HOW A MILLIONAIRES HOUSE IS

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 49

HOW A MILLIONAIRES HOUSE IS

FURNISHED. Br An Autistic Furnisher. ! It is a very fortunate circumstance for r.he 3000 trades of the United Kingdom engaged at the present moment in the production of high-class furniture that the millionaire, as a rule, being a very astute person, fights shy of antiques, the sale of which profits no one but the dealer. He will occasionally give 150ga a pair for old cut-glass decanters, invest a few thousands in Sevres, or plank down at Christie's £4000 for a necklace of black pearls, once the property of Marie Antoinette, Queea of France. I have known them even buy suits of North Italian fchree-quarter armour at 500gs apiece; but old furniture they shun. Collectors may think a Louis XV gilt suite, upholstered in the famous Gobelins tapestry — which, after 200 years' wear looks as good as now — dirt cheap at GOOOgs, or raneack Europe to procure an upright of the Louis XVI period, in parqueterie, with massive mountings of gilt bronze — the millionaire will have none of them. Even if it be genuine, there is probably plenty more to be had, and this your millionaire loathes. Having made up his mind to spend £250,000 and upwards on his palace. HE WANTS IT TO BE LIKE NO ONE ELSE'S, Naturally he is unable to resist the prevailiDg fashion of reproducing in his mansion exact fac-similea of the most interesting rooms in such places as Hatfield House, Alnwick Oastle, Barghley House, and Chatsworth. It is something, of course, to be able ! to say that this room is an exact reproduction of one in Hardwick Hall, and the chair you are sitting on is a replica of the one which the Earl of Devonshire occupied whilst plotting with his friends the deposition of James IL '<

But, after all, originality is what the &{H llonaire eighs for when furnishing, and vrbwr he is prepared to pay any money to seoure. Not long since one of the richest men in the world went secretly to Naples. He bad heard that the authorities were prepared to dißpose of some marble columns which had been excavated from the ruins of Pompeif, He bought the lot, 12 in all, at £1000 eaob 1 . When he found that his library, for whioh he had intended them, oould only accommodate seven, he bad the remaining five destroyed, although he was offered doable what he gave for them. A West End firmj'whiob. is now famishing tHfl country residence of one of these gold kings; paid £4000 for the design of the £8-a-yarcl curtain intended for one of the reception rooms. Not content with sending a man He oould rely on to Lyons to see that the depign was not appropriated, he had the loom cards on whioh the pattern was drawn destroyed, - together with the original design, the moment the order was executed — though the design cost him £1200. Millionaires, as a rule, are too sensible when furnishing to limit the expenditure. WHEN PERFECTION IS REQUIBBII carlo blanche must be given. They also rarely interfere in the work — not that a millionaire is necessarily destitute of taste. On the contrary, their suggestions are .frequently valuable. Once I discovered that some books of silver leaf, intended for the decoration of the leaves, &c, whioh formed part of the oak carvings of the library of the house of a rich diamond klag, were tarnished at the edges about onesixteenth of an inch down. I was just telling the men to out them down when the millionaire entered. "Don't cut them I" he exclaimed. "Put them on a« they are 1 " When It was seen what a beautiful tiled effeot the tarnished edges gave, they were immediately lacquered over to prevent further tarnishing. To prevent this idea from coming into general use it will be patented. The only really vulgar millionaite I ever met, hailed, as may bo guessed, from Chicago. I 3hall never forget the look of disappointment which crept over his face when he inspected the beautiful pile carpet which had been specially woven for him at £6 10s a yard. Although I pointed out that the makers had succeeded in securing that purplo tint which gives the desired Jaspii effect, it was evident that he had set; his mind on a pattern. ] Iv vain I pointed out that it was quite im- } possible to have a pattern on A OAHPET THE PILE OF WHIOH WAS AN I INCH AND A- HALF DEEP, and the finest patterns were found on the cheapest carpets. He - was quite disconsolate. " I don't care about your Jasj a efieefc. It's all one colour." " Weil, you are uofc restricted to ona colour," I said ironically. "1? we can't give you a pattern, we can mi effect. What do you Bay to a rainbow 7 Ho shied at bho raio'sow, but he succumbed to a sunuet ; an;l a aunset he had, with a blue sky at one end, melting to a pale yeilow in t,he centre, with fiery banks o2 golden clouds and a setting sun at the other. H-j was so delighted witu .this artistic prci duotion that ho actually gave the firm who manufactured i'J lOOga noc to make another like it. Needless to say, the cff<<r was accepted. The roost interesting feature in the house,, new appronehing completion, of a gentleman with, it is said, £6.000,000, ia the bedroom. Forty years ago he left the old farmhouse in Cheshire wbero by had been born, and took up his residence to New York to carry on the business which had been left him. So infected did he become with the thirfct for goid that, till his retirement three years ago, he oraetically spent hie life at his office. Now tha old love haß returned ; and so great is the hatred he baa conceived for anything which reminds him of big cities that; he not only never visits London, but as far as possible has all his meals out of doors. No one entering the apartment in whioh he deeps would Imagine that it was a bedroom. The carpet — Aubusson make, £8 a yard — thanks to its 2£in pile and the subdu«d Hght, — sun by day, moon by night, whioh steals through the roof, 80ft' high, and painted to j look like the Bky— exactly resembles grass. j The bed is Blung in chains of gold between 1 four wrought iron trees, the chasing of which is £o exquisite that it is only by the touch , the deception becomes apparent. Small logs serve as furniture, the interior of larger ones providing the accessories of the toilet. The bath, although made of the finest por- ! celain, is coloured to resemble the sedgy j pool in which the owner bathed as a boy. A cascado providen hot and cold water. I Altogether the apartment, whioh is 10C»ft J square, is THE MOST UNIQUE BEDBOOM IN THE WORLD. In the houseo of other millionaires there are many more expensive bedrooms than this, - There is one in London remarkable fcj its hall of marble, on the principal bedroom of which no less than £60,000 has been lavished. Aa the limits of this article preclude a detailed description it will be sufficient to say that the decorating of the ceiling cost £3000; the draperies of the room, which are composed of the finest Brussels net, interwoven with eilk, £2000 ; ! the bedstead, of solid ebony inlaid' with gold filigree, over £20,000 ; the reßt of the outlay ia represented by dressing tables of solid silver — replicas of the celebrated silver plate at Knole Park, Kent, a silver table similar to the one at Windsor Castle, silver chairs, &c. Then there are hair brushes the backs of which are solid gold-mounted with dia- . monds, toilet table mounted in gold, a porcelain washstand costing £1000, and the like. On account of its growing Bcareity ivory is being largely used in the decoration of millionaires' houses to-day. For CHAIBS OF SOLID IVORY INLAID WITH THH BAREST WOODS £120 is a common price. Not only is tbe ivory itself dear, bat the cost of carving, owing to its hardness, is something tremendous. In tne decorations of one room which I have in my mind no less than £20,000 oat of a total cost of £84,000 was for ivory work. Bound the 40 panels — each of whioh is draped with the finest silk damask, at 96s a yard— and the 40 pictures, all cainted by

