Incredible Workmanship in the Reconstruction of a c. 1847 Mansion

For the last seven years there is an old stone mansion near us that has been in the local news and, currently, in the process of being renovated.  

Why was it in the local news?  Well, it started with the old stone mansion being torn down and sold and replaced with several new houses.  

It was such a shame as this old stone mansion was built in 1847 and had quite the history associated with it regarding the town and even one of the presidents.

In 2014 a group of teenagers heard about this old mansion being torn down and decided to do something about it.  They decided to protest the demolition of the mansion and used all their social media skills to help them with protesting it.  

They created signs and stood outside the mansion waving their signs for motorists passing by, created online petitions, and posted where ever they could online to educate the community about what was going on with the demolish of this mansion and why it shouldn't be demolished.

Their efforts quickly spread throughout the community and many residents joined in on the protest.

Well, as you can imagine, several weeks into the protest the current owner changed his mind and decided not to sell the property.  After that several groups concerned with historic preservation got involved with the end result being the residents approving utilizing funds to help preserve the mansion at their town meeting.

In 2016 after weeks of discussions the owner and town had an agreement on preserving the mansion and renovating it.

So, for the last few years we have been watching the meticulous and amazing process of renovating this historic property.  Every day we drive by it and marvel at the workmanship involved with creating this unbelievable mansion to it's original glory.  The stone and masonry work involved has been nothing short of astonishing.

The mansion was registered with the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1999 and, according to the Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House, which worked with the owner and the town to preserve this old mansion, it is considered a historic property for many reasons.

 If you're interested in reading about why this house is considered historic please visit their Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House Facebook page.

Well, this past spring when my husband and I were driving by and marveling at the workmanship I decided to take some pictures as I found all of the renovations remarkable and thought you all might agree.

To put all of this in perspective you first need to see how the old mansion looked before they started renovating it.  

The property consisted of the old stone mansion, a carriage house, a chapel, and a summer house - all of which would be renovated.

The picture at the beginning of this post shows the renovated chapel, mansion being renovated and part of the carriage house being renovated.

The Paper Doll Swap - My Rosalinda

In May of this year Hally Levesque, who is an extraordinary artist and whom I've taken several doll classes from at Artful Gathering, asked me if I wanted to participate in a paper doll swap.  

I had never done an online swap before, let alone a paper doll swap.  In fact, I had never made a paper art doll before.  

As my bucket list contains trying every craft out there in my lifetime, if at all possible, this would provide me with the challenge of creating a paper doll - something I'd never done before.  So, I said I'd be thrilled to participate in a paper doll swap.  

In order to make it easier for all of us to communicate Hally set-up a private "The Progressive Paper Doll Party" group on Facebook.  

The theme for this paper doll swap was "Life is a Cabaret."  Here's what Hally said, "The global pandemic has really done a number on us,not to mention the many other things going on in the world.  We are probably all looking forward to shedding our cares and woes.  So let's take off our masks, kick up our heels and have some fun at The Paper Doll Cabaret."

With cabaret as a theme I knew this was going to be a challenge for me.  As mentioned above, I had never created a paper doll before, let alone one of my own designs. 

No matter what kind of doll I make they always have an opinion on what they should be and my "paper dollie" decided she was going to be Victorian, no matter what.  I had no choice but to accede to her wishes.

So, I thought about what I wanted to do and decided to go with an articulated paper doll with moveable arms, legs, and head.  I wanted her to appear to be kicking one leg up under her Victorian costume so she definitely had to be moveable even after her costume was applied. And, I wanted her holding a fan and a sign.

My Victorian Conservatory and How I Put It Together

 

For most of my life I have wanted to build a Victorian dollhouse.  As far as I was concerned the more Victorian and ornate the better.  I wanted to build everything in the dollhouse from the Queen Anne furniture to the traditional Victorian furnishings.

I was not naïve as to how much work was involved, or so I thought.  I knew it would be a LOT of work starting from the wood kits to the adding of all the embellishments like the wallpaper, buildable furniture, floors, rugs, lighting, ceilings, and all the accessories associated with a dollhouse.  

I wanted everything to be handmade.

Well, time definitely gets ahead of you the older you get and over the years life kept happening.  I never did build my dream dollhouse.  Well, here I was at 67 years of age, in the in the middle of a Covid pandemic and thinking about building that dollhouse.  

You might be wondering - why now? Well, as it happens in April 2021 I saw a June 2016 blog post by Laura Carlson on the Alpha Stamps Blog entitled "Miniature Victorian Conservatory!" 

I was intrigued by this and thought it might be a good introduction into miniatures and a good example as to what was involved with creating a doll house which I knew would be much more elaborate and time consuming than a Victorian conservatory.

