{"product_id":"the-vanderbilts-and-the-gilded-age-architectural-aspirations-18791901","title":"The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age: Architectural Aspirations  1879-1901","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the Introduction by Louis Achincloss: \"The role the Vanderbilts played in the social life of New York City and of all the rural resorts and watering places to which the wealthy of that metropolis regularly retreated was at least comparable to that of the Medici in Florence. As patrons of the arts  the Vanderbilts certainly had their lapses  but what family  including their Tuscan counterpart  would not  in amassing so gargantuan a pile? Edith Wharton  their severest critic  wrote that they were entrenched in a sort of Thermopylae of bad taste  from which apparently no force on earth can dislodge them  but today art critics are becoming more aware of how many fine things were included in the Vanderbilt treasures. Perhaps their greatest fault in taste lay in their seeming inability to dispense with any of their artifacts  even in their largest houses. Beauty can be lost even in a clutter of beauty. The whole is not necessarily greater than its parts.\" Includes a geneological chart and many black and white photos and illustrations throughout. A fascinating look at the Vanderbilts of the Gilded Age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946096422965,"sku":"ByrdShop_0312059841","price":58.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780312059842.jpg?v=1769923623","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-vanderbilts-and-the-gilded-age-architectural-aspirations-18791901","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}