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R.A.'e, which surmount the panels, rtm», in addition to a border of gilt-enamelled white carving, a broad framework of ivory so elaborately carved that the work took two years to complete. Wall papers, however costly, are now never used in paperiDg the principal rooms of a millionaire's house. The finest silk fabrics give a sheen and a lustra which puts wallpaper in the shade. Needless to say, it requires something out of the ordinary to gratify tbe taste of a millionaire in the matter of pianos. When Madame Anchorene, of Buenos Ayres, gave some £3000 for an Erard, following the Queen of Portugal's example, who gave about the same sum, the world stared and wondered. What will people say to £35,000, which was the sum aotually paid for the most expensive piano ever made 1 Here, again, the costliness of ivory makes itself felt, for so intricate and minute was the design of the sin ivory band which runs round the base of the instrument that after three and a-half years' incessant labour the brain of one of the two brothers engaged on* the work entirely gave way. The great beauty, however, of the instrument lies in j the Steinway case, the decorations of which were designed and executed by one R.A. — although two were engaged, at £1500 each, to do tbe work. Following the example of one of the R.A.s mentioned in connection with the 40 panels — who, on learning that his work was to go on top, and not inside tbe panel, clapped an additional £200 on to his price — he agreed to allow the exquisite panel he bad prepared to be fixed inside the piano, where, of conree, It will be never seen, for an additional £250, which was paid. If ever the palace in which this piano reposei is burgled, it is to be hoped the instrument will not attract the attention of the thieves, for the four sapphire eyes of the two ebony couchant lions are worth £250 apiece. But it is when laying down or buying plate and wine that THE MODERN MILLIONAIRE OPENS HIS PURSESXRINGS. He has been known to reject saddles from Morocco offered him at 200gs each, and declare £180 too dear for Tunis rags worn threadbare by much kneeling of the children of Allah; but in the matter of plate and wine he recks little of the cost. The plate of the millionaire — who a few years since was comparatively poor — assumed during last year such proportions that it is now looked after by a gentleman with a salary of £500 a year, with four assistants to keep it clean. Not long since, I am told, gome genuine Schloss Johannisberg, every bottle sealed, and every cork stamped with the crest of Prince Metternich, was sent to a West End wine-dealer to sell. The .millionaires who attended in response to the invitations isgued bid so furiously against each other that the wine merchant was able to wire the impoverished county family who had sent him the wine that he had sold it all for £10 a bottle. The desire of the millionaire to hold a monopoly is strongly shown in wines. Having been told that the vineyard which produces the Romance Conti comprises only seven acres, one South African offered to buy the entire yield for the next 10 years at 15gs a bottle. As, however, the bulk of the wine is divided amongst tbe crowned heads of Europe the offer was declined. The Marquis of Bath has in his cellars at Longleat some of the famous Leisterwein of 1540, tbe golden colour and beautiful bouquet of which is still unimpaired. When it was announced in the papers that the death duties had -shit the present Marquis very heavily, a certain millionaire offered him £20,000 for the contents of his wine cellar. The offer was declined. Money melts quickly in a- millionaire's stable, especially when the ladies of his household ride and drive. It is simply wonderful how delicate are horses which cost over a thousand guineas. It is the same with the billiard room. When a billiard room costs £8000 to fit up it is not surprising that the cues are inlaid with gold, and that the marking board is made of silver.