Eepoet of Boaed of Geneeal Managees. 97 



garden of the Villa Madama, consisting of highly elaborated mosaic, 

 Pompeian in composition and color, and recalling the designs of Giulio 

 Eomano. This latter part of the work was conlided to Messrs. Herter 

 Bros., and carried out by them with great skill and artistic feeling. 



Reaching the entrance hall, a pillared chamber of approach to the 

 main suite of rooms on the east and west, it was interesting to note 

 that from this hall access was had directly to all parts of the building, 

 including the roof, the grand staircase in the center, the approach to 

 the roof garden, the coat rooms and lavatories on the left, the 

 service offices of the building on the right, and upon the opposite side 

 of the hall post and telegraph offices, as well as the private office of 

 the board. Standing in the center of this hall one could command 

 the whole length and depth of the buUding from portico to portico, 

 whose wide expanse proved none too large for the constant crowds 

 for which it was intended. In this hall was placed a mosaic pavement 

 of brass reliefs from designs by George Maynard of the " signs of the 

 Zodiac," inlaid in marble, and carried out by John Williams, Tiffany's 

 metal worker, and presented by him as an exhibit. This work of art 

 has since been secured by the new Boston Public Library to be inlaid 

 in its floors. 



In the women's state apartment or drawing rooms were three 

 features of particular interest — the damask silk, copied in France from 

 a Venetian fragment taken from an old palace in Venice, and brought 

 from Venice by Mr. McKim in 1891 ; and the two chimney pieces, 

 exact reproductions in Sienna and statuary marbles of early Italian 

 Benaissance originals in the Metropolitan Museum, kindly lent for this 

 purpose by General di Cesnola, and furnished and set without cost to 

 the board as an exhibit by Messrs. E. C. Fisher & Co. 



The decoration of the walls of the staircase leading from the lobby 

 to the banquet hall was principally an adaptation of Pompeian decora- 

 tions combined with original designs, in the same spirit, by C. C. Cole- 

 man, of New York, under whose direction the work was done. The 

 color of the walls, which were divided into panels, represented in gen- 

 eral effect large surfaces of rich Pompeian orange red. Each panel 

 was enriched by bands of orange and cream white lines, flanked by 

 elaborate bands of arabesques interspersed with animals, cupids, floral 

 designs, etc. Masks, vases and small painted pictures were introduced 

 here and there wherever they would help the composition and general 

 13 



