Living with antiques: a collection in Baton Rouge

Magazine Antiques, April, 2004 by H. Parrott Bacot

Among the collectors of American fine and decorative arts, it is fascinating to recall that a number of the most prominent and passionate were naturalized citizens. Israel Sack (1883-1959) comes immediately to mind. A Lithuanian-born cabinetmaker, Sack immigrated to Boston in 1903 and later established the great New York City emporium for American antiques that bore his name. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was greatly enriched by a man trained as an opera tenor in his native Saint Petersburg. Maxim Karolik (1893-1963) came to the United States in the Roaring Twenties and married a doyenne of the New England aristocracy, Martha Codman (1858-1948) of Boston and Newport. Together they avidly acquired American fine art and folk art, as well as eighteenth-century American decorative arts.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The collection featured in this article has been formed over fifteen years by a couple from Iran. Drs. Mohamad M. and Fahimeh Hanachi Tahvildari both received their specialty training at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. There they fell under the spell of southern Louisiana's unique cultural melange. When they moved to Baton Rouge to begin their medical practice and start their collection, the halcyon days of forming large collections of early Louisiana furniture had already passed. They have, however, been able to acquire several choice pieces of early Louisiana and West Indian furniture. In addition, they have formed a distinguished collection of New Orleans and other American silver, and significant holdings of Louisiana paintings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, the Tahvildaris have a penchant for furniture of the Federal and classical periods--especially that made in New York City.

Providing an appropriate backdrop for the collection is an octagonal house designed by the Louisiana architect William Hughes in 1982. While clearly contemporary, the house pays homage to the past with its excellent proportions, high ceilings, southern yellow pine parquet flooring, and fine millwork and hardware.

The inviting entrance hall (Pl. II) is illuminated by a patinated and gilt-bronze argand or colza chandelier of about 1820 to 1830 marked "JOHNSTON & BROOKS/MANUFACTURERS/LONDON." The firm of brass founders was active under that name from 1814 to at least 1824 at 32 New Street in London. (1) The inlaid mahogany and satinwood pembroke table, a fine example of the Philadelphia interpretation of this form, dates from about 1795 to 1810. It was formerly at Mistletoe Plantation near Natchez, Mississippi. (2) Above the table is one of three watercolors in the collection by Boyd Cruise (see also Pl. XI). (3) Born in Mississippi, Cruise spent most of his life in southern Louisiana. In the late 1930s he discovered the New Orleans Notarial Archives, which is a unique cache of almost five thousand precisely rendered watercolors of New Orleans buildings, (4) and began to produce lively architectural views of nineteenth-century New Orleans. At different seasons and times of day, in rain or sunshine, these scenes are usually populated with people from all social classes in period dress, as well as with animals, wagons, and carriages. (5) Most of Cruise's work is in collections in Louisiana and Texas, but his paintings in the classical American tradition, as exemplified by the three in the Tahvildari collection, prove that he should be better known on a national basis.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In a niche in the foyer formed by the spiral staircase (see Pl. I) is a pillar and scroll mahogany center table made in New York City about 1835. On it are a collection of French brass chamber candlesticks ranging in date from about 1735 to 1815 and, in the center, a French brass candlestick of about 1750 to 1770 under an English copper-wheel-engraved glass hurricane shade probably made about 1835. Visible in the same photograph is a fine Louisiana petite armoire of mahogany and cypress. It is rococo in style, but its butt hinges and the mitered joint construction of the doors point to an early nineteenth-century origin. An unusual feature is that the frieze and cornice are made as one piece and screwed to the carcass. Most Louisiana petite armoires have neither a cornice nor a frieze, and if they have a cornice it is nailed or glued directly to the upper part of the carcass. An English gilded and ebony convex looking glass hangs above the armoire. Dating from about 1815, it is whimsically embellished with seahorse motifs.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Illustrated in Plates IV and V is the drawing room, a dramatic irregular pentagonal space, the focal point of which is the red marble mantel (see Pl. V). It is outfitted with andirons and matching tongs and shovel marked by David Phillips (w. 1804-1818), a New York City brass founder. (6) In the center of the mantelshelf is a gilt-bronze clock featuring a figure of George Washington based on Washington at the Battle of Trenton, painted in 1792 by John Trumbull (1756-1843). (7) The silvered dial is signed by the well-known Parisian clockmaker Jean Baptiste Dubuc (b. 1743; w. 1804-1817). Flanking the clock is a pair of English gilt-brass, glass, and marble cornucopias dating from the reign of William IV (r. 1830-1837). Appropriately for this household, they are filled with roses, for red roses are the national flower of Iran. Many of the roses shown throughout the house came from the owners' garden. Framing the objects on the mantel is a pair of French brass candlesticks of about 1750 to 1765, under copper-wheel-engraved hurricane shades of either American or English origin, about 1810 to 1825.