The Home of Marshall & Kay Lee

We are privileged to have been chosen to sell the collections and home contents of the late Marshall Lee and his wife Kay Lee.

A remarkable and eclectic mix of fine mid-century & antique furnishings, decorations, couture, many books and accessories will be offered at an estate sale on May 5th, 6th, and 7th in Schuylerville, New York.

The estate sale features a large assortment of very fine furniture and furnishings, designer clothing, belts, purses, furs, perfume bottles, all manner of accessories, costume jewelry, antiques and collectible smalls, glassware, silver, china and serving pieces, books, garden statuary, lamps, clocks, lighting. We are still finding more things and will be putting many more images up this week.

If you have any questions, please give us a call at 518-587-8787 or email us at marklawsonantiques@gmail.com. If you send an email or don't get through and have to leave a message by phone, please be patient. We value your time and the trouble that you are taking to contact us. We will respond to everyone as quickly as we can with the high volume of calls and emails that we are getting.

The Pre-Columbian pottery & artifacts, Miniature Islamic paintings, Old Master prints and fine jewelry will be sold at a live auction with internet and absentee bidding only on June 24th 2023, beginning at 12:00pm

Biography of Marshall Lincoln Lee and Kay Jane Lee
by Peter R. Lee
March 30, 2023

Marshall Lee was one of the most influential book designers of post-World War II New York, winning
numerous awards and gaining extensive recognition throughout the book publishing industry for his
textbook, Bookmaking, which became an industry bible for generations of those in the trade.
Marshall Lee was born in 1921 in Harlem and early on exhibited an interest in and talent for art. At the
young age of 18 he had graduated from the Pratt Institute School of Fine and Applied Arts and was
making a living creating covers for the pulp novel industry.

When World War II came, Marshall enlisted in the US Coast Guard and became commander of an
Infantry Landing Craft, the LCI(L)- 96. He saw action in virtually every US naval operation in the European
theater from Casablanca to Bizerte to Sicily and Salerno. He made two crossings of the English Channel
and two landings at Utah Beach in France on D-Day. Subsequently, he served as the harbormaster of
Cherbourg, on the Normandy coast. Marshall’s ashes are interred at the Saratoga National Cemetery.
During his service, Marshall continued his artistic activities. He made sketches and painted watercolors
of naval scenes and wartime life, and he created the mascot for his ship. Most notably, Marshall painted
a large-scale mural illustrating the significant wartime events of his flotilla on the walls of the library at
Greenway, in Devon, England, the holiday home of the noted mystery author Agatha Christie, where he
was bivouacked during the preparations for D-Day. Agatha Christie retained the mural, and now, with
the home deeded to the National Trust, the mural is accessible and can be viewed by visitors to
Greenway.

Upon returning to New York City in 1947, Marshall plunged into the city’s postwar cultural ferment,
designing the program and publicity for the legendary New York run of The Threepenny Opera starring
Lotte Lenya. He became a head designer at H. Wolff, a premier book manufacturing concern in New
York, and made his reputation by affirming and demonstrating the value of book design as an artistic
medium in an age of technological transition.

His books won many awards, and Marshall became widely influential in the industry, both as director of
design at H. Wolff and subsequently as Vice President of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the leading American
publisher of large format art books.

Marshall shared his knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm for the book as art by his courses for book
production professionals at NYU. Intimately familiar with all aspects of book design and production, he
channeled his knowledge into his text Bookmaking, which became the industry standard. Even today, a
decade after his death, it is still in print in its third edition.
While at H. Wolff, Marshall met Kay Jane Rexrode, who was destined to become his life partner. Kay
was an artistic and musical prodigy out of rural Ohio who quickly established herself in New York as a
leading book designer in her own right. She won awards and recognition for her work and her books,
both at H. Wolff and subsequently at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, at a time when the contributions of
women in the publishing industry were often downplayed.

Marshall and Kay married in 1969 and formed a dynamic team, moving to Europe for a time to consult
to the Italian publishing industry, creating books together for their imprints Balance House and The
International Archive of Art. Their many professional and personal relationships included artistic
luminaries as diverse as Isamu Noguchi, Erté, Peggy Lee, and Mitchell Parrish.

In addition to book design, Kay deployed her formidable talent and energy into design and production of
one of a kind high fashion couture, dollmaking, clothing accessories, and art pieces in a variety of media,
as well as composing works of fiction and autobiography. She also found the time to mentor Native
American youth and practice healing as a meditation, hypnosis, and stress relief professional.
Marshall and Kay were insistent that the technical and economic imperatives of commercial publishing
could and must be reconciled with the demands of art. Balance (Balance House was the name of their
publishing concern) was the means to the end of achieving Quality (the title of one of their most
important books).

They pursued these goals in their personal life, filling their house in Schuylerville with paintings,
sculpture, prints, and ceramics ranging from their beloved pre-Colombian art to Oriental painting to
modern art that reflected their personal aesthetic in selection and presentation.
Their lives, achievements, and possessions are a tribute to their ideals.