The Decoration of Houses

by Edith Wharton

Overview

First paperback appearance of the revised and expanded edition, including a portfolio of color plates.
In addition to her fame as a novelist, Edith Wharton has now been recognized as an arbiter of taste and correct usage in the making of domestic interior rooms, and Odgen Codman, Jr., has achieved recognition as a revivalist architect of the first rank. The original text of The Decoration of Houses continues without revision as an authentic classic, perhaps the most important book of its kind ever published. Its carefully reasoned chapters on such aspects of house interiors as fireplaces, ceilings and floors, halls and stairs, are of the greatest value to professionals and serious amateurs concerned with interiors. This expanded edition includes an introduction by Henry Hope Reed and three critical essays by John Barrington Bayley, William A. Coles, and Alvin Holm, AIA. Additions to the album of renderings and photographs of modern and contemporary work in the tradition of Wharton and Codman include a number of important works done in the last decade or so. A portfolio of color plates new to the expanded edition offers the work of such accomplished photographers as Bill Ray and Anne Day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444651300
Publisher:	Read Books
Publication date:	07/24/2009
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, she received the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence in 1921. Wharton drew upon her privileged social position to create witty and psychologically insightful novels and short stories.
Ogden Codman, Jr. (1863–1951) was a noted American architect and interior decorator in the Beaux-Arts tradition. His many famous designs include Wharton's residences Land's End and The Mount as well as her Park Avenue townhouse; the Vanderbilts' Newport home, The Breakers; and the Codman-Davis House in Washington, D.C.

Date of Birth:

January 24, 1862

Date of Death:

August 11, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France

Education:

Educated privately in New York and Europe

Table of Contents

Introduction     xix
The Historical Tradition     1
Rooms in General     17
Walls     31
Doors     48
Windows     64
Fireplaces     74
Ceilings and Floors     89
Entrance and Vestibule     103
Hall and Stairs     106
The Drawing-room, Boudoir, and Morning-room     122
Gala Rooms: Ball-room, Saloon, Music-room, Gallery     134
The Library, Smoking-room, and "Den"     145
The Dining-room     155
Bedrooms     162
The School-room and Nurseries     173
Bric-a-Brac     184
Conclusion     196
Index     199