Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I agree with the reviewer in N.C. This is an excellent book. Ive read dozens on this subject (old and new) and Craven's book does the following very well.
a) includes heretofore unpublished photos of homes and people. This is important for the expert who thought he/she had seen it all.
b) the book is beautifully produced. Lush, high grade paper, invitingly formatted.
c) gets all the names and generations right. So many of these books end up confusing names and the generations they belong to. If you are an expert in this subject then you want your Vanderbilts, Burdens, Webbs and Astors correctly named and dated. This adds to the credibility.
d) the bibliography contains books that I did not even know of.
All and all and excellent result !!

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A lavishly illustrated history of theopulent artand architecture ofthe Gilded Age.
The Gilded Age (1865-1918) saw the sudden rise of America's first High Society, including suchprominent families as the Astors, Whitneys, andVanderbilts. As an aristocracy based on fortunes recently acquired, these families endeavored tolive like Europe's blue-blooded nobility,shedding Puritan restraint as they joyouslyflaunted their new wealth-especially where their homes were concerned.
They erected Frenchchateaus and Italian palazzos on New York'sFifth Avenue, at Newport, and elsewhere, oftentaking inspiration from Parisian styles of theSecond Empire. They rejected more modestAmerican styles just as they rejectedmiddle-class society, and for interiordecoration they turned to such artisans asTiffany, Herter Brothers, and Allard's ofParis.

Immensely readable andilluminated with 250 stunning color andblack-and-white illustrations, this is thefascinating story of America's firstmillionaire society, the way they lived andpartied, and the lush artistic and culturallegacy they established.
100 color, 150 black-and-white

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