Released on = April 14, 2006, 8:44 am

Press Release Author = LLD Specialty Sales

Industry = Apparel & Fashion

Press Release Summary = Scalamandre, the important American textile giant, for the
first time ever, will auction selections from their archives, including rare
historical fabrics and artifacts - first auction April 19, 2006.

Press Release Body = Scalamandre, the much-loved American manufacturer whose name is
recognized the world over as a premiere source for luxury fabrics and wall
coverings, is unfolding a new chapter in its 50-year history. For the first time
ever, the company will offer for auction selections from its extensive archives of
custom designed silk, inspirational art work, historical fabrics from America\'s most
famous restoration projects, and a wide variety of important artifacts from the
Scalamandre offices and the Scalamandre Textile Museum that during the 1950s and 60s
was located on Fifth Avenue in New York City and became an important destination for
designers, decorations, and fabric scholars.

The first of three scheduled Scalamandre online auctions will open for bidding on
April 19, 2006, and will close Tuesday, April 27. Museums, collectors, restoration
professionals, antiques dealers, and fabric aficionados can peruse an online preview
right now by visiting www.LLDSpecialtySales.com. Two additional auctions are
scheduled this Summer and early Fall, with hundreds artifacts and archival fabrics
carefully chosen as representative of Scalamandre\'s weaving history, custom
commissions, and restoration work for homes and buildings with profound historical
provenance. Altogether, these on line auctions of never-before-made-public material
offer a grand opportunity to own a part of an American company that continues to an
80 year reputation for ingenuity, authenticity, and artistic excellence.

Highlights for the April Auction include several White House fabric lots including
three shuttle loom, silk lampas panels that are the original working samples for
chairs in the Blue Room, and were designed by Mrs. Scalamandre for Jackie Kennedy\'s
restoration initiative that later became a landmark television special. These panels
feature golden eagles, wreathes, and rosettes on a French blue ground and include
certain design quirks that did not make the production run. Other White House fabric
includes eight yards of lemon yellow Georgian silk damask woven in the 1970s for the
draperies now hanging in the East Room, and almost five yards of a four field silk
lampas first reproduced in the 1940s and woven again in the 1970s for the window
treatment in the Nixon\'s private dining room. Bidders can even compete for two
historic \"White House\" looms that were set up specifically to produce numerous
customized fabric project requested by just about every administration during the
last half of the 20th Century.

Other important fabric includes more than six yards of hand brocaded Italian silk,
woven with metallic threads in early 18th Century style, and selected by Princess
Marie Jose, the last Queen of Italy, for the Royal Summer Palace. When last offered
for sale the wholesale price was $2500 per yard. Serious Americana collectors can
compete for more than 10 yards of a wine colored silk Damask woven for chairs and
draperies at Mount Vernon and also displayed at the Scalamandre Museum of Textiles.
And for collectors of modern textiles and design there is an important framed panel
of the last approved loom trial of the wall covering woven for the World Financial
Center, destroyed on 9/11. This brocatelle was designed by Adrianna Bitter and Cezar
Pelli with inspiration from Owen Jones and Christopher Dresser.

The Scalamandre online auctions are presented by LLD Specialty Sales of Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, the firm that handled Scalamandre\'s record setting on-site artifact
sales when the company moved its weaving operations from their historic red-brick
Brooklyn factory to a new mill in South Carolina. All the auction items are
authenticated and vetted by Bob Bitter, President of Scalamandre, and every lot is
guaranteed as described.

\"The Scalamandre auctions are very timely,\" notes LLD founders Jill and Web Wilson.
\"With more manufacturing outsourced in Asia, Mexico and India, there is a real
thirst for American made products and Scalamandre represents the highest level of
American industrial production. Many people are restoring historic homes or
searching for antiques and decorative products that representative American art and
craftsmanship.\"

\"LLD is a founding member of AntiquesYes.com,\" Web Wilson continued, \"so we have
helped develop an online auction site with proprietary software and special features
for serious auction buyers. We have listed reserves, bidder anonymity, and realistic
bid increments. A buyer\'s premium of 15% is in effect and the new software provides
for extended bid time that eliminates sniping.\"

Along with archival fabrics, the April Scalamandre auction will also offer artwork
and artifacts from the Scalamandre Home Office and the Scalamandre Museum of
Textiles. One important furniture lot is a 19th Century European side chair, with
gilded finials and upholstered in tapestry, that was given to Franco Scalamandre by
William Randolph Hearst in payment for work done at his San Simeon estate. Another
lot offers an 18th C. silk winding machine constructed from cast iron and carved and
gilded wood, bought by Franco Scalamandre for the Textile Museum. Artwork includes
painting and drawings used for design inspiration such as two paintings by Victor
Portelet, an important 19th Century Indus trial artist who became Director of the
Louvre in Paris. Of special note are several lots of point papers, the
thread-by-thread diagrams required for every fabric design, some of which were
hand-drawn by Franco Scalamandre and his daughter, Adrianna.

For more auction information contact: LLD Specialty Sales at 800-508-0022 or sign up
for auction email alerts at www.LLDSpecialtySales.com .


Web Site = http://www.lldspecialtysales.com

Contact Details = Jill Wilson
LLD Specialty Sales
PO Box 506 Portsmouth, RI 02871
800-508-0022
service@lldspecialtysales.com
http://www.lldspecialtysales.com