While doing research for setting up production of Savonnerie carpets in China in the 1990's I spent a considerable amount of time in the French Galleries of The Metropolitan Museum, New York and specially in their Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts. I remember being amazed at the time by the extensive and lavishly decorated rooms that showed how Savonnerie rugs related to all the other objects in the room such as the Sèvres porcelain, paneled boiseriere and silk brocades in an 18th-century French château. I remember wondering who the Wrightsman's were to have made such generous donations to the Met. It is only recently that I stumbled on a Vanity Fair article by Francesca Stanfill that I learnt the fascinating rags-to-riches story of Jayne Wrightsman and how she rose to the pinnacle of New York society from the humblest beginnings. Wrightsman not only became one of the greatest benefactors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art but she also quietly mentored Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis behind the scenes during the 1961-63 restoration of the White House and let Jackie take all the credit for the superb rejuvination of the interiors of the White House. Read More