MILLIONAIRE EXTRAVAGANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 196, 18 August 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

MILLIONAIRE EXTRAVAGANCE.

ONE BEDROOM—£I93,74O.

It Is an opinion-generally entertained that the age for costly and elaborate furniture Is past afld gone. Perhaps an order recently placed with a Bond-street firm by an American millionaire will tend to dispel this il-

lusion.

Mr Stephen S. Marchand is the fortunate possessor of the most beautiful bedchamber in the world. This immense apartment, 76ft by 22ft, is of elliptical form.

The walls are panelled with elaborately carved enrichments in the. style of Louis XV., the background Is finished white enamel, and the carvings and • ihouldinga are gilt.

Taking Into consideration the form of the apartment and the difficulty and expense of adapting a panelling and woodwork; to a chamber of this shape, it is mot surprising that £12,800 was the price for the wall and dado woodwork alone.

The wall inside the panels Is hung with purple and gold Genoese velvet. This material being' of rare colour, exceptional quality and special design, was manufactured by a Lyons firm at a cost of £7 15/ a yard. Therefore, the wall-hangings alone—there being 28 panels in the room—cost Mr Marchand something like £77 10/ per panel, or £2170 for the whole. The ceiling is elaborately carved and decorated by special artists from Paris, and cost £3870 more. The curtains and curtain draperies'we're of the same material as the wall panels, and cost £1840. This is exclusive of vltrage undercurtains at £270 per pair. They were made by hand, of the finest Brussels .net, Interwoven 'with silk. These, therefore, added another. £1350 to the item of curtains. The carpet, a handsome, hand-tied purple Axminster, had to be specially dyed, and ran into £6 5/ per yard." This for the whole bedchamber cost £3450. But tlie.' chef d'oeuvre of the whole apartment was undoubtedly the bedstead and bedroom su'te. The bedstead alone cost nearly .£38,000. Of massive ebony, with elaborate carvings of solid irory, and inlaid with gold filigree, it occupied the' finest artisans of France—for it was made in Paris—for nearly two and a half years. Some idea of the immense amount of time and money lavisliedon this piece of furniture may be gathered from the fact that a single broad Ivory band which ran round the under-framing was cut la such an amazingly Intricate and tedious pattern that four fret-cutters were over is months on this part of the bedstead alone. One of the men thus employed lost his reason by the tedious nature of the work, and Is at present cutting borders in Imagination. In Charenton. At the outset a serious difficulty arose that would have daunted anyone but a<n American. It was found that the magnificent trophy at the head of the bedstead was so large that no single piece of ivory could be obtained'of . : THE REQUIRED DIMENSIONS.. The firm talked of reducing the carving, but Mr Marchand would not hear of it. They found a tusk of the requisite size at last, but it took seven months to. find It, and the cost of the ivory and the journey as : far as Uyaoiyembe, In Africa, where the mammoth tusk was discovered, ran Mr Marchand into a further expense of nearly £4000. The hangings of the = bedstead were of a special purple damask, costing £4 18/ per yard, exclusive of the initial cost of the loom cards. The wardrobe wffs nearly as expensive ns the bedstead—£2o,oßo was the exact price paid for it. When the trining additional expenses of dressing-table, £12,400; washstand, £7200; amd table de nuit, £2870, ore taken into account, it will be seen that the entire suite aggregated the enormous sum of £93,550.

The chairs, of solid carved, ivory with ebony and gold Inlay, Increased this amount to something over £100,000.

After figures like these such trifling items as £730 for a cheval glass, £1230 for a chim-ney-piece and overglass, £490 each for the four doors of the room, £228 each for the overdoors, and £710 for the \Vnslistn<od table fittings, fade into insignificance. It is to be hoped that the customer was satisfied when he settled his little bill of £103,74t).