Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-21
BATHS OF The RICH
That Vie in Splendor With Those of
the Great Roman Emperors.
MRS. VANDERBILTS BATHROOM.
Mirrors, Exquisite Marbles and Frescoes
Combine to
MAKE IT A THING OF IDEAL BEAUTY
WRITTEN FOR THE D1srArcH.l

If the Persian who is represented as ex-
ploring among the ruins of New York in the
editor of Lie's recent skit, had discovered
any one of several bathrooms in which some
of our rich men aud women lave, as Cuvier
could build up a mastodon from single
bone, he might have reconstructed entife
our era of great wealth. With their marble
and onyx, their crystal and silver, they are
like tales out of the Arabian Nights. They
seem to be the elimination and epitome of
our material prosperity.
Somebody has said that the three ideal
bathrooms of the world are those of Marie
Antoinette at Fontainbleau SO recently, of
Madame Daniel Wilson at Chenonceaux
and OF Mrs. William Z. Vanderbilt. But
that of Marie Antoinette can claim pre-emi-
nence. Artists have raved over it, lovers
have dreamed of it, poets have sung it,
and architects have copied it. 1t has
evolved more print and more eloquence
than all the rest of the historic pile. The
walls literally exude romance. The EN-
press Eugene endeavored to link her nam e
with the charmed spot, but the ruthless
French efaced her monogram and the verses
she wrote on glass panel they removed en-
tire. 1t, in fact, not only inspired Mrs.
Vanderbilt's bathroom, but the one de-
signed for Mrs. Seward Webb in her
fathers house.
FRENCH LUXURY.
Marie Antoinette's bathroom is series of
three rooms; or, one room in three divisions.
Of these, one overlooks garden; the mid
die connects with bedrooms on either side:
the third is an alcove in which is the bath.
The first two rooms are hung in silk, with
beautiful paintings over the doors, the cell
ing is in relief and colered with soft rich
tint. The tubroon is panelled in marble,
and the tub, which is of marble, is set in the
wall and fed by swans necks and heads of
solid silver. Back Of the tub is a large
mirror, and this mirror is painted over with
dimpled little boys-why always boys no
one knows-pelting one another with
flowers. Mirrors are set also in the ceilings
as ponds like crystal lakes amid the soft
Louis XVI. garlands. Imagination can
scarcely go further than this reality, in
which beauty is reflected and multiplied,
and in which is inextricably mingled the
figure of the fair and luckless Queen.
The splendor we have, the romance we will
have to do without. In fact, in this busy,
money-getting age, the imagination carries
one too near the ludicrons to be unleashed.
The late Mr.. Vanderbilt was no nymph.
No more is Mr.. Marquand, nor Mr.. Robert
Garrett and other rich men who have bath
rooms panelled in mirrors and wreathed in
morning glories. In two of the Vanderbilt
bathrooms the feature of the mirrors is
doubled. In that of Mr.. W. H. Vanderbilt's
house now attached to the guest room, the
wood used is the lustrous silken satin wood,
and the wainscoting, the wardrobes and the
bath are lined with Mexican onyx, which
repeats in greater beauty the tints of the
satin wood. The doors are panelled with
mirrors to the floor. Above the wainscot-
ting the wall is overlaid with small bevelled
over the ceiling. Yelling these thousand
eyes is filmy network of lace painted on
the mirrors, but parting above in order that
cupids may peer through. What would
Mr.. Mitchell's Persian have thought of this
pretty fancy?
AMERICAN CONSCIOUSNESS.
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt's bathroom is
even more ideally beautiful. In fact Mr..
r. M. Hunt, who is the architect of the
house, has done nothing more absolutely
wainscoting, perfectly plain to the top,
where there is a band of incased ornament
traced in gold. The walls above are pan
elled in small bevelled mirrors separated by
bands of gilt molding. Over these are
painted apple blossoms, dropping sprays
laden with bloom. The ceiling is modelled
in Henry II. ornament, for the bath con-
meets with Henry III. bedroom, and is
coIored in cream and gold The color har-
mony of this cream, pink and gold caught
here and there and echoed by the mirrors is
one of the triumphs of latter day decoration
Beneath all this beauty is the tub cut out
of a solid block of marble, with carved
molding of scallop shells. The faucets are
swans heads and breasts of solid silver, and
at the head of this magnifcence is niche
in which is copy of that fair figure of a
bather with her tunIc lifted and about to
step in the bath, by one of Coysevox broth
ers, sculptors in the days of Louis XVI,
and the original of which is in the Louvre.
A marble slab resting on tabled creatures is
the only piece of furniture in the room.
The Chenonceaux bathroom is the inspirer
of other New York bathrooms equally mag
nihcent, as those of Mr.. W. K. Vanderbilt
and Mr.. Marquand. No chateau in France
is richer in memories than Chenonceaux
1t was begun by Louis XII. for Anne of
l.
brought the fair widow Diana de Poitiers.
who was ousted after time by the strong
minded Catherine de Medici, who coveted
this gem of the valley of Loire. For two
centuries Chenonceaux has not been state
property, and its fortunes have been brill
liant, but vagrant. Its last owner was Madam
Pelouze, the devoted sister of that recent
scapegrace, Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of
President Grevy, and for whose debts
Madam Pelouze has had to sell and resign
the chateau she had so enriched.
SPLENDID SCENIC EFFECTS.
This bathroom was added by Madam Pc
louze. 1t is a large room with a vaulted
ceiling, or what the architects call barrel
arch. The walls are paneled to the arch in
colored marbles, and the arch is painted
with sky, clouds, birds and vines to render
an out-of-door effect The bath is made of
marble sunk in the floor and occupies the
entire room. A fight of marble steps de-
scends into it from the door, and it is fed
from dolphins' heads cut in the marbles.
Mr.. W. K. Vanderbilt's bath copies this
with difference. The Yaulted arch is laid
in Moorish designs, and the walls are wains-
coted in Moorish tiles. The bath does not
occupy the entire room, but it is sunk in the
floor and reached by steps, and the bath and
all the toilet arrangements are faced in
Mexican onyx.
Mr.. Marquand's bath resembles this in
some features. The walls are wainscoted
and the bath which is not sunk, is faced
with old Saracenic tiles, brought from Spain
with shining, lustrous faces, lost with the
disappearance of the sMoors. All the
angles are cushioned with round, polished
metal. Above is barrel arch decorated by
Mr.. Francis Lattrop in design and tint to
complete the Moorish character of the room.
Ir,4 H. hnA q