File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17968975880).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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302 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS August, 1909 right wing is the dining-room and breakfast-room; in the left, the Hbrary and drawing-room. The library has a low wood wainscot, with upper walls finished in plain gilt, thus presenting an effective background for the magnificent collection of paintings with which the room is hung. The mantel and chimney-breast are of Caen stone, designed with an elaborately carved upper panel. The fireplace lining is of red brick and the andirons are gilded bronze. All the beams and rafters of the ceiling are exposed, the latter being very closely set, and all have been decorated with small paintings by James Wall Finn, in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The work has been marvelously well is finished in white plaster, richly decorated and in high relief. Some fine old gilded mirrors are hung against the entrance wall, and on one side is a superb piece of old French tapestry. The rug is very soft in color, and forms a beautiful foundation for the rich furnishings. The walls have a low wainscot of wood, painted white, and relieved with a small band of hand-carving. Both these rooms are reached by an extension of the cor- ridor that forms so fine a feature of the great hall. Set within its wainscoted walls are glazed cases containing some of the rarest and most beautiful of Mr. Crocker's porcelains. The cases are lighted by electricity from within, and when
Text Appearing After Image:
The breakfast-room has a richly decorated plaster ceiling and is hung with superb tapestries done, since it has all the character of an antique ceiling. The window curtains are of red velvet with gilt trimmings, but the color of the room is actually determined by the furni- ture, the coverings of which are of deep blue velvet or blue and gold. The lamp shades, of deep red, give also a dis- tinctive note to the room. The rug has a black ground, with figures of red, green and tones of yellow. Directly opposite is the drawing-room. Its walls are com- pletely lined with velvet brocade in white and gold, and are unrelieved with architectural features save for the monu- mental frame of carved wood, painted white, of the entrance- door, and the mantel of carved white marble that faces it at the other side of the room. The window curtains are of the same material, and the furniture is of the English type, lined with red and white velvet, with gilded frames. The ceiling so illuminated the wonderful beauty of their contents is seen at its best. Other porcelains and bronzes stand above the cases and help to convert this passage into- a veritable shrine of Oriental art. The dining-room is at the farthest end of the house and is finished throughout in California redwood. It is, in a sense, a memorial to Mr. Crocker's early home, since the entire surfacing of the room is of California origin. The walls are designed in great panels, separated by pilasters, heavily en- riched with carving. At one end is the fireplace. Here the pilasters make way for Corinthian columns; on each side is a monumentally framed door, and in the center the fireplace encased in polished black marble, while above it Is a portrait of Charles Crocker, Mr. Crocker's father. The ceiling is extremely beautiful, with a great central oval of irregular

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