Mark Hampton Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1940 - d. 1998

Mark Hampton (born Mark Iredell Hampton Jr., June 1, 1940 – July 23, 1998) was an American designer primarily known for residential interior design work for clients such as Brooke Astor, Estee Lauder, Mike Wallace, Saul Steinberg, H. John Heinz III, Lincoln Kirstein, as well as three U.S. presidents. In 1986 he was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame, and in 2010 Architectural Digest named him one of the world's top 20 designers of all time.

Mark Hampton was born in Indianapolis and raised by parents Mark Hampton Sr. and Alice (née Burkert) Hampton in Plainfield, Indiana. As a child, he spent time with Paul Hadley, designer of the Indiana State Flag, who was also a former instructor at the Herron School of Art and Design. Hampton showed early inclinations toward an artistic life, and by the time he was twelve years old, he considered himself a designer. He credited his success to making an early career choice. His early influences were Le Corbusier, Billy Baldwin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Phillip Johnson.

Hampton graduated from DePauw University in 1962, and attended the London School of Economics as an exchange student for one year. He attended law school at the University of Michigan for one year before moving to New York to attend the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. Hampton was awarded a Ford Fellowship by the Ford Foundation. He married Duane Flegel in 1964, with whom he had two daughters, the actress Kate Hampton and the interior designer Alexa Hampton.


While in England in 1961, Hampton met mentor and long-time friend David Nightingale Hicks. Hampton would later open an office for Hicks' firm in New York City. Hampton also worked for Sister Parish from 1962-3, and then from 1969-1975 at the design firm McMillen, Inc. under Eleanor Stockstrom McMillen Brown. He opened his own design firm, Mark Hampton LLC, in 1976. During his career he designed for a wide array of offices, hotels, clubs, railroad cars, airplanes and boats.

Hampton did interior design work for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and designed Christmas decorations at the White House for President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He also worked for President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, for whom he provided interior design services at the White House (in the Oval Office and executive residence), Camp David, the Bush family's vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, their retirement house in Houston, Texas, as well as the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Hampton, Scott Salvator and Mario Buatta redesigned Blair House, which serves as the president's guest house. He and Kaki Hockersmith worked with First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1998 to renovate the State Dining Room at the White House. Hampton collaborated with Paula Rice Jackson to renovate the American Academy in Rome's historic Villa Aurelia.

In addition to interior design commissions, Hampton licensed his designs in fabrics, trimmings, and furniture. He produced fabric designs for Kravet and a line of fabric trimmings for Scalamandre. In 1988 Hampton began designing a line of furniture for the Hickory Chair company, which produced 250 reproduction furniture styles designed by Hampton at the time of his death. The brand continued its partnership with Mark Hampton, LLC until 2018.

His monthly columns for House & Garden were later compiled in the book Mark Hampton on Decorating. He was a member and trustee of the American Academy in Rome. The Academy awards a prize in his honor every year. He was a member of the American Society of Interior Designers and a member of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.


Hampton was uninterested in being known for a personal style, however his style has been described as "tailored and classical." As his career evolved, he moved from modern, minimalist style to more traditional aesthetic. Hampton considered himself an Anglophile, and was best known for British decor at the height of his career, with an affinity for "English country house colors, Oriental rugs, floral chintzes, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiques, both English and American, and botanical and architectural prints."

Hampton has been called "the Cary Grant of design . . . an urbane and articulate man, and impeccably dressed." In 1991 he was listed on the International Best Dressed List. Hampton was socially gifted and a thoughtful friend who created watercolor sketches for those he cared about. His watercolor of the White House's Green Room were featured on President Reagan's and the First Lady's holiday greeting card in 1983.


Hampton believed that "interior decoration is not just about buying things, but helping people with how to use things of beauty. He preferred to work with clients who had their own collections and personal tastes, bringing them into the design, rather than imposing his specific designs on a space. Hampton said that "a room should look great and reflect the owner at the same time. An ideal room walks off with the people.