I took this photo at Winterthur, the country estate of several generations of the
fabulously wealthy du Pont family, while on vacation in the Brandywine Valley
two weeks ago. Henry Francis du Pont, the
connoisseur of Americana who was the last of his line to occupy the house,
discovered this spiral staircase, like something out of Gone With the Wind, at Montmorency, an estate in North Carolina, had
it disassembled, transported and put back together again at his home. Then it
was unveiled in time to surprise his wife and daughter, much to their delighted
surprise.
How could they not know about something like this
going on? They must have been away on one of those trips abroad that the
wealthy took annually in those days. A nice lifestyle, if you can get it.
