Opium Poppy from Robert Kime
Robert Kime's Twelve Colors linen
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John Rosselli, one of Manhattan’s socially prominent and high-profile antiques dealers, has taken his taste for charming, whimsical and completely decorative furniture, lighting and accessories to Washington, D.C. (above).
Until this past spring, clients from the U.S. capital and the South had been shuttling to one of Rosselli's three New York shops in search of his unusual fare: painted furniture; painted hanging lanterns decorated with intricate designs; metal wall sconces finished with an antique patina; fresh interpretations of traditional fabrics; unusual chairs; exotic figurines, perhaps Anglo-Indian in origin; and garden antiques, a Rosselli specialty (he and interior designer Bunny Williams sell outdoor accoutrements at their New York garden nirvana, Treillage).
So when the antiques pro finally opened John Rosselli & Associates, D.C. in Georgetown he already had a readymade clientele of both interior designers and the well-heeled residents of Washington, D.C. Rosselli made his opening official in October with a party attended by some of America’s top design personalities, including Frank Babb Randolph, who is decorating the Vice President’s residence for Dick and Lynne Cheney, and English fabric and interior designer Robert Kime, whose work for Prince Charles and Andrew Lloyd Weber has earned him much notoriety.
“John is different from the antiques dealers in Washington, D.C., who sell serious brown furniture,” notes one enthusiast. “His outré-ness and his decorative taste are refreshing for the people in Washington.”
Rosselli developed a gout for the artistic at an early age, starting his career as a decorative painter of furniture nearly 50 years ago. At the time he had the opportunity to meet the legends of interior design, including Billy Baldwin, Sister Parish and Dorothy Draper, and when they saw his creativity (he would embellish plain pieces of furniture with delicate botanical designs or simple gold striping) they encouraged him to make a go of it on his own. Today, his own line of reproductions, many of them handpainted with fine details, is as popular as the antiques he loves to buy on his frequent shopping trips.
The dealer's new 2,000-square-foot space in Georgetown offers English, American and Continental antiques, including porcelain and ceramic tableware and jugs, Rosselli’s reproduction tables, chairs and mirrors, lighting and upholstery fabrics designed by Kime, Kathryn Ireland and Rosselli himself.
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November 2001
