"ENTERTAINING IS EASY WITH A COOK-A-MATIC" says Elsa Maxwell - Internationally Famous Hostess

Elsa Maxwell 

 It's EASY TO ENTERTAIN and have fun with your guests, too,” says Elsa Maxwell. I prepare hot hors-d'oeuvres right at the table, so that I’m never away from the party. Next time you entertain, surprise your guests with some of my new recipes.

“Cook-a-matic’s large capacity is a wonderful help at parties, for snacks and family meals. You really should have one.”

Landers, Frary & Clark New Britain Conn.

Elsa Maxwell Entertaining Hints

AI Overview on Elsa Maxwell's entertaining philosophy - 

Elsa Maxwell's entertaining philosophy centers on a "ruthless" selection of guests to ensure a lively atmosphere, emphasizing originality and wit over extravagance, and encouraging hosts to inject "weirdness" like serving courses backward. Her core principle was to conquer boredom by connecting diverse people and using unconventional ideas to create memorable, fun experiences. 

Key Entertaining Principles:

Ruthless Guest Selection: Be highly selective and strategic about who you invite, as the wrong guest can "murder" a good party, according to Vogue. 

Embrace Originality: Original ideas are more valuable than lavishness; don't be afraid to be unconventional, such as serving dinner backward. 

Conquer Boredom: The ultimate goal of a party is to defeat boredom by bringing interesting and different people together, suggests Womanica. 

Connect People: Maxwell was known for connecting the rich but dull with the interesting but less affluent, ensuring a dynamic mix for a good party. 

Be a Character: Her own life and parties exemplified this philosophy, embracing eccentricity to create memorable events, notes YouTube. 

Keep it Entertaining: Advice from her classic book How to Do It includes specific strategies for events and navigating tricky social situations. 

"WELD" - An Estate of Originality - RESIDENCE of LARZ ANDERSON in BROOKLINE, MASS. Little and Brown, Architects

 "WELD" - An Estate of Originality

 RESIDENCE of LARZ ANDERSON in BROOKLINE, MASS. 

Little and Brown, Architects

The conservatory sidewall decorations consist of a series of interesting frescoes, one of which depicts the famous ‘‘Spanish Steps" in Rome leading down to the water. 

A replica of the fountain in Rome, which stands in the Piazza di Spagna, is set among flowering shrubs close up to the wall. The miniature gondola, cut in stone, adds to the realistic effect. The furniture is upholstered yellow brocade.

A marble tiled foyer connects the ballroom with the hall. Here the ceiling is of lattice work with mirrored walls.

 Rich Oriental hangings and exquisitely carved Chinese screens contribute to the beauty and charm of the room.

   In the Chinese ballroom the painted sidewall panels, window, and furniture carry out in detail the Chinese feeling.

A Buddha is a distinct feature of the over-mantel, with bronze Dogs Fu as andirons. The furniture and fireplace seat are covered with black and gold brocade.

   On the third floor of the house is Mrs. Anderson's study. This is distinctly Japanese with walls of smooth, perfectly matched wood, decorated panels and screens. The ceiling is decorated with floral motifs of Japanese origin. The fireplace of blue tile is unique, for it is sunken, a semicircular seat surrounding it.

   The Larz Anderson gardens, which cover many acres of this beautiful estate, are divided into gardens of different character and uses. The  main garden, which joins the house is connected with it by graveled walks and terraces. 

. "The Wild Flower," by Henry Berge.

 

  The facade has several niches, in one of which appears a bronze wall fountain.

A corner the Japanese garden showing a statue of Buddha. Here are little ponds, stepping stones and bridges about which are planted dwarfed trees, iris, and wisteria in a characteristic setting, that has a the charm of a garden Japan.

   Below this lies vegetable and beyond what is known as the lower garden, a natural garden laid out like a park. 

   

ARBOR

   Nearer the road is the Chinese rockery in which is seen a pagoda and an arbor, three hundred feet or more in length, with an arched top, over which are trained cherry trees and grape vines.

