Southern Folk Artist & Antiques Dealer/Collector

The French Cuirassier 1813 by Jose de Madrazo

2012-03-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

The French Cuirassier 1813 by Jose de Madrazo

A tour of Historic Lafayette Square Washington, D.C.

2012-03-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

Equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square with White House in the background. The statue of Andrew Jackson was unveiled January 8, 1853. It was a Saturday on the 38th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, and according to an account by a reporter for the Washington Union, twenty thousand people attended in and around the park. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the keynote speaker at the unveiling. There are two other castings in New Orleans, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Lafayette Square is a seven-acre public park located directly north of the White House on H Street between 15th and 17th Streets, NW. The Square and the surrounding structures were designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1970. Originally planned as part of the pleasure grounds surrounding the Executive Mansion, the area was called "President's Park". The Square was separated from the White House grounds in 1804 when President Jefferson had Pennsylvania cut through. In 1824, the Square was officially named in honor of General Lafayette of France.

Lafayette Square has been used as a racetrack, a graveyard, a zoo, a slave market, an encampment for soldiers during the War of 1812, and many political protests and celebrations. Andrew Jackson Downing landscaped Lafayette Square in 1851 in the picturesque style.

The Jackson Place complex consists of six historic nineteenth-century rowhouses lining the square, between which are five historically sympathetic recent buildings. The block begins at 704 Jackson Place, which is part of the President’s Guest House complex, and terminates on H Street at the 1819 Stephen Decatur House, designed by Benjamin Latrobe. The plans of the attached houses are typical of the era—three stories with a basement and three bays wide, with off center entrances on a piano nobile. All houses are of masonry construction, with either sandstone or brick decorative trim and door surrounds.

Planned as a quiet place of respite for the president of the United States, Lafayette Square became a crossroads of history as generations of residents and visitors to the nation’s capital lived, worked, gathered, and strolled through its manicured grounds. Yet as the city grew up around it, the former President’s Square retained its nineteenth-century character, evoking a very different Washington.

Two urns reside on the south side of the district, between Jackson Place and Madison Place. They each stand at 5 feet tall by 4 feet wide, and are made of bronze with granite bases. The sides of the urns are decorated with classical female figures. The urns were part of the original park plan as designed by Andrew Jackson Dowling in 1852. They may have been designed by Dowling, or his assistant Calver Vaux. The urns were cast in a New York foundry at the orders of George M. Robeson, who was Secretary of the United States Navy at the time. The urns were originally placed on granite bases in the center of two small flower beds to the east and west sides of the Andrew Jackson statue. In 1879, they were fitted with metal pans which allowed them to be used as flower pots. The park was redesigned in 1936, and the urns were moved to their current location.

Washington, D.C.was designated as the site for the United States capital in the 1790 Residence Act, with authority given to President George Washington to ready the capital for the government by 1800. Contests were held to solicit votes for both the United States Capitol and the President's residence. James Hoban's design was selected, and he supervised the construction of the White House. Later on, the White House was expanded with the West Wing, which now houses the office of the president and staff. The White House grounds include the South Lawn, Rose Garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, and North Lawn.

The park was separated from the White House grounds in 1804, when President Thomas Jefferson had Pennsylvania Avenue cut through. In 1824, the park was officially renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

In the four corners are statues of foreign Revolutionary War heroes: Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette and Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau of France, Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland, and Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Prussia.

Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Prussia's statue.

Completed in 1819, Decatur House is significant as the first private residence constructed on Lafayette Square and the last of Benjamin Henry Latrobe's city houses in America to be preserved. Latrobe is also known for his architectural work on the Capitol, the White House and Saint John's Church. Like other Latrobe residential designs, Decatur House emphasizes the vestibule, making it the architectural center of the interior. The vestibule's reconciliation of three geometric forms (rectangle, circle, and semicircle) is another of Latrobe's architectural contributions, one first seen in his designs for the Capitol.

St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square

Organized as a parish in 1815, it was named for Saint John, the Evangelist. The building opened and the first service was held at St. John's Church on October 27, 1816. The Rev. William Dickinson Hawley served as its rector from 1817 to 1845, also serving as Chaplain of the Senate.The church building was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol Building, and is constructed of stucco-covered brick, taking the form of a Greek cross. In 1820, the portico and tower were added.

The bell in St. John's steeple weighs nearly 1,000 pounds. It was cast by Paul Revere's son, Joseph, at his Boston foundry in August 1822 and installed at St. John's on November 30, 1822. President James Monroe authorized a $100 contribution of public funds toward the purchase of this church bell, which also served as an alarm bell for the neighborhoods and public buildings in the vicinity of the church. St. John's bell is one of two Revere bells in Washington, both cast and installed in 1822. However, of the two, St. John's bell is the only one that has been in continuous service since its installation. According to at least two accounts, whenever the bell tolls because of the death of a notable person, six ghostly men in white robes appear in the President's pew at midnight and then vanish.

Long known as "the Church of the Presidents," St. John's Episcopal Church has served virtually as the chapel to the White House for nearly two centuries. Every President since James Madison has worshiped here on some occasion. As far back as 1816, records show that a committee was formed to wait on the President of the United States and offer him a pew. James Madison chose pew 54 and insisted on paying the customary annual rental. The next five Presidents in succession--James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison--occupied this pew during their terms of office. Since then, by tradition, pew 54 has been set aside for Presidents of the United States. There are other ways in which the church is further connected with Presidents. Many Presidents have been members of the church. James Madison's wife, Dolly, was baptized and confirmed here. Franklin D. Roosevelt paid homage to tradition by spending a few minutes in prayer here on his two inauguration days.

The original Classical style church was built in the form of a Greek Cross, where each arm was equal in length. Latrobe conceived of his churches as meeting houses, with open preaching space unencumbered by piers and columns. As a result, he insisted on simplicity in architecture and a pulpit centrally located so that all might see. St. John's size soon proved inadequate for the growing congregation. In 1820, workmen extended the west transept arm and fronted it with a Roman Doric portico, which resulted in a Latin Cross form. Over time, further alterations, such as the triple-tiered steeple, significantly altered Latrobe's plan, but the original structure is still recognizable.

There are many notable treasures in the church such as the twenty-seven handsome memorial windows adorning the building. An 18th-century prayer book placed in the President's pew has been autographed by many of the Presidents. A silver chalice and a solid gold communion chalice, encrusted with jewels, are also among its treasures.

The sanctuary windows of the church are regarded as outstanding examples of the art forms of painted and stained glass from the nineteenth century. During the 1880s, the church retained the services of Madame Lorin, Curator of Glass at Chartres Cathedral in France, to design more than twenty stained glass windows including the unique vertical representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper above the altar. A few modern windows have since been added, notably the two “Sacramental Windows” of translucent blue in the north transept on the main floor of the church, and the McCants and Red Cross windows directly opposite in the south transept, on either side the Lorin-designed window given by President Chester Arthur in memory of his wife, Ellen Herndon Arthur.

Equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square. The statue of Andrew Jackson was unveiled January 8, 1853. It was a Saturday on the 38th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, and according to an account by a reporter for the Washington Union, twenty thousand people attended in and around the park. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the keynote speaker at the unveiling. There are two other castings in New Orleans, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square. It was commissioned in May 1847, cast in 1852, and dedicated on January 8, 1853, by Stephen A. Douglas.

It was the first equestrian statue made in America. Jackson's horse at the Battle of New Orleans was named Duke; but Mills modeled the horse from his horse named Olympus. Mills trained his horse to pose on its haunches to model the pose. He completed a plaster model, and started a foundry to produce the casting. He had to produce 6 castings until the final one was completed, in 10 pieces

The Benjamin O. Tayloe House, built 1828, is another classic example of the Federal style. Although also renovated over time by later occupants, including an addition to the north to provide a connection to the Cosmos Club, the original section of the three-story Tayloe House retains its historic nineteenth-century character through its simple three-bay symmetry and brick exterior

The circa 1818-19 Dolley Madison House, a simple, three-story buff colored stucco building, is a quintessential example of the reserved Federal style of the early Republic. The first three bays are the original house, with a later addition constructed after the building was purchased by the Cosmos Club in the 1880s. The ornamental wrought iron porch was added after the former first lady sold the house to explorer Charles Wickes.

ABOUT CUTTS-MADISON HOUSE:

"The Cutts-Madison House (also known as the Dolley Madison House) is an American colonial-style historic home located at 721 Madison Place NW in Washington, D.C. The house is best known for being the residence of former First Lady Dolley Madison, who lived there from November 1837 until her death in July 1849.

The Cutts-Madison House is a National Historic Landmark, part of the Lafayette Square Historic District.

Construction

On March 31, 1793, the U.S. Commissioners in charge of selling federally-owned lots in the District of Columbia agreed to sell square 221 to Samuel Davidson. Davidson died in 1810, and his son and two daughters inherited the property. Richard Cutts purchased lots 12, 13, 14, and 15 of square 221 from the Davidson heirs on October 3, 1818.

The house was constructed in 1818-1819 by Richard Cutts, who built the house for himself and his wife, Anna Payne Cutts (Dolley Payne Madison's sister). The house had two stories, a gabled roof, dormer windows, and chimneys at the north and south ends of the house. The exterior was originally grey stucco. The front of the house faced Lafayette Square. The lot on which the house sat was a large one, with extensive space on all sides. Dirt roads bordered the house on the west and north sides, and a large garden with flowers and fruit trees occupied the east and south sides of the house. The garden extended south as far as the Tayloe House on the south end of the block. The home was considered one of the more "pretentious" domiciles in the city at the time.

The city graveled the street in front of the house in 1823.

Occupants

Dolley Madison

Cutts secured a mortgage to build the house, and on August 22, 1828, the bank holding the mortgage sold it to ex-President James Madison for $5,750. When James Madison died in 1836, Dolley Madison held the mortgage. Her husband's death had left Dolley Madison in a financially difficult position, so to reduce her expenses she took up residency in the house in November 1837. Presidents James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor all visited her in the home, as did John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. Dolley Madison's financial difficulties continued, however. She also owned Montpelier, her husband's country estate and farm in the Piedmont of Virginia. But Montpelier's finances were in poor condition, and Dolley moved out of the Cutts-Madison House in 1839 to live once more at Montpelier and see if she could save the estate. She rented out the Cutts-Madison house, but was unable to stabilize Montpelier. She moved back to the Cutts-Madison House in 1843, and sold Montpelier in 1844.

