William Billy Haines Cast Metal with Pompeian Bronze table lamp pair, 1950s. Shades are NOT included.

Haines included this design in a few of his commissions, most importantly Jack Warner’s Beverly Hills estate, which featured one of these lamps (See Wright 20 May 2007 Important Design Session 1, Lot 255). Exceedingly rare design and (to our knowledge) the only pair to be available from the same estate. They are listed as a pair here. We prefer for them to remain together and go to the same home. Warner’s lamp had 6 small metal roundels hanging from each curled vine on the lamps. No roundels were found with this pair. We believe it is likely that these particular lamps were customized with small dangling crystals (in lieu of the metal roundels) and the crystals removed/stored away and ultimately lost over the last half century. We are presenting them here without any replacements for a more ‘modern’ look but would be happy to work with you to find the perfect ornament should you so desire.

The number-one box office star of 1930, William "Billy" Haines went on to become Hollywood's premier interior decorator until his death in 1973. Dispatching with convention early, he ran away from home at fourteen and opened a dance hall in a Virginia boomtown. Later, in Hollywood, he lived openly with another man for nearly fifty years, a union much of Hollywood envied for its longevity. Always quick with the quip, he turned out to pasture tawdry arbiters of silent-screen taste like Elinor Glyn and set about creating a whole new fashion. By 1931, when Cecil Beaton deigned to visit the movie colony, he was relieved to see "ostrich-feather trimming, swan's down, and Pierrette pompoms" fallen from popularity and credited Haines's "unusual flair" with making Hollywood suddenly "distinctive, contemporary in spirit, and sophisticated."

It's the link to an increasingly evanescent old Hollywood that accounts for much of Haines's enduring appeal. But it also has something to do with the man himself, a man who looked at difference as opportunity. Now, with a movie based on his life in the works, Billy Haines and his oeuvre seem poised for the new millennium.

"Quality tells," he said. "You can gussy up and hide things behind veils and ruffles and suedes, but . . . the truth comes out. You had better know what you are doing, if you want to last."