English master craftsman Leonard Pardon, the high priest of faux finishes, loves to gossip. Especially about royalty.
The Sultan of Oman. Denmark`s Queen Margrethe II. England`s Queen Elizabeth II. He knows them all. In fact, he`s put faux finishes on practically every palace worth mentioning. (Faux, if you don`t know, is the latest thing in interiors.)
But on a morning in San Francisco recently, he was all business (you`ll get the gossip later). He was at Pier 43 1/2, about to marbleize a 1966 Ford Galaxy convertible-a publicity stunt to announce the opening of his summer school in San Francisco. Pardon said he once marbleized a Rolls-Royce, but
”it had six crashes in less than four months, and the police asked the owners to paint it white.”
Pardon had a fat cigar stuffed in his mouth, his sleeves rolled up.
”No, I never get any paint on me. I put the paint where I want it,” he said as he extracted the tools of his trade from the trunk. He opened his case and mixed his potions. For an instant the smell of linseed oil superseded that of rotting fish.
”Got to work fast,” he mumbled. ”It`s hot and I don`t want it to dry.”
He stuck his brush in a tumbler of what looked like milk but was the base and, in broad, free strokes, painted the hood of the immaculate Galaxy.
What was this mad Englishman doing?
A crowd began to gather, cameras whirred. It isn`t often an Englishman is so brashly, so confidently crazy in public.
Next he extracted a large goose feather.
”Rosa Portugali,” he said to no one in particular as he squeezed the tube of red paint onto his brush. He quickly spread it thinly across the hood until it was only vaguely pink.
The owner of the Galaxy stared at the transformation. ”How nice. This will go with my dress,” she said. ”This is going to transform the car from a classic to an art form.”
With another feather, Pardon drew bold lines across the mottled surface in brown and gray to approximate veins. Next he took a spotless rag and began dabbing to reduce the hardness. The last touch was a gentle once-over with a soft brush.
Turning a car into marble
The car looked like marble and was ready to roll.
The day before his extravaganza, Pardon sat in the lobby of a San Francisco hotel-next to a real marble fireplace-and talked about the time he was bent over marbling a dado in Buckingham Palace when Queen Elizabeth strolled by. ”Oh, what fun,” she remarked. The exchange took place in ”one of the drawing rooms,” said Pardon, a bespectacled man who looks more like a stockbroker than a master craftsman. He couldn`t be more specific. Security at Buckingham Palace has become very tight since a crazy man found his way into the queen`s bedroom in the middle of the night and found her alone.
And about the time when he was in Copenhagen and ducked into the bar of the Hotel d`Angleterre, where he was doing some finishes and Queen Margrethe II dropped by? ”She bought us all a round” of drinks, he said. ”And she chatted away.”
And about the Sultan of Brunei-reputedly one of the world`s richest men-who prefers ”very rich colors” for his interiors. The hallway of his palace has 12 types of faux finishes and thousands of square feet of marbling. Then there is the Sultan of Oman, a ”wonderful man, amusing, witty, very cultured. Loves the Scots.” He has 9 million square feet of faux finishes in his 12 palaces. It took 22 trips to Oman and several years to finish that job, Pardon said.
And about modern-day royalty: Mick Jagger has unexpectedly conservative tastes. His dining room is faux-boised in a dark oak. In his younger years, when he was living with Marianne Faithful, he commissioned Pardon to do their garden room entirely in mother of pearl.
But before we go any further let me make one important point: It`s not that these people can`t afford the real thing. Between them they could buy up all the marble in the world. You don`t have to be royalty or fabulously wealthy to afford faux finishes-you can even purchase one of Pardon`s how-to videotapes for $50 and create your own-but for the whole esthetic it certainly helps if you live in the kind of house that can support the look. It doesn`t have to be a palace, Pardon said. But be warned!
`Not in every room`
”There`s a temptation to do it everywhere, but basically it`s only suitable for two or three areas. Not in every room. There are too many designers that won`t use it at all and some who use it everywhere,” Pardon said.
Pardon seems unconcerned with passing fads in design. Sure, they`ve certainly helped out his business and led him to open his schools, but ultimately he takes a longer view. Marble has been around for 300 million years. Faux finishes have been around for at least 6,000 years, he said. Faux will always be faux. ”Look, Italy is the home of 2,000 marbles, yet you have so much faux. It`s an art form,” he said.
Pardon reminds one in some of ways of the craftsmen of an earlier age. He travels across continents, bringing his craft to his patrons, carrying his equipment in a small, neat case that fits under the seat of an airplane.
The purpose of his visit to California was to open a monthlong summer program in San Francisco to teach his craft of marbling and graining. The Pardon School of Specialist Decoration began in London in 1984 and is always full, he said. Certain maharajah`s wives have tried to bribe their way up the waiting lists. Pardon`s wife, who is in charge of the waiting list, has been unmoved.
His New York school was opened in 1986 and now every class is full, and inquiries from California keep pouring in. New York is too dangerous, he said, why not come to California?
The course was designed to teach students the basics of the craft, but it takes practice to become an expert. He started his training 32 years ago under the tutelage of an English master, initially earning about $35 a week. But nowadays, he said, the money has improved, and it`s easy to earn six figures a year if you`re good.
His monthlong summer program costs $2,500, including equipment. Students, he added, would make that money back just by marbling one bathroom. They won`t be very good at first, he warned, but after a couple of years they should be quite competent.
The problem with being a master craftsman is that you`re asked to be a master craftsman at home, too. Pardon`s wife, Shirley, has complained that he never gets around to doing those little marbling jobs around the home.
”My son`s room is beautiful. He`s got a beautiful sky ceiling, a marbled cornice and baseboard and his walls are multi-four-color mottle: soft greens and yellows,” Pardon smiled. ”But that`s all, I haven`t done anything else.” His next job? ”My sitting room.”
A job he`d like to do? The White House. ”I can see George Bush having a lovely imitation cherry wood interior. It`s very rich and luscious,” he said. ”But I`d like to work for the Pope because the thing about St. Peter`s is that there`s a lot of fabulous work, but in latter days it`s just been done by people who know the contractor. The standard has gone down.” –