In 1844 or 1845, after her return to the Cutts-Madison House, arsonists put lit matches into the shutters in the rear of the house, and Dolley Madison had to be wakened and saved from death by a servant. The fire was quickly put out, and the damage to the building not extensive (Mrs. Madison returned to her bedroom the same night).

Dolley Madison lived in the house on Lafayette Square until her death on July 12, 1849. Her only surviving child, John Payne Todd (from her first marriage to Quaker lawyer John Todd), inherited the property. On April 3, 1851, Todd sold the house and property to Charles Wilkes."

Onorio Marinari, Saint Sebastian, 17th century

2012-03-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

Onorio Marinari, Saint Sebastian, 17th century

Jean-Germain Drouais, Seated Gladiator, late 18th century

2012-03-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Jean-Germain Drouais, Seated Gladiator, late 18th century

"Portrait of Captain Jean Terford David" 1813 by Thomas Sully

2012-03-08T05:05:00.000-08:00

"Portrait of Captain Jean Terford David" 1813 by Thomas Sully

A Young Man Sharpens His Arrow by C.W. Eckersberg - 1812

2012-03-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

A Young Man Sharpens His Arrow by C.W. Eckersberg - 1812

Azalea time in Mobile

2012-03-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

A profusion of color spills out from a early 19^th century Empire Old Paris porcelain vase atop a early 19^th century pier table in my front parlor.

It’s that time of the year again, Azalea time here in Mobile. Mobile, Alabama is known as the Azalea city. Our climate is well suited for growing the beautiful flowing plant. The slightly fragrantly delicate flower has now graced Mobile’s gardens and yards for more then 250 years. Azaleas were first brought to Mobile during the middle of the 18th century by Frenchman Fifise Langlois after a visit to his childhood home in Toulouse, France.

Fifise brought back 3 different colors to Mobile in 1754 . Mobile displays over 50 different varieties growing now a days, the most famous Azalea in Mobile is the “Pride of Mobile” a watermelon colored azalea created in the 1950’s and named after the Azalea city. Here are some photos of the “Pride of Mobile” azalea from my garden displayed in Antique vessels throughout my home. Look for a up and coming post about the many kinds of azaleas grown all over Mobile.

Pride of Mobile Azaleas grace a mid 19^th century parian urn

A mid 19^th century oil portrait over looks a azalea filled parian urn

In my bedroom “Pride of Mobile’ azaleas are displayed in early 19^th century cut glass atop a 19th century Japanese lacquered tray

In my bedroom “Pride of Mobile’ azaleas pop out of a mid 19^th century Old Paris porcelain vase atop a Louis XVI bracket.

On a Mobile, AL made 1820’s Plantation desk “Pride of Mobile” azaleas are arranged in a early 19^th century cut glass vase and trumpet shaped vase in the middle of a Sèvres porcelain inkstand

A profusion of "Pride of Mobile" Azalea color spills out from a early 19th century Empire Old Paris porcelain vase atop a early 19th century pier table in my front parlor.

"The Triumph of Amphitrite" by Jean-Baptiste Regnault

2012-03-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

"The Triumph of Amphitrite" by Jean-Baptiste Regnault

François Joseph Navez: The Nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 1829

2012-03-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

François Joseph Navez: The Nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 1829

The Shepherd Paris, 1787–1788, Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Desmarais

2012-03-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

The Shepherd Paris, 1787–1788, Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Desmarais

The Decatur House Museum built 1818 Washington, D C

2012-03-01T12:30:00.001-08:00

The Decatur House in Washington DC, built in 1818, overlooks Lafayette Square and is one block north of the White House. The house was built by Stephen Decatur, who was a celebrity from his military victories in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.

Decatur desired the house to be “sturdy as a ship” in construction and of great simplicity of design. The results were an extremely restrained and beautifully proportioned cubic structure of red brick with a hip roof.

One of my favorite house museums in D.C. is the Decatur House built 1818-19 and overlooking President’s Park, now called Lafayette park. The house was built by Commodore Stephen Decatur. Decatur joined the U.S. Navy in 1798 at age 19 as a midshipman and served under three presidents, playing a major role in the development of the young American Navy.

In almost every theater of operations Decatur's service was characterized with acts of heroism and exceptional performance in the many areas of military endeavor. His service in the Navy took him through the first and second Barbary Wars in North Africa, the Quasi-War with France, and the War of 1812 with Britain. During this period of time he served aboard and commanded many naval vessels and ultimately became a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners.

He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy. He became an affluent member of Washington society and counted James Monroe and other Washington dignitaries among his personal friends. Decatur's distinguished career in the Navy would come to a premature end when he lost his life in a duel with a rival officer. After his death 46 towns, streets,ships, schools and babies were named after him. His numerous naval victories against Britain, France and the Barbary states established the United States as a world power comparable to Britain and France.

Charles Bird King, portrait of Stephen Decatur, c. 1820; National Portrait Gallery

"Stephen Decatur was one of the most romantic characters in American history...From the year of his birth down to that of his untimely death, a romantic glamour rested upon him. Like a faint, lingering odour of incense, an abiding trace of that glamour still attaches to the house he built."

Decatur subsequently emerged as a national hero in his own lifetime, becoming the first post revolutionary war hero. His name and legacy, like that of John Paul Jones, soon became identified with the United States Navy.

On March 8, 1806, Decatur married Susan Wheeler, the daughter of Luke Wheeler, the Mayor of Norfolk, Virginia. She was well known for her beauty and intelligence among Norfolk and Washington society. They had met at a dinner and ball held by the Mayor for a Tunisian ambassador who was in the United States negotiating peace terms for his country's recent defeat at Tunis under the silent guns of John Rodgers and Decatur.Before marrying Susan, Decatur had already vowed to serve in the U.S. Navy and maintained that to abandon his service to his country for personal reasons would make him unworthy of her hand.

Susan was once pursued by Vice President Aaron Burr and Jérôme Bonaparte, brother to Napoleon, both of whom she turned down. For several months after their marriage the couple resided with Susan's parents in Norfolk, after which Stephen received orders sending him to Newport to supervise the building of gunboats.For reasons not clear to historians the couple never had children during their fourteen years of marriage

Stephen Decatur, by Alonzo Chappel

In 1818, Decatur built a three story red brick house in Washington, DC, on Lafayette Square, designed by the famous English architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, considered the father of American Architecture, the same man who designed the U.S. Capitol building and Saint John's Church. Decatur specified that his house had to be suitable for "impressive entertainments". The house was the first private residence to be built near the White House.

Portrait of Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) c.1814 (oil on panel) by Thomas Sully (1783-1872)

Now that Decatur was Naval Commissioner he had settled into a routine life in Washington working at the Navy Department during the day with many evenings spent as an honorary guest at social gatherings as both he and his wife were the toast of Washington society.

Decatur's life and distinguished service in the U.S. Navy came to an unfortunate end when in 1820, Commodore James Barron challenged Decatur to a duel, related in part to comments Decatur had made over Barron's conduct in the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807. Because of Barron's loss of the Chesapeake to the British he faced a court martial and was barred from command for a term of five years. Decatur had served on the court-martial that had found Barron guilty of 'unpreparedness'. Barron had just returned to the United States from Copenhagen after being away for six years and was seeking reinstatement.

Fireman's hat, ca.1850, probably Philadelphia, painted and gilt felt

He was met with much criticism among fellow naval officers, among them Decatur was one of the most outspoken. Decatur, who was now on the board of naval commissioners, strongly opposed Barron's reinstatement and was notably critical about the prospect in communications with other naval officers and government officials. As a result Barron became embittered towards Decatur and challenged him to a duel.Barron's challenge to Decatur occurred during a period when duels between officers were so common that it was creating a shortage of experienced officers, forcing the War Department to threaten to discharge those who attempted to pursue the practice.

Portrait of Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) c.1814 (oil on panel) by Thomas Sully (1783-1872)

Barron's second was Captain Jesse Elliott, known for his jaunty mannerisms and antagonism toward Decatur. Decatur had first asked his friend Thomas Macdonough to be his second, but Macdonough, who had always opposed dueling, accordingly declined his request. Decatur then turned to his supposed friend Commodore William Bainbridge to act as his second, to which Bainbridge consented. However, Decatur made a poor choice: Bainbridge, who was five years his senior, had long been jealous of the younger and more famous Decatur.

The seconds met on March 8 to establish the time, place and the rules of which the duel was to occur. The arrangements were exact. The duel was to take place at nine o'clock in the morning on March 22, at Bladensburg, Maryland, near Washington, at a distance of only eight paces. Decatur, an expert pistol shot, planned only to wound Barron in the hip.

Miniature Portrait of Stephen Decatur Jr by William Birch

Decatur did not tell his wife, Susan, about the forthcoming duel but instead wrote to her father asking that he come to Washington to stay with her, using language that suggested that he was facing a duel and that he might lose his life. On the morning of the 22nd the dueling party assembled. The conference between the two seconds lasted three-quarters of an hour. Just before the duel, Barron spoke to Decatur of conciliation; however, the men's seconds did not attempt to halt the proceedings.

The duel was arranged by Bainbridge with Elliott in a way that made the wounding or death of both duelists very likely. The shooters would be standing close to each other, face to face; there would be no back-to-back pacing away and turning to fire, a procedure that often resulted in the missing of one's opponent. Upon taking their places the duelists were instructed by Bainbridge, "I shall give the word quickly – 'Present, one, two, three' – You are neither to fire before the word 'one', nor after the word 'three'. Now in their positions, each duelist raised his pistol, cocked the flintlock and while taking aim stood in silence. Bainbridge called out, 'One', Decatur and Barron both firing before the count of 'two'. Decatur's shot hit Barron in the lower abdomen and ricocheted into his thigh. Barron's shot hit Decatur in the pelvic area, severing arteries. Both of the duelists fell almost at the same instant. Decatur, mortally wounded and clutching his side, exclaimed, "Oh, Lord, I am a dead man". Lying wounded, Commodore Barron (who ultimately survived) declared that the duel was carried out properly and honorably and told Decatur that he forgave him from the bottom of his heart.

Portrait of Stephen Decatur by Thomas Sully

By now other men who had known about the duel were arriving at the scene, including Decatur's friend and mentor, the senior officer John Rodgers. In excruciating pain, Decatur was carefully lifted by the surgeons and placed in Rodgers' carriage and was carried back to his home on Lafayette Square. Before they departed Decatur called out to Barron that he should also be taken along, but Rodgers and the surgeons calmly shook their heads in disapproval. Barron cried back "God bless you, Decatur" – and with a weak voice Decatur called back "Farewell, farewell, Barron" Upon arrival at his home Decatur was taken in to the front room just left of the front entrance, still conscious. Before allowing himself to be carried in he insisted that his wife and nieces be taken upstairs, sparing them the sight of his grave condition. A Dr. Thomas Simms arrived from his home nearby to give his assistance to the naval physicians, however, for reasons not entirely clear to historians, Decatur refused to have the ball extracted from his wound.At this point Decatur requested that his will be brought forward so as to receive his signature, granting his wife with all his worldly possessions, with directives as to whom would be the executors of his will. Decatur died at approximately 10:30 pm that night. While wounded, he is said to have cried out, "I did not know that any man could suffer such pain!"

