Sotheby’s Lands £100m Paul And Bunny Melon Estate Sale

This Autumn, a series of sales at Sotheby’s will offer for sale one of the most important single owner collections ever to come to the market – that of Rachel ‘Bunny’ Lambert Mellon.

Intensely private, Mrs Mellon, who died earlier this year at the age of 103, devoted her life to five main passions: fashion, horses, art, interior design and gardens.  Many of those passions are reflected in her collection, which spans everything from fine art to jewellery and decoration. Together, the 2,000 or so items to be sold are set to realise over £100 million. Proceeds will benefit The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, a charitable entity supporting horticultural and educational endeavours, established by Mrs. Mellon in memory of her father.

Born in 1910 in Princeton, Mrs Mellon was the daughter of Gerard Lambert who had made his fortune marketing Listerine, a product invented by his father. In 1948, she married Paul Mellon, the only son of financier Andrew Mellon, thereby uniting two of America’s most affluent families. Throughout her life, she pursued a love of gardening, both at her own homes as well for a number of friends, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who asked her to redesign the White House Rose Garden in 1961. Passionate about art, Mr. and Mrs. Mellon built an extraordinary collection, while generously supporting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and establishing the Yale Center for British Art.
 
Watch this space….

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