Angelina M. Lopez
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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic
Enjoy Dazzling Jewels and Dresses at the Hillwood Estate
Marjorie Merriweather Post was the owner of the Postum Cereal Company and one of the richest women in the United States before her death in 1973. She also was a renowned collector -- her beautiful Georgian home in the midst of 25 acres of trees and gardens in Northwest D.C. is the museum she left for all of us to enjoy her French and Russian Imperial decorative arts collection.
Jewels and dresses.
What more does a museum need?
My favorite museum in Washington, D.C., the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens (perhaps it's my favorite because I'm a docent there), has two perfect ladies-who-lunch exhibits right now:
- "Spectacular Gems and Jewelry" which showcases 50 pieces of Marjorie Merriweather Post's jewelry, many of which can usually only be seen at the Natural History Museum.
- And "A Perfect Fit: Oldric Royce and Marjorie Merriweather Post" which displays 11 of the stunning dresses that luxury designer Oldric Royce created for Post.
Marjorie Merriweather Post was the owner of the Postum Cereal Company, which later became the General Foods Corporation, and one of the richest women in the United States before her death in 1973. She also was a renowned collector -- her beautiful Georgian home in the midst of 25 acres of trees and gardens in Northwest D.C. is the museum she left for all of us to enjoy her French and Russian Imperial decorative arts collection. Here you can see the furniture, porcelain, and tapestries that once belonged to European nobility and that Post used to entertain and educate congress people, ambassadors, high school students, and returning Vietnam War veterans.
Her collecting enthusiasm extended to her clothes and jewelry.
"Spectacular," which will be in the Adirondack Building behind the house until Jan. 7, 2018, gathers together 50 of her most notable pieces of jewelry, including the mammoth pear-shaped diamond earrings that once belonged to Marie Antoinette and the Cartier emerald-and-diamond brooch with its 250 carats of 17th century Mughal emeralds. Post's collection is notable because of the historic origins of some of her pieces, the designers she worked with (like Cartier, Henry Winston, and Van Cleef & Arpels), and the fact that she chose most of the pieces herself, rather than having them gifted to her. Always the philanthropist, Post donated many of the pieces to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, where they are usually displayed in the National Gem Collection Gallery.
We docents are very happy to have these beautiful pieces back home for a visit.
Post also worked with some of the top fashion designers of her day, and the exhibit "A Perfect Fit: Oldric Royce and Marjorie Merriweather Post," currently displayed in Post's bedroom, shows off 11 beautiful dresses that Royce created for Post during their 25-year relationship. Royce designed dresses for Mamie Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, and ultimately Marjorie Merriweather Post. They had the kind of relationship where they sent each other thank you notes for thank you notes, where Royce designed her dresses even after he retired, where he walked fabric samples over to Bob Shoes so her shoes would perfectly match her dress. "I always try to please my customers," Royce wrote to Marjorie, "but you are one of the very few who take the time to tell me that I succeeded."
No better words describe this beautiful, powerful, dazzling lady.
Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
On Thursday evenings throughout October, Hillwood will be hosting the Spectacular Lecture Series where renowned jewelry experts will discuss aspects of historical and contemporary jewelry. Tickets for the theater are sold out, but Hillwood will be providing a live simulcast in an adjacent building for $5.
Hollywood Glamour: Jewelry from the Silver Screen, Oct. 19, 5:30-8 p.m.
Contemporary Interest in Gems and Jewelry, Oct. 26, 5:30-8 p.m.
Hillwood Museum: A Docent-in-Training View
n January, I began a six-month effort to become a docent at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens off of Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. Why? Because Hillwood is fabulous.
In January, I began a six-month effort to become a docent at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens off of Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. To do so will require a six-month crash course in French and Russian decorative arts, thousands of pages of reading, weekly three-hour classes, four presentations, and a promise that, once the course is completed, I will serve at Hillwood as a docent a minimum of eight hours a month.
Did I mention that all of this is as a volunteer?
And I'm not the only crazy one. There are 30 of us in class, 30 of 100 people who applied to give away hours and hours of their time in the service of telling the story of businesswoman, heiress, philanthropist, and collector Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Why? Because Hillwood is fabulous.
A dinner party at Hillwood began in the French Drawing Room, where you enjoyed a cocktail, strolled out to the gardens, and were invited by Marjorie Post to touch, sit in, and enjoy her 18th-century French furniture and art.
