Thursday, November 8, 2012

Photo of the Day: Tycoon’s Surprise



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.

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