Evening Star Newspaper, January 11, 1931, Page 73

George W. Vanderbilt. -y HE Biltmore House, little known out- side the family circle and friends who have been guests, is the famous country estate of the late George W. Vanderbilt, near Asheville, N. C. It eontains a collection of objects of art impossi- ble of duplication. There is the delicately inlaid chess table that Napoleon carried with him to St. Helena, the drawer of which was made to hold the white and red ivory chessmen. After the death of the Little Corporal in exile, his Corsican physi- - cian, Dr. Antonmarchi, removed the stilled heart and placed it in this same drawer in the desperate effort to smuggle it back to France. Beholding the mute evidence of this -failure in the still visible bloodstains on this remark- able piece of furniture, one cannot keep back a pang of regret over the frustration of an act of - devotion born through love of country. Francis I of France during the early part of the sixteenth century ordered five Gobelin tapestries to be woven depicting the story of Vulcan and the love of Venus and Mars, these to be from cloth of gold, with the predominating colors blue and rose. The Book of Exodus says: “They did beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue and in the purple. * * * ” Of such materials were . these tapestries made, and history says that the identical five pieces adorned the tent of Francis . at the meeting of himself and Henry VIII of England when those two haughty monarchs met on the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 to ar- «_Trange a treaty of alliance between their coun- tries against Germany. What a magnificent sight that field must have been to have earned that symbolic name from the gorgeous decora- tions of the royal tents! " Today the tapestries of Francis are on the walls of the banquet hall in Biltmore House, itself a room of kingly air and proportions with its impressive length of 72 feet. In a nearby hall, contrasting the imperial trappings but still linked to France, there is a erimson robe embroidered in gold and silver with the motto of Cardinal Richelieu. This once formed part of the ceremonial dress of that cardinal of France who attained consider- able standing in court through attracting the attention of Marie de Medici, mother of the young King Louis XIII. Remaining there throughout the entire reign of his royal master, the ecclesiastic shaped much of the history of France during that quarter of a century. Reminding one of the past of Germany, there 18 a series of rare prints housed in a room espe- clally for that purpose. Chief of these is the engraving by Albrecht Durer, completed in 1515, that depicts the history and main events in the life of Maximilian the Great, the Emperor of Germany who laid the foundation for the ex- tensive torritory inherited by his grandson, Charles V. On a large table under the group of Durers are two Chinese vessels of thdé Chow Dynasty, 800 B.C. THE ceiling of this print room is unique, being an expression of sentiment for Commodore Vanderbilt, the founder of the family. It is "composed of the tapestries once used on the ferryboats of the commodore, draped here in a billowy effect. Adorning the ceiling of the library is a mural by Tiepolo, done in allegorical life size figures, “marvelously colored and preserved, that was procured from an old Italian castle upon the promise that the name of the seller never be divulged—a secret, incidentally, that died with Mr. Vanderbilt. An Italian tapestry of the late "seventeenth century hangs over the carved black marble fireplace, 9 feet wide by 6 feet high, which is in keeping with the proportions of this chamber, 73 by 34, with a 39-foot stud. Running entirely around the room of paneled and carved native walnut is a gallery of wrought fron and brass, making the upper tiers of books accessible, which passes behind the stone chim- ney set out for the purpose. On the grand plano are two white and gold vases of Capo di -Monte, and nearby are three Chinese goldfish bowls of the Ming Dynasty, each large enough to have held one of All Baba’s thieves. To the lover of literature, to any bibliophile, the selected collection of books proves most tantalizing, for it is a gathering of about 20,000 volumes—books new and books yery, very old, bound in vellum and tooled Jeather; ‘editions that cover almost any subject; time-tinted tomes of wonderful engravings patiently iflum- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY M, 19sf. Valuable Antiques and Objets d’Art From Many Lands Linked With Notable Incidents of Past Centuries Gathered to Grace the Famous Biltmore House, One of the Finest American Country Estates. fl"-fllm Biltmore House, one of the noteworthy storehouses of art treasures in America, was built by George W. Vanderbilt and with- in the last year has been opened to the public YT ¥y, Banquet hall of the Biltmore House, showing the triple fireplaces and the panel above done in high-relief by Bitter. ined