Drawing Room

The Drawing Room was used as a gathering place for music and conversation by Mary Lily and her guests. The room is adorned with silk fabric and light wood decorated in the Louis XVI style. Above each door and mirror is a cameo of Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated wife of Louis XVI.

The Steinway art case Model B grand piano was made specifically for this room. Its decorative details match those of the room. The painting on the lid of the piano is of Erato the Muse of Love Poetry. Aluminum leaf highlights the plaster ornaments in the Drawing Room. The process to extract aluminum economically had only recently been perfected and as a result, aluminum was as expensive and as precious as gold during much of the Gilded Age. The leaf was coated with shellac to give it a warmer feeling and a gold tint.