Customer Reviews

The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 203 Photographs from Artistic Houses, with New Text (Dover Architecture)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The interiors of these homes are just spectacular, the B&W period images are crisp and clean; impressive considering their age. It is a tragedy that so many of these rooms represented in these photos are gone along with the houses that possessed them. The craftsmanship of these rooms cannot be dublicated today and the estates are irreplaceable, at least a few where saved to give us an idea of how people really once lived and what an art true craftmanship was, but you can't help but be sickened at how easily they were demolished and the inferior buildings that replaced them...that are now themselves being replaced...sic transic gloria.

I purchased this book as a companion to another book that I enjoyed very much by Arnold Lewis called : "American Country Houses of the Gilded Age: Sheldon's "Artistic Country-Seats". I do not regret this purchase in the least, though I must say that I preferred Arnold Lewis' "AMERICAN COUNTRY HOUSES,etc" slightly more.

I give this book four stars for the following reasons:

(+) The plus points:

1) The size of this book is large (approximately 12 X 9 inches) and therefore the photos are also quite large and detailed.

2) The Introduction is marvelous, just as the Introduction to Lewis' other books are just as informative (eg: in "American Country Houses, etc").
As I recommended in my review to Lewis' other book called "American Country Houses of the Gilded Age: Sheldon's "Artistic Country-Seats", I would recommend reading the Introduction to this book before jumping-in and looking at all the photos first. The reason I say this is because the Introduction explains the backgrounds to the wealthy homeowners, and the Architects, and the builders, and more inmportantly, it gives an excellent background to the GILDED AGE, in general.

To better understand why the homeowners chose to decorate their lavish homes as such, a reader would need a background as to the Economic and Social trends important to the Gilded Age. I feel that Lewis' Introduction lays an excellent foundation to this book, & this nice Introduction will help the reader to better understand the photographs (12 X 9 inches).

3) The paper quality is excellent. The authors did not skimp on paper and binding, especially considering that this is a large paperback book.

(-) The minus point:

1) As even the authors stated, the 203 photos from THE ARTISTIC HOUSES, showed mostly the "public spaces" in each homes. Even though this book showed a few Victorian bedrooms, however, this book did not show photos of what would have been extremely valuable Victorian spaces, such as: the bathrooms, or the servants' quarters, or the kitchens.

I understand that Lewis was limited as to the photos he could show, since this book was focusing mainly on the 203 photos from ARTISTIC HOMES, however I so wished that there had been photos (ANY photos would do, if even from other sources) of the non-public spaces.
This point is the only minus I could find in this book, and therfore I gave this book 4 stars rather than five. However, if a reader has some supplemental books on Victorian interiors showing the non-public spaces, then those supplements can complete the picture, as they say, of what the lavish homes of the 1880's-1890's must have looked like.

This book is a wonderful 'window' into a lifestyle long since gone. It's photographs show beautiful rooms that represent the craftsmanship that is almost nonexistent today. It is sad to know that many of the homes represented here have been demolished and replaces by greatly inferior buildings or even worse, parking lots and such!!
If you love the Victorian era, and want a peek into that era's homes, then you will truly enjoy this book.

I liked the book and the wonderful pictures. The only thing is that I wish they had given more information on the owners of the homes we were seeing through these pictures.

I enjoyed this book, in the beginning, but then I was convinced that "the rich they are different" they have no taste. Some of the rooms were horrible and some were great if you like entry halls, sitting rooms and dining rooms,with a table and 4 chairs,what's that about? This is the Opulent Gilded Age? It was overall OK.

I thoroughly enjoy both of these books and and reading them very slowly.