Quote:
Originally Posted by jg6544
The ones in the Beverly Hills store were made by Lalique, but some of them mysteriously "disappeared" after the chain closed in the '90s. Saks recovered some of them. I represented Saks at the time and heard stories of how much trouble they went to to chase them down so they could be re-installed in the store after it was converted into an extension of the main Saks store on Wilshire in Beverly Hills.
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I feel your pain. In the late '60s, Bullock's Wilshire bought and put into storage the Lalique light fixtures and Frederick Sage wrought iron balustrades that were being sold off from the Oviatt Building and its penthouse. Ten years later, the new owners of the Oviatt Building repurchased the balustrades from Bullock's, but couldn't afford to buy back the Lalique chandeliers and sconces. Bullock's Wilshire ended up installing those fixtures inside its store.
Macy's acquired Bullock's. In 1993, as the Wilshire store closed, Macy's took the Oviatt Lalique chandeliers out of the Bullock's Wilshire building and installed one of them in I. Magnin's flagship store in San Francisco. (The other chandelier ended up in the Bay Area home of a top I. Magnin executive. Hmmm.) The Los Angeles Conservancy then raised a ruckus, and ONE Oviatt chandelier was returned to Bullock's Wilshire. (Guess which one? Hint: it wasn't hanging in the executive's house.) In any case, the returned chandelier has since disappeared.
Photos of the 1928 Lalique chandeliers and sconce from the Oviatt Building. Some of you might remember having seen these inside Bullock's Wilshire:
