Guy Stair Sainty

Infobox Person
name = Guy Stair Sainty

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image_size = 120px
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birth_date = 1950
birth_place = Clayton Priory, Hassocks, Sussex, England
death_date =
death_place =
education = Westminster and College of Law
occupation = Art dealer
spouse = Elizabeth Pierson Sainty
parents = Christopher Lawrence Sainty and Virginia Cade Stair
children = Six

Guy Stair Sainty is an art dealer and author on royal genealogy and heraldry.

Life and education

Guy Sainty is the son of the late Christopher Lawrence Sainty of Clayton Priory, Hassocks, Sussex by his second wife Virginia Cade, née Stair, and half-brother of Sir John Sainty. His grandfather, Arthur Stair, was an architect who later founded Stair & Company, an art and antique dealing company in Manhattan and London, while his great-grandfather, Edwin Cade, founded the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, which operated gold mines in Ghana. cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E7DE173BF936A35751C0A965948260 |title=Miss Volk Weds Guy Stair Sainty - New York Times |accessdate=2007-05-23 |last= |first= |date=5 February 1983 |publisher=The New York Times ] He was born in 1950 at Clayton Priory, Hassocks, Sussex where he served as a county staff officer in the St John Ambulance Brigade. cite web|url=http://www.wokm.co.uk/contributors.pdf |title=World Orders of Knighthood & Merit - Contributors |accessdate=2007-05-23 |last= |first= |date=None Given |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK) |format=PDF] He attended Highfield School in Hampshire and Westminster School, London, and continued his education in Rome and at The College of Law in London. The Sainty family was Anglican. As a young man Guy converted to the Roman Catholic Church.Fact|date=February 2008 In 1979, he moved to New York cite web|url=http://europeanpaint.brinkster.net/html/testo_staff.htm |title=::: Stair Sainty Gallery ::: |accessdate=2007-05-23 |last= |first= |date=2000-2005 |publisher=The Stair Sainty Gallery ] and founded the Stair Sainty Gallery . cite web|url=http://www.europeanpaintings.com/html/testo_london.asp |title=::: Stair Sainty Gallery ::: London, UK |accessdate=2007-05-23 |last= |first= |date=2000-2005 |publisher=The Stair Sainty Gallery ] In May 1983, he married Cynthia Volk and the two had three children. After this marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1993 and annulled by the Catholic Church in 1995,Fact|date=June 2007 Sainty married Elizabeth Pierson, a private dealer in 19th and 20th century art in New York, in Washington on 28 May 1995 and in a second, Catholic ceremony, at the London Oratory on 28 September 1995. cite web|url=http://www.coloradocollege.edu/Publications/thebulletin/fall95/ClassNotes.html |title=Class Notes |accessdate=2007-05-23 |last= |first= |year=1995 |publisher=Colorado College ] With his second wife, Sainty had three more children. In 2005 he founded a new gallery, Stair Sainty Ltd at a premises at 38 Dover Street, London W1S 4LN, which he shares with two other art dealers, Count Edmondo di Robilant (married to Dr Maya Even) and Marco Voena. cite web|url=http://www.robilantvoena.com |title=ROBILANT + VOENA |accessdate=2007-06-05 |last= |first= |date=None Given |publisher=Robilant and Voena ]

Published works

Sainty has contributed to many works on art of the early modern period. In addition, one of his most ambitious works to date has been the publication of "World Orders of Knighthood and Merit" by Burke's Peerage and Gentry (ISBN 0971196672). It was co-edited by Rafal Heydel-Mankoo in 2006. He has also written extensively on individual orders of chivalry, such as the Sacred Military Order of Constantine of Saint George and the five recognised Orders of Saint John. His published works include:
*"Sacred Military Order of Constantine of Saint George" 1976
*"First Painters of the King: French Royal Taste from Louis XIV the Revolution" 1985
*"François Boucher: His Circle and Influence" 1987
*"The Orders of Chivalry and Merit of the Bourbon Two Sicilies Dynasty" 1989
*"Eighty Years of French Painting: 1775-1855" 1991
*"The Orders of Saint John" 1991
*"La Insigne Orden de Tosón de Oro" 1996
*"Romance and Chivalry: Literature and History Reflected in Early 19th Century French Painting" 1996
*"An Eye on Nature II: French Landscape Painting from 1785-1900" 1999In addition he has written numerous articles in scholarly publications on nobility, European royal dynasties, and orders of chivalry. In 1998 he assisted with the return of the Almanach de Gotha. Sainty also maintains an extensive website detailing the histories and current status of many chivalric orders.

