DINING ROOM AND BEDCHAMBER

The decoration of these two rooms - a parlor and bedchamber from a house in Catawba County, North Carolina - is a product of the tension between published cosmopolitan mores and local practice in more remote contexts.

The parlor's spectacular mantle and overmantle, emulating designs published in contemporary architectural pattern books, reflect an awareness of both the owners and their carpenter of styles popular at the time. The organization of the elements—the urns and swags flanking the central panel, the fluted pilasters, and the anthemion cornice—all respond to book designs of the era. Even so, the mantle and overmantle reflects the strong local tradition of rich coloration and elaboration of Piedmont North Carolina.  The marbleized and grained techniques employed over a majority of the design and the color scheme anchors the final product in local practice.

The bedchamber from this house has simpler faux-finish treatments.  This room's decoration is most notable for its arboreal overmantle painting.

The Catawba rooms were among the earliest architecture collected for MESDA.  These images show the rooms in-situ in Catawba County, North Carolina before conservation and installation at MESDA.