The Holy Grail of Wyndcliffe Artifacts
Now you find out how weird I really am (as if you did not already know). What is keeping me awake and writing at 3am?
Some of you know that I have a tremendous interest in a crumbling Victorian mansion in the Hudson Valley, known as Wyndcliffe. It's the one in my LJ userpics and the ruin in the background picture on my journal page. I have collected a variety of artifacts from the place including 5 different wallpaper samples (which I will frame when I get back East), an old decorative candle, two samples of etched glass from the hemispherical windows, an encyclopedia from about 1900, some samples of its elaborate brickwork, a curtain, some foundation bricks, and an ornamental silver cigarette holder manufactured in Mexico. After innumerable hours of research into the place, and many late nights, I discovered this veritable Holy Grail of Wyndcliffe artifacts.
This chair is nearly seven feet tall and was designed by George Veitch, the Scottish architect who designed the mansion for Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones, its original resident, in 1853. It was part of a set of six that once stood in Wyndcliffe's entry hall, a room through which I have probably passed over a hundred times. It's a lot nicer than the tattered chair I used to have from there that I had to leave behind in a hidden location - I wonder if it is still there...
Anyway, I am currently in touch with the current owner of the chair who invited me to come check it out in NYC. A colleague of his has another chair from the set, and he believes the others may still be out there. An item like this retains its value forever, and is surprisingly inexpensive. The upholstery is original and in excellent condition. It is very likely that Edith Wharton (the niece of Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones), Henry and William James, and members of the Astor family have sat in these chairs. I would be telling a half-truth, however, if I left out that my embarrassing wish in collecting so many of these artifacts is that some ghostly, ethereal residue from bygone ages will somehow leach out of the objects and into my living quarters. It's a long shot, but I've had many of those. I have already experienced several inexplicable and sometimes frightening phenomena in that house, some of which were witnessed by others. I won't list them here, but ask if you are interested, even if only for the anachronistic amusement of listening to the ravings of a 21st-century man who believes in ghosts.
In 9 years of researching the mansion and 100+ visits, I have never seen a find like this. Short of digging around the mansion's basement with a metal detector and risking an arrest for trespassing (it was purchased by a very visionary person from NYC with the resources and formidable patience necessary to restore it) this is about the best artifact I could hope to find from that most mysterious of ruins. To a collector, it is just a dime-a-dozen Victorian chair. To me, it is a relic - I would be happy to have it just for its own sake. But if the new owner of the mansion is as hellbent on an accurate historic restoration as I have heard, then it will potentially be a relic for him too, and one that he might be willing to pay top dollar for someday to complete the set. It's a win-win situation. Interestingly, the new owner used to camp out in the ruin some years ago, as I did.
Some of you know that I have a tremendous interest in a crumbling Victorian mansion in the Hudson Valley, known as Wyndcliffe. It's the one in my LJ userpics and the ruin in the background picture on my journal page. I have collected a variety of artifacts from the place including 5 different wallpaper samples (which I will frame when I get back East), an old decorative candle, two samples of etched glass from the hemispherical windows, an encyclopedia from about 1900, some samples of its elaborate brickwork, a curtain, some foundation bricks, and an ornamental silver cigarette holder manufactured in Mexico. After innumerable hours of research into the place, and many late nights, I discovered this veritable Holy Grail of Wyndcliffe artifacts.
This chair is nearly seven feet tall and was designed by George Veitch, the Scottish architect who designed the mansion for Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones, its original resident, in 1853. It was part of a set of six that once stood in Wyndcliffe's entry hall, a room through which I have probably passed over a hundred times. It's a lot nicer than the tattered chair I used to have from there that I had to leave behind in a hidden location - I wonder if it is still there...
Anyway, I am currently in touch with the current owner of the chair who invited me to come check it out in NYC. A colleague of his has another chair from the set, and he believes the others may still be out there. An item like this retains its value forever, and is surprisingly inexpensive. The upholstery is original and in excellent condition. It is very likely that Edith Wharton (the niece of Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones), Henry and William James, and members of the Astor family have sat in these chairs. I would be telling a half-truth, however, if I left out that my embarrassing wish in collecting so many of these artifacts is that some ghostly, ethereal residue from bygone ages will somehow leach out of the objects and into my living quarters. It's a long shot, but I've had many of those. I have already experienced several inexplicable and sometimes frightening phenomena in that house, some of which were witnessed by others. I won't list them here, but ask if you are interested, even if only for the anachronistic amusement of listening to the ravings of a 21st-century man who believes in ghosts.
In 9 years of researching the mansion and 100+ visits, I have never seen a find like this. Short of digging around the mansion's basement with a metal detector and risking an arrest for trespassing (it was purchased by a very visionary person from NYC with the resources and formidable patience necessary to restore it) this is about the best artifact I could hope to find from that most mysterious of ruins. To a collector, it is just a dime-a-dozen Victorian chair. To me, it is a relic - I would be happy to have it just for its own sake. But if the new owner of the mansion is as hellbent on an accurate historic restoration as I have heard, then it will potentially be a relic for him too, and one that he might be willing to pay top dollar for someday to complete the set. It's a win-win situation. Interestingly, the new owner used to camp out in the ruin some years ago, as I did.