I was drawn to this conservatory as it was Victorian and involved plants, which I also happen to love and thought it would be perfect in my sunroom.

I decided to research what supplies were needed and started with the Alpha Stamps website to see what was available now.  Keep in mind the blog post was written in 2016 and it was now 5 years later so I wasn't sure what supplies were still available.

Well, to my delight the conservatory itself was still available in laser-cut 3D chipboard, as was a platform foundation of laser-cut 3D chipboard.  I was thrilled.

My New Victorian Toile Designs In Four Victorian Colors

If you've been a reader of my Linda's Blog for awhile you know that I've had a long term love affair with dolls, doll patterns, the Victorian era, floral design, genealogy, research, history and books. As far as I'm concerned you can never have enough dolls and you can never have enough books.

So, of course, I would be drawn to illustrations of Victorian girls and their books from the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book of 1889, like the illustration shown above.  It appeared in the May 18, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on Page 420.

It was drawn by Rosina Emmet Sherwood and appeared in a story "The A.O.I.B.R" by Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye.  According to her Wikipedia page: "Her story "“The A.O.I.B.R." appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1889 with an illustration of a child reading. The Rockwell Centre for American Visual Studies cites this as a surprisingly early illustration of a girl reading. The subject of girls reading in the illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood is thought rare (like the ones in Louisa Allcott's Little Women)."

The caption reads: "She retired to the society of books." This brings back wonderful memories for me as so many times when I was growing up you could find me like this.

My house is filled with books of all kinds. My love affair with books and reading began very early on. My Mother was an avid reader, my Father was an avid reader, my Grandmother and Great-Aunt were avid readers, and so it was passed down to my siblings and I.

I have such fond memories of sitting in my Grandmother's rocking chair (which I still have) and having her read me a story. Sometimes we would sit there while she was watching her soap opera's and she would rock with me in her lap.  Kind of like in the illustration above from the March 9, 1889 weekly of the  Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 270.

Sometimes she would read me a story. I never minded just sitting there with her. I always knew there would be a story. And, I always felt safe in her arms.

Now, when I read I think about sitting with my Grandmother or listening to my Mom and Dad talk about their love of reading and it brings back warm and pleasant feelings for me.

I have been a firm believer in the value of books and teaching children the love of reading.  The more children read, the better they become at reading. And, the more young children are read to, the greater their interest in reading. Reading out loud to children helps them with their verbal skills, enhances their development and teaches them how to express themselves verbally.

I could also be found many times in the same position as the young girl in the illustration above that appeared on the cover of the January 26, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 161.  It was drawn by Rosina Emmet Sherwood.

Just look at the concentration on this young girl's face as she's reading.  I just love this illustration, too and find the detail in her drawing just beautiful.

If you love to read you know that reading is such an escape. You can literally get lost in a book - at least I can!  The book for a brief moment becomes your life and you can imagine that you're experiencing it. To me there is nothing more powerful then your imagination.

Even the most spectacular movie with all its wonderful special effects and cinematography cannot compare to what you own imagination can create. There are no limits and no boundaries to your imagination when you are reading. You can be transporter anywhere and to any time period.

I am a firm believer in books and reading as a way of teaching children. In fact, my Grandchildren can attest to the fact that every Christmas or Birthday when they were kids they knew what at least one of their presents would be from their Grandmother: books.

To me, that is one of the best presents I could give them. By giving them books all the time, I hope somehow I'm conveying a love of reading to them. Reinforcing the value of reading time and time again. Making them think. Hopefully, by developing good reading skills they learn how to think for themselves.

My grandchildren also know I'm a firm believer that there is no limit to your abilities if you can read.  You can teach yourself anything because there isn't anything you can't do if you put your mind to it.

The illustration shown above was from the December 8, 1888 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 62.  It entitled "One Happy Girl"  and she's holding a copy of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book.  I can imagine at the time that the children anxiously awaited their copies of this weekly magazine for all the pictures and stories.  I wonder how many of them delighted in the stories and got lost in them.  Imagining all sorts of things.

Sort of like the young girl in the illustration above that appeared in the July 20, 1889 weekly of the  Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 564.

I just love the expression on her face.  So pensive, so lost in thought.  Hopefully not as the caption reads: "She sat looking out of the window, feeling very dismal."  Sitting looking out the window with her favorite "dollie" and book next to her.

I was watching a show on one of the cable channels a couple of years ago about the greatest invention mankind has ever seen. They counted down through hundreds of inventions until they got to #1. Do you know what it was? The greatest invention mankind has ever seen was the invention of the printing press. Why, because it opened the whole world up to everyone and mankind was never the same again.

