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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
73
IX
HALLS
AND
STAIRCASES
In
early
days
the
hall
was
the
large
formal
room
in
which
the
main
business
of
the
house
was
transacted.
It
played
the
part
of
court-room,
with
the
lord
of
the
manor
as
judge.
It
was
used
for
dining,
living,
and
for
whatever
entertainment
the
house
afforded.
The
stairs
were
not
a
part
of
it:
they
found
a
place
as
best
they
could.
From
the
times
of
the
primitive
ladder
of
the
adobe
dwelling
to
the
days
of
the
spiral
staircase
carried
up
in
the
thickness
of
the
wall,
the
stairway
was
always
a
primitive
affair,
born
of
necessity,
with
little
claim
to
beauty.
With
the
Renaissance
in
Italy
came
the
forerunner
of
the
modern
entrance
hall,
with
its
accompanying
stair.
Considerations
of
comfort
and
beauty
began
to
be
observed.
The
Italian
staircase
grew
into
a
magnificent
affair,
"L'escalier
d'honneur,"
and
often
led
only
to
the
open
galleries
and
salons
de
parade
of
the
next
floor.
I
think
the
finest
staircases
in
all
the
world
are
in
the
Genoese
palaces.
The
grand
staircase
of
the
Renaissance
may
still
be
seen
in
many
fine
Italian
palaces,
notably
in
the
Bargello
in
Florence.
This
staircase
has
been
splendidly
reproduced
by
Mrs.
Gardner
in
Fenway
Court,
her
Italian
palace
in
Boston.
This
house
is,
by
the
way,
the
finest
thing
of
its
kind
in
America.
Mrs.
Gardner
has
the
same
far-seeing
interest
in
the
furtherance
of
an
American
appreciation
of
art
as
had
the
late
Pierpont
Morgan.
She
has
assembled
a
magnificent
collection
of
objects
of
art,
and
she
opens
her
house
to
the
public
occasionally
and
to
artists
and
designers
frequently,
that
they
may
have
the
advantage
of
studying
the
treasures.
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