Perhaps the most famous of historic Hamptons shingle-styles recently sold for an undisclosed amount. Journalist and writer Sally Quinn had listed the property in February with an asking price of $20 million, but had dropped the price to $18 million some months later.

The estate was featured in the Maysles film ‘Grey Gardens,’ which chronicled the day-to-day lives of eccentric and all but broke blue bloods ‘Little Edie’ and ‘Big Edie’ Beale in the context of a fading American aristocracy. By the time Quinn and husband Ben Bradlee, the famous Watergate-era editor of the Washington Post, purchased the property, it was in a state of genuinely Faulknerian dilapidation, and marked for razing. The couple spent $220K for the estate in 1979, and set about restoring the house, grounds, and furniture, which required a huge commitment of time, energy, and cashola.

But the Hamptons are the better for their efforts. The house dates to 1897, and measures about 6,000 square feet. It contains seven bedrooms and 6.5 baths. Not a huge house, but marvelously eccentric as only a real shingle-style can be, even without its famous former owners. Details of extraordinary period craftsmanship abound, resulting in surprise after surprise, and a terrific personality. Leaded glass windows, multi-colored tile and shingling, and the nook-and-cranny asymmetry of the style all contribute to the overall charm.

The two acres of landscaped grounds are as disarmingly classic, and meander in that particular romantic manner of fin-de-siecle Long Island garden design, suggesting idylls to be discovered, lost, and re-discovered. Along the way is a tennis court, and, more interestingly, a storybook-style stucco guest house.

A singlular residence, and a coup for the buyer with cash and taste to burn.