Portrait of Stephen Decatur by Thomas Sully

Decatur's Tomb in St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia where his parents were buried.

Decatur House is one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington, D.C. today, and one of only three remaining houses in the country designed by neoclassical architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Stephen Decatur was flush with prize money he had been awarded for his victories in the War of 1812 when he purchased the northwest corner lot on the square and commioned a house design from Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe was the go to architect and designer of the prestigious neighborhood around the President’s House.

Dacatur’s China Export tureen

Latrobe had worked on the White House, St. John’s church and the nearby home of the D.C.’s richest man, John Peter Van Ness built 1813-15. It was successively home to Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, Judah P. Benjamin, who collectively made Decatur House the unofficial residence of the Secretary of State from 1827 to 1833, each renting the house while they served in that post. Decatur’s decision to hire Latrobe and to establish his home within the presidential precinct indicates the level of aspiration his house represented. Decatur’s house was intended to serve the needs of entertaining important people in the new capital city and effectvely representing the status of its occupant as a national hero. The Decaturs were known for their lavish parties.

Facade of Decatur House, Washington, D.C., designed by Latrobe 1817

The façade of the home is rigidly symmetrical with very little ornament. Three stories in height with a low hipped roof the brick is set off by contrasting sandstone trim for the water table, windowsills, and lintels. Decatur made alterations to Latrobe’s design during construction, including changing the floor plans and substituting wood for the stone staircase Latrobe had specified.

Facade of Decatur House, Washington, D.C., designed by Latrobe 1817

The entry hall after restoration, looking at front door.

Restoration of entry & stair halls, standing in the entry hall looking into the stair hall.

The stairway after restoration.

Front hall

Latrobe most characteristic design to survive his client’s editing is the complex entry hall with its flattened domed ceiling rising from pendentives and an apse-like secondary compartment with niches flanking convex doorways leading to the stair hall beyond. The Decaturs moved into the house in 1818 but the rooms in the home remained unpainted for a year to allow the plaster to cure. After Decaturs death Susan Decatur began leasing the house the following year .Becase of it’s location it housed a number of distinguished occupants over the years.

Plans of front Hall for Decatur house by Latrobe

Front parlor On the basis of recently discovered inventories, the first floor rooms are furnished to reflect Stephen Decatur's time with actual furnishings belonging to the Decaturs shown through the generosity of Decatur descendents

In 1836 John Gadsby and his wife Providence moved into the house and brought their house slaves. They built a two-story structure at the back which became the slave quarters for those workers, who previously lived in the main house. This structure remains as one of the few examples of slave quarters in urban areas. It is physical evidence of African Americans' having been held "in bondage in sight of the White House."

Slave quarter added to the house in the 1830's

Latrobe disliked the raised basements, central halls and rear service wings of large American houses of the early 19th-century and strove to eradicate these features. Because he felt exterior stairs were dangerous in the American climate due to frequent rain, snow and ice, his ideal “rational house” contained a low, ground-level service story where family and visitors entered, virtually at-grade, with only one or two steps up. This first story also contained the kitchen and service rooms, hidden within the main block of the house (in the manner of French “degagement” or concealed, internal service spaces), which eliminated unsightly, rear service ell wings. Decatur’s house original kitchen was on the first floor a front room to the right of the front door. In the 1830’s the kitchen and servants rooms were added on the back of the house in a rear service wing that Latrobe disliked.

Front parlor

After Stephen's death, Susan auctioned most of the home’s furnishings, moved to a small house in Georgetown and rented the Decatur House for the next 15 years to a string of foreign and American dignitaries. Due to her overwhelming debt, Susan Decatur was forced to sell the home in 1836. Decatur House was purchased as a retirement home by wealthy hotel and tavern owner John Gadsby, who owned the prestigious Washington Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue as well as Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria. Among his most notable alterations to the house was the addition of a large two-story depedency building at the rear of the property, used as quarters for the numerous enslaved individuals in his household.

China export work table early 19th century

Although Decatur House remained an elegant setting for parties, the type of people who were entertained began to change. The French minister of the time wrote, "Some days ago I went to an evening party at Mr. Gadsby's. He is an old wretch who has made a fortune in the slave trade, which does not prevent Washington society from rushing to his house, and I should make my government very unpopular if I refused to associate with this kind of people. The gentleman's house is the most beautiful in the city, very well furnished, and perfect in the distribution of the rooms, but the society, my God!"

Plans for sliding doors in between parlors

After Gadsby's death in 1844, his wife Providence rented the house to Vice President George M. Dallas and several members of Congress. Her last tenant was Louisiana Senator Judah P. Benjamin. During the Civil War, the federal government took over the building, using it among other things as the Headquarters for the Army Subsistence Department and a storage space for Union Army uniforms.

Dinning room

General Edward Beale of California purchased the town house in 1872. A frontiersman, diplomat and entrepreneur, Beale was the initiator of the U.S. Army's Camel Corps in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona and served as ambassador to Austria-Hungary during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. Edward and his wife, Mary, redecorated the house to create a more fashionable Victorian home. They installed gaslights and added the impressive parquet floors in the second floor parlors where they frequently hosted social gatherings for Washington's elite. Upon Edward's death, the home was passed down to his son, Truxtun Beale, who served as ambassador to Persia and Romania. Truxtun and his wife, Marie, also did their part to carry on the tradition of entertaining in style as they hosted numerous soirees for diplomats and other prominent Washingtonians.

Dinning room

In 1956, after the home had been in the Beale family for 84 years, Marie Beale bequeathed the Decatur House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Marie Beale's generosity not only saved Decatur House, but many other historic buildings surrounding Lafayette Square which were slated to be demolished to make way for new government office buildings. Decatur House was opened to the public as a museum in the early 1960s.

In 2010, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the White House Historical Association established the National Center for White House History at Decatur House. The first of its kind, the center will house historical documentation, support research efforts and provide education programs related to the study and history of the White House.

The National Center for White House History is located at Decatur House, a National Trust Historic Site owned by the National Trust and operated by the White House Historical Association.

Upstairs Drawing Room

One of the unique aspects of Decatur House's history is the number of residents who made this Lafayette Square their home between 1819 and 1956. The original owners, Stephen and Susan Decatur only enjoyed their new house for fourteen short months - a duel that cut short the life of the naval hero, also cut short his wife's tenancy in the home. Thus began nearly a half-century of revolving tenants and owners - it was not until 1872, the beginning of the Beale occupancy, that a single family occupied the house for a significant period of time.

Painting taken from the Louvre during the Franco-Prussian war and bought by Mr Beale

original 1818 doors

The original mahogany doors have there original cut glass knobs

Detail of original Federal molding

bed of James Monroe’s daughter, Eliza Hay, from the White House.

The second floor stair hall, after restoration.

one of the original mantels

The Madison’s Elliptical Saloon now known as the oval Blue Room at the White House also designed by Latrobe had the same mantel design that Latrobe Latter used in Decatur House.

A modern rendering of the Madison White House's "Elliptical Saloon," 1810-14, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe to display the 'Grecian' style that was ironically very popular in Britain

Just ordered some new business cards

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Camellias and a 1850’s wax baby Jesus

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Camellias and a 1850’s wax baby Jesus in my front parlor

Mardi Gras Day in Mobile,AL Feb 21 part two

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Camellias and Antique porcelain

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Camellias and Antique porcelain in my front parlor

Samson and the Philistines 1863 by Carl Heinrich Bloch

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Samson and the Philistines 1863 by Carl Heinrich Bloch

Romulus, after Jacques-Louis David by Antoine-Alphonse Montfort

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Romulus, after Jacques-Louis David by Antoine-Alphonse Montfort

Antiques I'm thinking about buying

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A book matched Federal mahogany Massachusetts made early 19^th century card table on turned reeded legs ending in brass balls.

The wood in the front is book-matched. You've got matched panels cut from the same flitch of wood, and that carried around the side.

An American made early 19^th century regency style saber leg side chair

A large pair of mid 19^th century Rococo Revival Old Paris porcelain figural candlesticks of a 18^th century couple

A vintage decorative plaster of Paris rams head

A vintage copy of a 18^th century French key stone made of plaster of Paris

This is a very good copy of a 18^th century French face key stone. The plaster of Paris is nicely painted to look like the weathered stone original. It would look great over a doorway in my home or over my kitchen sink.

Mardi Gras Day in Mobile,AL Feb 21 part one

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The theme float of the Knights of Revelry a reproduction of a 19^th century float

Knights of Revelry Parade chose "Dirty Jobs," with floats like "Working in the Coal Mine" and "Old McDonald Had a Pig Farm" not so much gritty as fun.

Injured Roman Soldier 1785 by Jean-Germain Drouais

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Injured Roman Soldier 1785 by Jean-Germain Drouais

Camellias and Antique Parian porcelain

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Camellias and Parian porcelain in my front parlor

Scéne de reproches 1794 by Michel Garnier

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Scéne de reproches 1794 by Michel Garnier

Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama

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Early cut glass and camellias

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Early cut glass and camellias in my bedroom window

The Sorrows of Love 1790 by Louis Léopold Boilly

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The Sorrows of Love 1790 by Louis Léopold Boilly

Parlors from Waterloo Row 1817, Baltimore, Maryland

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Front parlor

One of my favorite period rooms at the Baltimore museum of art is the first floor plan from one of the 12 Wateterloo Row houses built in 1817-1818 in Baltimore. The Federal style row homes were built by America’s first native-born architect Robert Mills who won the architectural competition for Baltimore’s Washington monument and latter designed the Washington Monument in D.C. In 1815 Mills moved to Baltimore from Philadelphia where he was working with Benjamin H. Latrobe.

Waterloo Row FROM A WATER COLOR PAINTED IN 1831

Photo of Waterloo Row at North Calvert Street in Baltimore Maryland. Nice view of the street with houses and old cars in view. Part of an old Pepsi billboard ad can also be seen. Photo dates to 1936.

