I recently got to visit the Fifth Avenue apartment of Mary Jane Pool, a legendary magazine editor and one of the spriest 86-year-olds you will ever meet. She has lived in this color-filled two-bedroom on the Upper East Side”the latest in a series of gorgeous places she’s called home in New York”since 1989. It is still brimming with treasures from her world travels as the executive editor of Vogue, which she joined in 1946 and left in 1968, and as the editor-in-chief of House & Garden , which she helmed until 1981. Her living room is an apt expression of her international tastes: There’s a needlepoint carpet from China, Fortuny sofa pillows from Venice, a silk-upholstered sofa from a design by Syrie Maugham, and a pair of Neoclassical Italian gilt-mirror frames. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Mary Jane plays bridge every week with a group of friends who travel to Venice every August to have lessons in Casanova’s Garden at the Hotel Cipriani. Their teacher is the great bridge master August Boehm. At home, she plays on an eighteenth-century French card table covered in gold-ribbed velvet. As you can see, it is always ready to go. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Mary Jane works in a small study/office painted a glazed orange and carpeted in leopard print. Her daybed can double as a guest bed. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The ever-busy legend, working on a rolling table that she once used in her office at Condé Nast. Her main writing device, once a giant old Olivetti typewriter, is now a laptop. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Among the vibrant decorations in the living room is a painting by the one-named artist Morrison. The Venetian rococo console is topped with Mary Jane’s “green collection”: It includes a hunk of real malachite, a box with a coral branch from Capri, a box that was a gift from the late designer Valerian Rybar, and photographs from trips during her time at Vogue and House & Garden . Photo: Wendy Goodman
A table-scape filled with painted trays by Lola and small dishes of painted fruit by Fornesetti. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Mary Jane’s bedroom has been redecorated to include swaths of midnight blue silk curtains that were hung from the ceiling to emphasize the height of the room. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The bed is made with classic Porthault linen sheets. Photo: Wendy Goodman
On a bureau in the bedroom is a portrait of her late friend Ferris Megarity, an executive at B. Altman, and a little chest of drawers that Mary Jane made at the Isabel O’Neil Studio Workshop (isabeloneil.org). The pink satin woven wand is from Provence and contains lavender potpourri. Photo: Wendy Goodman
