gilded age

The Classicist: Ralph Lauren Re-Launches Famed Rhinelander Mansion in NYC

Filed under: Apparel, Timepieces / Watches, Men's Style, The Classicist, Architecture & Design, Luxury Shopping

Ralph Lauren has relaunched his famed flagship in the historic Rhinelander Mansion on Madison Avenue in New York, transforming it into the world's foremost mecca of men's style. Spanning nearly 16,000 square feet, the Mansion, originally converted into an opulent retail palace by Lauren in 1986, now exclusively houses the designer's various men's collections with the company's first Women's and Home flagships due to open across the avenue later this fall. Originally designed in the 1890s by Kimball & Thompson, the the large French Renaissance Revival Mansion is an architectural treasure as well with a classic Beaux Arts façade exemplary of the the Upper East Side's grand architecture.

The new space showcases the Purple Label, Black Label, Polo, RRL and RLX Ralph Lauren collections of men's apparel and accessories, with an emphasis on the most luxurious elements. Service has been stepped up as well, with butlers to serve snacks and drinks on silver trays and a fleet of Mercedes-Benzes to chauffer important clients on shopping trips. The store features a full range of impeccably crafted made-to-measure suits, dress shirts, trousers, topcoats, sport coats and formalwear customized to exacting measurements, and made-to-order accessories and leather goods. Every room in the Mansion has been updated with cinematic decor in keeping with the neoclassical style of the original grand residence, from antiques and fixtures to furniture and art, including 18th- and 19th-century oil portraits and noteworthy photographs from Ralph Lauren's personal collection.

Gallery: The New Rhinelander Mansion

Tags: antiques, architecture, Beaux Arts, boutique, decor, designer, furniture, Gilded Age, Harvard, interior design, Ivy League, leather goods, luggage, luxury shopping, Madison Avenue, mansion, New York, photographs, Polo, Princeton, Purple Label, Ralph Lauren, retail, Rhinelander Mansion, store, suits, Upper East Side

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Newport Mansion Exhibits Vanderbilt Art Collection

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

One of Newport, Rhode Island's Gilded Age mansions, Marble House is getting back some of its original treasures, at least for at time. The AP reports that the collection of more than 300 objects of Medieval and Renaissance art amassed by the Vanderbilt family will be back at the home where they were once hosed. The pieces were bought in Paris and displayed in Marble House's red-walled Gothic Room. But after the house closed in 1925 the collection was sold to art collector and circus entrepreneur John Ringling. The pieces now have a permanent home at the John and Mable Ringling Musuem of Art in Sarasota, Florida. The Ringling Museum has loaned the collection to Marble House through October 31 and the pieces have all been reassembled in the Gothic Room and displayed as they were 100 years ago.

The Preservation Society of Newport County operates the Marble House and other Newport mansions as public museums. With its elaborate columns and style Marble House is among the most popular of Newport's mansions. It was completed in 1892 for railroad heir William K. Vanderbilt and his wife, Alva. The cost was a reported $11 million and it was the most lavish house in America when it was built.

Tags: gilded age, marble house, medieval art, newport, newport mansions, renaissance art, ringling museum of art, vanderbilts

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The Classicist: Mrs. Astor's Beechwood

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, The Classicist

Beechwood, the Mrs. Astor's 39-room Italianate mansion in Newport, Rhode Island and one of the last great relics of the Gilded Age, is now being offered for sale for $14.9 million. The 19,000-sq.-ft., 15-bedroom house on Newport's famous Bellevue Avenue, was listed at $16 million last year (as my colleague Deidre Woollard reported) and has since served as a "living history museum" showing what life was like for the Gilded Age idle rich before they were forced to sell off their mansions.

The museum is a bit cheesy, with events like "An Evening With the Astors", but Beechwood does have a very rich history. In fact, with the $1.1 million discount it might even be something of a bargain. Cole Porter was said to have written Night and Day, one of his most famous songs, while visiting Beechwood, and the house also made an appearance in the 1956 Bing Crosby / Frank Sinatra / Grace Kelly movie High Society. Originally constructed in 1851 by Calvert Vaux - co-designer of Central Park - and Andrew Jackson Downing for drygoods magnate Daniel Parish, it was on the market when well-bred debutante Caroline Schermerhorn married billionaire merchant William Backhouse Astor Jr., giving the Astors some much needed social cachet.

Gallery: Mrs. Astor's Beechwood

Mr. Astor owned the Ambassadress, the largest private yacht in the world at the time, and a beautiful Hudson River mansion called Ferncliff. "The Mrs. Astor" as she soon insisted upon being referred to, intended to entertain in grand style with her husband's money and needed a Newport mansion in which to do it during the summer season, which lasted for eight precious weeks. The Astors bought the place in 1881 and spent $2 million on improvements, including the addition of a mirrored waterfront ballroom by architect Richard Morris Hunt (who designed the Fifth Avenue facade of Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art) complete with bas reliefs depicting Poseidon and Aphrodite.

Mrs. Astor soon became the reigning queen of New York society, and her Summer Ball at Beechwood was the highlight of the season. She and social arbiter Ward McAllister then founded the famous "Four Hundred", referring to the strictly limited number of socially acceptable families (i.e. not nouveau riche) in New York - which some people are still trying to get into. Her son, John Jacob Astor IV, who inherited Beechwood, later went down on the Titanic, the ship's wealthiest passenger.

Tags: Astor family, AstorFamily, Beechwood, Calvert Vaux, CalvertVaux, Gilded Age, GildedAge, Historic houses, HistoricHouses, Mrs. Astor, Mrs.Astor, New York society, Newport, NewYorkSociety, Rhode Island, RhodeIsland, Richard Morris Hunt, RichardMorrisHunt, William Backhouse Astor Jr., WilliamBackhouseAstorJr.

The Uihlein Mansion, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Today's estate comes to us with a great tip from a reader. This home in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. The home is the Uihlein mansion, a limestone Italian Renaissance home that dates back to the early 1900s and the beer barons behind Schlitz Brewing. The nine-bedroom home is currently owned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Kailas Rao and his wife, Becky. The couple have restored the home. The home is listed in the state and national registers of historic places.

The home is a real Gilded Age beauty. Each room is meant to resemble an international landmark, the drawing room for example is patterned after Versailles with gold leaf moldings and silk damask draperies. There is an elaborate living room, gourmet kitchen and a truly cinematic home theater. The home is listed at $11.9 million. After the jump, the house that beer built.

Related: Check out another beer palace: The Pabst Mansion.

[Thanks, Don!]

Source

Tags: estate of the day, gilded age, GildedAge, luxury real estate, schlitz, Uihlein, wisconsin, wisconsin real estate, WisconsinRealEstate

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