The sounds and smells of Christmas past pervade the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate throughout this holiday season in decorations and recreations of American Yuletide traditions since the mid-Eighteenth Century. Winterthur was from its inception the country house of a man of wealth. Built by Jacques Antoine Bidermann and his wife, Evelina Gabrielle du Pont, around 1837, the house passed from generation to generation in the du Pont family. In 1951 Henry Francis du Pont established the museum to accommodate the 60,000 pieces of American furniture, textiles, silver, clocks, needlework, porcelain, Oriental rugs and paintings, and the architectural features and the occasional building that he acquired in his lifetime. Since his death the collections have grown to some 85,000 objects. Over the years its owners expanded the house’s original 12 rooms and increased the land holdings to 2,500 acres at its largest. At the same time the house remained a family home and it is a family yuletide that is celebrated during the 2005 holiday season. The house has been decorated accordingly and the tableau of du Pont family Christmas customs past have been installed. Family heirlooms, ornaments and traditions are on view. Where that was not possible, they have been recreated. Like the rest of Winterthur, Christmas celebrations were the work of Henry F. du Pont. Du Pont’s daughter Ruth Lord recalled in her book about herfather, Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter’sPortrait, that his interests extended to nearly complete chargeof Christmas, from its decorations to stocking presents, beginningwith a kumquat and a lady apple in the toe. Christmas stockings onview echo that interest. As American Christmas traditions evolved from the simple to the extravagant, the season was observed accordingly at Winterthur. Yuletide at Winterthur is a celebration and a recreation of American Christmases past. This year’s observance is three-pronged: American Christmas celebrations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, the du Pont Christmas celebrations of the 1930s and 1940s and four rooms that blend the traditional and historical with the Twenty-First Century. Designer Thomas Jaynes, who has effected an innovative blend of antique and contemporary, has reinterpreted Christmas in those rooms. The first documented Christmas tree in America was erected in1747 in a Moravian church in Bethlehem, Penn. Such trees wereusually two- to three-foot tall wood pyramidal frames decoratedwith evergreens and hung with candles, apples and paper verses.Such a tree is on view in Schimmel Hall, so named for the woodeneagles and birds carved by Wilhelm Schimmel that are displayedthere. A reproduction of the Krimmel tree, one of the earliest known images of a Christmas tree in America that was painted by watercolorist Lewis Krimmel between 1812 and 1820, is on view in the Shipley Room. The tree is decorated with cookies and a tableau of animals and figures is displayed beneath the tree. A Christmas tree decorated with dried lilies, cockscomb, dahlias, hydrangea, marigolds, roses and other flowers grown on the estate holds center stage in the conservatory where the family Christmas tree stood. A tree decorated as it might have been by the du Pont family in the 1930s and 1940s with glass ornaments and colored lights, which were cutting edge back then, stands in the library where the family opened presents after Christmas lunch. Another tree decorated in Victorian style stands on the second floor of the house. Tabletop trees on view are surrounded by plates of cookiesjust as in the period before the Civil War. As prosperity increasedafter the war, celebrations became more elaborate. Recreations ofthe lavish meals and towering trees of the late Nineteenth Centuryare also on view. A 48-inch kissing ball harkens back to theVictorian era The du Pont dining room table, made in Baltimore just after the Revolutionary War, is set with a whimsical blend of antique and contemporary china and crystal. The dining chairs were made in New York for Victor Marie du Pont, who lived there until 1805. The elegant Montmorenci staircase that was made from elementsof the one from the circa 1822 estate of the same name inWarrenton, N.C., is decorated with poinsettias and evergreen swags.Henry Francis du Pont adapted what was once a single-story roundstaircase to create a sweeping two-story oval configuration. Headded a sitting area beneath with Federal furniture, the star ofwhich is a mahogany settee made in Portsmouth, N.H., two chairs andtwo worktables that complement the staircase. For parties heinstalled a band beneath the stairs for dancing. The area isarranged for the season as it would have been in the 1930s or 1940sfor a Christmas dance. For information call 800-448-3883, 302-888-4600 or www.winterthur.org.
20 Dec 2005 / 0 Comment
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