John Rosselli Antiques hosts THE GREAT AMERICAN HOUSE Book Signing

reporter: Miguel Dominguez

On October 9th there couldn't have been a more fitting place to have the book signing of The Great American House: Tradition for the Way We Live Now, written by Gil Schafer III with foreword by Bunny Williams, than at John Rosselli Antiques, that treasure house of understated and ever so elegant house appointments in the most rigorous Western Tradition, which includes a great deal of Orientalia by the way. Blame it on the English influence.

In The Great American House: Tradition for the Way We Live Now, published by Rizzoli Books, Gil Schafer illustrates how he blends classical architecture, interior decoration, and landscape to create homes with a feeling of history. As a traditional architect, Gil Schafer specializes in building new "old" houses as well as renovating historic homes. His work takes the best of American historic and classical architecture and updates it, retaining its character and detail while simultaneously reworking it to be more in tune with the way we live now. He discusses the important interplay between the interior architecture and the fabrics, furniture, and wall treatments. The Great American House is an invaluable resource for anyone who loves old houses and traditional design.

Gil Schafer III with his publicist Sarah Burningham of Little Bird Publicity

An award-winning architect and AD 100 member, Gil Schafer is consistently recognized as one of the world’s experts on contemporary classical architecture. From 1999 to 2006, Schafer served as president and then chairman of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. His work has been featured in Elle Decor and the New York Times.

The most gracious hosts Mr. & Mrs. John Rosselli

Babe Paley was a regular customer, and interior designer Bunny Williams was so smitten with his good taste that she married him. Almost 60 years after John Rosselli opened his first shop in Manhattan, he presides over a thriving home furnishings empire that includes stores and showrooms filled with antiques, accessories, fabric, reproduction furniture, and lighting. In his charmingly diverse world, 18th-century chests mix with rusted barn siding, and inexpensive hurricane lamps mingle with Chinese porcelain. “Nothing makes me happier,” Rosselli says, “than finding some great, unusual, and amusing thing.”

The book signing that took place that night at John Rosselli Antiques was a major party by any standards.