Featuring forty rooms at Winterthur, The Well-Dressed Window is an important resource in documenting the design and detailing of window treatments.

The Well-Dressed Window: Curtains at Winterthur is a unique compendium of design and textile history and an invaluable resource for designers and homeowners alike.

Today Henry Francis du Pont, the force behind the transformation of Winterthur from a family house to the premier museum of American decorative arts, is recognized, along with Henry Davis Sleeper and Elsie de Wolfe, as one of the early leaders of interior design in this country. Working with architects, curators, and antiques dealers, du Pont created some 175 room settings within the house. He assembled his rooms using architectural elements from historic houses along the East Coast and filled them with an extraordinary collection of American furniture and decorative arts.

Du Pont’s unique talent was his ability to arrange historically related objects in a beautiful way, in settings that enhanced their shape and form through the choice of color, textiles, and style. Du Pont paid particular attention to the design of the curtains, and The Well-Dressed Window surveys his achievement, explaining how the fabrics were selected as well as their relationship to the architecture and other decorative elements in the rooms. Forty rooms are presented, each specially photographed to show the overall space in addition to details of fabric and trim.

A series of stereoviews taken in the 1930s as well as other period photographs reveal the evolution of the window treatments and upholstery over nearly sixty years. Of particular interest is du Pont’s seasonal changing of the curtains, which were rotated throughout the year as the lighting and colors in the surrounding garden shifted.

About the Authors:

Sandy Brown is principal designer for Winterthur Design Associates, the museum’s interior design firm, which was founded in 1986. She holds a master’s degree in interior architecture and design from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Linda Eaton is Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles at Winterthur and the author of Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens, 1700–1850. A graduate of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she teaches in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and lectures on textiles and textile conservation.

Thomas Jayne, founder of Jayne Design Studio and a member of both the AD100 and the Elle Decor A List, studied American material culture and decorative arts at Winterthur. He is the author of The Finest Rooms in America and American Decoration.

Interior designer and decorative arts and antiques expert Thomas Jayne follows up his essential 2010 compendium The Finest Rooms in America with this new collection of his own work.

Thomas Jayne possesses a unique dual vision—he keeps one eye focused on the aesthetic traditions of the past, and the other looking forward: innovating, creating, and imagining interiors to suit modern sensibilities. His reverence for traditional ideas does not restrict Jayne’s understanding of what makes a beautiful room—rather than seeking to replicate and repeat the exact décor from past, Jayne finds inspiration in the distinctive histories of the spaces in which he works. In every project he undertakes, he draws on his rich academic background in the decorative arts to design interiors that harmonize with their historical settings, yet also connect intimately to the active and modern lives of families who call these remarkable buildings home.

Jayne believes that American interior decoration is unique in its combination of elements from European and Asian cultural traditions with indigenous ideas and materials, in its emphasis on comfort and livability, and in its human scale. Presented here for the first time, his projects reflect this sensibility, drawing from established traditions and reinterpreting them for contemporary life. Drawing on the legacies of Albert Hadley and Sister Parish, Jayne insists on authenticity and comfort, incorporating elegant antiques and art with a subtle but warm palette and a welcoming setting.

In this richly illustrated collection of both city and country residences, Jayne reveals the inspiration and thought behind each design, identifying elements from the architecture, the clients’ collections of art and antiques, and from the site itself that serves as the basis for the decoration of the rooms.

The Finest Rooms in America: 50 Influential Interiors from the 18th Century to the Present is a selection by Thomas Jayne, one of America’s best decorators and scholars of American design. It is a definitive record of the finest American interior design with an authoritative text and luxuriant color photography. The book includes a complete cross section of extant rooms covering a broad range of American periods and styles, beginning with the Tea Room at Jefferson’s Monticello and continuing to the present, concluding with Albert Hadley’s modern sitting room.

The rooms range from the opulent to rustic; they are traditional and modern and span the breadth of the country. Among those featured are the dressing room at Vizcaya in Miami, the living room at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, the dining room at the Saarinen House at Cranbrook Michigan, and the living room by Frances Elkins at Casa Amesti in Monterey, California. Prominent contemporary designers include Bunny Williams, John Saladino and Albert Hadley. Many of the rooms have never been published before and some are cherished classics.

Jayne’s engaging and erudite text places each room in context, identifying the elements that contribute to its success. Within the text he presents the idea that refinement is not about expense but about thought. This book ‘s correct unique record make it a must-have volume for everyone interested in quality, American design and interior decoration.