designer
Billy Haines (bizarrely, a former star of the silent screen)
and Haines's junior partner Ted Graber, the 39-year-old
Poplak was involved in almost every aspect of the 1969
refurbishment at Winfield House. As the "man on the ground"
whenever his American colleagues flew back to the States, it
was he, with his well-established contacts among the top
London dealers, who spotted and acquired much important
furniture and a considerable volume of other antiques on
behalf of the Annenbergs.
The result was a rhapsody from Philip Howard of
The Times at the time of the press view of the finished
work: "Niagaras of crystal chandeliers cascade. Chippendale
fireplaces brood at haughty Adam urns and consoles, which
rub shoulders genteelly with Louis XV settees, which turn
their elegant backs on the Regency lacquer tables, the
yellow glaze Ming, the consoles, the lakes of gilt mirror,
the bronze and ormolu lamps in the shape of plump nymphs,
pillars, architraves, broken pediments and the framed
picture of the President [Richard Nixon]." Poplak and his
two colleagues could certainly do "grand", and Howard
declared their achievement one of "spectacular splendour",
amply justifying Annenberg's "sesquipedalian orotundity".
Poplak was back at Winfield House from 1983 to
1989 to renovate the interior for another beneficent
ambassador, Charles Price, and his wife Carol, and back
again in the early 21st century to restore the grand but
comfortable state dining room (scene of Thanksgiving Day
celebrations) and the entrance hall with its marble floor
and Adam-style ceiling. As an embassy spokesman commented
after Poplak's death: "Credit for the tasteful and sensitive
renovation and decoration of Winfield House is rightly
shared by numerous kind benefactors, including most notably
Ambassador and Mrs Annenberg and Ambassador and Mrs Price.
Yet few individuals can claim to have contributed more than
Mr Poplak, who gave unstintingly of his time and talents
over a span of more than three decades. His work has been
appreciated and admired by untold thousands of guests over
those years, and stands today as an example of harmonious
Anglo-American cooperation."
Typically, Poplak retained his connection with
the Prices even after they had returned to the States, and
he travelled 15 times to Kansas City to work on their home
there. The results were "quite special", says Mrs Price. "He
was inspiring to work with. I grew fond of him and will miss
him."
Poplak told The Times that he considered his
1981 decoration of Highgrove House, the Gloucestershire home
of the Prince and Princess of Wales, "the most important
assignment I have ever had". For the Princess - possibly his
only client who was still a teenager at the time of his
commission - he produced a youthful variant of the chintzy
country-house look that was seen everywhere that year. With
a palette of clean, fresh colours - plenty of lime green and
aquamarine - he created a gentle, relaxed mood with no
flights of fancy other than the odd experiment with
interesting textures. It was a more conventional approach,
certainly, than Robert Kime's present scheme for the house,
but Poplak had known the Princess since she was a child, and
it was a look with which he knew she would be comfortable:
ever a major concern with him in his relationships with
clients. Later, Poplak designed more interiors for the
Prince and Princess - at their apartment in Kensington
Palace - and he also worked on the interior of the royal
train.
Having semi-retired in his midsixties, Poplak
continued to work for favoured clients such as the Prices,
and also maintained good relationships with those, including
the Prince of Wales, for whom he was no longer working.
As recently as June last year he was in the news
as the man thought to have interested the Prince in Beata
Bishop's book A Time to Heal: My Triumph over Cancer, which
promotes a regimen of fruit juice, coffee enemas and vitamin
injections as a controversial alternative treatment to
chemotherapy. Just eight months later, he himself died of
cancer.
He did not marry, and is survived by a niece.
Dudley Poplak, interior designer, was born on
April 15, 1930. He died on February 19, 2005, aged 74.