There is no doubt that I love dolls, the Victorian Era, history, and books.

As you might recall from a previous Linda's Blog post some of the mixed media projects I created this past summer were mixed media items that required quite a bit of old book papers for collage purposes.  So much so I ran out of the book pages.

Well, in looking around the house I found an old Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 that was in poor condition and with some of the pages already missing.

I didn't know where this book came from and who it belonged to.  Most of the old books I have belonged to my great Aunt Flossie but I didn't think this was one of hers.  The time-frame was right but the book wasn't signed with her name - which she always did on the inside of the front cover.

In looking at the book in poor shape and missing some of the pages I thought it still might be perfect for collage purposes so I started to tear some of the pages out.  I didn't tear too many out because right away I found myself looking at some of the beautiful black and white illustrations that were contained within the book.

They were enchanting: illustrations of Victorian children, Victorian girls with dolls, Victorian families, holiday and seasonal illustrations and more.  I couldn't help but admire the artistic capabilities of the artists who had drawn them back in 1888 to 1889.

So, while tearing out the pages I started to set some that I really liked aside. Needless to say I wound up with a large pile I wanted to keep.  That still left me with a large pile to collage with so I was happy.

Contained within the book were many illustrations of Victorian girls, books, and dolls.  Well, as you know, I love graphics of girls and dolls so, for sure, I wouldn't be using any of these for collage purposes.

So, it should come as no surprise that I would spend hours on end removing backgrounds from some of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 to see if I could create whimsical fabric designs that could be utilized to make home decor decorations like pillow, etc..

Well, in looking at some of the illustrations I thought they would be perfect for a new "Victorian Books Toile Design" of custom fabrics.

After removing the background from the illustrations I decided to collage them into a Victorian Toile Design as I have always loved these fabric designs and wanted to create some of my own.

When I was satisfied with the design I decided to create brown, blue, black/white, and burgundy colorized versions of this design as I wanted  a Victorian authentic look.  Victorian Toile Designs are usually some sort of scene depicting a rural scene, usually involving animals and people.

However, I decided to make my "Victorian Toile Design" a collage of book related illustrations and then to colorize them.  I was really happy with my design and knew it would be perfect for creating crafts related custom products like vinyl stickers and scrap-book papers as well as all sorts of custom related products.  If you're someone who loves to craft like I do I hope you like my new crafts supplies.

Shown below are the colorized designs for the new "Victorian Books Toile Design" category.  So far there are three different designs within each colorized category, which are as follows:

Victorian Books Toile Design  - Blue

Victorian Books Toile Design - Burgundy

Victorian Books Toile Design - Brown

Victorian Books Toile Design - Black/White

Victorian Books Toile Design Collection by LWOriginals at Spoonflower

I hope you like my new "Victorian Books Toile" custom product designs.

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Victorian Books  Toile Designs Free Collage E-Books

  

However, I didn't just stop utilizing my images with the custom product designs.

Some of the mixed media projects I created this past summer required quite a bit of old book papers for collage purposes.  So much so I ran out of the book pages.  Truth be told it wasn't the projects themselves that used up the paper it was the number of projects I was creating..... lol

Mixed media, collage and decoupage crafts use a LOT of paper containing pictures, illustrations, graphics, words, ephemera, etc.  and I am always on the lookout for papers of this nature.  In thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I decided that some of the Harper's Young People Illustrations from the old book I had would be perfect.

Well, after doing all that and thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I thought about all the Victorian images I had created and thought it would be nice to offer two free e-books with printable collage sheets that could be used for scrapbook, mixed media, collage, decoupage and other paper crafts.

There are a LOT of images to choose from so I decided to start with the Victorian book related images and separated these into two categories for two e-books: 1) Harper's Young People Books Illustrations and Sayings For Crafts Free E-Book, and 2) Victorian Books Collage Sheets For Scrapbook Free E-Book.

In the first e-book the images are the actual Harper's Young People Books illustrations with the backgrounds removed.  In the second e-book the images are several on my Victorian books toile designs in the blue, burgundy, brown, and black/white colorized versions.

My first e-book contains contains fourteen individual 8 1/2" by 11" book collage and sayings sheets.

Harper's Young People Books Illustrations and Sayings For Scrapbook, Mixed Media, Collage, Decoupage and other Paper Crafts Free E-Book

Copyright © 2020 Linda Walsh Originals - All Rights Reserved. For personal use only.

My second e-book contains contains eleven individual 8 1/2" by 11" Victorian toile book collage sheets.

Victorian Books Collage Sheets For Scrapbook, Mixed Media, Collage, Decoupage and other Paper Crafts Free E-Book

Copyright © 2020 Linda Walsh Originals - All Rights Reserved. For personal use only.

