Last weekend I visited Winterthur for the first time. This place is up all my alleys: history, gardens, an insanely wealthy, and possibly just insane, 19th-century American family has anyone seen Foxcatcher?
I might have to check it out soon. Could it be any more perfect? For starters, check out these soup tureens. They have a whole gallery devoted to soup tureens, sponsored by— who else? In a way, quilts, embroidery, and even clothing can thus be read as texts—but unfortunately, most of us now lack the ability to read them. Here was a cool early 19c coverlet through which the maker author?
The man and the woman, in fact, are holding tiny books; the woman also appears to be holding her sewing basket toward her daughter. How weird to have a bloody pelican in the center of your bed to greet you at bedtime. But perhaps, given how frequently women gave their lives in the service of procreation, apropos. My friend Laura, who was visiting me that weekend, had the presence of mind to get us tickets for the house tour.
We spent an hour exploring a single floor of the house— the fifth floor, which I think was the third major addition to be put on the house, in the early twentieth century.
The house has rooms or something like that and at its grandest, was a sort of cruise-ship-on-land, with indoor squash court, bowling alley, and billiards room, several parlors and other entertainment spaces, both grand and intimate, a beautiful dining room, swimming pool, outdoor terraces, bathhouses— you get the idea.
