Keep up with XKT and Rosie on our tour
of the du Pont estates.
Longwood Gardens - Part 1
Longwood Gardens - Part 2
Longwood Gardens - Part 3
Longwood Gardens - Part 4
Longwood Gardens - Part 5
Longwood Gardens - Part 6
Longwood Gardens - Part 7
Longwood Gardens - Part 8
Wintertour Gardens - Part 9
More than 50 years ago, collector and horitculturalist Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969) opened his childhood home, Winterthur, to the public. Today the exhibition galleries and 175 rooms showcase nearly 85,000 arts objects, all set within a magnificent 100-acre estate and garden.
This is the Chinese Parlor which serves as a showcase for some extraordinary 18th century Chinese wallpaper depicting scenes of village life. The room contains 30 pieces of furniture from different regions of colonial America.
The stairway is from an 1822 plantation home in North Carolina which du Pont purchased at auction. He adapted the circular staircase for Winterthur.
The highlight of any weekend visit to Winterthur was the dinner presentation. The table was always set with bouquets, color-coordinated linens specially chosen to match the seasonal flowers, and elaborate dinnerware, glassware, and silverware. Across the table conversation was discouraged. One was expected to concentrate solely on one's dinner partner on the left for a certain amount of time, then switch to the dinner partner on the right.
1 comment:
I see you got to parts of the museum that I had to skip due to time constraints. Very interesting.
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