Mills was familiar with Baltimore because he had worked with Latrobe as clerk of works on the new Catholic Cathedral designed by Latrobe. Between 1815 and 1820 Robert Mills became one of Baltimore’s most sought after architects. Unfortunately the Washington Monument is the only surviving architecture in Baltimore by Mills.

Of his many domestic buildings he designed in Baltimore only a row of 10 houses out of a original 12 overlooking his Washington Monument was still standing in 1970. The ten that was left was demolished in the name of urban-renewal.

Front Facades

The Baltimore Museum of art received a bequest of early 19th century furniture used and made in Baltimore in one of the homes as well as architectural items from the row houses to recreate a first-floor plan of one of the Classical homes of Waterloo Row. Including entrance doorway, woodwork. Plasterwork, King of

Prussia marble mantels to recreate the double parlors, entrance hall and stair hall in the Baltimore Museum of art.

Out of the ten building not one house had all of its original Classical/Federal architectural elements intact at the time of the 1970 demolition. To reconstruct a period 1817 interior original material had to be taken from several remaining houses.

Stair Hall

Robert Mills was born in South Carolina in 1781, during his early career Mills studied with James Hoban who designed the White House, Thomas Jefferson and Latrobe. From theses architects he learned Irish and English late Georgian style. The Classical Revival styles as interpreted by English Palladians, Kent and Burlington. But his greatest influence was working with Latrobe in the new Greek Style.

The 12 townhouses of Waterloo Row were speculative real estate with Robert Mills as one of the investors. The foundations for Waterloo row and there servants wings were probably laid in early spring 1817 the houses were completed by autumn of 1818. Each house was priced at $8,000. Making them the most expensive homes in Baltimore for the time. The beautiful and well built homes failed to sell to effluent Baltimoreans because they were considered too distant from downtown at only being about 5 blocks away from the heart of the city.

The name Waterloo refers to Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 but as well as the losses incurred by the speculative builders. The investors also had a hard time renting out the newly built homes.

Elaborate plaster ceiling medallion

The homes were three and a half stories in height over a basement level. The entrance doorway was approached by a flight of six white marble steps with ornamental iron railings set parallel to the facades. The front double doors were flanked by sidelights and topped by high and broad fanlights.

Christmas time at the Hopkins Home

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On the marble base of a gilt-wood pier table are mid 19^th century Old Paris porcelain figures of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Jacob Petit with a glitter Christmas tree in-between, reminding us that the Christmas tree of today was first made popular in the US by the British Royals. The Christmas tree is a German tradition brought to England by German Prince Albert.

This engraving from Christmas of 1848 of the Royal family around a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle was published by the London Illustrated News and went viral as we would say today. Everybody in England and America had to have a Christmas tree. The triangular shape representing the trinity.

A 1820’s gold leafed “Thomas Sully” framed pier mirror sports a brass, green & red glitter bell wreath at top.

A 1820’s English portrait of a boy is garnished with a sprig of local kumquats as well as a gilt acanthus leaf bracket holding A Rococo Revival Old Paris porcelain vase

On a early 19^th century Baltimore fancy pier table a rare 1820’s American Classical porcelain tea set attributed to the Decasse & Chanou factory of New York city has sprigs of kumquats in-between the pieces.

Displayed on a Baltimore fancy pier table is a rare New York city made 1820’s white and gold porcelain tea set attributed to the short lived New York city porcelain factory Decasse & Chanou

The Black dinning room mantel painted to look like black slate is simply decorated with citrus and kumquat sprigs, the 1851 portrait has a burgundy and gold bow at top.

Detail of mantel top decorations with citrus and fresh kumquat sprigs

A 1830’s Old Paris porcelain painted plaque in a Louis XVI frame has cypress sprigs and a single red Camellia flower from my garden as decoration.

A ornate French Napoleon lll gold leaf oval mirror has a sprig of cypress at the top.

In a corner of the bedroom a pair of 18^th century French wax profiles of Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI receive a red camellia while the Round hand colored engraving in the center by Angelica Kauffman in it’s original carved gilt-wood frame receives a sprig of cypress

At the Top Marie Antoinette

French King Louis XVI

The Engraving in the center is by Angelica Kauffman in it’s original carved gilt-wood

In the corner of the Winter Bedroom, an Empire dresser is decorated with a bouquet of red Camellias in a American cut glass vase. The “Thomas Sully mirror has cypress sprigs as well as a burgundy bow. The framed engravings of portraits by Neoclassical French artist David also has cypress sprigs.

Detail of bouquet of red Camellias in a American cut glass vase. The framed engravings of portraits by Neoclassical French artist David also has cypress sprigs.

A mahogany work table used as a nightstand has a white glitter Christmas tree

In the Winter Bedroom over the bed a 18^th century French pastel portrait of a young Aristocrat is decorated with a turquoise and silver bells hanging from top of the frame. On the bracket the 18^th century porcelain tea pot from Marie Antoinette’s factory Rue Thiroux is surrounded by fresh Christmas greenery.

Behind a beautiful Christmas Angel is a Period French Empire needlepoint of the Madonna & child in it’s original Neoclassical gilt-wood frame.

A 1840’s portrait miniature on ivory of a Southern Belle has a red camellia at top as decoration

A art glass ornament hangs from the skeleton key of a 1820’s Mobile, Alabama made plantation desk.

Another art glass ornament hangs from atop a carved gilt-wood altar candlestick

On a home altar, a mid 19^th century Bohemian Emerald glass chalice shaped vase with portraits of Queen Victoria’s daughters painted around it has a festive touch of red camellias.

On a home altar, a 18^th century French Provençal ivory crucifixion gets sprigs of holly

As well as a Old Paris porcelain figure of a 18^th century Dandy

A 18^th century Louisiana Cherry & Cypress cabriole leg table is nestled in the middle of a pair of English Regency Mahogany Classical chairs

Atop the 18^th century Louisiana Cherry & Cypress cabriole leg table is a Holiday tāt`å`tāt for two

A stack of early Victorian engravings of English Sovereigns

A 18^th century cornflower and gilt-star decorated dish holds Pecan Divinity atop a plaster Ionic capital

A bouquet of red camellias sit atop a gilt Old Paris porcelain plate.

On a Victorian silver tray a 19^th century French gilt Baccarat crystal Swirl pattern pitcher awaits a Holiday beverage

A late 18^th century English lusterware bulb pot is sprouting with paper whites

A English Regency Mahogany Classical chair holds Rococo Revival gilt decorated Old Paris desserts plates.

A French 1850’s wax figure of baby Jesus under dome has decoration at top of a cranberry wreath

The 19^th century wine colored damask drapes and Napoleon III velvet covered side chair ads to the festive sprit of decoration

A 1850’s Rococo Revival gilt pier mirror decorated for the Christmas season

A French Paris porcelain figure of Queen Victoria on the base of a pier mirror

Christmas cards displayed on the top of a Empire dresser

The Hameau de la Reine part 2

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The Queens garden in the back of the Queens house. All of the cottages have gardens planted in the back.

This is part two of a series of post about the fabulous Hameau de la Reine on the grounds of Versailles. Today I’m taking you back to the 18^th century to the House and Hamlet of the Queen. As I said in the earlier post Marie Antoinette was better suited as a bourgeois house wife instead of a Queen. Marie Antoinette was happiest at the Hameau compared to the stuffy court of Versailles. It was at her lovely Hameau that she played this role well. Away from the peering eyes at Versailles where her every move was watched, her every word was heard and often taking out of context, and used against her. At Versailles Marie Antoinette had to eat in public, dress in public even wakeup in public. Eyes always watching her. On the grounds of her Petit Trianon and the Hameau Marie Antoinette could be her self.

The interior of the Grand Salon in the Queens house. Not open to the public because of the condition of the building. I was fortunate to go inside of the Queens house some years ago with the Marie Antoinette Association. It is since being restored. This room was original hung with wool tapestries in the Swiss style.

A 1920 photo of the Queens Grand Salon shows the early 19^th century Empire decorated painted paneling done over by Marie Antoinette’s niece and Napoleons 2th wife Marie-Louise of Austria

The Queen's House. The banisters of the staircases, galleries and balconies were adorned with blue and white earthenware pots of Saint-Clement containing hyacinths, quarantaine flowers, wallflowers or geraniums.

By Order of the Queen guests at her estate were instructed not to stop talking and not to rise from their seats when their Sovereign entered the room.

Etiquette ruled Versailles but the Saint of the Petit Trianon and the Hameau was the free thinking Enlightenment of Rousseau! She was fascinated by Rousseau's "back to nature" philosophy, as well as the culture of the Incas of Peru and their worship of the sun, about which she had books in her library. The place was completely enclosed by fences and walls, and only intimates of the Queen were allowed to access it. Marie Antoinette was the only Queen to impose her personal taste on Versailles, sweeping away the old court and its ancient traditions. Marie Antoinette dressed her children in a relaxed modern fashion. At the time the clothing of the children of the aristocracy resembled that of there parents in almost every detail. Marie Antoinette outfitted Madame Royale in the sample free flowing muslin gaulles that she had made popular herself. The young princes in sailor suits.

To the left, another building housing the billiard room is connected to the Queen's house by a wooden gallery decorated with trellises and twelve hundred St. Clement faience pots, marked in the blue figures of the Queen.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette à la Rose, 1783.

Dauphin Louis Joseph Xavier of France in a Sailor suit

Built between 1783-1787 in a pretty spot not far from the Petit Trianon. Marie Antoinette’s village the Hameau was a place where Marie Antoinette and her family could have a type of free lifestyle in nature among the perfumed fields of wild flowers. Flocks of sheep & cows. The could feed the birds in the dovecote and henhouse and eat freshly picked cherries and strawberries from the gardens behind the cottages and drink fresh milk from Royal Sevres porcelain cups supposedly molded from the Queens own breasts.

A niche de chien for the the Queen's dog to keep snug and warm on a cold rainy day. It was made by Claude Sené.

