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NEW YORK — Tastemaker Rose Tarlow has had her finger on the pulse of California design since the 1970s, when she opened an antiques store in Los Angeles. She makes combining antiques and eclectic items look effortless, a service she offers through her interior design and furnishings business, now called Rose Tarlow Melrose House. She and her team create unique pieces that embrace color, texture, proportions, and above all, style and personality.

Personification aside, Tarlow believes that objects, particularly furnishings, have personalities, and her vision often leads her to respectfully reimagine an antique piece by tweaking its proportions, playing with its finishes, or swapping out wood elements. “By taking elements from an original piece such as an unusual curve of a leg, patina, or modifying a piece’s scale, she creates a completely unique translation,” according to her company website.

Known as a decorator’s decorator who was named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 list in 2023, Tarlow’s vintage and contemporary designs have attracted a strong following well beyond California and the West Coast. When they come to auction, her pieces consistently attract buyers all across the United States and beyond.

“Rose Tarlow blends European antiques aesthetics with California style, realizing incredibly chic and special designs,” said Aileen Ward, vice president and senior specialist at Andrew Jones Auctions in Los Angeles. “Pieces appeal to collectors worldwide and we have sold pieces to buyers all over the country.”

Tarlow’s furniture, in particular, has been bringing robust prices, and a review of the last few years uncovers many lots that sold well above their estimates. “Rose Tarlow and Melrose House have a strong collectors base, particularly in the United States,” Ward added. Asked what Rose Tarlow collectors are particularly interested in, she said, “The collections cover a wide range of interior furnishings and appointments. Buyers will go for everything that comes up.”

The number of Tarlow’s designs available on the secondhand market at present is a bit limited, as most original buyers seem to be holding on to their acquisitions. While it is possible to find 8,000 hits for sold items on LiveAuctioneers by George Nakashima, for example, there are under 500 for Rose Tarlow. With fewer than a handful of her designs posted in upcoming auctions, buyers will need to be patient and spend time sussing out her pieces where and when they can. Of course, scarcity fuels demand, which means that many of her pieces sell in excess of $5,000. But what buyers are most looking for “all depends on what is being offered on any given date and what two or more bidders are willing to pay,” Ward explained, adding that “collectors really seem to go for the painted case pieces and the upholstered seat furniture because of the exquisite choices of fabrics.”

A prime example showing the desirability of Rose Tarlow seating is a pair of yellow velvet Lambertus chairs that attained a robust price of $7,000 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2021 at Andrew Jones Auctions. It not only shows Tarlow’s eye for design but the importance of provenance. “These chairs came from the collection of Lady Victoria White of Beverly Hills. Lady Victoria White is a renowned collector of important antiques and fine art. Her collection contained quite a few pieces by Rose Tarlow … This pair of chairs are gorgeously upholstered and in pristine condition,” Ward said.

The highest price recorded in LiveAuctioneers’ sold items database for Rose Tarlow is a set of eight Chippendale dining chairs that more than tripled the high end of its $2,000-$3,000 estimate to bring $10,000 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2023 at Andrew Jones Auctions. Showing very light wear, the two armchairs and six side chairs came out of another collection in Beverly Hills.

“A set of beautiful, well-proportioned dining chairs is always popular, but again, the upholstery and condition of this set made it stand out,” Ward said of its appeal.

Heavily carved and ornate antique poster beds have fallen out of favor with contemporary buyers, but a four-poster bed having classic styling is always in vogue. Produced in collaboration with another firm, a Rose Tarlow for Holly Hunt Prince Charles four-poster canopy bed earned $8,500 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2023 at Alex Cooper. The king-size bed frame featured ebonized crackle lacquer and chinoiserie gilt painted decoration and an upholstered headboard.

Inspired by her travels, Tarlow was at one time so taken with antique Chinese wallpaper she commissioned an artist to hand-paint wallpaper panels on her dining room walls in that style. She has also used chinoiserie-style decoration in several of her furniture designs, as in the aforementioned Prince Charles bed and a Regency bookcase with chinoiserie scenes and gilt decoration that brought $4,500 plus the buyer’s premium in August 2021 at Vero Beach Auction.

While her fondness of fabrics, color, and pattern cannot be argued, Tarlow has said she is a fan of pure wood, and its textures and unique variations are to be celebrated. Those looking for a classic piece of this variety would probably admire her Regency-style round dining table with an extension that brings it to 96 inches in width. The table sold for $6,500 plus the buyer’s premium in August 2021 at Abell Auction.

Buyers looking to start a collection of Tarlow furniture might want to branch out into her garden line, dubbed Twig. Ward explained that Twig has become a vastly copied style, but “signature Rose Tarlow designs are sought-after trophy pieces.” Suites of these chairs can prompt winning bids of several thousand dollars, as seen with the set of six wrought-iron Twig chairs that brought $4,400 plus the buyer’s premium July 2022 at New Orleans Auction Galleries, but individual tables and ottomans can be had for $1,000 or less.

Besides furniture, Rose Tarlow has released lines of accessories that includes lighting. Her lamps perform admirably at auction, doing as well as her furniture. A pair of Chinese-style ceramic table lamps in a gray finish realized $7,000 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2023 at Abell Auction.

Tarlow’s designs make the art of blending modern and antique pieces in a room look easy, which it decidedly isn’t. Her mostly one-of-a-kind pieces, made in Los Angeles and designed by her and her team, manage the neat trick of seeming both modern and classic.

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