Finders Keepers with Lee Stanton

FINDERS KEEPERS | MASTERS & MUSES | CABANA MAGAZINE

Lee Stanton, a notable Southern California-based antiquarian and 30-year collector of British and European antiques, invites Cabana into his Laguna Beach home where he generously shares the stories of two extraordinary objects: his greatest find and the piece he’ll keep forever.

INTERVIEW BY MILA WOLPERT | MASTERS & MUSES | DECEMBER 2024

Lee Stanton's Laguna Beach home © Anna Michelle Dusatko.  

Lee Stanton stands out in Southern California as an established dealer and collector of 17th, 18th and 19th-century British and European antiques. His showroom in LA’s La Cienega Design Quarter, as well as his shop in Montecito, are a testament to his style and keen eye for beauty. Stanton also works with private clients in decorating their homes with a curated approach to interiors.

The venerated antiquarian, a go-to for many prominent interior designers, invites Cabana into his Laguna Beach home through two special pieces from his collection. Located on a secret lagoon on the Pacific coast, his property, Arcadia, is a serene escape from the city and a place for freedom and contemplation.

My greatest find: A pair of lanterns from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Collection

“This pair of lanterns has a fascinating provenance and once served as focal points at Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s estate in France after the Duke’s abdication. Embodying the couple’s refined taste, the lanterns blend elegant French craftsmanship with subtle British royal symbolism.

"My mother adored their love story, and when the Sotheby’s auction came up for the famed couple, we went to see the preview. As we were leaving Sotheby’s that day, one of the staff members asked, ‘did you get the addendum to the auction?’ I replied that I didn’t. She handed it to me and explained that these were all pieces that did not make it into the catalogues, but are still in the auction.

"When the lanterns came up at the end of the auction, I noticed that there wasn’t much activity around them. One other person placed their bid, and after making mine, all of a sudden, it said, ‘sold.’ I couldn’t believe it given the extremely high demand for the lots and the incredible selling prices. 

"I had the perfect spot for the lanterns in a turret I had built in my Laguna Beach house that connected the lower and upper quarters. The turret was indoors, but I didn't want it to be heated, so that it could feel as if you were going outside between rooms.

"These lanterns, which perhaps hung on the front portico of the Duke and Duchess’ home when they went to Paris, are a part of history. I look at them every morning and evening, and knew that with them I could create a historical perspective in the turret. I embraced the space’s focus on English heritage and lined the turret walls with historic portraits, similar to rooms I had visited in manor houses in England. That veneration of ancestry stuck with me, so I reproduced it in California.”

The piece I’ll keep forever: An Italian trompe-l'œil armoire

“I decided on my greatest find, an Italian trompe-l'œil armoire, by picturing my home in Laguna Beach and the light that filters through my bedroom window and changes throughout the day and evening from the reflection of the Pacific Ocean and the sunset. Dating from the 18th or early 19th century, it depicts a view of a Palladian villa, reminiscent of Villa Barbaro in Veneto, looking out of a window to a formal garden with a fountain and a grand structure in the background.

"On my buying trips, I typically start in England. I happened to go into the country to a dealer I buy from regularly, and found myself speaking to a shop assistant who insisted there was a special piece upstairs in the dealer’s home. As I was looking at the armoire, which was much too large for the space, I looked behind me, and the dealer's wife was standing with her arms crossed, wondering, ‘why are you looking at my armoire?’

"At that point, I swiftly left the room, made some other purchases, and went off to Paris. It was in France that I got a call — the dealer and his wife could not keep the armoire, and I purchased it right away.

"As I was renovating my home in Laguna, my neighbor was redoing a massive, ugly house next door on the side of the property where the armoire now stands. I decided we were not going to put a window on that wall because this new house would take up the entire view. The painted armoire that now adorns that wall feels meant to be.

"More than that, I see my antique purchases from my travels abroad as a personal version of a Grand Tour. When I wake up in the morning and admire the armoire, I reminisce on memories of travelling in Europe, as I look out a painted window onto the Italian countryside."