Gilded Age

For simply ages now, AP and I have been discussing really important things like where to spend the holidays, what to do about the cricket (the game!!! :) ) and where to spend our vacation. I reiterate, all vitally important stuff :)

hossam zaki

And finally we have made a decision on at least one of the biggies and have settled for, this week, enjoying a staycation. Uh huh, a whole l-o-n-g glorious seven days to hang out and do whatever – or nothing – we want around the house. No pressing time restraints. No hovering job commitments. Nothing but self-indulgence of the home kind. Sigh … too spoilt right :)

Anyhoo, so having time on our hands we did what we have been wanting to do for years and years; take a tour of the Rockefeller mansion here in Woodstock. Now not just the gardens in which I have spent many a summer’s day wandering through, but the rooms behind the hallowed walls of the rather imposing three-storey Victorian that sits high on a hill overlooking the small rural town of which they were both so fond (check out Winsome Woodstock and Wander through Woodstock for more)

Tinerate, wandering through the hallways of the summer home of one of the most esteemed families of American history it was easy to imagine a day in the ridiculously moneyed life of glitz, glamour and gold. Breakfast at 8.000am in the Morning Room. Lunch on the terrace should weather permit. Cocktails in the Parlour at 7.00pm with dinner at 8.00pm in, naturally, the dining room. Retiring to the Library was a post dinner option if one did not fancy ‘a turn’ beneath the towering firs.

Anyhoo, whilst it was all divinely old-world sophisticated and elitist, I found many similarities with how it is in modern times. Yes, seriously! I mean, we may appear much more casual today, but essentially it all comes down to style and breeding. Both traits which are either inherent to one – or not – and are still abundantly evident within society. I know a bucket load of folks who possess the charm and grace of yester-year and can turn out a table on par with the Gilded Age to boot!

I can see it now … Beautiful silver flatware shining against polished mahogany tables. Exquisite crystal flutes sparkle beneath the glow of the twinkling chandelier. Almost too-precious-to-be-used china tableware decorated with threads of gold are the plate of choice.

Tall white taper candles highlight the sheened patent brogues of black-suited footman assembled especially to serve. Outside, behind the drawn velvet curtains, a gusting storm turns the cobbled stone street into a quicksilver rapid … Oh, okay … maybe not this Mills & Boonsy-like last para but definitely everything else :) But point is, that even without the Rococo and gilt, tablescapes reminiscent of the era of elegance are still around.

Tinerate, so really … it’s not so much living like the past cos I’m thinking it’s a pretty safe bet to say that somewhere, the Gilded Age is playing out in someone’s dining room as I type. Don’t you agree? :)

Till next time.

Tipsy Pipsy xo

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