My last pilgrimage for beauty in 2008: The Driehaus Museum.
There are few images I can obtain for this post. None do justice to the museum I visited on the last day of 2008. It was the Gilded age home of the Nickerson family, and the strange showcase for their wealth, tastes, and fears, as well as a collector's vision of art from the same period.
First the weath.
This room has 17 different types of marble. Each of the rooms on the first floor had a specific wood to give it a decorating scheme. The woods included were: walnut, satinwood, ebonized cherry wood, oak, and at least one that I'm forgetting. These woods made up the parquet floors, the elaborate wainscoting, carved friezes of each room, and often the cabinets, mantles, and furniture in the rooms. The opulence was simply mad, but in a very lovely way.
Their tastes were fascinating. For example, the ceiling of the sculpture gallery:
Perfect. And sadly there are no photos online of the unbelievable art nouveau stained glass mosaic fireplace. You're really missing out, I tell you.
There are no photos I can share to explain the fears that shaped the house, but both burglary and fire were disturbing thoughts to Mr. Nickerson. To combat these fears he built brick walls between each room (only made apparent by the ridiculous thickness of all walls) and fireproof floors and ceilings similarly hidden. He had an entire room that was a safe, in it was another safe. He had hundreds of locks and keys of all scale and shape throughout the house, and each one was numbered with a tiny brass plate. He often used them to lock the servants out of main house during fits of paranoia. It reminded us of Bluebeard transported to a new century and continent. How odd.
The house not only resembles what it was in the 1880s, but now also displays a collection of art from the same period. The Richard Driehaus collection of Tiffany pieces (both jeweler and stained glass studio), bronzes, vases, lamps, musical instruments and paintings. Here's the example I could find.
It was an experience I recommend to all dandies, un-modern art lovers, snobs, Victoriana fiends, aesthetes, and decadents.
Here's the museum website that can tell you how to visit- www.driehausmuseum.org/
First the weath.
This room has 17 different types of marble. Each of the rooms on the first floor had a specific wood to give it a decorating scheme. The woods included were: walnut, satinwood, ebonized cherry wood, oak, and at least one that I'm forgetting. These woods made up the parquet floors, the elaborate wainscoting, carved friezes of each room, and often the cabinets, mantles, and furniture in the rooms. The opulence was simply mad, but in a very lovely way.
Their tastes were fascinating. For example, the ceiling of the sculpture gallery:
Perfect. And sadly there are no photos online of the unbelievable art nouveau stained glass mosaic fireplace. You're really missing out, I tell you.
There are no photos I can share to explain the fears that shaped the house, but both burglary and fire were disturbing thoughts to Mr. Nickerson. To combat these fears he built brick walls between each room (only made apparent by the ridiculous thickness of all walls) and fireproof floors and ceilings similarly hidden. He had an entire room that was a safe, in it was another safe. He had hundreds of locks and keys of all scale and shape throughout the house, and each one was numbered with a tiny brass plate. He often used them to lock the servants out of main house during fits of paranoia. It reminded us of Bluebeard transported to a new century and continent. How odd.
The house not only resembles what it was in the 1880s, but now also displays a collection of art from the same period. The Richard Driehaus collection of Tiffany pieces (both jeweler and stained glass studio), bronzes, vases, lamps, musical instruments and paintings. Here's the example I could find.
It was an experience I recommend to all dandies, un-modern art lovers, snobs, Victoriana fiends, aesthetes, and decadents.
Here's the museum website that can tell you how to visit- www.driehausmuseum.org/