The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-10

furniture and all manner of decorative
objects for the interior Not the most
trifling article was acquired until 1t
had been submitted for his approval
His judgment was rapid, and almost
unerring. Mistakes were inevitable, but
they We're always detected by him and
rectitied. The fine old oak panelling and
tapestries were taken bodily from an
Gent French chateauX and transferred
to the rooms at Waddesdon. The taste
and knowledge displayed in their adap-
tation have been a source of unceasing
admiration to connoisseurs. The rooms
are delightful pictures Of refined, mel
low, decorative beauty, where historic
pictures of the Dutch, English, and
French eighteenth-century masters,
priceless Sevres, bbelots, and old
French furniture are combined with eX-
quisite effect. The Baron always prided
himself that Waddesdon was now a
museum. There, every object fulfills a
fitting decorative function; nothing
was acquired unless an appropriate
place could be found for it in the gen.
eral scheme of form and color. The
rooms are not crowded with pictures
or with furniture. There is enough and
not more either than was required to
make an artistic whole, and every
thing is the best of its kind that could
be obtained
The Vienna branch Of the Rothschild
family have always had, it seems, a
prediction for building, together with
faculty for being dissatisfied with
what they have built. Baron Ferdinand
was perpetually making alterations at
Observation-Disclosures which We're al
ways Improvements. The large green
drawing room he added to the west
wing four or five years ago was his
greatest triumph. It's proportions are
faultless. It's pictures-with Sir JOSH
ua's gloriously vivid '"Thais" over the
fireplace and several fine examples of
the Dutch school on the walls-are Sc
lected and disposed with the utmost
judgment and ia ste, while it contains a
suite of Reissner furniture which
stands second only, if at all, to the IA
nous one at Hartford House. Several of
the rooms and most of the furniture
have interesting historical associations.
The panelling of the state bedroom as
1t stands was taken from Cardinal Ma
zarins palace in Paris. In the Baron's
sitting room, among many other stored
objects, stands a stately writing bureau
rich with eXquisitely moulded ormolu
and inlaid devices, which
was made by Reissner for Beaumar-
chais, and which is regarded as one of
the very finest products of that mas
ter's art When the Queen, who had
heard of the marvels Of Waddesdon
from the Empress Frederick and the
Louise, visited 1t, her majesty
was so fascinated by its manifold
charms that she prolonged her stay an
hour and half longer than she had
arranged, delaying her special train,
and needless to say, driving the rail-
way officials nearly crazy. But Waddes-
don is not only feast to the eye and
mind: it is also home of the most re-
fined luxury. Nothing that modern sci
ence could do to make 1t thoroughly
was omitted. Every detail
In its construction was thought out
with the minutest care. A vast quanti-
ty of cork was even mixed with the
mortar to preclude the possibility of
echoes being developed by the lofty and
spacious rooms and galleries.-West- |
Minister Gazette.