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MEMORIAL
SLOAN-KETTERING
Cancer
Center Preview Party
For
International Fine Art Show
Story
by Roger Webster
Photos by DMI
 OW
do they do it? Muffie Potter Aston and Mary Davidson,
chairmen of the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Preview Party for the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers
Show, seemed to make raising almost one million dollars and
providing over 1,200 guests with a delightful evening seem easy.
In
reality, they put in a tremendous amount of work and then stood in a
receiving line, for most of the evening, looking as fresh as
homecoming queens, to let everybody know how happy they were to have
their support.
The
Preview Party is a major source of funding for the SMSKCC volunteer
organization, whose mission is to promote the well being of patients
and cancer research, and provide public education on the prevention,
early detection and treatment of the disease.
Society
president Laurie Carson and connoisseur chairmen Pat
Buckley, Nan Kempner and Jamie Niven greeted their
glamorous committee and guests such as:
Princess
Michael of Kent, opera diva Anna Moffo with decorator Melvin
Dwork, Roberto and Joanne de Guardiola, Melinda Claire
from Minneapolis, Courtney Arnot, William Carson, Sherrell Aston,
Jonathan and Somers Farkas, dog painting authority William
Secord, Veronica Hearst, Peter and Jamee Gregory,
Richard and Kathy Hilton.
Also
R. Couri Hay, Derek and Nicole Limbocker, Grace Meigher,
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Helen Schifter, Daisy Soros, Debbie
Bancroft, who was celebrating her birthday, Felicia Taylor,
Jonathan Tisch, Bettina Zilkha, Scalamandre’s Mark and Wiggie
Bitter, Wendy Carduner, the guiding light of Doubles Club, where
there was a dinner
afterwards.
Also
sculptress Elizabeth de Cuevas, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Barbaralee
Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Anne Ford, Audrey and Martin Gruss,
Kelly Posner, Paul and Dayssi Kanavos, Sandra McConnell
with photographer Chris Obetz, Donald and Muffy Miller, Alexis
Waller, decorators Bruce Bierman, Lisa Jackson, Catherine
Aaron and Mario Buatta, Magda Grigorian, Nicole Micco,
Barbara and Kevin McLaughlin, CJ Satterwhite, David Patrick
Columbia, Mike Cannon, Pamela Fiori, Jill Brooke, Tom Gates, Marcy
MacDonald, James Rendall and Jeffrey Hirsch.
There
was a quartet of musicians at the entrance arranged by Steven Scott,
hors d’oeuvres by Glorious foods, wine donated by Charmer
Industries and St. Francis Winery, champagne by Moet & Chandon,
gorgeous bouquets of flowers by Lavenders Blue of London and, best
of all, the art and antiques flown in from all over the world.
Anna
and Brian Haughton, who were there with their beautiful
daughter, Emma Jane Haughton, organized the annual
show.
As
usual, it had a balanced blend of the highest quality Asian art and
objects, English, Continental and American furniture, Medieval and
Renaissance sculpture and works of art, ceramics and glass,
tapestries and textiles, antique arms and armour, jewelry,
paintings, watercolors and drawings, historical manuscripts and rare
books.
There
were even autographed pictures of Humphrey Bogart and Marlene
Dietrich.
Among
the exhibitors were London firms Apter-Fredericks, John Berwald and
S. Marchant and Son, New York dealer Karl Kemp & Associates,
Vallois of Paris, Carswell Rush Berlin, Galerie Meyer, Lin and Emile
Deletaille, Donald Ellis Gallery Peter Finer, Apter-Fredericks,
Ossowski, Mallett, Blitz Antiek En Kunsthandel, and John Eskenazi.
There
was one moment when Muffie and Mary decided they needed to sit down.
Someone
offered them the challenge, as “chairs,” of picking their
favorite chairs of the show for their wee break.
They
considered carefully and
choose two from of a nineteenth century Hungarian suite, with
crescent-shaped backs, that were probably made for the legendary Erödy
Palace in Buda and now were part of the exquisite display brought
over by Ariane Dandois and her daughter Ondine de
Rothschild.
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