Rachel Lambert Mellon, Listerine heiress and widow of Paul Mellon, son of one of the world's richest financiers, died on March 17, 2014 at the age of 103. According to the New York Times, Sotheby's will begin auctioning the Mellon family's collection of art, jewelry, and furniture in November. Mr. and Mrs. Mellon made many gifts to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts during their lifetimes, and visitors to the museum in Richmond can see several examples of jewelry and French art that the couple contributed to VMFA's permanent collection.  

Jean Schlumberger
French, 1907 - 1987
Flower Pot, 1960
Amethyst, emeralds, diamonds, black-garnet ore, terracotta, and 18-, 20-, and 22-karat gold
Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, 99.18
"The terracotta pot incorporated in the base was from Mrs. Rachel Lambert Mellon's garden. The jewel in the center of the sunflower is detachable and can be worn as a brooch."
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, Virginia)
Photo by Kathleen Sams Flippen (July 7, 2014).

Jean Schlumberger
French, 1907 - 1987
Flower Pot, 1960
Amethyst, emeralds, diamonds, black-garnet ore, terracotta, and 18-, 20-, and 22-karat gold
Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, 99.18
"The terracotta pot incorporated in the base was from Mrs. Rachel Lambert Mellon's garden. The jewel in the center of the sunflower is detachable and can be worn as a brooch."
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, Virginia)
Photo by Kathleen Sams Flippen (July 7, 2014).

Jean Schlumberger
French, 1907 - 1987
Flower Pot, 1960
Amethyst, emeralds, diamonds, black-garnet ore, terracotta, and 18-, 20-, and 22-karat gold
Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, 99.18
"The terracotta pot incorporated in the base was from Mrs. Rachel Lambert Mellon's garden. The jewel in the center of the sunflower is detachable and can be worn as a brooch."
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, Virginia)
Photo by Kathleen Sams Flippen (July 7, 2014).

“As a child, all I wanted was to go into the field nearby and pick flowers, so I asked my father for a small plot,” she told me. “It was decided that I would have a plot about 15 by 15 feet outside the dining room. I was 7 years old. I realized what gardening was like — I was going into a world of my own.”
Bunny Mellon, as told to Charlotte Moss

Mrs. Mellon was famous for her good taste and her gardens, including the Rose Garden which she designed while the Kennedy family was in the White House. The following photos offer a peak into the very private gardener's personal spaces . . . 

"In the home’s pink living room, John Singer Sargent’s 1882 Miss Beatrice Townsend hangs above the mantel, which displays a Jean Schlumberger jeweled tree."
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.

"One of [Bunny] Mellon’s many tableaus, featuring her daughter’s mug and a model boat, a gift from Tony Willis."
Photography and text by Charlotte Moss.

"A painting of fritillaries that Hubert de Givenchy found in a Loire valley pharmacy."
Photography and text by Charlotte Moss.

"Giorgio Morandi still lifes cluster over a parcel-gilt banquette at Bunny and Paul Mellon’s Manhattan residence, a 1966 French Provincial–style townhouse by architect H. Page Cross; it was decorated with Paul Leonard, William Strom, John Fowler, Bruce Budd, and others."
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"Édouard Manet’s circa-1879 George Moore in the Artist’s Garden overlooks the dining room, created by [John] Fowler and his assistant, Imogen Taylor, in 1966; Leonard crosshatched the walls with lapis lazuli–blue paint, Bunny Mellon conceived the tablecloth’s embroidered tree, and Fowler designed the carpet."
Manhattan residence.
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"At [Bunny] Mellon’s house in Massachusetts, country-style flowers, including goldenrod and cosmos, fill a stoneware vessel atop a painted table; positioned beneath the table are bird sculptures that reference the wildlife in the area."
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"Bunny Mellon’s bedroom at her 26-acre estate in Osterville, Massachusetts, which is now owned by businessman William I. Koch. The enameled-metal bed with a ruffled canopy was a model that she specified often for her homes; several were kept in storage for future use. Regional expressions were frequent in her interior decoration, including the seascapes, swan figure, and boat models shown here."

"The main house’s entrance hall is graced by a 1912–13 Roger de La Fresnaye painting of garden equipment."
Oak Spring residence.
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"A terrace features an Henri Rousseau landscape."
Antigua residence of Bunny Mellon.
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"The privies at Mount Vernon inspired a toolshed."
Oyster Harbors residence of Bunny Mellon.
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"The greenhouse in the garden of Bunny Mellon’s Oak Spring estate, in Upperville, Virginia, which features trompe l’oeil murals by Fernand Renard."
Photography by Jonathan Becker.
Vanity Fair (August 2010).

"The doors of the [Fernand] Renard mural conceal [Bunny] Mellon’s potting tools."
Photography and text by Charlotte Moss.

"A detail of the Fernand Renard trompe l’oeil mural in her gardening shed. The peach is a nod to a favorite book, Le Jardin Fruitier (1821)." 
Photography and text by Charlotte Moss.

"[Fernand Renard's] composition draws from various inspirations in . . . [Bunny Mellon's] world. Here, a gardening book, her wedding rings tied in twine, leeks, bachelor’s buttons and a well-used trowel. Small iron pulls are shaped like hands."
Photography and text by Charlotte Moss.

"A detail from the [Fernand] Renard mural in the greenhouse."
Photography by Jonathan Becker.
Vanity Fair (August 2010).

"A detail of Fernand Renard’s trompe l’oeil cabinets at the Virginia greenhouse complex, showing the tools of a gardener’s trade—among them, baskets, twine, and a watering can. At right is a potted myrtle tree manicured into a tidy sphere, a form that [Bunny] Mellon cultivated and popularized, having been inspired by illustrations of similar trees in medieval manuscripts."
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"The arbor as seen from the greenhouse."
Photography by Jonathan Becker.
Vanity Fair (August 2010).

"At Oak Spring, ‘Mary Potter’ crab apples are cordoned over a pergola that leads from the walled garden to the greenhouses (doors shown)."
Oak Spring residence of Bunny Mellon.
Photography by Michael Dunne.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"Garden designer, stylesetter, and philanthropist Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon in the 1980s, at Oak Spring, her Virginia farm; she stands amid the herb topiaries she popularized (shown here are common myrtles)."
Portrait by Horst P. Horst/Conde Nast Archive.
Text by Mac Griswold.
Architectural Digest (June 2014).

"Bunny Mellon, at Oak Spring Farms, her 4,000-acre estate in Upperville, Virginia, in the 1980s.
The heiress, who died on March 17th at age 103, was known for her design acumen. She gave so much attention to what she wore, how she lived, and what she planted; she even had her gardening apparel custom made by two favorite couturiers: Cristóbal Balenciaga and, after his death, Hubert de Givenchy."
Photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times/Redux.

"Though it might appear that nature is sometimes running riot, [Bunny] Mellon allows only favored flowers to sprout up, such as these spiderworts (Tradescantia virginiana) in a quiet corner of the garden."
Photography by Jonathan Becker.
Vanity Fair (August 2010).

"[Bunny] Mellon, photographed by Henri Cartier-Bresson in her Oak Spring garden, 1962."
Photography by Jonathan Becker.
Vanity Fair (August 2010).

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