century Catalan monastery table used by the nuns for their
embroidery of sacerdotal vestments.
Throughout the rooms of Cal A Vie, the same connoisseurship—
Steichen's and the Havens'—reigns supreme. Cal A Vie is a
place to regenerate, not only health, but to absorb a short
course in the history of French decorative arts, resurrected
with the panache, verve and brio that only Hollywood can
create. Witness the dining room, with a rare Empire table,
collected by the Havens, surrounded by Chippendale chairs
from their former New Orleans house. The painted French
cabinets are also from the Havens collection; Steichen filled
them with hand-thrown white Spanish porcelain. Steichen
dressed the table with opulent marble plates and Anichini
fine custom linens, along with antique French crystal
purchased from a dealer in Louisiana; the crystal Girondelle
candelabra are the Havens' own. The blown goblets,
surprisingly, are not Venetian but ones Steichen had designed
and crafted by Popelka Trenchard Glass, of Sturgeon Bay,
Wisconsin.
HYLAND
