ROSS THORBY: SEA FEVER
‘Her death was surrounded by scandal and rumour’ Doris Duke 22 November 1912 - 28 October 1993. Heiress, collector, journalist, philanthropist, traveller and museum host. Doris was heir to a tobacco and hydro-electric fortune established and nurtured during the 'Gilded Age' - a time of vast wealth for some in America. At the age of 12, she had inherited her family’s $100 million fortune - when she died some 69 years later, her net worth was $5.3 billion. She was known as the 'Richest Woman in the World' - a title she hated. She feared that people were only interested in her money so spent her life shunning the spotlight, determined not to be defined by her wealth. Unfortunately her death was surrounded by scandal and rumour when her family was thoroughly disinherited from a will on which the ink was still wet. Her flamboyant butler, who was later accused of hastening her death, received a substantial share of her estate. He died a few years later, an alcoholic and drug addict who had spent millions between her untimely death and his own. Fortunately, her remaining fortune survives in the form of various foundations and 'Shangri-La', a 25,000sq ft home open to the public and nestled on the slopes of Hawaii’s Diamond Head. It is one of the jewels in Honolulu's crown. It all began at the end of a year-long honeymoon in 1935 when Doris and her then husband visited Hawaii and where she began a lifelong affair with its people and culture. Purchasing five acres of prime real estate at Diamond Head, she began the building of a home that would consume her for the rest of her life. Designed around her love of Islamic Art, it’s a simple low-lying concrete structure with clean lines, built around a central courtyard. All of the external walls in the main house contain large glass windows that either look out over her extensive 'Mughal' garden or to the crashing surf of the sea. As the building work progressed, she travelled the world, purchasing and collecting for her dream home, which later even boasted a pair of live camels in the garden. Doris was not accustomed to being told “no.” If she wanted something, she got it. During her travels she acquired art and building materials that today, would never be allowed to leave their country of origin. A 15th
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Century Moroccan ceiling, Moorish tiles dating from the 14 Century, marble Jalis from Indian palaces and one of the home’s prize pieces, a huge Iranian 'Mihrab', (prayer niche) whose tiles were fired in 1265. This piece alone is priceless and one of the most beautiful in the residence. It stands at the end of a vast living room with walls that disappear into the floor at the touch of a button. Highly technical stuff for the 1930s. So concerned about her most valuable prayer niche, during the world events in 1941, she telephoned Shangri-La from the mainland and ordered the prayer niche to be chipped off its walls and stored safely in the basement. A few days later Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. After visiting and falling in love with the Taj Mahal, Doris commissioned Indian craftsmen to copy and install two rooms in her home. An inlay of jade and semi-precious stones created a floral motif around the walls of a white Carrera marble bathroom, the sunken bath and playful fountain evocative of the very building it copied. Mother of pearl bureaus from Syria and vast mirrored walls reflect the colour of semi-precious stones inlaid onto every surface and invoke a sense of serenity and style that only vast wealth can create. Her bedroom in this suite of rooms is surrounded by marble screens and walls of glass that can slide back into cavities to create a breezeway and bring her garden into the house. The windows, covered in a lacework of marble, take you back to the days of the Raj and Moguls. Doris was building her own monument and in later years began alterations and additions with today’s visitors in mind. Her sense of philanthropy was to share her love of her collection with the wider public after her death. The guides point out that you are now viewing what was built or renovated with you in mind and that she is welcoming you as her personal guest. If you are bored with tourist Hawaii these days, it is a perfect respite to explore the mind and taste of someone from the Gilded Age and PN what true wealth can create. (ROSS THORBY) F
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