Clayton, the Frick family’s Pittsburgh home, sheltered Henry and Adelaide Frick and their three children. It also housed the numerous staff members who kept the Fricks looking polished and well organized. Hands from both groups played roles in acquiring, using, and maintaining the objects that populate this splendid museum today. The Frick Pittsburgh’s Chief Curator and Director of Collections, Dawn R. Brean, and Morgan Lawrence, Manager of Collections and Exhibitions, shared some of Clayton’s gilded tableware treasures with TABLE readers.

The Frick Family’s Gilded Tableware

Bonbon Spoons

“You never would touch any food with your hands, only with a utensil,” comments Dawn R. Brean. These elaborate spoons would have served chocolates and sweet treats during an elaborate lunch, teatime or dinner. The spoons were probably given to the Fricks as wedding gifts in 1881. No longer part of our daily lives, the bonbon spoon is one of many types of tableware that were an opportunity for the wealthy of the Gilded Age to show off their status and their understanding of the multifaceted table manners of the day. If you could navigate your way through the accoutrements of the upper classes, you belonged. As today’s teens might say: IYKYK.

Venetian Goblets

Like many across the centuries, the Fricks purchased souvenirs and keepsakes when they traveled. During an 1893 visit to Venice, they selected a suite of engraved and gilded coupes, goblets, cordial glasses, finger bowls and plates, decanters, and ice cream shells (dishes) from a luxury boutique run by the Testolini family on St. Mark’s Square. (It’s now Pauly & C., and you can still visit their gorgeous store in the heart of Venice.) Adelaide Howard Childs Frick’s monogram, AHCF, is etched into each piece. This is because choosing these items, and deciding when to use them, was squarely in her aegis. Brean says that the amount of wear and tear visible on the gilding indicates that these sumptuous pieces had frequent use.

Coffee Spoons

Brean reports that The Frick Pittsburgh has at least 30 coffee spoons in the collection. Some are gilded. Others sport enamel details. Some are twisted, hammered, or stamped. Still others are finely etched with flowers, insects, fans, and other details, often in the Japanese-influenced aesthetic popular in the American Arts and Craft movement. Some may have been given as wedding gifts, but their profusion suggests that they may have been gifted to the Fricks across many years. The spoons would have been used during coffee service after dinner, at card parties, and perhaps during the quick social calls that were common between women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cabinet Plates

These beauties almost never left the dining room’s china cabinets, where they would have provided a sumptuous backdrop for Mrs. Frick’s crystal and glassware. The array of patterns shows a late 19th century taste for eclecticism. These represent Art Nouveau, Rococo Revival, Directoire, Classical, and Aesthetic styles, among others. “What I love about the 19th century is the mixing and matching. They were shameless materialists back then, and more was definitely more,” comments Brean with humor, noting that the museum has at least 15 sets of dinnerware that belonged to Mrs. Frick. What was on the table during meals? “White china with simple gilded decorations was used everyday. On special occasions, however, patterns like the one on the lower left of the photo were likely to be on the table,” explains Brean.

Silver Place Settings

Most likely a wedding gift or wedding purchase, the sterling silver salad and dinner forks, and soup and dessert spoons, shown here are by Tiffany & Co. Popular in the 1880s, each of the 15 shapes within the Audubon pattern had its own bird and flower combination, bringing joyous depictions of the natural world to every meal. Mixed in with the Audubon pattern, the pearl-handled knives were also part of the Fricks’ everyday tableware.

Serving Pieces

The berry spoon (top), fish knife (center), and pie server (bottom) represent some of the many, many shapes required at Gilded Age tables, but which have fallen out of common use in our time. Who could spot a fish knife these days? Just over a century ago, however, subtle differences in their shapes would have explained the function of each piece to those in the know. Mrs. Frick, raised in a well-to-do family, would have known her way around these objects. So would the English butlers who helped her run Clayton over the decades, like Frank Richards and Joseph Holroyd. Mr. Frick, not born and raised with this sort of status-affirming kit, might have needed a little coaching from time to time.