The Queen's house and billiard room

The twelve cottages constructed in the hamlet can be divided into two groups: five were reserved for use by the Queen; the other seven had a functional purpose and were used effectively for agriculture. Marie Antoinette had her own house, connected to the pool. Nearby was her boudoir. The mill and the dairy received frequent visits from the Queen. To set the desired tone of humbled poverty to the Village. The painters Tolede and Dardignac decorated the dozen little houses with painted imitation cracks, splits and false half-timbering and bricks and rotten wood painted on to the exterior stucco. Nine of the original 12 buildings are still standing today

The Queen's house and billiard room

The Queen's house and billiard room is located in the centre of the hamlet. Consisting of two floors, the upper level comprises the petit salon, also known as the "room of the nobles", an anteroom in the form of a "Chinese cabinet" and the large living room with wood paneling hung with tapestries of Swiss style in embroidered wool. From the room's six windows, the Queen could easily control the work fields and activity of the hamlet. Access is via the staircase of the round tower. At the center of the room is a harpsichord which Marie Antoinette loved to play. On the ground floor, paved with single slabs of stone, the building includes a backgammon room and a dining room. The lyre-backed chairs in mahogany lined with green morocco, were created by Georges Jacob. To the left, another building housing the billiard room is connected to the Queen's house by a wooden gallery decorated with trellises and twelve hundred St. Clement faience pots, marked in the blue figures of the Queen. Upstairs, a small apartment which seems to have been inhabited by the architect Richard Mique, has five rooms including a library. Despite the rustic appearance of facades, the interior finish and furnishings are luxurious and have been created by the carpenter Georges Jacob and the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener.

The Queen's house and billiard room

If you click on this photo you can see the detail of the painters Tolede and Dardignac. They decorated the dozen little houses with painted imitation cracks, splits, blocks of stone and false half-timbering and bricks and rotten wood painted on to the exterior stucco.

The Queens garden in the back of the Queens house. All of the cottages have gardens planted in the back.

Each building is decorated with a garden, an orchard or a flower garden.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette in hunting attire (a favorite of her mother), by Joseph Krantzinger (1771), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

The Queens garden in the back of the Queens house. All of the cottages have gardens planted in the back.

The Queen's house and billiard room

Dauphin Louis Joseph Xavier of France in a Sailor suit

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Princess Marie Thérèse Charlotte of France, Madame Royale, and her younger brother Louis Joseph Xavier of France, Dauphin of France, 1784.

The Mill, built and fitted from 1783 to 1788, was never used for grinding grain, contrary to what is often argued. The wheel is driven by a stream derived from the Grand Lake and is only a decorative element. No mechanism or wheel were installed in the factory. The interior decoration was simple and neat.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette in a rustic robe à la polonaise, vers 1780-1785.

The Polonaise style dress made famous by Marie Antoinette had a much higher hemline that that of the robes worn at court. It exposed the wearer’s feet and ankles; a feature that allowed for more freedom on romps through Trianon’s rolling fields.

The Hameau of the Queen contained a meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical Temple of Love on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers

A part hosted by the Queen in 1777 to celebrate the completion of the Temple of Love cost 400,000 livres. Marie Antoinette had built a temporarily constructed village & square that had fairgrounds and marketplace supplied with food and drink stands. Drinks were poured by ladies of the court, while Marie Antoinette served lemonade. At night 2,300 lanterns glowed from the gardens. The Royal Guard dressed in Chinese costume played music for dancing.

The statue of Cupid fashioning a bow from Hercules' club under the dome of the Temple of Love

"Cupid carving his bow from the club of Hercules" after the original by Edmé Bouchardon 1750 (Louvre) or the copy by Laurent Guiard 1786

Cupid carving his bow from the club of Hercules

Count Axel von Fersen close friend to Marie Antoinette & Frequent guest of the Petit Trianon and the Hameau

Lock of Marie Antoinette's hair

Marie Antoinette in 'gaulle,' a simple muslin dress

One of Marie Antoinette’s favorite dresses to ware at the Trianon and Hameau was a white muslin shift known as the gaulle. This dress was copied by Bertin Marie Antoinette’s dressmaker from the Creoles and the French colonialists wives fashion as they were not able to wear silk in the Caribbean heat.

This simple white dress has a ruffled neckline with puffy sleeves held up by colorful ribbon and a wide ribbon sash at the waist. Toped by a white bonnet of wide brimmed strawhat.

Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin de France by Adolph-Ulrich Wertmuller in Sailor suit

The Queen's hamlet seen from the Tour de Marlborough

Tour de Marlborough 1809 by French artist John Claude Nattes

The Petit Trianon

One primary purpose of the hameau was to add to the ambiance of the Petit Trianon, giving the illusion that it was deep in the countryside rather than within the confines of Versailles.

The Hameau of the Queen contained a meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical Temple of Love on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers

The rose is the Traditional Hapsburg symbol

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette, 1785.

Not far from the Hameau is Marie Antoinette’s Grotto also known as the “Queens Rock”

Marie Antoinette was in this Grotto in 1789 reading when she got word that the mob from Paris was approaching Versailles. She would leave the grounds of the Hameau never to return.

Inside of the Grotto also known as the “Queens Rock” was a place to sit carved into the stone. The place where Marie Antoinette was reading a book when she heard news of the mob approaching Versailles. { I have photo’s of me sitting here} Inside of this small man-made Grotto there are openings where one can look out and not be seen, theses natural looking openings in the rock allows fresh air to flow in as well as sunlight. A waterfall within keeps the mossy interior cool during the Summer months.

The place where Marie Antoinette was reading a book when she heard news of the mob approaching Versailles.

Marie Antoinette miniature by Francois Dumont

A Christmas purchase "Souvenirs of Travel' 1857

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My book Souvenirs of Travel circa 1857 proudly displayed on the top of my Empire dresser

A few days after Christmas I had decided to visit one of the used books stores in Mobile, Alabama that I go to once a month or so. If it’s one thing I can’t get enough of is books. Plus this place has good prices on Antique books. Once there I always go for the glass front bookcase that has rare and valuable books of local interest to Mobile, Alabama. I was Surprised to find volume 1 of Souvenirs of Travel (1857), inside of the case written by one of Mobile leading citizens of the mid 19th century, Madam Le Vert.

As I eyed the ornate Antebellum pressed clothbound 1857 book thru the glass I thought about how as a child before the age of ten this book along with it’s mate volume 2 were at the top of my list of books to own for many reasons. As I peered at the book, I wondered if I could afford it as the price was on the back of the book. I had some Christmas money, which is what I like best for Christmas so that I could buy things that I liked or wanted like this book if it was priced right.

The case is never locked and visitors are welcome to open it. Before I open the glass case door I said a little prayer. I opened the door slowly, picked up the book and turned it over. The price was $49.00 on a bright yellow sticker. I did not think twice about buying it as the one volume is priced from $250-$350 on abebooks. The set of two books priced from $900-$1,350. Nobody had to tell me I was getting a great deal that day. I ran to the front counter to place it in safety so no one else would pick up my find as I finished looking around the bookshop. So Much has been written about Madam Le Vert and I had read parts of her books detailing her two fabulous European travels of the 1850’s, but now I can read a first edition book published right here in Mobile by a early southern publisher. This book purchased with Christmas money will become one of my most admired possessions. Here is some info about Madam Le Vert and her life and I have also included the publisher’s forward by Sigismund Heinric Goetzel himself in 1857. It is in the front of the book.

Octavia Celestia Valentine Walton in her 1833 debutante portrait painted by America’s top portrait painter at the time Thomas Sully in Philadelphia.

Madam Le Vert was one of the best known women of the 1850’s. She was Born Octavia Celestia Valentine Walton on the 18th of August 1810, at Belle Vue a family home near Augusta, Georgia; died also at Belle Vue 12 March 1877, near Augusta, Georgia

She was the daughter of George Jr. and Sally Walker Walton; married a French American Henry Strachey Le Vert, 1836 in Mobile, Alabama. Proud that Henry’s father had come with Rochambeau to aid the struggling colonies.

Octavia Walton Le Vert seemed destined by parentage and by place and year of birth to not only become a Southern belle but a Belle international fame. Her intelligence, education, vivacity, and wealth suited her to be also a cosmopolitan hostess and traveler. She played both roles flawlessly. Her life began and ended at Belle Vue, the estate of her grandfather George Walker. Her paternal grandfather, one of Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence, was George Walton, and her father was acting governor and territorial secretary of Florida at Pensacola. And latter the family moved to Mobile Alabama where her father became Mayor.

Le Vert's mother and her grandmother carefully groomed and tutored the child for an aristocratic life that she would live. She learned to sing, dance, paint, draw and play the piano and guitar. As child and as adult, she read widely. Her facility for language allowed her Scotch tutor to teach her Greek, Latin, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. By the time she was twelve years old, she was so adept at language she could translate foreign dispatches for her father in Pensacola. When Lafayette visited the Waltons in 1825, the young Octavia delighted him with her conversation in French. In Pensacola, Le Vert knew the Seminoles who negotiated with her father. From them she learned the Native American language and legends.

Madam Octavia Walton Le Vert at the time of her European travels

Le Vert was well traveled in the U.S. and Europe. During the summer months the family would travel up North to spend time at fashionable resorts in town like Saratoga Springs, NY. When the young Edgar Allan Poe met Octavia he feel in love with her, wrote her a love poem. Her 1833 debutante portrait was painted by America’s top portrait painter at the time Thomas Sully in Philadelphia. She met and charmed people with power and position. In Washington, D.C., she visited President Jackson at the White House and was a good friend of Senator Henry Clay. In 1835, the Walton family moved to Mobile, Alabama, where George Walton later served as mayor. There, as a volunteer nurse, Le Vert met a handsome French physician whom she married in 1836. They had five children, several of whom died as children. In Mobile, Le Vert established what was perhaps the only French-styled salon in America. On her "Mondays," she received the social elite and persons distinguished in the arts and politics from eleven in the morning until eleven at night.

She loved the theater and knew many of the outstanding actors of the day. Particular friends were Edwin and John Booth, Joseph Jefferson, and Anna Cora Mowatt. In the 1850’s Madame became an enthusiastic supporter of the movement to save the deteriorating home of George Washington, Mount Vernon, and was appointed the first Alabama Vice-Regent of Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Madam Le Vert was always a proponent of woman’s rights when this view was unpopular.

The Home of Madam Le Vert located at 151 Goverment street in Mobile, Alabama

Le Vert established what was perhaps the only French-styled salon in America. On her "Mondays," she received the social elite and persons distinguished in the arts and politics from eleven in the morning until eleven at night.

When war between the states came, Le Vert, who had opposed secession from the Union which her grandfather had help to establish and had always felt that slavery was wrong, remained in Mobile and welcomed Yankees into her home, some of whom had been friends with in happier days. Public opinion turned against her, and she was denounced as a "Yankee spy." By the end of the Civil War, her husband was dead and their money gone. For a time, she traveled and gave public readings, spending time in New York she became a charter member of “Sorosis” said to be the first woman’s club in America. But soon she returned to Belle Vue where she died.

Souvenirs of Travel (1857), compiled from her journals and letters home to her mother, is Le Vert's account of two trips to Europe in 1853 and 1855, during which she was received by Queen Victoria and Pope Pius IX, presented to Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, escorted in Paris by ex-President Millard Fillmore, and introduced to Robert and Elizabeth Browning.

