Carpets are here!

Today we're installing (and by "we", we mean professionals who know what they're doing) carpets in the House. In the parlor, we've got Brussels carpet in blue-gray, brown, and ochre shades. The colors are close to the wallpaper colors - closer than may appear in this photo - but the pattern on pattern effect is pretty spectacular! Moving the furniture back in will tone it down. Window curtains go up tomorrow. When the furniture is re-upholstered as scheduled the room will be nearly complete.

This has been an education for us all in the styles of the early 19th century. We're post-Colonial, but pre-Victorian, a time sometimes called the Early Republic, or in design circles, the Federal period. The austerity that we associate with early America is mythical, and this house will clearly show the love of color and pattern of the time, and the ability of the Croghan family to purchase in an international marketplace, even in Kentucky, even in 1809.

The second floor bedroom that we call the Yellow Room was probably used as a family guest room. That's not a contradiction, since members of the extensive Clark family came and stayed for months at a time. This room has a striped Venetian carpet. More carpets to come, and the other textiles for curtains and upholstery are set to arrive shortly.

Grand "Opening" Now Set for June

We've planned our grand "opening" (that's in quotes, because we've never closed) for the end of June. We thought we'd be able to open in late March, but, you guessed it... the wallpaper. It won't be ready. So rather than open prematurely, we're going to do it right with festivities just before our summer Antiques Market. Watch for a public open day FREE on June 26th, with other events just for members, and a public symposium (with a fee) on June 25th. If you'd like to get on the mailing list for information, just email us with your contact information.

Rugs are coming very soon, from as far away as England and Turkey, and we're seeking appropriate furniture to fill in the gaps, especially a bed for George Rogers Clark, whose new "apartment" is quite bare. In the second floor Croghan (green) bedroom, a new bed cover features the indigo shades that we know that Lucy Croghan favored.

The Dining Room now has a frame for the punkah, which is being constructed for us by Amish craftsmen. The former Weaving Room is now the Girl's Room, and the former Nursery is about to be inhabited by the spirit of Dr. John Croghan.

Even More about the Wallpaper

Yes, we're still going on about the wallpaper.

The great wallpaper mystery developed a plot twist when we got color samples back from Adelphi Paper - and we were dubious. The colors didn't much resemble the photos of the original wallpaper found in the House in the 1960s; they were much brighter and lighter. They didn't look much like the French originals. But, as we've learned, colors change over time in unpredictable ways. We called for help.

First Samuel Thomas, local historian and the first caretaker of Locust Grove, one of few men now living who SAW the wallpaper when it was still on the walls, came and brought better photos. We were so dubious that we sent the photos off to Adelphi. They recommended some serious color analysis.

Well, we know where to go for that - the samples and original fragments were shipped off to Matthew Mosca, who had analyzed our paint for us. Mosca worked quickly, and concluded that Adelphi had done it right. The background color was just a tiny bit lighter and brighter than they had projected, but such a tiny bit that you would never notice unless you knew.

So, reassured, we have left the project in Adelphi's capable hands, and we are eager to see the results on the walls. Light and bright.

The Great Locust Grove Wallpaper Mystery

Long ago, in Paris, just before the French Revolution, the firm of Reveillon designed an elegant arabesque figured wallpaper, with a bluish gray background, four vignettes of dancing sprites and cupids in glilt, and all the flourishes, foliage, and ornamentation of the high French style.

Later, in America, an unknown firm of wallpaper printers obtained some of the Reveillon paper, copied it, made a few changes and modifications, and sold it to customers, including a William Croghan of Locust Grove in Louisville, Kentucky. Major Croghan had the paper hung on the walls of his largest room, the southwest room on the second floor.

At some point, this large room was subdivided, and a slice of the wallpaper was covered by the edge of the partition wall. The rooms created were repapered at some point in the 19th century, and the original wallpaper was no longer visible, until...

During the 1960s restoration the partition was recognized as a later addition and removed, exposing the vertical strip of early wallpaper. On a snowy night, the paper peeled from the walls, and was rescued by the site's caretakers, and taken for study. The decision was made to reproduce and replace the wallpaper on the walls of the room.

A New York wallpaper firm was contracted to do the work. They identified the paper as a Reveillon design by referring to a black-and-white image of a panel of Reveillon paper. The paper was reproduced using a different printing technique, silkscreen instead of woodblock, and a different paper. The color was based on the sample from Locust Grove, blue green, orange, gray, white, and blue.

When it was hung on the walls, Locust Grove staff knew that it was a little off. The texture was not right, it was printed in strips, not panels, and, mysteriously, the dancing girl was kicking the opposite way from the sample of the original.

So, in the current re-restoration, we took the opportunity to reproduce it again, right, and sent the samples off to Adelphi paper in New York.

They told us it was not Reveillon, but a copy. They told us that the original Reveillon paper had different colors, and included not two but FOUR different dancing girls - we'd been displaying only half of the original design. BUT - was this a flaw in the 1960s reproduction, or in the 1790s knockoff?

Stay tuned....

Auction Over!

The first ever Locust Grove Auction is over; the last items have gone home with their purchasers. The auction brought in $60,365 in total; minus the auctioneers' fee, that gives us $54,328 to use for the development and preservation of the collections.

Thanks to all the collections donors through the years whose contributions will continue to work for the good of Locust Grove; thanks to all the Board and committee members who assisted in this process.

"Dr. Short's Cabinet" was the star of the show, going for $14,000 to Transylvania University. We're very glad that this important piece found a home where it should be. Several other pieces went to Locust Grove friends, volunteers, and supporters.

Now we move on to fill the gaps in the House's furnishings. We've got a list.

On Monday, we start prepping the walls for the wallpaper installation.