The Dohenys’ Sacred, Secular Treasure Trove Soon to Be Lost

In the salon of the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library in Camarillo, a 1904 gold-leafed Steinway stands in front of a 1784 tapestry of the Crucifixion of Christ.

The piano, commissioned by Los Angeles oil magnate Edward Doheny and his wife, Estelle, is a copy in the style of Louis XV. The faces of the playing cherubs painted on its sides represent Edward Doheny Jr. The large painting on the underside of the lid shows the Dohenys’ Victorian mansion, Chester Place, framed by palm trees and with Estelle in the foreground.

The tapestry, “Pageant of Man’s Redemption” by the artist Chopineaux, is the real thing, commissioned by Louis XVI for Versailles. It left the royal palace after the revolution, sent by Napoleon to Italy for the coronation of his brother as king of conquered Naples.

The juxtaposition of the two--sacred and secular, Baroque and Victorian, original and copy--reflects that moment when the nouveaux riche strove to adorn their world in neo-classical splendor.

On the Block

That reflection will be shattered this year when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles places the Estelle Doheny Collection of art, rare books and manuscripts on the auction block to raise money for its seminary program.

Even the building that houses the collection constitutes a striking example of Southern California eclecticism, balancing the personal tastes of the collector with the classical tone of the collection.

Architect Wallace Neff flanked the building with arched classical porticoes under a red Mediterranean roof. A nude Apollo guards one side. But Neff looked to Mexico City, whose cathedral was a favorite of Estelle Doheny’s, for the model of the arabesque niche in which Our Lady of Grace, the Virgin Mary, stands over the main entrance.

The building, which serves as the library for St. John’s Seminary, will remain. Most of the 7,000 pieces of the collection, housed on the second floor, will be sold to the highest bidder.

Mission to Get Some Items

Some letters and books dealing with Southern California history will be moved to San Fernando Mission for permanent display. Other artifacts and books may be retained by the archdiocese. The rest will be dispersed, probably into private hands.

The works of art will live on, each to prove its value on the free market. But those who know the collection intimately say its peculiar gestalt will not survive.

“I think everyone would agree that it is a great loss to the community of scholarship worldwide,” said the collection’s curator, Rita S. Faulders.

With a broader stroke, a former curator, Ventura attorney Mary Redus Gayle, pictured the collection as a peculiar testament to the wealthy pioneer families of Southern California.

“I feel sad that a wonderful monument to Southern California is being lost,” Gayle said. “It was fashionable for people of wealth to acquire worthwhile art, things that transcend the present,” she said. “It does represent the history of a certain attitude of mind, between the two big wars. It’s a way of preserving their contributions to the world, I guess.”

Both agree that the collection is a personal testament to the expansive interests and demanding taste of a devout Catholic woman who married a wealthy man and used her position to exalt the works of the church and of secular man.

“She had a lot of curiosity, a lot of interests,” Gayle said. “She collected things that appealed to her and things that she thought would increase in value. She sought the best and she bought the best. She wasn’t satisfied with anything less.”

“It’s a reflection of a book collector,” Faulders said. “That’s her stature and her prestige.”

Widespread Interests

Estelle Doheny’s interests fanned over continents and centuries.

She bought medieval manuscripts that were the rarest and best of their type. Among them are a 10th Century copy, in minuscule Carolingian script, of Pope Gregory’s “Moralia in Job,” which gave the 6th Century prelate’s views on the Book of Job.

Her selections of English and American literature range from first editions of the plays of William Shakespeare to handwritten manuscripts of Mark Twain. One book contains marginal notes reported to have been a correspondence between Twain and his future wife during their courtship, Gayle said.

Other interests led to acquisitions of Western American and Colonial American history, childrens’ books, rare Bibles--including a Gutenberg--and other historically important books.

For incidental ornamentation, she bought lace fans and parasols, rolls of flounce, jade, and glass paperweights made in France, England, Czechoslovakia and Belgium.

Estelle Doheny built the library for St. John’s Seminary in 1940 and dedicated it to her late husband. Neff designed the second floor especially to suit her collection’s idiosyncrasies.

The foyer contains documents and books autographed by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Gayle said.

The Western room, a simple room with walnut cabinetry, contains American literature and art, including a frieze and a bronze by Charles Russell.

The more formal Treasure room, with a balcony and ornate cabinetry, holds American first editions, the incunabula (the early printed books) and the Gutenberg Bible.

Salon Displays

In the salon are displayed fine furniture, artwork, tapestries, jade, fans and porcelain.

The collection is open by appointment to students, tour groups and browsers.

The diversity of the collection has attracted a varied audience, Faulders said--scholars, architecture students, weavers, art instructors, Bible classes and calligraphy instructors, for example.

There they worked in an environment that, like a European museum, represents a fragment of the worlds that they were studying.

Soon it will be gone.