The book glorifies the Old World with sentimental descriptions of notable people and famous places. Le Vert was an accomplished linguist. For instance, in her diary she wrote about translating Dante's descent into hell into three languages one afternoon for her own enjoyment. Souvenirs was read by some important people who wrote to Le Vert thanking her for a copy of the book or complimenting her on it. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edwin Booth, Washington Irving, and President James Buchanan were among her admirers.

As I bought this as a Christmas gift for myself I realized that it was originally presented as a Christmas gift in 1857.

Title page

The publisher’s forward by Sigismund Heinric Goetzel himself in 1857

The materials of these volumes were not originally designed

for publication. They consist chiefly of the private letters,

journals, and sketches of a distinguished American lady,

during two visits to Europe. Her social position at home,

and an extensive acquaintance with the highest circles

abroad, gave her familiar access to scenes and personages

and conditions of life not ordinarily within the reach of

the foreign traveller. The mystic veil which hides the

penetralia of courtly and aristocratic society, was lifted for

her eyes, and she was facilitated in her observations and

experiences to a degree seldom awarded to an American

before. With the readiest and keenest powers of percep-

tion, with a mind fully informed historically as to all the

localities she visited, with a wonderfully retentive memory,

retaining all the sands of gold that filtrated through its

stream, and with the most genial and appreciative sympathies

for whatever is best and most beautiful in literature, art, and

social intercourse, she combined advantages calculated to

make her visits missions fruitful with facts and views of

wide general interest and utility.

Some of her letters to her friends, written during the

hurry of travel, were yet so graphic and attractive that

they were given to the press; and being reproduced all

through the country, excited an almost universal desire for

the publication of a full account of her travels. Those

friends who were admitted to her intimacies at home, be-

came aware what a rich mine of pleasing information, and

interesting adventure, existed in the various memoranda

she had made while in Europe. Their solicitations, and

reiterated persuasions from literary friends in all parts of

the Union, led to the preparation of this volume. The

original journals and letters have been carefully revised by

their author, additional memorials have been added, and

many parts that in the original form necessarily partook

largely of the personal and egotistic, have been omitted.

This statement might suffice to introduce these Souve-

nirs OF Travel to the world, but the Publishers deem it

proper to add a few words as to the gifted and accomplished

author. Madame Octavia "Walton Le Vert is perhaps more

widely known, in a social way, than any other American

lady. Born in Georgia, the grandchild of that Walton

who was both sage and soldier in the Revolution, and whose

name is immortal on the Chart of American Freedom, she

had from her infancy the highest social and intellectual ad-

vantages. Reared to womanhood at Pensacola, she received

the most thorough instruction, and became fully versed not

only in her native tongue, but in the French, Spanish, and

Italian languages, speaking and writing them with accuracy

and elegance. The presence of the Navy officers at Peu-

sacola gave a great charm to the society there, and

under the most propitious auspices the young flower

expanded to light and beauty. The gifts of personal loveli-

ness were hers in a very high degree ; but her intellectual

accomplishments, and the perpetual sunshine of a gay and

joyous spirit, always amiable, kind, and considerate, gave to

their possessor her chief charms. Visiting the principal

cities of the Union, and the principal points of fashionable

resort, Miss Walton became widely known, admired, and be-

loved. At Washington City she was early honored by the

warm friendship of Mr. Clay, which continued until his

death, — an event that drew from his fair friend one of the

most touching and eloquent tributes to his memory. Mr.

Calhoun also was exceedingly kind to the " gifted daughter

of the South," as he was pleased to call her, and particularly

admired a series of sketches of distinguished Senators, Repre-

sentatives, and Statesmen, whom she had met at the Federal

Capital, — a work which we regret has never been published.

The life of a lady is commonly a calm current of domestic

duties and social benevolences. The author of these volumes

became the wife of Dr. Henry S. Le Yert, a learned and emi-

nent physician of Mobile, Alabama. A circle of beautiful

children sprang up around them, and claimed the constant

care and nurture of their mother. In the performance of

this part has been one of the chief beauties of her life. At

the same time, she has filled the highest social position, and

dispensed the most enlarged hospitality. No stranger of

distinction has visited Mobile for years, without seeking her

acquaintance, and receiving the most cordial kindness. This

has made her friends in every part of the world, and among

the most influential personages. Lady Emeline Stuart

"Wortley, a daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and of the

household of Queen Victoria, and Frederika Bremer, the

gifted novelist of Sweden, whose more than royal fame is

everywhere acknowledged, thus became united in ties of the

strongest personal friendship, baptized too, as it were, in

tears of mutual sympathy and suffering at the time, with

Madame Le Yert.

These acquaintanceships were mainly influential in in-

ducing the first visit of our fair countrywoman to Europe,

and gave her that immediate entree into the highest society,

whose experiences constitute the chief specialty of her

Souvenirs.

Of the intrinsic characteristics of the present volume, the

publishers will not particularly speak. The book, they think,

will be found fully worthy of the high fame of the author.

Upon her part, it is given to the public with the most shrink-

ing reluctance. She does not aspire to the laurels of author-

ship, but only desires to impart to others the pleasure re-

ceived from wandering amid the storied scenes of the Old

World, and holding social communion with personages whose

names arc " whispered by the lips of fame." Few itineraries,

however, will be found so full of valuable information, so

rich in brilliant descriptions, and so picturesque and glowing

in style and arrangement of particulars. This will make the

book invaluable to all of our citizens who may visit Europe,

and wish to have an intelligent guide and companion in their

travels. One pervading charm they will find in these volumes,

that will stir and keep fresh their own patriotism, — that in

all her wanderings, whether at the refined court of St. James

in the imperial presence of Louis Napoleon, or under the

consecrated tapestries of the Papal palace, our accomplished

countrywoman was ever staunchly true to her republican

lineage, and came back home American in heart and mind.

With these thoughts as to the book and its author, the

publishers respectfully submit it to the reader, confident that

they have made a valuable contribution to a most interesting

branch of the rising literature of our country.

Mobile, July^ 1857.

The Hameau de la Reine part 1

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One of my favorite spots on the vast ground of the château of Versailles is The Hameau de la Reine . It is at this place one can get a real sense of the ill fated Queen and her taste and style. Over the years I have spent many hours at the Hameau taking it all in. Marie would have been better suited as a Bourgeois mother then a Queen. She loved her children and life itself very much and acted from her heart instead of the essential etiquette of what was expected of her as Queen at Versailles.

The Queen in riding costume by Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty (attributed), Queen Marie Antoinette of France, 1778 in the background is the temple of Love

Marie Antoinette was very much like Princess Diana of Wales. At the time and to some extent today Royal children were not close to there parents and did not see them as much. Marie Antoinette and Princess Diana insisted on having a active role in there children’s life and upbringing. This was looked down upon at court. With all of the strict etiquette at Versailles it was no wonder that she planed the village of the Hameau to escape the world of Versailles to a simple way of life. The grounds show Marie Antoinette’s eclecticism and refinement, an art of living linked to free thinking, for the spirit of the Enlightenment was far from absent here. The photo’s are from one of my visits of May 2007.

One of the first things I do after I get off of the train at Versailles is go by a Bakery to buy bead to feed Marie Antoinette’s fish in the man-made lake at the Hameau. As you can see there are plenty of fish. Sometimes the ducks come to feed also.

Sometimes the ducks come to feed also.

And Marie Antoinette’s Swan

As you can see when word gets out I have French bread there can be a feeding frenzy

There seams to be more fish then water here. I think theses are catfish. I’m trying not to think about a friend catfish poboy sandwich!

The Hameau of the Queen is a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette between 1785 and 1792 near the Petit Trianon in the Yvelines, France. The rustic village designed by the Queen's favored architect, Richard Mique and with the help of the painter Robert Hubert, it contained a manmade meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical Temple of Love on an island copied from that of the Subil in Tivoli with fragrant shrubs and flowers, an octagonal belvedere, with a neighbouring grotto and cascade.

Adolf Ulrich Wertmüller, Marie Antoinette with her children, Princess Marie Therese Charlotte of France and Dauphin Louis Joseph of France, 1785.

There are also various buildings in a rustic or vernacular style, inspired by Norman or Flemish designed, situated around an irregular pond fed by a stream that turned the mill wheel. The building scheme included a farmhouse, (the farm was to produce milk and eggs for the queen), a dairy, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn, a mill and a tower in the form of a lighthouse. Each building is decorated with a personal garden, an orchard or a flower garden in the back of the cottages. The largest of these rustic houses is the "Queen's House" at the center of the village.

The Marlborough Tower, built in the form of a lighthouse, was initially named "Fishery Tower". The basement is used for storage.

The hameau is the best-known of a series of rustic garden constructions built at the time around France by aristocrats, notably the Prince of Condé's Hameau de Chantilly (1774-1775) which was the inspiration for the Versailles hameau. Such model farms operating under principles espoused by the Physiocrats, were fashionable among the French aristocracy at the time. One primary purpose of the hameau was to add to the ambiance of the Petit Trianon Marie Antoinette’s privet house , giving the illusion that it was deep in the countryside rather than within the confines of Versailles. The rooms at the hameau allowed for more intimacy than the grand salons at Versailles or at the Petit Trianon.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette en chemise, 1786. The Queen like to wear thin cotton dresses that scandalized the court; She was accused of going out in her chemise {a undergarment} She would go thus attired to watch her strawberries and cherries being picked, to see corn being ground, laundry washed, and cows milked. She drank fresh milk from Sevres porcelain bowls, and would lead her lambs into the fields on silk ribbons.

Abandoned during the French Revolution it was not until the First Empire that the Hamlet was refurnished with classical refinement for Napoleon’s 2th wife and niece of Marie Antoinette Empress Marie-Louise.

Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria was great niece of Marie

Initially, there were two dairies: the "Preparation Dairy" which produced creams and cheeses, is located near the tower. It was where the milk was skimmed and the butter beaten. In the second dairy, the Queen tasted the dairy products from tables of veined white marble supported by fourteen carved consoles and arranged around the room.

Milk bowl Porcelain from Marie Antoinette's porcelain factory Rue Thiroux use by her at this Dairy

The garden surroundings of the Petit Trianon, of which the hameau de la Reine is an extension, began their transformation from formal pattern gardens. Under Louis XV it had been an arboretum, Orangery and greenhouses that housed rare species in his model zoo and the new arrangements eliminated this famous botanical garden, replacing it with a more informal "natural" garden of winding paths, curving canals and lakes under the direction of Antoine Richard, gardener to the Queen. Richard Mique modified the landscape plan to provide vistas of lawn to west and north of the Petit Trianon, encircled by belts of trees.

