Illus. 413.—Doorway in Larkin-Richter House,
Portsmouth, about 1800.
It was put in the house in 1800, but the paper dates to 1747, the time when the house was built, and it was imported for this room from France.
Illus. 414.—Doorway in
the “Octagon,” Washington.
A very charming doorway is shown in Illustration [413], from the Larkin-Richter house in Portsmouth. It has urns and festoons of flowers and wonderfully fine carvings upon the cornice. Illustration [414] shows a doorway leading into the hall in the “Octagon” in Washington, D. C. The house derives its name from its shape, built to conform to a triangular lot. Col. John Tayloe built it in 1800, and for twenty-five years the entertainments given in the Octagon were famous. It is now occupied by the American Institute of Architects. The entrance to the house is in a circular tower of three stories in height, thus utilizing the shape of the triangle. This gives a large, circular vestibule from which a wide, arched doorway leads into the hall with the stairs, which are very simple, with plain small balusters, and a mahogany rail. The doorway is very fine, with fluted columns and carved capitals and on the inside of the arch a row of carving, making a beautiful entrance to the house.
Illus. 415.—Mantel in the “Octagon,” Washington.
The mantel in Illustration [415] is in the “Octagon” house, and is made of a cement composition, cast in a mould, and painted white. The cement is fine and the effect is much as if it were wood or stone. The designs are graceful and well modelled. This style of mantel with figures at the sides was used more in the South, and one would hardly find in a Northern home a mantel the motif of which was a frankly portrayed praise of wine, with the centre panel quite Bacchanalian in its joviality.