B.W. COOK -- The Crowd

“I don’t own a piece of Chippendale furniture,” commented Gail

Serfaty, director of diplomatic reception rooms for the U.S. State

Department and curator of the Blair House in Washington, D.C.

Serfaty winged into Orange County this week to address the Decorative

Arts Society in Newport Beach.

“As you know, the United States government owns a great deal of

Chippendale furniture. The White House as well as many other buildings of

state are filled with some of the finest antique American furniture in

the nation,” added the woman in charge of national furnishings.

She had come west at the invitation of the society to discuss her role

in the collection and preservation of American decorative arts.

“In our personal residence, my husband and I live with a collection of

19th century English bamboo furniture and the occasional piece of Greek

antiquity that we have collected,” Serfaty said, explaining that friends

are often amazed that her personal residence is quite different from what

might be expected given her background.

Monday evening, Serfaty was guest of honor at a cocktail reception

thrown by Newport hosts Joan and Lee Sammis of Linda Isle. The French

Regency-inspired architecture of the Sammis’ home on the waterfront,

tastefully appointed with antique oak furnishings reflecting a more

country French and English vision, served as a very genteel backdrop to

welcome the international expert in decorative arts.

“There has not been much opportunity to include contemporary American

art or furnishings in the national collection to date,” Serfaty said,

chatting with local design aficionado Marion Palley and co-hostess Sandra

Ayres.

Born in Philadelphia and raised in a family serving the diplomatic

corps, Serfaty grew up all over the world as her father’s posts were

changed. One of her more memorable chapters of early life surrounds her

family’s time at the U.S. Embassy in Tijuana, Mexico.

“It was fascinating. You realize that the embassy in Tijuana is

enormous, one of the most important,” she said.

Today, this urbane resident of the nation’s capital, who “lives right

in the center of the city and wouldn’t have it any other way,” travels

the nation and the world representing the United States as the director

of the diplomatic reception rooms.

Serfaty’s work transcends politics, at least to some degree. As talk

at the Sammis reception naturally gravitated to the presidential vote

count in Florida, the guest of honor told the crowd that her orders come

from the Secretary of State, and presently the funding for departments

such as her own, is handled on a day-by-day basis. So if you think things

are fuzzy in Florida, take heart that it’s no different in other sectors.

On Tuesday, Serfaty addressed the membership of the Decorative Arts

Society in a sold-out lecture held at Fashion Island, then got on a plane

back to Washington.

“You live in a very beautiful spot,” she shared, following a whirlwind

tour of the region that included stops at the Orange County Performing

Arts Center and a little window shopping in quaint Laguna Beach.

Among the decorative arts devotees enjoying the Sammis’ hospitality

and the Serfaty charm were Cecelia and Bruce Nott, Meredith Foreman,

Carolyn Garrett, Roger Palley and Lido Isle’s Lois and Dave Tingler.

* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.