Joseph Caraud, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI with Madame de Lamballe at the Hameau, with her house in the background.

Beyond the lake to the north, the hameau was sited like a garden stage set, initially inspired in its grouping and vernacular building by Dutch and Flemish genre paintings, philosophically influenced by Rousseau's cult of "nature", and reflecting exactly contemporary picturesque garden principles set forth by Claude-Henri Watelet and by ideas of the philosophes, their "radical notions co-opted into innocent forms of pleasure and ingenious decoration" as William Adams has pointed out.Artists played a more direct role in French picturesque than they probably had done in England as can be seen by Hubert Robert's involvement.

The Queen's house and billiard room is located in the centre of the hamlet. Consisting of two floors, the upper level comprises the petit salon, also known as the "room of the nobles", an anteroom in the form of a "Chinese cabinet" and the large living room with wood panelling hung with tapestries of Swiss style in embroidered wool. From the room's six windows, the Queen could easily control the work fields and activity of the hamlet. Access is via the staircase of the round tower. At the center of the room is a harpsichord which Marie Antoinette loved to play. On the ground floor, paved with single slabs of stone, the building includes a backgammon room and a dining room. The lyre-backed chairs in mahogany lined with green morocco, were created by Georges Jacob. To the left, another building housing the billiard room is connected to the Queen's house by a wooden gallery decorated with trellises and twelve hundred St. Clement faience pots, marked in the blue figures of the Queen. Upstairs, a small apartment which seems to have been inhabited by the architect Richard Mique, has five rooms including a library. Despite the rustic appearance of facades, the interior finish and furnishings are luxurious and have been created by the carpenter Georges Jacob and the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener.

The main house where Marie-Antoinette played at farming.

Outside wall of the Dairy

In spite of its idyllic appearance, the hamlet was a real farm, fully managed by a farmer appointed by the Queen, with its vineyards, fields, orchards and vegetable gardens producing fruit and vegetables consumed by the royal table. The Queen insisted on real animals to show her children. Cows named Brunette and Blanchette sported silk satin pink and blue bows tied around there necks. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called "the Swiss hamlet". A billy goat from

Switzerland

on the grounds were “Good-tempered” and very handsome.

The Marlborough Tower, built in the form of a lighthouse, was initially named "Fishery Tower". The basement is used for storage.

Ludwig Guttenbrunn, Marie Therese and Louis Charles with temple of Love in background , 1788.Marie-Antoinette wanted her children to have one place where they could be themselves. Like many "home-schooling" parents of today, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette feared that their children would grow up too isolated from the real world. The farm was a "safe" environment where they could get an idea of how ordinary people lived, see the livestock, learn about plants and nature. Most of all, it was a place for the children to play.

Marie Antoinette insisted on living as she wished. The Queen sought refuge in peasant life, milking cows or sheep carefully maintained and cleaned by the servants. Marie Antoinette found the heaven of privacy that enabled her to escape from the rigours of court etiquette. Nobody could come to Marie Antoinette’s village or grounds without her invitation. Dressed as a peasant in a muslin dress and straw hat, a light switch in her hand, with her ladies, she used the buckets of Sevres porcelain specially decorated with her arms by the Manufacture Royale.

One of Marie Antoinette’s favorite flowers Lilac are planted all over the grounds

The Queen insisted on real animals to show her children. Cows named Brunette and Blanchette sported silk satin pink and blue bows tied around there necks. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called "the Swiss hamlet". A billy goat from

Switzerland

on the grounds were “Good-tempered” and very handsome.

Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan, Princess of Guéméné, Governess of Madame Royale. On Sundays the Queen received visits from her children and their governesses. Refusing in this way to follow the dictates of her rank.

Charles Emmanuel Leclerq, Marie Antoinette and her children, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France and daughter Madame Royale overlooked by a bust of Louis XVI, 1781.

Two love doves

They were too cute!!!!

In spite of its idyllic appearance, the hamlet was a real farm, fully managed by a farmer appointed by the Queen, with its vineyards, fields, orchards and vegetable gardens producing fruit and vegetables consumed by the royal table. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called "the Swiss hamlet".

The Queen sought refuge in peasant life, milking cows or sheep carefully maintained and cleaned by the servants. Dressed as a peasant in a muslin dress and straw hat, a light switch in her hand, with her ladies, she used the buckets of Sevres porcelain specially decorated his arms by the Manufacture Royale. The place was completely enclosed by fences and walls, and only intimates of the Queen were allowed to access it. During the Revolution, "a misogynistic, nationalistic and class-driven polemic swirled around the hameau, which had previously seemed a harmless agglomeration of playhouses in which to act out a Boucher pastorale." The queen was accused by many of being frivolous, and found herself a target of innuendos, jealousy and gossip throughout her reign. Although for Marie Antoinette, the hameau was an escape from the regulated life of the Court at Versailles, in the eyes of French people, the queen seemed to be merely amusing herself.

The queen invited several destitute families to live and work in the hameau. She saw the farm as a way that her children could experience the healthiness of country life, without actually leaving Versailles. Life in the palace had little or no privacy for the royal family

The farm was set slightly away from the hamlet to make it a going concern. The farmer appointed by the Queen to run the farm and dairy was Valy Bussard who arrived 14 June, 1785 from Touraine. His family joined him in December.

Roosters and hens of various species were brought from the west of France and settled in the aviary in 1785.

The Marlborough Tower, built in the form of a lighthouse, was initially named "Fishery Tower". The basement is used for storage.

Between 1783 and 1787, the Hamlet was thus created in the spirit of a true Norman village, with eleven houses spread out around the Big lake. Five of them were reserved for the use of the Queen and her guests: the Queen’s House, Billiard Room, Boudoir, Mill and Refreshments Dairy. While four houses were reserved for the occupancy of the peasants: the Farm and its annexes, the Barn, the Dovecote and Preparation Dairy. The Farm was located outside the village and sheltered a varied livestock: a small herd of eight cows and a bull, ten goats and pigeons. One house was reserved for domestic use: the Warming Room, where the dishes were prepared for the dinners given at the Queen’s House or at the Mill.

Countless canalizations drew off enough water from Marly to create a lake which became the centre of the whole village

Ludwig Guttenbrunn, Queen Marie Antoinette at play as Erato, 1788.

The Baron de Besenval in his cabinet by Danloux. He was part of the queen's inner circle along with the Polignacs. He had an acid toungue and a pipeline into all the most titilating gossip at court that he knew could be relied upon to keep the queen amused for hours.

A swan trying to go to sleep on the banks of the lake

Depiction of an evening fête given by the queen in honour of the visit of her brother the Emperor Joseph II of Austria to Versailles in 1778. The site of this party is the English garden at Petit Trianon.

François Dumont, Miniature of Marie Antoinette with Madame Royale and Louis-Charles, early 1790.

Oval Federal Room from Willow Brook 1799

2012-01-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

The Oval room from Willow Brook 1799

In the 1790’s Baltimore newspapers were crowded with advertisements for India Nankeens, Barbados rum, Muscavado sugar, Marseilles quilting’s, Holland beer, Irish linens, Spanish cigars, Leghorn hats and for architectural supplies and services that made Baltimore a major international center on the East Coast that had an acceptance of the new American Federal style.

A 1797 advertisement offered a “parcel of the much admired composition ornaments for chimney pieces, door caps, frontispieces, pillaisters, rich flower festoons, wheat festoons, neat small flowers, vine and ivy. In 1801 Thomas Leamen who came to Baltimore from London by way of Philadelphia offered his skills as a composition ornament maker.

The room is furnished with a very important set of early 19^th century Baltimore made painted Fancy furniture Attributed to Hugh and John Finlay circa 1800-1810. And believed to be made for Baltimore merchant and patriot John Morris. The 13 piece set consists of 10 arm chairs, 2 settees and one marble top pier table. Each chair contains on its crest rail a polychrome painting of a view of a Baltimore house or public building including Willow Brook.

In the 1790’s Baltimore was the 3^rd largest city in America. The largest city below Philadelphia and in the South. Baltimore city has the western most port on the East Coast making it the fastest route out to sea. The Baltimore Clipper ship. One of the fastest ships of the time also played a important role in Baltimore wealth. They were especially suited to moving low-density, high value perishable cargoes such as food and slaves, and in that trade operated as far afield as the west coast of Africa. Similar vessels were built as privateers during the War of Independence and the War of 1812, and as pilot boats.

As the city of Baltimore begin to grow in people and wealth. The Wealthy citizens of Baltimore looked to the motherland of England for inspiration on fine living. They built elegant townhouses in the city of Baltimore for Winter living, and Summer Villas on the hillsides to the north and west of Baltimore outside of the city, but most no more than a 30 min carriage ride from downtown Baltimore.

Baltimore Schoolgirl needlework sampler from the early 19^th century

The Summer homes offered an effort to escape heat, bad smells, large crowds & yellow fever that visited the harbor each summer. They also offer their owners and invited guest a country retreat of fresh air, rolling hills, and high style entertainment copied from the gentry of Georgian England. Visitors to theses elegant Baltimore country homes were delighted with “Strawberry parties” where berries, fresh cream, ices, pineapples and chilled champagne was served accompanied by fine music and dancing. Also homes would host “House Parties” that could last for days or weeks also in the English Georgian style.

Detail of ornate Neoclassical plasterwork in oval room

The Warner and Hanna Map of Baltimore and its environs published in 1801 showcases almost 50 country seats like Willow Brook around the city of Baltimore. Sadly only two of this Summer Villas remain in Baltimore today in their original settings. Homewood House built 1801 and Mount Clare ca, 1764.

Willow Brook was built for rich merchant Thoroughgood Smith between 1796-99. The exterior of the lovely home was in the Palladian style while the interior was a Adamesque-Federal style. The exterior was similar to the smaller farm houses illustrated in the books of Robert Morris and William Halfpenny, English popularizers of the Palladian design for less ambitious builders.

Thoroughgood Smith had a Winter brick town house on Water street in Baltimore that is still standing. Willow Brook was built on a beautiful site overlooking both Baltimore city and the Patapsco River. Smith bought 26 acres of country property from Philip Rogers in 1785 and apparently soon began to make improvements and to create a neat landscape.

