"14, Rue Du Centre: Neuilly-Sur-Seine" 1961 (LOPEZ-WILLSHAW, Arturo) JULLIAN, Philippe [texte de]

[117] pp.

First Printing

Exemplaire No 90

Imprime specialement pour le Baron et la Baronne Elie de Rothschild

10 1/4" x 12"

Fine

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Privately Printed: Monaco (1961). oblong 4to. The lavishly produced testament to Lopez-Willshaw's extraordinary home in Neuilly sur Seine. Thirty original photographs by Jean Vincent of the interior decor and gardens are tipped into the text by Philippe Jullian. Printed in two colours on heavyweight Auvergne papers, red silk endpapers. A near fine copy in cream linen boards, the clamshell box is in very good condition with only light edgewear. Uncommon.

In-4, cream canvas binding, 129 pages, 27 original photographic illustrations in black. 300 copies printed on Auvergne paper in the shape of the Moulin Richard de Bas specially watermarked with the mark of Mr Arturo Lopez-Willshaw. 270 copies are printed in the names of their recipients and 32 non-commercial copies are numbered from I to XXX. This copy bears the n ° 90 printed specially for Baron and Baroness Elie de Rothschild. Cardboard box.

Élie Robert de Rothschild (29 May 1917 – 6 August 2007) was the guardian of the French branch of the Rothschild family banking dynasty. He followed his father as a partner in the family bank, de Rothschild Frères, and ran the Château Lafite-Rothschild premier cru claret vineyard from 1946 to 1974.

Lineage
Élie de Rothschild was the younger son of Baron Robert de Rothschild and Nelly Beer. His father was a partner in de Rothschild Frères with his cousin, Baron Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild. His mother was the daughter of Edmond Beer, a great-great-niece of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and elder sister of Marie-Louise Beer, who married Lionel Nathan de Rothschild from the English branch of the Rothschild family. Élie and his siblings (Diane, Alain and Cécile) were brought up at Château de Laversine, near Chantilly, and at the family mansion at 23 avenue de Marigny near the Elysée Palace in Paris.

Post-war life
After the war, Élie, Alain and their wives shared the family mansion at avenue de Marigny, which had been used as the Luftwaffe headquarters during the war. Élie and his family moved to 11 rue Masseran in the 1950s, where he displayed his great collection of art, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Dubuffet and Picasso. This collection was described in the book Great Private Collections, by Douglas Cooper; when Alvar Gonzales Palacios discovered a Dancer of Canova, he researched its history, and found out that, for a while, it had been in the Hotel Massaran, with the ridiculous attribution to Carpeaux.

Élie and his brother assisted their cousin, Guy de Rothschild, to rebuild the Rothschild Frères investment bank, and its Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord subsidiary. Élie took charge of Château Lafite-Rothschild, the premier cru Pauillac vineyard in the Médoc, in 1946, which he owned jointly with Alain, Guy and their English cousin Jimmy de Rothschild. Élie became president of the family's Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) in 1956, diversifying into hotels, motels and restaurants.

Élie was a friend of Prince Aly Khan and Gianni Agnelli. In 1954, when Liliane was out of town, Élie was introduced to divorcée Pamela Churchill (later Pamela Harriman). According to Élie, "She was sweet, charming and pretty. I wanted to go to bed with her and I did." Nevertheless, Liliane quickly saw off her rival. When the Duke of Windsor asked her: "Which Rothschild is the lover of Pamela Churchill?' she replied: "My husband, Sir". This remark undermined Pamela as much as any other retributive strikes and presently the affair receded. His nephew Éric de Rothschild, son of Alain, took over at Château Lafite-Rothschild in 1974.

Death
Élie died of a heart attack when on vacation at his hunting lodge near the village of Scharnitz outside Innsbruck in Austria. His wife predeceased him in 2003. He is survived by a son, Nathaniel, and two daughters, Elisabeth and Nelly. He is survived by a daughter (fathered with the Parisian antiquaire Ariane Dandois), Ondine, who bears the family name. His son is married to Nili Limon, the daughter of Mordechai Limon, commander of the Israel Navy in the 1950s.