Post, who inherited the Postum Cereal Company and evolved it into General Foods, bought Hillwood in 1955 for the express purpose of sharing her astonishing collection of 18th-century French and imperial-era Russian furniture, porcelain, art, and glorious things that sparkle with the public. There, she entertained congressmen who dined on plates made for Catherine the Great, she invited high school students to relax into her 200-year-old French chairs, and she strolled with wounded veterans across her flower-bordered lawn, the Washington Monument easily in view.
Post fed her lucky guests off Russian imperial porcelain plates. The dining room is currently set with the porcelain service created to honor the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I in 1826. I learned that last week.
See? Fabulous. At Hillwood, Post enshrined a way of life -- and a generosity of spirit -- that is lost. Her life of decorum and rules -- she always supplied heel caps for the ladies square-dancing on her hardwood floors -- also included square-dancing. That same sense of fun and enjoying yourself is still an essential part of the Hillwood visit: guests can tour the house with a docent or on their own, kids can explore the vast and varied gardens and the pet cemetery, flower lovers can spend hours sniffing the 2,000 orchids in the greenhouse, and ladies who lunch can order a glass of wine at the cafe.
I imagine I'll be mentioning Hillwood a lot here on In Between in D.C.; I've already told everyone I know about the 60-piece jewelry exhibit, Spectacular Gems and Jewelry from the Merriweather Post Collection, that will be opening in June. It'll be opening right about the time that a class of 30 new docents will come on board.
Come visit. Be kind (we'll be a little nervous). And be careful. Hillwood opens its doors to new docents every 3-5 years. You, too, could catch the devotion to fabulousness.
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exhibitons at the Hillwood Museum
Post and daughter, Nedenia. Nedenia will grow up to become actress Dina Merrill. The emerald brooch by Cartier will be part of the Spectacular exhibit.
Four Seasons - The gargantuan Philip Haas sculptures interpreting Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s celebrated botanical paintings will be on view in the garden until March 31.
Friends and Fashion - Using forty-five portraits from an album of an American diplomat in 1820s Russia, the exhibit explores the people, politics, fashion, and hairstyles of a glamorous St. Petersburg. Displayed in the Dacha, the exhibit will run through June 11.
Spectacular Gems and Jewelry - Nearly 60 pieces of jewelry that belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post, some given to and on loan from the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, will be on display from June 10 to January 14, 2018.
WONDER at Hyper-sized Art at Renwick Gallery
WONDER honors this historic building, the first in the country to be built exclusively as an art museum, with room-filling pieces created specifically for the Renwick by nine contemporary artists.
From the Renwick Gallery website
Renwick Gallery -- a newly renovated Smithsonian art gallery across the street from the White House -- has opened its beautifully restored rooms to a WONDER of an exhibit.
WONDER honors this historic building, the first in the country to be built exclusively as an art museum, with room-filling pieces created specifically for the Renwick by nine contemporary artists.
The gigantic art -- a rainbow made of thread, a pieced-together cast of a 150-year-old tree, a gorgeous wallpaper made of bugs and Bryce Canyon-like hoodoos made of paper, tape and toothpicks -- invite the viewer to peer closer, to see the tiny bits and figure out how it works. Some of the work asks you to interact with it; others -- like the rainbow and the bug wallpaper -- require the poor security guards to work overtime to keep the crowds back from it. It's a wonderful exhibit for children and my husband -- you know, the people who aren't huge fans of art museums. And, because we're spoiled rotten here in D.C., it's also free!
I could keep typing, but why. Click on the pictures to take your own virtual tour of the Renwick Gallery, then come soon to see the real thing. The second floor, with its amazing bug wallpaper and deconstructed tree, will close May 8. The first floor closes July 10.
Renwick Gallery
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006
Open Daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., free admission
Explore other amazing D.C. art museums:
- A Stroll Through the Hirshhorn
- A Date With a Glamorous Woman at the Hillwood Museum
- Immersive Experience aof the American Indian Museum
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Taking Tea at Historic Rosemont Manor
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Downton Abbey is a hit for a reason. That show about a noble family and its servants living in an esteemed English manor encourages a certain amount of adult pretend. But for the two hours of the tour-and-tea luncheon at Historic Rosemont Manor, you can live that elegant lifestyle.