An advertisement placed in Baltimore’s Federal Gazette, 18 April 1800:

Sale by Auction on Monday. The 12th day of May, 1800, will be exposed to public sale on premises, that beautiful, healthful and highly improved seat, within one mile of the city of Baltimore, called Willow Brook, containing about 26 acres of land, the whole of which is under a good post and rail fence, divided and laid off into grass lots, orchards, gardens, &c. As this beautiful seat is generally known, and the premises can be viewed at any time previous to the day of the sale, it is considered unnecessary to go into minute description of the improvements and the many advantages it has over any other country seat in the vicinity of the city. The mansion house is a new brick building, upwards of eighty feet front, completely finished last Fall, in an elegant manner, having every apartment that can be necessary for a genteel family. The garden and orchard abounds with the greatest variety of the choisest fruit trees, shrubs, flowers, &c., collected from the nurseries in America and from Europe, all in perfection and full bearing. The garden is now plentifully stocked with vegetables of all kinds, and a good spring crop in the ground. In the garden is a new wooden house, with twelve foot passage, and five rooms, a gardeners house, wish house, spring house, stable and carriage house, a fish pond well stocked with fish, and a elegant bath with two dressing drooms {sic}, bath and spring house, well supplied with springs of fine soft water. Any person wishing to make a private purchase before the day of sale may know the terms by applying to Bentalou and Dorsey. Auctioneers

When Willow Brook was completed in 1799 Smith suffered severe financial losses when several of his vessels were seized by the French. In February 1800 he declared himself bankrupt and deeded this property to the trustees who in turn were to sell it for the benefit of his creditors. The new owner of Willow Brook was John Donnell who came to Baltimore from Castletown Ireland, just after the Revolution. In 1798 he married Ann Teackle Smith, Thorowgood Smith’s niece. The Donnell family were the first occupants of Willow Brook, Thorowgood Smith who recovered his fortune and in 1804 became Baltimore’s second mayor, should be remembered as it’s builder.

The Donnell family made many improvements to Willow Brook until 1864 and sold off most of the land around the house. In 1864 it was sold to the Roman Catholic Church to become a House of the Good Shepherd, a home for wayward girls. In the 1960 the building and grounds were purchased by the City of Baltimore for a public school site. Before Willow Brook and it’s many additions were demolished in 1965, the woodwork, plaster, flooring, and all other architectural elements of the houses late 18^th century oval drawing room and entrance hall were carefully removed, restored and installed in the Baltimore Museum of Art American Wing.

Willow Brook is a typical example of a Palladian building adapted in America from such books as Robert Morris Select Architecture {London, 1757}, and particularly popular in Maryland and Virginia colonies. Willow Brook is built on a natural incline so that the garden façade has it’s full basement exposed showcasing a 3 story center block. On the entrance façade the basement level is not visible but is fully lit by a areaway that was spanned by an entrance porch. The oval room which formed a polygonal projection on the garden side was the most outstanding architectural feature of the home and consequently most embellished with architectural decoration. Oval rooms such as Willow Brooks were not uncommon in American architecture in the first decades of the 19^th century. One of the earliest and most influential uses of an oval form was in the Irish born architect James Hoban’s design of 1792 for the White House in Washington now known as the Blue Room.

The oval room derives from French civil and domestic architecture of the Louis XV and XVI periods, the oval room came to America through the English influence of architect-designer Robert Adam and others and was well-suited to the preoccupation of the late 18^th century and early 19^th century builder exploring new architectural forms and spaces.

The decorative plasterwork of the oval room from Willow Brook is a remarkable survival. There is a marked similarity between the plaster and woodwork of Willow Brook and that of the Octagon House also built in 1799 in Washington and Woodlawn Plantation 1799 near Mount Vernon. The Maryland-Virginia Federal style to which Willow Brook and other houses belong is the regional equivalent of the McIntire and slightly later Bulfinch schools of architecture in New England. The plasterwork cornices at Willow Brook, both in the oval room and entrance hall, are related to surviving late 18^th century examples in Annapolis, especially to the cornices in the Paca and Adams-Kilty houses. In the 1780’s a John Rawlins was working alone in Baltimore in decorative plasterwork. John was hired by George Washington to execute the plasterwork in the banquet hall at Mount Vernon.

This type of large Grand Tour painting is the kind that would have been brought back to Baltimore from European travels by wealthy Baltimoreans

In addition to the plasterwork, most of the rich composition ornament applied to the woodwork of the oval room and the entrance hall has been painstakingly cleaned of many layers of paint. Composition work in the form of beading, lamb’s tongue, and ropework appears also on the window and doorframes and the top molding of the baseboard. The chair rail is inset with a Adamesque wave like pattern {rinceau} further enriched with bellflowers and beading. The plaster ceiling medallion is in the shape of an oval-fluted tent of canopy encircled by applied ornament of palmettes, bellflowers swages, acanthus leaves, and small rosettes in oval medallions.

The oval room’s original mantelpiece had been replaced in the Victorian period. At the time the room was installed, a stylistically appropriative wooden mantelpiece of the 1790’s was removed from a house in Alexandria, Virginia was acquired. This mantelpiece could have been the work of a Baltimore craftsman since certain elements of its composition ornament are identical to some of the designs of the Willow Brook oval room. The double-hung sash windows are original with the center garden window having a jib doorway in the paneling under the window for guest to walk out onto the garden porch. The floorboards are all original and are two inches thick and originally secured by horizontal dowels.

Detail of Baltimore fancy pier table

Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s elephant-shaped mantel clock, probably made in Paris around 1770. And detail of a Baltimore Summer House painted on the front of the pier table

Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s elephant-shaped mantel clock, probably made in Paris around 1770.

The plaster ceiling medallion is in the shape of an oval-fluted tent of canopy encircled by applied ornament of palmettes, bellflowers swages, acanthus leaves, and small rosettes in oval

. The double-hung sash windows are original with the center garden window having a jib doorway in the paneling under the window for guest to walk out onto the garden porch.

The plaster ceiling medallion is in the shape of an oval-fluted tent of canopy encircled by applied ornament of palmettes, bellflowers swages, acanthus leaves, and small rosettes in oval medallions.

Most of the rich composition ornament applied to the woodwork of the oval room and the entrance hall has been painstakingly cleaned of many layers of paint. Composition work in the form of beading, lamb’s tongue, and ropework appears also on the window and doorframes and the top molding of the baseboard.

Detail of cornice in hallway to Willow Brook room

The front Hall of Willow brook

The Chestertown Room 1771 at the Baltimore Museum of Art

2012-01-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Chestertown Room 1771

I have been fascinated with Antiques & Period rooms since I was very young. I thought at a young age “One day I will live in a home set up with period rooms full of antiques. I now do, But I still love visiting them in Museums, House museums and peoples private historic homes. Today I will share with you photo’s of the beautiful Chestertown Room set up at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The room is elegantly furnished with Maryland and Philadelphia made Chippendale furniture

I was in Baltimore last October for 4 days for Good friends wedding. In-between the Wedding parties I had a chance to visit some of my old stumping grounds including the Baltimore Museum of art. The Museum is a must for anyone visiting Baltimore as it has a world class collection of art. The best thing about the museum is it is FREE!!!!

The upper section of the chimneypiece with a imposing pedimented tabernacle frame with carved acanthus leaf scroll appliqués in the architrave, and floral and leaf rosettes in the corners of the crossetted frame. The richly carved floral margents hanging on each side of the tabernacle frame and suspended from ribboned bows, are carved separately and attached with nails to the chimneypiece are from designs found in Thomas Johnson’s New Book of Ornaments publish in London in 1762

The Chestertown Room was installed in the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1932. It was taken from the Ringgold House on

Water Street

in Chestertown, Kent County. The Room can be dated to 1771 although the house is much older. When the room was being dismantled on back of the woodwork was scratched WB and 1771. WB has not been identified but this anonymous craftsmen’s wood work and carvings are magnificent!

The portrait is of Thomas Ringgold painted by Maryland Artist Charles Willson Peale. Ringgold was one of a group of Marylanders who had financed Peale's art studies in England.

The original house was built by Dr. William Murray about 1743. A rear wing was added to the house soon after it was bought by Thomas Ringgold, Sr. in 1767. After a study of Maryland’s 18^th century architectural chimneypiece and interior doorway carvings it is thought that the Chestertown rooms carvers technique are similar to well-known Philadelphia carver Hercules Courtenay. Similar carvings in woodwork in the parlor of the Stamper-Blackwell House 1764 in Philadelphia is by the same unidentified hand.

The room is elegantly furnished with Maryland and Philadelphia made Chippendale furniture

Chestertown is only 70 miles down the road from Philadelphia so the woodwork in the Chestertown room could have also been imported from Philadelphia. Around the fireplace surrounds in the room is Pennsylvania King of Prussia marble a fashionable Philadelphia influence.

The richly carved floral margents hanging on each side of the tabernacle frame and suspended from ribboned bows, are carved separately and attached with nails to the chimneypiece

The beautiful delicate carved elements in the Chestertown room are the consoles and architraves of the entablatures over the doors, the upper section of the chimneypiece with a imposing pedimented tabernacle frame with carved acanthus leaf scroll appliqués in the architrave, and floral and leaf rosettes in the corners of the crossetted frame. The richly carved floral margents hanging on each side of the tabernacle frame and suspended from ribboned bows, are carved separately and attached with nails to the chimneypiece are from designs found in Thomas Johnson’s New Book of Ornaments publish in London in 1762, as well as other elements within the room.

The top part of the rooms chair rail is mahogany

The original doors in the room retained there original Mahogany stain as well as there silver plated brass knobs and escutcheon plates. The locks are mortise rather then rim locks, and unusual feature for the period. The top part of the rooms chair rail is mahogany. The colors of the room or the original colors.

The room is elegantly furnished with Maryland and Philadelphia made Chippendale furniture

In May of 1773 en route to New York. George Washington with his stepson Jackie Custis made a note in his diary that he “Dined on Board the Annapolis at Chester Town, and supped and lodged at the Ringgold’s. So George Washington eat and slept here and saw this beautiful room. The house played host to not only the first president, but Benjamin Franklin, San Houston, Artist Rembrandt Peale and other notables. It’s owners included a U.S. senator, James Alfred Pearce, and able diplomat who helped settle disputes between the North and South in the years before the Civil War. The Ringgold House is restored and maintained by Washington Collage (Who George Washington gave his name and 50 guineas to) as the residence of it’s president. The original woodwork removed to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1932 has been successfully reproduced in the home.

Around the fireplace surrounds in the room is Pennsylvania King of Prussia marble a fashionable Philadelphia influence.

The beautiful delicate carved elements in the Chestertown room are the consoles and architraves of the entablatures over the doors