Well, Looky What I Finally Found!!

FINALLY!  I found these photos at http://www.romanticasheville.com/biltmore_house.htm

Arched column passages:

Most of the common rooms don't have entry doors, that just have arched entrys with heavy drapes that I assume were designed to minimize drafts.  In fact, it was suggested that we not only plan to wear our coats, but to at least TAKE our gloves. 

Every room is so huge as far as square footage goes, but here at Biltmore Estates one shouldn't go by square footage; one should measure by cubic feet.  The ceilings are SO high in every room - so high that height almost dwarfs length and width. 

Sunken glass domed entry:

Straight through the front door the entry is like any other entry (with, I don't know, 40' high ceilings), but just to the right is a circular, sunken, plant filled atrium with fountain and sculpture.  The ceiling is not just glass, but truly breath-taking in its design.  We went to the right through several rooms and came out on the other side of this atrium.  Each person, couple, family, or group was offered a free photo taken standing beside this room.  We didn't pick ours up after the tour, but have ordered it on line.  Not the greatest photo of us - jackets all askew, hair a mess from the wind outside, light reflecting off of my eyeglasses, hands full of (useless) cameras and gloves...  When it comes in I may share it with you - may not. 




On to the Billiard Room:

A couple of pool tables - of course, hand made and elaborately decorated.  Taxidermy to be expected: buffalo, eagle (we'd probably get arrested if we tried to get one stuffed today), big horn sheep, fish, elk - still looking pretty good, as if one could really tell when they're hanging 10 - 12 feet above your head...

 

There were also cloth covered domino tables (good idea!)

Harold S. Vanderbilt invented the game of contract bridge. (All good Baptist's know that it was a couple of teenage Baptist boys who invented the domino game of 42 so that they could covertly play bridge.  "Card playing" was considered a form of gambling, and their parents wouldn't let them play bridge.)  Seems like the cloth covered domino tables go hand-in-hand with Vanderbilt's bridge game...

Now to the Banquet Hall:

Think medieval castles.  The ceiling here is SEVENTY feet high.  On the far wall is a set of THREE fireplaces with enormous openings and andirons about three feet tall, and a common, marvelous (think about that word, "marvelous."  Definition: causing wonder, miraculous, of the highest kind or quality, notably superior) mantlepiece. There is an area in front of the fireplaces that the family would have their normal meal at sitting at small tables. Scanning to the right you see five Flemish tapestries dating from the 1500's.  Don't mentally blow that off.  The tapestries are Brobdingnagian in size and scenes depicted in those tapestries are realistic down to the smallest detail.  Since Biltmore Estate wasn't constructed until the 1890's, those tapestries were somewhere around 400 years old when George brought them over - and are now 500 years old (give or take a decade.)





In front of the tapestries you have a gargantuan table that easily seats 35 - and would hold enough food for a small army.  Over your shoulder to the right is a gallery fronted by three-dimensional wood carved panels with a background of (I'm sure) gold leaf.  Above the gallery rail you see the pipes for an organ that were ordered and put into place in the early 1900's - but no organ came until 1999.  Why the almost 100 year delay ??? 'Tis a mystery.



And, yes, we did get to hear the organ play while we were there. 

The flowers on the table were most likely grown at the Estate and are set out for the Spring Festival of Flowers.

We leave this grand room for what is called the Breakfast Room, but the family ate lunch in here, too.



The door frames leading into and out of this room were made of carved marble.

There are more photos I will share in the coming days.