Antique Dealers: the British Antique Trade in the 20th Century

Syrie was owned by the interior decorator Syrie Maugham (1879-1955), former wife of the Industrialist Henry Wellcome, and later married to W. Somerset Maugham. Syrie was a leading interior decorator in the 1920s and 1930s, famous for using shades of white in her schemes. Syrie had branches in New York and Chicago in the 1930s. Syrie began her career in antiques working for the dealer W. Thornton Smith in the 1910s.