A charming feature of pagoda in the Chinese garden is the marble figure of a winsome flower girl with her lap filled with blossoms, looking down into the bird bath below.

https://downeastdilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/this-garden-was-made-in-1901-and-named-weld-2/

https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/listPhotos.asp?mainList=archives&subList=Larz

          Erte description of this month's Harper's Bazar cover translated from the French - 

"The thoughts of a young girl—these are beautiful flowers in life's garden. That queen of flowers, the rose, symbolizes them in its short but exquisite career. The young bud offers the bright hope of regal beauty to come; the sumptuous full-blown rose represents the enjoyment of present happiness; the petals falling scented tears, are scattered memories of happiness past. ... Do not the roses adorning the hair of a young girl symbolize the whole cycle of the feminine soul—which consists of hopes, of fleeting joys and of happiness past.... And the thorns, which often prick pretty fingers, have they perfect semblance to the passing dangers and disillusionments which confront every woman? Thorns, like bees hovering about flowers, are but the guardians of beauty. They keep the timid at a distance. But he who loves the rose and admires its beauty will know how to pluck it. And he who loves a woman will never fear that under her tenderness he will find thorns that will scratch him."

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

   IN developing Laurelton Hall, his Oyster Bay home. Mr. Louis Tiffany kept clear of the temptation to reproduce a Roman villa or French chateau. Being an artist with an intense feeling and love for the leagues of his own country, Mr. Tiffany created what he considers a distinctively American house. Before planning his estate, even on paper, the artist had the site carefully surveyed and a clay model of it made to scale. The valley, meadows, hills and trees were made in miniature. With this model before him, he formed in wax, to the same scale, his conception of the house. The building is very long, and its main rooms face either the harbor or the wonderful flowered hills. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

  The grounds are marvelously beautiful, perhaps because nature has been assisted, not interfered with. Laurelton, by the way, has lost practically all its locust and other deciduous trees, for the North Shore of Long Island is bleak in winter, and Mr. Tiffany has planted pine or hemlock wherever the former trees have faltered in their growth. 

   The interior of the house shows a rare feeling for color, for here the genius of the designer has had full play. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

  The most striking feature of the whole house is the central court—this room, for such it really is. Is suggestive of the Persian. It is a perfect riot of color, not only architecturally, but because it was designed as a place for flowers. From early spring until midwinter this court is a symphony in color. The crystal fountain resembles a large bottle or vase of the clearest glass. The water, coming from the lily pond in the garden, enters the vase at the bottom and overflows the slender neck in a silent sheet of limpid spray that reflects all the brilliant colors of the flowers. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

   The distinguishing features of the main rooms of the house are their size and color. The living-room cannot be labeled, it belongs to no period or style. Rectangular, with no breaks and no excrescences, green predominates in its decorations, and there is a pervading sense of restfulness within its wainscoted walls.

THE GOLDEN BOUNTY OF SPRING - "Welwyn" - the Harold Irving Pratt estate on Long Island

THE GOLDEN BOUNTY OF SPRING
PAINTING BY J. FLOYD YEWELL

   Spring ushers in a glorious pageant of color at "Welwyn", the Harold Irving Pratt estate on Long Island. 

  From March, when the earliest blossoms show their heads, until November’s frost cuts them down, there are always flowers blooming in one of the many gardens on the estate. 

  The artist here portrays for us a view of the West Garden in its gay and colorful spring dress.

Living room in the residence of William Lawrence Bottomley, Esq., Brookville, LI.

 

Living room in the residence of William Lawrence Bottomley, Esq., Brookville, LI.

  The vivid greens and blues of the scenic wallpaper in this room call for strength and intensity in its color scheme in order to have its color values harmonize. Accordingly the curtains are a gay yellow chintz flowered in old pink, the furniture repeats the yellow note, and the Spanish rug done in squares with the signs of the zodiac, adds another touch of strong color and bold design. 

Follow THIS LINK for more on "HICKORY HILL" THE SUMMER HOME OF ARCHITECT WILLIAM LAWRENCE BOTTOMLEY.

