A Carved Oak Eagle, American late 19th Century

A Carved Oak Eagle, American late 19th Century

In the form of a spread-winged eagle with articulated feathers on a naturalistic rocky plinth,

Height: 58 cm, width 64 cm.

A very similar example in the form of a lectern was sold at Christies New York in 2003.

Provenance: From the estate of the late Peter Lewis-Crown (British 1930-2024). He was the owner of Lachasse, the London couture house. He dressed many society ladies, including Princess Maria of Kent, Baroness Thatcher, Dame Nora Major, and Baroness Boothroyd. He also rubbed shoulders with Princess Margaret.

He joined Lachasse as an 18-year-old apprentice in 1949 and over the decades became the sole owner of the company, Lewis-Crown oversaw the apprenticeship of John Galliano and Stephen Jones.

He grew up in Hunstanton, Norfolk at the beginning of the 1930s, the son of a barber and a dress merchant. During WWII, he and his sister put on a fashion show in their aunt’s garage, with a stage built by a local fireman and a piano on loan from the church. This was the start of a long and illustrious career. He spent his teenage years at Marshall’s, a glassware store that the Queen Mother would often frequent. Lewis-Crown studied at the Chelsea School of Commercial Art, where he once greeted Queen Mary, and then trained in fashion at St. Martin’s. He then joined Lachasse, where he would spend the rest of his working career.

Lachasse continued to restrict itself to couture until 1981, when it opened a small boutique at its Thurloe Place, Kensington premises, selling ready-to-wear. Couture, however, was still its main business and in 1990, Liz Smith writing in The Times described it as one of the go-to places in London for bespoke clothing: "Peter Lewis-Crown today continues the house tradition for natty tailoring (a suit costs around £1,000) that looks little changed from the days when Princess Marina and the late Countess Mountbatten were customers".

Lachasse clothing is held in the archives of the V&A and the Fashion Museum, Bath. Among the items at the Fashion Museum, Bath is the Virginia Lachasse doll, a miniature mannequin created in 1954 for a London exhibition and equipped with an entire couture wardrobe, from daywear to bags, nylons and cigarettes. The doll was among the centrepieces of a 2007/8 V&A touring exhibition The Golden Age of Couture.