Like Downton Abbey, the history of Rosemont Manor is long and rich (I’m referring to the fictional history of the show, which I know, versus the actual history of Highclere Castle, which I don’t know). Originally built in 1811 as a merchant groom’s gift to his landed gentry bride, the manor has been home to a Union hospital, has been sold for a $1 and has been considered as a site for 90 luxury homes. Most notably, the home was owned by Virginia governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. The names of the many luminaries who visited him there – Charles Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson – are used to designate the manor’s twelve suites and four cottages.
We owe the fact that we simple folk can visit the place to the daughter of current owner William "Biff" Genda. When she saw its perfect location, at the top of a slope that overlooks beautiful park grounds and the Shenandoah Valley, she commented that she’d love to be married there. That lightbulb transformed the 200-year-old private residence into an elegant B&B and wedding venue that opened in 2010. The manor has hosted 64 weddings this year and already has 20 booked for 2015.
But back to the tea. On occasional Saturdays and Wednesdays, the Rosemont Manor hosts a three-course tea service for $44 a person. The event begins in the wedding reception hall with a champagne glass of fruit juice. We women in attendance looked like butterflies, and the staff treated us like honored guests. Director of Weddings Michael Haymaker led us into the home and explained its history and Manor House Chef Tona Bays talked excitedly about the three-courses she’d chosen.
Bays focuses on seasonal, local offerings and apologized for what she felt was a diminished peachiness to the peach offerings of the summer menu. Our area’s unending winter, she explained, hit the local peach hard. She had nothing to apologize for. The peach scone with peach preserves was rich with summer sweetness. I originally thought we’d be hitting a rib stand on the one-and-a-half-hour drive home, but the one-bite sandwiches, scones and desserts were substantive in flavor and surprisingly filling. I don’t know teas well, but these were delicious.
My girlfriend and I are already looking forward to the spring menu, when the area is exploding with azalea flowers, or the Christmas menu, when the house is done up for the holidays. There's no reason we have to limit our elegant make-believe to once a year.
Taking a Tour of the Historic Rosemont Manor
Hillwood Estate: A Day With the Most Glamorous Woman
Stepping onto the grounds of the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Northwest D.C., is like being invited to take your time checking out the glittering jewels, gleaming furniture, sparkling objets d’art and beautiful gardens of the wealthiest and most glamorous woman you’ll ever know.
Stepping onto the grounds of the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Northwest D.C., is like being invited to take your time checking out the glittering jewels, gleaming furniture, sparkling objets d’art and beautiful gardens of the wealthiest and most glamorous woman you’ll ever know.
And it is a true invitation.
Marjorie Merriweather Post. From Hillwood Museum
Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Company and one of the founders of General Foods, bought the home in 1955 intending it to be a museum for the 18th-century French and Russian imperial decorative arts that she collected. She wanted my girlfriend Paige and me to covet the 18th-century French dinnerware in the light-and-flower-filled breakfast nook. She wanted us to take a long walk through the hillside gardens, laughing just a shade too loud for such an elegant place.
She wanted us to absolutely drool over her Cartier jewels, currently displayed in the exhibit “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems,” in the Adirondack Building, one of the charming buildings hidden among the forested walks.
Marjorie Merriweather Post began collecting 18th-century French furniture and art to decorate her home. When she accompanied her third husband to the Soviet Union, where he served as ambassador, Marjorie became entranced with Russian imperial art and began to truly refine her collector’s eye. The first piece she purchased from Cartier years before her trip was prophetic - the amethyst Fabergé box connected her love of Carier, Russian imperial art and Fabergé, of which she would go on to collect 90 pieces.
In Between Tip: We'd tried the café at Hillwood Estate in the past, and hadn't thought much of it. It has apparently improved, because there was a 40-minute wait at lunch time. Get reservations!
Cartier exhibit in the Adirondack Building
In the small Adirondack Building is a green emerald once worn by Mexico’s Maximillian I and smuggled out of the country by his wife, an Indian pendant brooch with a 250-carat emerald, and a diamond clasp meant to be worn with the diamonds dripping down Marjorie’s back.
There’s also a story.
During the Great Depression, Marjorie Merriweather Post put her diamonds and emeralds in a safety deposit box. With the money she saved on insurance, she opened the Marjorie Merriweather Hutton Canteen, a soup kitchen in New York. She made sure the canteen had flowers on the table and blue-checked tablecloths, because she believed everyone deserved a little elegance.
Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post's Dazzling Gems
Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Tuesday- Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
On display until Dec. 31, 2014
Angelina M. Lopez,
contemporary romance Author
Writing ferocious love stories
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