A FARM GROUP IN THE ITALIAN MANNER - Arthur V. Davis - Mill Neck, NY

   Although situated at Mill Neck, Long Island, this picturesque little farm group on the estate of Arthur V. Davis, Esq., might well be somewhere in Italy. The warm biscuit-colored stucco walls with the red tiles of the roofs and the blue trim of doors and windows make a charmingly colorful picture to which the black and white reproductions of the camera do scant justice.

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect 

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

https://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=40.888130&lon=-73.554336&z=17&m=w&show=/14167796/Arthur-Vining-Davis-Residence-Farm-Group

THE ROOM OF THE MONTH The library in the residence of Mr. Paul M. Bowen, at Grosse Pointe, Mich.

 

THE ROOM OF THE MONTH
The library in the residence of Mr. Paul M. Bowen, at Grosse Pointe, Mich.
HENRY F. STANTON, Architect

The potential beauties in wood that wait the seeing eye and skillful hand of the master could not well have a better exemplar than in the paneling of this room, and especially in the exquisitely simple yet wholly lovely overmantel. 

THE ROOM OF THE MONTH - The gallery in the William R. Coe residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island

 

CHARLES OF LONDON, Decorators
WALKER & GILLETTE, ARCHITECTS
PHOTOGRAPH BY M. E. HEWITT

Tudor magnificence tinctured with modern comfort achieved without impairing the verities in this noble room, the gallery in the William R. Coe residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island. Above the great Gothic fireplace, with a fire screen by Yellin, a rare tapestry spreads its color, while down the length of the gallery stretches a priceless thirty-three-foot Isfahan rug. The predominating color tone here is a warm red. 

This month’s winner of the award for “Room of the Month"

 

Samuel H. Gottscho, Photographer

 This month’s winner of the award for “Room of the month" is a hall of stately baronial type in the residence of Henry Siegbert, Esq., at Rye Lake, Purchase, N. Y.—a room of exquisite balance and proportion, furnished with a simplicity and restraint that give these qualities opportunity to assert their perfection. Taylor & Levi were the architects, and H. F. Dawson the decorator.

278 Old Lake St, West Harrison, NY 10604

  Limited information found on Siegbert and location of house. One reference had address at 278 Old Lake Street. Current house appears new. 270 Old Lake Street looks interesting.

1919 | Dartmouth Alumni Magazine | June 1947

      Henry Siegbert, Lake St., White Plains, N. Y., a recent lieutenant commander in the Navy and former member of the U. S. Naval Aviation Service in World War I claims White Plains as his place of residence and New York City as his place of business. Heinie attended Gunnery School, Washington, Conn., before going to Dartmouth, and made investment and banking his business career after school.

THE TOPPER'S CHRISTMAS DREAM - PLEASURE ISLAND or the BOOTLEGGERS PARADISE

 

A humorous map on the theme of alcoholic beverages.

   Mere Man's idea of Paradise is at best a shadowy, ethereal thing. The Indian had his Happy Hunting Ground and the Viking his Valhalla, where he might spend his days eternally annihilating his enemies and his nights celebrating said events. Arthur Crisp, the artist, and Ernest Clegg, the cartographer, suffering no doubt from the Volstead drought, have their definite ideas of the Elysian Fields. Unfortunately, they fail to state just where this alluring isle is situated, although it is safe to say that it is at least twelve miles from these United States. As for the manner of reaching those blessed shores, we leave our readers to draw (from the wood) their own conclusions.

AI Overview

"To draw (from the wood) their own conclusions" means to allow people to analyze information and form their own opinions based on the evidence presented, without being explicitly told what to think, similar to how one might examine the grain of a piece of wood to understand its characteristics.

Breakdown:

"Draw": To come to a conclusion or make a judgment based on evidence. 

"From the wood": This is a metaphor, implying that the information being analyzed is raw and uninterpreted, like the natural grain of a piece of wood. 

"Their own conclusions": This emphasizes that individuals are expected to form their own opinions based on the information presented, rather than being given a pre-determined interpretation.