While Biltmore House is amazing in its scale and beauty, it’s also incredible to notice the amount of detail carried through all parts of the house. Today’s “favorite thing” centers on a small detail that reminds us how George Vanderbilt was so involved in the design of his home.

John Overbey has spent a good bit of time in Biltmore House as part of his security responsibilities. Now supervisor of the Lodge Gate and Admissions Gate, John has worked for more than a decade at Biltmore. Among the grand size and décor of the Banquet Hall, there are two inscriptions that interest him—and that many guests may never even notice!

He is most intrigued by the inscriptions carved into the limestone on the left and right sides of the Organ Loft in the Banquet Hall. 

Family heirlooms are wonderful, even for a Vanderbilt. For Lori Garst, Curatorial Assistant in Museum Services, her favorite thing in Biltmore House originally came from George Vanderbilt’s father.

During her 20 years at Biltmore, Lori has handled and cataloged more than 75 percent of the items in the collection. While she’s discovered many wonderful things over the years, one item holds particular allure.

In the Third Floor Living Hall is a carved library table that George Vanderbilt inherited from his father, William H. Vanderbilt. “I love the richness of the table with its subtle but elaborate carvings, and the fact that it came from William Vanderbilt’s Fifth Avenue home,” she said.

She is equally impressed with its history; the table and several elaborately carved display cabinets in the room were made by Herter Brothers. In the late 1800s, the New York company was one of the country’s leading cabinetmaking and decorating firms. The table and cabinets originally graced the palatial Fifth Avenue mansion William Vanderbilt constructed that spanned the entire block between 51^st and 52^nd streets in New York City. 

In addition to his furnishings, George’s father passed on his love of art and his philanthropic interests to his youngest son. Before William Vanderbilt’s death in 1885, his collection of some 200 works by Old Masters was termed the finest private collection of paintings and sculpture in the world. He provided extensive funding to the YMCA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, and Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Check back next week for another inside look at our favorite things!

Today we share another “insider’s” favorite object that you may have never even noticed. Why not make time for a visit this winter to look at the details in America’s largest home, and check back for the next installment of our favorite things!

After 30 years caring for Biltmore House, there are few details that have escaped Pat Ray’s notice. Pat, Biltmore’s Housekeeping Manager, started in Museum Services before moving to Housekeeping many years ago. One of the major tasks for her department happens every winter: cleaning the magnificent woodwork in the house.

It’s painstaking work when you consider the rich paneling of the Billiard Room and Oak Sitting Room, fanciful carvings and moldings in Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, and heavily carved walnut overmantel in the Library just for starters! But it gives Pat time to appreciate the details in every room—particularly one unusual item in the Salon.

“I’ve just always loved this one table in the Salon; it can be used as a table or as a decorative accent because the top tilts for display. It’s made of papier-mâché with an inlay of mother-of-pearl and it’s so beautiful,” she said.

According to our curators, this table is English and dates to the late 19^th century. While papier-mâché had been around for more than a thousand years, the material was mass produced in the late 1800s. Papier-mâché pieces gained popularity when it was found that the lightweight material could easily be ebonized or “japanned” to resemble the lacquer finishes popular in Asian furniture and decorative accessories of the time.

While you may think of papier-mâché being a product made of layers of paper, the material used in this table and similar pieces was a mixture of wood pulp (mashed paper) and a thickener such as sand and glue; the mixture was then pressed into molds rather than carved.  

These pieces were often adorned with gilding and inlayed with mother-of-pearl, just as the Salon table is. We don’t know what the scene inlaid on the top of the table depicts, but it appears to be some type of ruins surrounded by a variety of different flowers, all created with mother-of-pearl.

As you admire the architecture, art, and sculpture that makes Biltmore House so amazing, consider for a moment all the work that goes into restoring, conserving, and preserving this special place. We checked with one employee who’s deeply involved in maintaining the beauty of Biltmore’s collection for her favorite thing—please check back next week for another insider’s favorite!

Nancy Rosebrock, Chief Conservator, is trained in the conservation of furniture and gilded objects. She came to Biltmore 14 years ago and is the manager of the Conservation and Collections Management staff. 

Her teams are integral parts of the ongoing restoration and preservation work that keeps Biltmore looking like it did when the Vanderbilts called it home. You’ve seen the results of their incredible work in every part of Biltmore House, from the Louis XV Room with its gilded mirror and sconces to the exhibition in the Second Floor Living Hall focusing on our preservation efforts.

With Nancy’s attention to detail, it’s not surprising that her favorite objects are a pair of bronze candelabra in the Oak Sitting Room that tell a story—if you stop to look at them with a careful eye. “They are a study of the precariousness of life,” she said. 

Created by sculptor Auguste Nicholas Cain, the bronze pieces skillfully portray animals; the base is formed from snails, complete with tiny bronze antennae. On one candelabrum, a mother bird is feeding her babies. On the other, a rat balances on a limb above a nest, about to take the baby birds for its next meal.

The candelabra are part of Biltmore’s collection of bronzes created by les Animaliers, a 19^th-century French school of art named for the artists’ naturalistic portrayals of animals. George Vanderbilt acquired about 20 works from les Animaliers, including the striking Hippogriff in the Entrance Hall by Antoine-Louise Barye.

Sometimes it’s the smallest detail that makes an object stand out in your mind. That’s the case with this week’s favorite thing for a member of Biltmore’s Museum Services staff. We invite you to visit soon to admire the details in Biltmore House and discover your own personal favorites!

Laura Cope Overbey, Collections Manager in Museum Services, joined Biltmore 14 years ago as the Associate Collections Manager and has been in her current position since 2008. Her job gives her a close look at items in the collection. Among the thousands of objects she has seen, two prints stand out for a special reason—even if most guests never even notice them.

“Mr. Vanderbilt collected more than 1,300 prints that are in our collection today,” Laura said. “My favorites are two prints of Charles II hanging on the west wall in Mr. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom.”

According to Laura, the prints appear to be identical and are by the same artists, 17^th-century Dutch painter Pieter Nason and Dutch printmaker Cornelis van Dalen II. Both date from the early 1660s and depict Charles II in the same stance, outfit, and background.

Yet, there is a slight difference between the two prints; one has the addition of three small objects in the bottom left corner—a crown, orb, and scepter. And those objects tell a fascinating story about the life of the English king.

“If you look carefully, you can see clues to the historical significance of the two prints,” Laura said. “At the beginning of his reign, Charles II was a king without a country. During his youth, he had witnessed the English Civil War, the end of the English monarchy, and the execution of his father, Charles I. Since his father’s death, Charles II was a king in exile.

“In 1660, the political tide changed and the English wanted to reinstate the monarchy. These prints illustrate this transition: the first shows a king without a country, and the second shows a king fully restored with the crown and country,” she said.

Left photo: Charles II without a country. Right photo: Charles II with his crown, orb, and scepter.