Music Room Mirror from the Milton Latham Residence, Thurlow Lodge, Menlo Park, California

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Music Room Mirror from the Milton Latham Residence, Thurlow Lodge, Menlo Park, California

United States, 1872-1873
Furnishings; Accessories
Rosewood, walnut, maple, redwood, exotic woods, glass, gilt, and paint
172 1/16 x 126 x 28 in. (437 x 320 x 71 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Decorative Arts Council in honor of the museum's twenty-fifth anniversary and in honor of Patricia Lester (M.91.54a-h)
Decorative Arts and Design
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

This towering mirror presided over the music room at Thurlow Lodge, the Menlo Park estate of Milton Slocum Latham, U.S. senator and former governor of California....
This towering mirror presided over the music room at Thurlow Lodge, the Menlo Park estate of Milton Slocum Latham, U.S. senator and former governor of California. Completed in 1873, the estate was considered the finest on the San Francisco peninsula. Latham, a railroad magnate, spared no expense for the furnishings, which were designed by Herter Brothers, a New York firm associated with some of the grandest houses in the United States. The rosewood mirror combines classical motifs using a variety of materials and techniques: painting, inlay, marquetry, carving, and gilding. Its size and opulence matched that of the fifty-room mansion, designed in the French Second Empire style, which was developed in France under Napoleon III and is known for its combination of historical motifs and rich ornamentation. Shortly after the house was completed, Latham lost his fortune; he died bankrupt in 1882. The home was demolished in 1942, and from then until it entered LACMA's collection in 1991, the mirror belonged to the property department of a Hollywood film studio.
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Bibliography

  • Howe, Katherine S., Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Catherine Hoover Voorsanger. Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994.