To learn more about the Frick family and the people “downstairs” who made life at Clayton possible, get a ticket to the Gilded, Not Golden tour of the house. It looks beyond the opulence and into the upheaval and inequity of the era.

Special thanks to The Frick Pittsburgh, Dawn R. Brean, Kristin Garbarino, and Morgan Lawrence.

Story by Keith Recker
Photography by Dave Bryce

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Designer Colleen Simonds works with a like-minded client to update a traditional New Jersey farmhouse while retaining its inherent charms.

Colleen Simonds Updates a Charming New Jersey Farmhouse

Working on a home’s interior design during the pandemic should have, in theory, been a nightmare for interior design Colleen Simonds. But the client who reached out had a similar background, working as an executive for a women’s fashion brand, a position Simonds had once had early in her career. “We have very much a shared language around color and pattern. Both, of course, are very relevant to design. That’s what made this work so well — she and I were on the same page,” she says.

The work began with the living area, but it all went so well that it turned into a full house project. The two women worked in sync, coordinating complicated deliveries and installations over the phone with few hitches, getting everything done efficiently. (Simonds emphasizes that working remotely over COVID was by no means easy. “It would probably never have worked with anyone else, but it did work with her.”)

Diving Into a Whole House Project

The client, who shares the house with her husband and children, had moved from Manhattan for additional space, a yard for the kids to play in, etc. She appreciates color and pattern as well as unique finds —and wanted an exuberant feeling overall. Simonds envisioned a mix of vintage pieces and new designs, a balancing act she felt important for a house with old bones. Sometimes this took the form of reupholstering antique finds in more modern fabrics, layering in color and pattern while retaining more traditional silhouettes

Comfortable seating was key for the living room, a long, rectangular space Simonds broke into two seating areas, one with four armchairs in Katie Leede fabric in front of the fireplace and the other anchored by a large Hickory Chair sofa in Isobel fabric. “It was about finding fabrics the client loved and patterns that resonated with her.” The house is intentionally not granny; rather, it’s a fresher take, pairing shapes and patterns that aren’t all matchy-matchy. “I wouldn’t call it modern, but it definitely has a bit of an edge.” Angular side and coffee tables in neutral solids balance the curvy florals and zigzags of the upholstery.

Adding a Splash of Color Everywhere

Graphic wallpaper from Peter Fasano wraps the dining area, which features a long sideboard from William Yeoward and Palacek dining chairs. The long, custom table from O&G Studio in Rhode Island is stained a very dark navy, which adds color and interest without competing. The last piece of the puzzle was the rug, which is the opposite of how things typically go. “It was a bit like finding a unicorn, but it’s perfect.” It’s a vintage Haroonian from the Rug Warehouse in Los Angeles.

Near the living room, the sunroom is an oasis of calm in blues and neutrals with a splash of yellow. “We went all in on the color, especially with the rug,” says Simonds. It’s a beautiful shade from Radici, and it makes an interesting ground for the Rogers & Goffigon upholstery on the sectional. Bright side tables from KRB in New York and a scattering of charming pillows makes the space cozy and relaxing but not in the least drab.

Still Crafting a Calming Atmosphere

For the children’s playroom, on the ground floor, it was important that it be something they could grow into. It is also directly off the living room, so it needed to live in harmony with the rest of the decor. One prominent feature is the very large fireplace, and Simonds decided to paint the mantle and the window trim a vivid purple, and to use a Stark chevron rug in pale shades to maintain visual interest but not to overwhelm.

A major challenge with the primary bedroom was an abundance of dormer windows and angles. Simonds chose a small, organic William Morris paper that lacks a pattern direction, allowing it to blur the hard edges. The client loved the way the custom lavender-hued bed with an Alice Sergeant fabric-covered boxspring, Christopher Spitzmiller-sourced table lamps, and vintage chairs upholstered in Imogen Heath fabric all work together with the yellow of the paper.

The project has been such a success that Simonds and her client are working on the next phase, an addition to the house. “When you find someone that compatible and that easy to work with, it’s incredible.

Story by Stephen Treffinger
Photography by Emily Gilbert
Interior Design by Colleen Simonds

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