Please respect My Terms of Use:  All patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products © 2004-2021 Linda Walsh Originals-Designs by Linda Walsh. All rights reserved. Commercial selling or reselling by any means prohibited without the written consent of Linda Walsh.

Patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products are for personal use only. You may not modify, photocopy, download, upload, post, transmit, display, perform, publish, license, reprint, create derivative works from, mass duplicate, re-sell, digitize, and reproduce in any other form (print, digital or electric) or commercially apply, embed, share, Email, or redistribution in any other means. Use of any of the above is prohibited without the written permission of Linda Walsh.

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Copyright © 2004 - 2024 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.

Victorian Valentine's Day And Romance Illustrations From The Harper's Young People Illustrations Book From 1889

Nothing speaks Valentine's Day more than Cupid.  And, what Cupid is more charming than the one in the illustration above that appeared in the March 16, 1889 weekly in the Harper's Young People Illustrated book on page 273.  The illustration above was entitled " Love's Valentine" and was drawn by Jessie Shepherd (Jessie Curtis Shepherd).

As a child I can remember getting little paper Valentines on Valentine's Day - can't you?  I can also remember my mother telling me that I could participate but I would need to give a Valentine to every student in the class.  When I asked her why I had to give one to everyone she simply smiled and said: "So no one is left out."  Given I was in the first grade back then I didn't understand the significance of that.  I certainly do now.

The illustration above was in the March 16, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrated book on page 285 and was entitled "Where Cupid Took His Valentine."  It wasn't signed so I don't know who drew it but I find it totally charming and hope you do too.

There are three little illustrations contained within this picture as well as a totally charming poem to go along with the drawings.

"I'm getting sick of Valentines" 

Said Cupid to his brother.

"And do you know I almost think

 I'll never send another.

I carried one a year ago,

 To little Rosebud May,

And found that twenty more or less, 

Had come for her that day.

Now when you send a Valentine 

"Said Cupid," what's the fun.

Of knowing that it simply counts

As "number twenty-one."

I know a child," his brother said

"A little friend of mine,

Who never yet in all her life

Has had a Valentine."

"I'll take her one," cried Cupid,

Springing lightly to his feet,

"Tell me the number of her house,

And kindly name the street."

And only waiting to be told

The best and shortest way

He spread his shining silver wings, 

And flew without delay.

He found the little girl and stood

Before her in surprise

For shabby gowns and ragged cloaks

Were strange to Cupid's eyes.

This lassie had a sweet round face

A dimple in her chin,

But ah, alas! her shoes were worn,

Her dress was old and thin.

One moment Cupid stood amazed

Then with a bow as fine

As any ever seen at court

He gave the Valentine.

"For me!" the little maiden cried

Her eye alight with joy.

"I never had one in my life

Oh, thank you little boy!"

"The thanks are mine," said Cupid,

Still bowing very low

I'll always be your Valentine

If you will have it so."

"Oh dear, how nice!" then with a blush,

"I'm very poor you know."

"Oh that's no matter," Cupid cried,

And smiling turned to go.

Now every year that little lass,

Whose dress is poor and old

Receives the prettiest Valentine

That can be bought for gold.

And Cupid tells his brother,

When e'er they chance to meet,

That rich or poor it matter not

When a little girl is sweet.

Can't you just picture the little maiden above crying: "For me!" I certainly can and love the expression on her face as well as the poem.

Sometimes  you can just feel the love even from a simple illustration, like the one above which appeared in a story about a sea captain in the May 11, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrated book on page 404.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Old Man Winter Illustrations From The Harper's Young People Illustrations Book From 1889

For someone who doesn't like winter and snow I don't mind making snowmen or looking at Victorian winter illustrations like the illustration above which was in the December 8, 1888 weekly in the Harper's Young People Illustrated Book on page 61.  It was entitled "Such a Heavy Load."

The illustration above was in the November 2, 1889 weekly in the Harper's Young People Illustrated Book on page 814.  It was entitled "Our Champion Climbers."

I just love the look on the little girl and little boy's face.  She looks like she's say, "This is not fun!" He looks like he's saying, "See, I told you we could do this."

The illustration above was in the December 1, 1888 weekly in the Harper's Young People Illustrated Book on page 41. It was drawn by E.J. Meeker.

I just love the old man winter image in the sky and the saying:

King winter rules o'er hill and plain,

And shrill the north wind whistles.

While snow-flakes white, a fairy train,

Fall soft as floating thistles.

For look, a painter grey and old,

Above the storm abiding,

With stars and spheres and crystals cold,

The bare brown earth is hiding.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Victorian old man winter illustrations.