Dedicated to the preservation of Long Island's 'gold coast' estates and other things old.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Westbury House Interiors Part 1
The first installment of the interiors to The Westbury House, the J. Watson Webb estate in Old Westbury. Click HERE and HERE for more on The Westbury House. Photos courtesy of Old Grey Dog.
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Wow with all those patterns going on I'd love to have seen these rooms in color.
Based on the volume of space and the placement of the double window, fireplace, and door in the first photo I would bet that room makes up the bulk of the surviving wing on OW Rd.
I can see why Mrs. Webb needed a museum. All those Toby Jugs.... As a north shore boy, it's a bit of a coincidence that the Webb's were my grandparents' next door neighbor, in Shelburne and my grand mother whiled away many a lonely hour up there, in the 1930's and 1940's, with them. When my grandparents sold the farm it was to Webb's son in law, Dunbar Bostwick.I think my grandfather also donated a few antiques, from his home, for the museums' founding.That house now, owned by Reverend Kate Cooke Kitteredge, daughter of famed "Letters from America" author/narrator, Alistair Cooke.
Indeed, there were plenty of Tobey Jugs ~ a great favorite of Electra and her son, Watson, Jr. Electra Havemeyer Webb was the first one to take an object like a butter churn, as seen in the foreground of the fifth photo, and have it made into a lamp. She did the same with Tobey Jugs as well but would NEVER have a hole drilled into the bottom, Rather she would have a base made for it and the upright post curved over it, from the back, so the shade was directly above it. Shown in photos six and seven is J. Watson Webb, Sr.'s den, with its polo and hunting trophies. On the ceiling beam are two panoramic photographs of his parents' Shelburne House and gardens.
And here we have it in a nutshell---the rebellion of that generation against the palaces of their parents---here taken to an extreme of hyper-cosiness. Sister Parish (who was a friend of the Webb's daughter Electra) before Sister Parish.
Glad to see these images online. With regard to the second image I'm struck by the built-in too. Note the similarity to the corner built-ins in the Tobey jug room in Shelburne Museum's Variety Unit (http://shelburnemuseum.org/collections/decorative-arts/?gallery#pg21a)
Some of you all may be interested to know that the dining room from Westbury is reproduced in the Variety Unit at Shelburne Museum.
10 comments:
Wow with all those patterns going on I'd love to have seen these rooms in color.
Based on the volume of space and the placement of the double window, fireplace, and door in the first photo I would bet that room makes up the bulk of the surviving wing on OW Rd.
Nick-
I can see why Mrs. Webb needed a museum. All those Toby Jugs....
As a north shore boy, it's a bit of a coincidence that the Webb's were my grandparents' next door neighbor, in Shelburne and my grand mother whiled away many a lonely hour up there, in the 1930's and 1940's, with them. When my grandparents sold the farm it was to Webb's son in law, Dunbar Bostwick.I think my grandfather also donated a few antiques, from his home, for the museums' founding.That house now, owned by Reverend Kate Cooke Kitteredge, daughter of famed "Letters from America" author/narrator, Alistair Cooke.
Indeed, there were plenty of Tobey Jugs ~ a great favorite of Electra and her son, Watson, Jr. Electra Havemeyer Webb was the first one to take an object like a butter churn, as seen in the foreground of the fifth photo, and have it made into a lamp. She did the same with Tobey Jugs as well but would NEVER have a hole drilled into the bottom, Rather she would have a base made for it and the upright post curved over it, from the back, so the shade was directly above it. Shown in photos six and seven is J. Watson Webb, Sr.'s den, with its polo and hunting trophies. On the ceiling beam are two panoramic photographs of his parents' Shelburne House and gardens.
It gets better. Thank you Old Grey Dog for making your pictures available to us. And thanks to Zach as well.
And here we have it in a nutshell---the rebellion of that generation against the palaces of their parents---here taken to an extreme of hyper-cosiness. Sister Parish (who was a friend of the Webb's daughter Electra) before Sister Parish.
Reminds me rather of the set of Mary Haines' house in the original The Women; too precious by half and yet, at the time, infinitely livable.
To Old Grey Dog - I knew Dunbar Bostwick when I lived in Vermont in the 70's. Wonderful man - fantastic dogs!
These rooms give me the heebie-jeebies!
What DED said, bygeorgehenailedit!
-Flo
Old Grey Dog I'm a little late to the party but I was wondering what the room in the second photo was, with the elaborate corner built-in?
Glad to see these images online. With regard to the second image I'm struck by the built-in too. Note the similarity to the corner built-ins in the Tobey jug room in Shelburne Museum's Variety Unit (http://shelburnemuseum.org/collections/decorative-arts/?gallery#pg21a)
Some of you all may be interested to know that the dining room from Westbury is reproduced in the Variety Unit at Shelburne Museum.
Post a Comment