by Mands that once signed world-famous names. Scattered in various parts of the mansion are to be seen: A marble bath of the Caesars. A room of paintings after Landseer. Four rare jade-green Chinese Celadon vases of the Sung Dynasty, 1260 A.D. Two highly prized bronzes, the tiger and the lion, by Braye, the Michelangelo of animals. A collection of Dutch, French and Swedish copper cooking vessels each of which appears large enough for a community kitchen. An old English refectory table about 15 feet long with a top of oak six inches thick, scarred and marked by ancient users. Tall wooden French church candilesticks; Spanish chests, some more than 400 years old; cut velyet screens, gold embellished; old, Dutch cabinets with the patina of age; twelve dainty Dresden figurines representing the apostles— the work of Meissen—and many more things beautiful, rare and out of the ordinary. PFor the carvings used as built-in decorative motif, Mr. Vanderbilt employed Karl Bitter, the famed Austro-American sculptor, who later, after his winning design in open competition, executed the Astor Memorial Gates in Trinity Church, New York City. Richard W. Hunt, a member of a famous family of New York architects, evolved the plan of the mansion following a visit with Mr, Vanderbilt to the Chateau Blois, the seat of the Orleans family in France. As this place came near to fitting the vision previously formed by young Vanderbilt, Mr. Hunt, impressed by the dignified and stately appearance of the famed old French structure, followed similar. lines—in fact, the wing built by PFrancis I was almost literal uced, to lend Biltmore, Hi an by his heirs. York’s Central Park, laid out and executed he grounds and gardens in a setting of natural beauty that had as a background one of the most massively impressive mountain ranges in Eastern America. Five years under construction, the house has 40 massive bed rooms, besides the drawing and billiard rooms, library, galleries and servants® quarters. The foundation of the main building covers four acres of ground. Entering from the front, a small court to the right and outside of the doors has a Romane esque Italian foundation that is of the eighte eenth century, while the portals are guarded by two Italian lions that were standing on the grounds of an estate in that sunny land 200 years earlier. The large central hall encompasses a court of palms, a circular sunkea marble area that contains many kinds of potted plants arranged around the low walls, with light filtering through a domed glass ceiling. In the center is a fountain by Bitter—a graceful figure of & boy and a swan. Growing in the pond of the fountain are water flowers and grasses; canaries ralse sweet voices in song, and from its pérch & brilliant Brazilian macaw views all with & speculative eye. Opening from the walls of this court, which are partly covered by British Museum copies of the frieze in the Parthenon of Athens, is the entrance to the banquet hall (the unusual size of which has already been mentioned). Flank~ ing the lintels stand statues of Joan of Arc and of St. Louis. Carved above in Latin is the motto “Give Peace, God, in Our Time.” Conspicuously displayed over the triple fire~ place is the outstanding work of Bitter in the shape of a panel depicting “The Return From the Chase,” a high-relief in native black walnut. The room is copied after a similar one in an old Norman castle, so the two Gothic thronea facing the entrance are in keeping. Across ong end a balcony has a balustrade carved -by Bitter that runs in front of a pipe organ, and high over the fireplaces at the opposite end of the room hang a group of staffed flags of a@ the great powers of Europe at the time of Columbus’ discovery of America. ’ On this first floor are the oak drawing roons, paneled in Norwegian oak, with floor to match; the print room and the dining room, whose walls are covered with embossed Spanish leather and which has a fireplace of blue Wedgwood tiles with the white figures in bas-relief. Finally, the tapestry gallery, 90 feet long and 30 feet wide, with one rug stretching down the parqueted floor. The walls hold three Flemish tapestries of the late fifteenth century, repree senting, in order, Prudence, Faith and Charity. Between these pieces hang family portraits, three of note, George Vanderbilt, his mother and his wife, all painted by Sargent. one side of the twin fireplaces sits a sofa of French tapestry of the period of Henry III; to the other side one dating to Louis XTIV, all chairs matching the latter piece. On the cabinets placed between the windows there:is . much interesting Dresden ware, including 12 porcelain candlesticks that bear the mark of the imperial Austrian arms, evidently obtained from a private royal chapel. Bpiraling up for three floors from the left of the front doors, the grand staircase rises with no support .other than its own arched .cone struetion. - And . down from- the lofty ceiling ‘through 'the temple-like openings thus Tormed