Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society

Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society by Wayne Craven is NOT a coffee table book. If one is searching for a book whose interior photos are as handsome and elaborate as that of the dust jacket, one needs to breeze by this book. Yes, there are some beautiful photos; yet, virtually none of the color photos are original to this book as I have seen the same photos appear in books on the subject of Newport Rhode Island or the very rich. Yet, there are interesting black & white photos of early Fifth Avenue NY. Again, this is no coffee table book. I did, however, read the book in its' entirety and I found many interesting facts like: the Empire State Building sits on the same site as did, formerly, the Astor mansions. Also, much of the art that has been donated to the Metropolitan Museum came from families reviewed in this book. It will certainly make me read the donor plaques on my next visit to the Metropolitan. Purchase this book as a book to be read over a few weeks as many of the chapters read like the chapter before (though the central characters will change). No, it is not the best book that I've ever read on Gilded Age architecture. Yet, the book stands on its' own merit as a rather concise (perhaps too concise?) tribute to the Gilded Age and those that composed a place and/or time in history that wasn't taught in our high-school or college history classes. Read it to fill-in the gaps of your knowledge of the subject. If you love art, architecture, antiques, good parties, money and social climbers, read it for fun.

In the post-Civil War period, the nouveau riche in the New York area created such a display of ostentatiousness that that era still goes by the name "the Gilded Age." As the new rich competed to show off to each other and the old, blue-blooded families, one of the major outlets was building larger and more ornate mansions. Needing to create that illusion of family history, they turned to old homes of Europe and built French chateaus and Italian palazzos in downtown New York and in their country homes in Newport and elsewhere. Inside those homes, they decorated in grand style, making household names of jewelers and designers such as Tiffany and Co. and the Herter Brothers. Gilded Mansions is a tour of these homes, with plenty of color and original black and white photographs. Extremely well produced and designed, Mansions is a tour not only through the homes of the period, but also of their history and that of their owners. The many gilded moldings and special touches puts truth to name of the age, and the forthcoming Newport Villas from Norton, may just be all that the armchair voyeur needs.

This is a survey book of the material culture of Gilded Age America which manages to conjure a sense of having been there. If you enjoy architecture, art, biography and social history, buy this book, because Mr Craven interweaves all of it into entertaining prose. I love that he associates the period's elaboration of manners, art, furniture, clothes, and architecture, and I think he illuminates both the things and the context that gave rise to them. I love that he incorporates the satire of Charles Dana Gibson and the observations of people like Edith Wharton, Henry James, and Elizabeth Drexel Lehr. I love that he highlights architect Stanford White, and that he selects some worthy houses to explore in greater depth. On the downside, I was disappointed in the too-cursory selection of photos of famous extant houses such as Biltmore, Rosecliff, and Marble House; a few pictures were new to me but most replicate the guidebooks and will be familiar to architecture buffs. There are only five floor plans reproduced. There are some factual and descriptive errors and society apocrypha which, to be fair, occurs in some of my other books about the Gilded Age and it's architecture. Overall, the text rises above it's flaws and includes many beautiful images I've never seen before. Worth buying new, and for me, that's saying something.

I rated this book one star because the program required a rating. I'd rather have rated it no stars. I've read some poorly written books in my day; but this book was at the top of the list. Time after time I found really inexcusable errors and even text that was at odds with captions under illustrations on the same page. I was appalled by the sheer amount of misinformation that anyone with even a modicum of knowledge of Gilded Age architecture would recognize. What I find so annoying is that this book was written by someone who should have known better and was published by a reputable company. To be fair, there were some interesting photographs and an occational bit of new information. But for the most part it was a rehash of common knowledge that anyone could have accessed. Quite frankly I found almost nothing in this book that would have warranted purchasing it. I'm sorry I did.

"High society in the 19th century was different from you and me and these ornate luxury, money pits of houses proves that while you can't take it with you, you can sure spend it when you are here."