Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The most beautiful apt in the world!!!





Gold gilt Pier mirror
After two long years I finally got to go into the most beautiful apt in the world on Christmas day. It is my dream apt. The apt is located around the corner from my current small apt. It is in a mid 19th century brownstone mansion designed by J. Rudolph Niernsee of the local firm of Niernsee & Neilson, and displays Italian Renaissance features then in fashion. The apt is on the 2th floor of the townhome and the rooms of the apt are layd out in a horse shoe shape containing a ball room that spans the with of the house a parlor in the middle and a dinning room that is the size of the ball room.




Off from the dinning room is a nice kitchen and bathroom. The rooms have most of there original moldings and details, original marble mantels. and gold gilt pier mirrors & drapery cornices with wild animal heads looking down on you. The most impressive room in the apt is the ball room. Most peoples apt would fit into this room. It has one of the largest plaster ceiling medallions I had ever seen with it's original 1850's gold bronze and crystal gasolier by Cornelius and Baker, Philadelphia. The room also has one of the most beautifully carved mantels I have seen. It is carved with bas-reliefs after famous sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen of his most famous work Night and Day (modeled 1815; marble versions which he is said to have modelled in one day. Thorvaldsens Mus. and on loan to London, V&A). What is funny is across the street at Grace & st Peter's church they have a original Bertal Thorwaldsen sculpture of a angle holy water font. Plus both buildings the church and home were designed by the same architectural firm Niernsee & Neilson. I believe that the mantel could have been carved by William Henry Rinehart, Maryland's most prominent Neo-Classical sculptor. He began his career working in the stone-yard of Baughman and Bevan on the site of what is now The Peabody Institute, Baltimore. This site is a few blocks from this apt. This apt has a Old New Orleans feel, Gone with the wind & Paris. I have to find away to get this place and move in with my antiques. I will get it using the law of attraction.

1850's carved marble mantel showing Night & Day