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Let's begin by accepting the fact that, Bill Gates aside, none of us will ever experience the opulence enjoyed by the wealthy capitalists of the 19th century. Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts provided the gold for the Gilded Age. Their lifestyles continue to intrigue us today. A new line of fabrics from Kravet, the Biltmore Estate Collection, demonstrates this fact.
Marinda Williams, reproductions coordinator for the Biltmore Estate, George Vanderbilt's 255-room chateau in Asheville, NC, is responsible for conceptualizing this new line. She approached Kravet with the concept of a Biltmore fabric line in mind. Kravet agreed to visit the estate to see if, indeed, there was enough there from which to produce an entire line of fabric. According to Williams, they came and took "rolls and rolls of film of all the different design elements."
Kravet then spent two years interpreting and adapting designs from the house into designs for fabric. Throughout this process Williams was responsible for accepting or rejecting the different interpretations. It was fitting, therefore, that Williams, along with Kravet representative Fred Halterman, recently presented the new line at Designers Emporium in Asheville. The hour-long slide presentation and trunk show featured photographs of the different fabrics and motifs within the house. Williams also had the corresponding Kravet reproductions on hand for showing.
The Man and His Mansion
In order to fully understand the Biltmore Estate Collection, we must first understand the estate itself as well as its creator. The Biltmore Estate is America's largest private residence and a national historical landmark. It was constructed from 1890 to 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. George Vanderbilt was a studious, well-traveled, introspective young man. His wide variety of interests included art, architecture, horticulture, music and languages. At the age of 23 he inherited $10 million and began the process of planning and decorating his mansion.
Despite the differences in the level of exact reproduction,
every piece of fabric is directly linked to the house
and therefore
to Vanderbilt.
His presence undergirds both.
Vanderbilt scoured the world for priceless pieces of art and architectural ideas. He brought home artwork, sculpture and furniture from as far away as Asia. Included in his acquisitions, of course, were fabrics of the highest quality. He collected Flemish tapestries, cut and uncut silks from France and printed cottons from England and the United States. All are ornately detailed and grandiose in scale.
Anyone who has visited the Biltmore Estate can attest to its extravagant assortment of textiles. In Kravet's search for patterns and motifs within the house, no pillow went unturned. The company now features several exact or nearly exact reproductions of textiles found in the house. For example, a burgundy and gold ceiling drapery of an arts and crafts design covers the estate's morning salon. An original from 1895, it is still in excellent condition. According to Williams, Kravet reproduced this fabric almost exactly. "They changed a color a little bit. They also changed the scale," Williams explains.
Not only did Kravet use fabric from Biltmore displays, it also took patterns from the estate's archives. Kravet found several small pieces of fabric stored in the archives. Williams theorizes that these piece goods were sent to George Vanderbilt on spec when he was designing and decorating the house. These textiles date from the turn of the century and include several silk damasks, a cotton print with a cherry tree motif and several linen pieces used as slipcovers. Kravet duplicated designs from the silk damasks as cotton and polyester reproductions, and the cotton print with the cherry tree motif is one of the more popular of its fabrics.
Despite the differences in the level of exact reproduction, every piece of fabric that was included in the Biltmore Estate Collection is directly linked to the house and therefore to Vanderbilt. His presence undergirds both. In the Loire valley in central France, Vanderbilt visited the Chateau Blois, the Chateau Chambord and the Chateau Chenonceaux whose winding staircases, columns and turrets appear in the construction of the Biltmore House as designed by renown architect Richard Morris Hunt. And, Vanderbilt brought in Frederick Law Olmstead, who had designed New York's Central Park, to oversee the development of the grounds.
Despite the presence of such distinguished designers, Vanderbilt remained active in the construction and design process of his estate. Williams noted that Vanderbilt "worked very closely with Richard Morris Hunt . . . George Vanderbilt was very integral in even the smallest decisions about, for instance, what the banquet hall table leg would look like. We have blueprints in the Biltmore House archives that have 'OK'd GWV' written on them signifying his likes and dislikes about a particular table leg."
One of the most popular designs in the house,
according to Williams, is derived from the
stenciled fireplaces in the estate's tapestry gallery.
Vanderbilt's elegant taste harmonizes the many disparate elements of the Biltmore Estate. From table legs to drapery tabs to intricately carved statuary, Vanderbilt had a say in what went where. Kravet's new line reflects his wide-ranging taste with its eclectic blend.
Minute Motifs
In order to absorb the complex tone of the house, Kravet drew on more than just Biltmore fabrics. The line also includes dozens of different, sometimes minute, design details. For example, Kravet reproduced a scrolled acanthus leaf from the cornice of a walnut cabinet outside the oak sitting room.
In her presentation at Designers Emporium, Williams discussed which details had been garnered from the various parts of the house. For instance, the banquet hall, the largest room in the mansion, holds five grandiose tapestries, two of which proved "integral to the design of the line. They used a lot of the acanthus leaf and border motifs . . . for a lot of the designs in the collection." Also taken from the tapestries were minute motifs such as ceramic vases, birds and a key. The chairs in the banquet hall originally carved by Karl Bitter, provided a vine and grape motif used extensively in the fabric line.
The breakfast room offered two exquisite design details that were used in the Biltmore Estate Collection. The first is the hand-tooled Spanish leather lining the walls. This embossed wall covering has been "reproduced wonderfully in a crewel," according to Williams. Also from the breakfast room, a geometric pattern found on the ceiling appears on a Kravet fabric.
This pattern was not the only ceiling design that Kravet took from the house. The oak sitting room, situated between the Vanderbilts' bedrooms, offered another attractive geometric design that was reproduced exactly in two different scales. Also in the oak sitting room is a cherub cartouche. Vanderbilt included cherubs throughout the house and its exterior statuary. Kravet used many of these cherubs, as well as other angels, on printed textiles.
One of the most popular designs in the house, according to Williams, is derived from the stenciled fireplaces in the estate's tapestry gallery. These pastoral scenes are popular not only on fabrics but in other Biltmore reproduction lines as well. The scenes appeared in a line of lamps, a line of decorative accessories and in a line of prints. "They have been so popular and so endearing to the [other reproduction lines] that Kravet reproduced them also," says Williams. The licensing agreement between the Biltmore Estate and Kravet is exclusive -- although two other small printed textiles are being produced by Classics Revivals, a company that assisted the Biltmore Estate in reproducing fabric for preservation purposes.
The fabrics in Kravet's Biltmore Estate Collection evoke the elegance of an age long past. The collection comprises 370 fabrics (predominately wovens with a few prints), 90 percent of which is upholstery and bedding fabric, though there are some light cotton prints for draperies. By drawing on the textiles, architecture and accessories of the Biltmore House, Kravet's interpretations ensure that the refinement and glory of the Gilded Age will live on.
So now the luxuriousness of the Gilded Age lies at our fingertips at a fraction of the cost of the originals. We should seize this opportunity to experience 19th-century opulence in our 20th-century homes.
 Cheryl Strickland is owner of Professional Drapery Seminars. She is an internationally-acclaimed speaker with more than 20 years experience in the window coverings industry. She is the publisher and editor of Sew WHAT?, an international monthly newsletter for professional drapery workrooms. Strickland also is the author of A Practical Guide to Soft Window Coverings and the Designer's Sketch Pad, which are available through Draperies & Window Coverings magazine.
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