This is Part 2 of our visit to Winterhtur on March 22 with our friend Cristina. This is entry tells about our encounter with a hyper-historically-educated docent in the 175 room mansion and what the gardens WOULD look like (if it were warm and spring-time).
 |
| piano room with lots of flowers |
OUR TOUR OF THE HOUSE - Because the mansion
is so huge (I believe there are 9 floors) the tour takes people only
through the 5th and 6th floors. Within those two floors there is SO much
furniture, so much art, so many clocks and antiques it'll make your
head spin!
ENCYCLOPEDIAC DOCENT - The
woman that led our small group through the 2 floors dropped so many
names about the furniture makers, clocks, artists, craftsmen, history,
and even the remodeling of the house that it made our heads spin! She
had to be either a college professor or historian - it was unfathomable
to me how she knew so much.
 |
| Rob, Cristina and Tom agreeing with Docent |
"OF COURSE YOU KNOW THAT!" -
After finding out that we are from Maryland, at one point, the docent
pointed out a piece of furniture and said to us "look at the legs of
this table." We did and tipped our heads like a dog that doesn't
understand. The docent said, "Because you're from Baltimore, of course
you know the (whatever) design and curvature of the legs is a hallmark
of Mr. blahblahblah from the 1820s in Baltimore." Tom, Cristina and I
looked at each other and all looked at her and nodded, "of course,"
"sure," "yes, he's very famous." LOL
PIANO ROOM - One of the last rooms we walked through had a grand piano in it, and a woman was playing tunes on it. The room was peppered with live flowers and fragrant. The walls of the room were covered with a wallpaper from China of a chinese mural of mountains, villages and ocean.
THE GARDENS -
Tom had visited Wintertur when the 60 acres of gardens were in bloom,
and unfortunately when we visited on March 22, nothing was really
blooming yet and the high temperature was in the mid-40s.
 |
| Photo by Jeannette Lindvig |
Henry Francis du Pont developed an
appreciation of nature as a boy that served as the basis for his life's
work in the garden. He selected the choicest plants from around the
world to enhance the natural setting, arranging them in lyrical color
combinations and carefully orchestrating a succession of bloom from late
January to November. Du Pont translated his love of the land into a
unified work of art that embodies a romantic vision of nature's beauty.
