The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1882-02-23
SOME INCREDIBLE EXTRAV.
AGANCE.

So much has been written about
the interior of the Vanderbilt house
in the last half year that it is only
necessary now to recall its main fea-
lures. The house is "a feet wide by
lis feet deep-about FIVE times the
area of one of our ordinary city
houses. It is intended for only three
persons, so that there are but few
rooms. Those on the lower floor con-
sists of parlor, library, drawing
room, dining-room and picture gallery.
The second floor is given up to four
bedrooms and two parlors. Of the
unparalleled magni6cenee Of these
few rooms it is almost impossible to
give any adequate notion without
columns of description. Everything
that the trained taste Of an upholsterer
accustomed to invent costly devices
for the wealthy could suggest has been
carried out. For instance, there is
not one inch of bare or painted pas-
ter upon either the first otasecond
story. Walls and ceilings are wholly
covered With rare woods, marbles,
bronze, leather or tapestry. Herbert
sent a man to Persia in quest of
rare fabrics, and some of the stufs
sent back were so delicate that under
one Persian carpet is laid an elder
doBn quilt the size of the room in
order that the pressure Of the feet
may not wear it out too soon. This
precious lining cost $500 before the
carpet was laid over it. To take
another instance at random, upstairs,
Mr.. Vanderbilt's bath room cost SIT,
900 to fit up. 1t is room sixteen
feet square, entirely lined With blue
opalescent glass tiles set in cement.
The floor is mosaic, made in Rome
of bits of marble not bigger than
peas cut out in exquisite design. The
bath tub and all the visible hardware
about the room are of solid silver.
The paintings used in the decoration
of the rooms are not hung upon walls
but form part Of the actual finish Of
the room in panels, ceilings, go.
Herter estimates it to have cost $780,
900, The ceiling Of Mrs. Wander
bilt's bedroom is covered by the al
ready famous painting of the Awaken
ing of Aurora, by LefebVre, for which
Vanderbilt paid $4,000, and, by
some singular misapprehepsion on the
part of the painter as to the situation
| of the room, the sun is made to rise
in the west. The paintings for the
diuing.roon panels are in place but
the ceiling for the dra~ing-room and
many of the minor panels have not
yet come. When one sees even one
of the plainest of the rooms in the
house it is easy to realize that it cost
three millions. The guest chamber,
| for instance, is of rosewood inlaid
with mother-of pearl. Herter says
that room alone, one of the least ex'
pensive in the house, required the
labor Of thirty skilled cabinet workers
and sculptors for nearly a year. Fol
year and half from six hundred to
seven hundred men were employed
upon the Vanderbilt house under the
Herters' direction. Some notion oi
what went into the house may be in'
ferred from this fact, and much oi
the work was done in Europe By
other firms. BY ordinary ways oi
building such house it would have
taken at least FIVE years. But Van
derbilt thought that his millions
ought at least to be equal to Alad
din's lamp. He wanted a palace ir
Two years, and he got it.
| Among the workmen most difficult
to find were the wood sculptors ac'
customed to work from original de-
signs of delicaey. There are 80 few
men of this sot here that Herter sen,
man over to Europe to fud fifty
frst-class wood sculptors and bring
them to this country. The best o.
them we're paid $4,000 apiece fol
their years work and their passage
money both ways. The oak ceiling o
the diDing-room employed ten o
these men half year working ter
hours a day, so that the workmanship
alone upon that ceiling cost SIS, 900
Vanderbilt, it is said, will remain sat
isded With his new house until som'
one builds finer one, and the'
another effort will be made to outd'
the rest Of the world.