Appointments, awards, and decorations

Guy Sainty has been involved in the world of chivalry and heraldry for many years. He has served as leader of the International Patrons of the Arts of the Vatican MuseumsFact|date=June 2007, and as one of three consultants to the Committee on the Orders of Saint John of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Alliance of Orders of Saint John.Fact|date=June 2007 He is a member of the Royal Academy of Heraldry and Genealogy of MadridFact|date=June 2007 and has served as a County Staff Officer (Sussex) in the St John Ambulance. Sainty was later made an officer, then an Associated Commander Brother of the Venerable Order of Saint John on 16 June 1989.LondonGazette|issue=51767|startpage=7104|date=16 June 1989|accessdate=2007-11-29] On 30 July 1992, he was promoted to the rank of Associate Knight in that OrderLondonGazette|issue=53005|startpage=12843|date=30 July 1992|accessdate=2007-11-29 ] and currently serves as Vice-Chancellor of the Priory in the US. cite web|url=http://www.saintjohn.org/appointments/appointments.pdf |title=The Priory in the United States of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem|accessdate=2007-06-06 |last= |first= |date=15 November 2006 |publisher= Venerable Order of St John |format=PDF] He was formerly a member of the Savoy Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus cite web|url=http://www.savoydelegation-usa.org/events_gallery.asp?id=439&gallery=Gallery%2FEVENTS%2FEVENTS_439%2F |title=: : Events : : |accessdate=2007-05-25 |last= |first= |month=August | year=2003 |publisher= American Delegation of Savoy Orders ] but resigned in 2006Fact|date=June 2007 and is the Vice-Grand Chancellor of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George (Spanish branch), of which he is a Bailiff Grand Cross. cite web|url=http://www.constantinianorder.org/english/membership.html |title= Membership - Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George |accessdate=2007-05-25 |last= |first= |year= 2007 |publisher= Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George ] Sainty's armorial bookplate shows the insignia of the (Spanish) Order of St. Januarius, the Venerable Order of Saint John, the Order of St. Gregory the Great, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, the Order of Merito Melitense of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Order of Saint Joseph of Tuscany. cite web|url=http://www.bookplate.info/Bookplate/britain_3.htm#GSS |title=G Britain III |accessdate=2007-05-25 |last= |first= |date=15 May 1998 |publisher= José Vicente de Bragança & J. Stewart LeForte ] Sainty has also served as a senior county staff officer to H.R.H. Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia. cite web|url=http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=58 |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society - Nobility And Heraldry With Guy Stair Sainty On January 25th |accessdate=2007-06-11 |last= |first= |date=2000-2007 |publisher=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society ]

Sainty is an armiger having had arms granted by the College of Arms in London, matriculated at the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh, and certified by the Cronista de Armas in Spain. The blazon of these arms is "Azure a Chief Gules over all in pale two Hippocampuses respectant Or and in the Azure two Keys palewise wards upwards and outwards the bows linked in Or". cite web|url=http://jgrimbert.free.fr/herald/rh/ |title=Roll of Arms of rec.heraldry |accessdate=2007-05-25 |last= |first= |date=1 January 2007 |publisher= Jérôme Grimbert ]

In September 2007, Mr. Sainty was made a fellow of the [http://www.icocregister.org/ International Commission of Orders of Chivalry] (ICOC). Sainty is also listed in the ICOC as an authority on matters relating to Orders of St John and the Alliance of the Orders of St John . cite web|url=http://www.icocregister.org/patronsandmembers.htm|title=PATRONS AND MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR ORDERS OF CHIVALRY
accessdate=2008-06-21]

Libel suit by Rosario Poidimani

In Italy Rosario Poidimani brought a libel suit against Sainty's internet analysis of the imposter pretender Hilda Toledano and Rosario to the Portuguese Crown. cite web|url=http://www.chivalricorders.org/royalty/fantasy/portugal-false.htm |title=A brief response to statements made by the supporters of the late Maria Pia de Saxe|accessdate=2007-05-29 |last= |first= |date=None Given |publisher= Guy Stair Sainty ] An Italian court ruled in Mr. Sainty's favor and found that the law suit against him was frivolous. cite web|url=http://www.icocregister.org/Poidimani_Sainty.htm |title=Poidimani_Sainty|accessdate=2007-05-31 |last= |first= |date=5 August 2004 |publisher=International Commission for Orders of Chivalry ] Poidimani and Roberto Cavallaro, and six of his close collaborators were arrested in Italy on 22 March 2007 and charged with fraud, forging documents, extortion, and criminal association. The Italian tax police (Guardia di Finanza) seized 712 forged diplomatic passports, 600 forged diplomatic IDs, 135 forged CD plates and they also took away his throne. [" [http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2390845.ece Web of fantasy is revealed as 'last king of Portugal' goes on trial] ", "The Independent", 25 March 2007.]

References

External links

* [http://www.europeanpaintings.com/ Stair Sainty Galleries]
* [http://www.chivalricorders.org/ Almanach de la Cour Homepage]
* [http://www.wokm.co.uk/ World Orders of Knighthood and Merit]
* [http://www.sainty.org/saintyarms.htm Guy Stair Sainty's Coat of Arms]
* [http://www.icocregister.org/patronsandmembers.htm Members and Patrons of the International Commission for Orders of Chivalry]
* [http://www.icocregister.org/ International Commission for Orders of Chivalry]