Presidents and Celebrities: Chester Alan Arthur and Lewis Comfort Tiffany
Chester Alan Arthur had a reputation for being a man who enjoyed the finer things in life. One of his nicknames was "Elegant Arthur." Prior to his election as Vice-President, he had not held elected office. He was a backroom politician and a fundraiser or "bagman." His reward had been an appointment to the highest paying and most lucrative office in government: Collector of the Port of New York. As Collector he controlled nearly a thousand jobs and received compensation greater than any federal officeholder. Arthur's salary was initially $6,500, but senior customs employees were compensated additionally by the "moiety" system, which awarded them a percentage of the cargoes seized and fines levied on importers who attempted to evade the tariff. In many years his income came to more than $50,000, more than the president's salary, and more than enough for him to enjoy fashionable clothes and a lavish lifestyle.
Arthur was one of the era's more popular collectors and he was also popular within the Republican party as he efficiently collected campaign assessments from the staff and placed party leaders' friends in jobs when positions became available. Over time, a movement for civil service reform would erode the patronage machine. In 1874 Custom House employees were found to have improperly assessed fines against an importing company as a way to increase their own incomes, and Congress reacted by repealing the moiety system and putting the staff, including Arthur, on regular salaries. As a result, his income dropped to $12,000 a year, which was still more than his boss, the Secretary of the Treasury, but far less than what he had previously received. Arthur would lose this job in 1878 when President Rutherford Hayes fired him during a congressional recess. But three years later, in 1881, Arthur would have Hayes' job, becoming President following the death of James Garfield on September 19, 1881. Judge John R. Brady of the New York Supreme Court administered the oath of office to Arthur in Arthur's home at 2:15 a.m. on September 20.
After Arthur became President, he did not live in the White House initially. He permitted First Lady Lucretia Garfield to remain there and planned to have the residence remodeled to suit his tastes. He took up residence at the home of Senator John P. Jones, while a White House remodeling he had ordered was carried out. In giving the White House its makeover, he sought the assistance of famed New York City designer Lewis Comfort Tiffany.
Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts. He was best known for his work in stained glass. He was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels, and metalwork. He was the first design director at his family company, Tiffany & Co., founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany.
Arthur stayed at Senator Jones' home for three months. He called on Tiffany to send designers to fashion the alterations to the White House. According to leading Arthur biographer Thomas C. Reeves, Arthur took special interest in the project and each evening he would personally inspect that day's work and would make suggestions to the designers and workers. Reeves writes:
Initially much furniture and many carpets and were replaced. Twenty-four wagonloads of furniture and household articles, dating back to the first Adams administration, were cleared from the premises and sold at public auction. Special attention was given to the President's private dining room on the first floor. The walls were covered in heavy gold paper in large designs and the windows and mantlepiece draped with hangings of pomegranate plush. An open fireplace and sidelights of crimson glass were suggested by Arthur. A sideboard was made to match an elaborate one ordered by Mrs. Hayes, and on both pieces could be seen specimens of Limoges china designed by Theodore Davis.
In the fall of 1882, following failure of a proposal to construct a new Presidential residence south of the White House, more extensive redecorating of the executive mansion was undertaken. The walls of the main corridor were tinted a pale olive and the large niches covered with squares of gold leaf. The frieze consisted of a narrow border of India brass-work backed with colors and geometric designs in pale tints and gold and silver. The ceiling was decorated in gold and silver broken by traceries and colors in which "U.S.A." was interwoven. The walls of the Red Room were tinted in a dull Pomeranian red; its ceiling boasted circles of stars in gold, silver and copper, with a border of the national stripes, studded with stars. The open fireplace was surrounded by a cherry mantlepiece, a jeweled glass screen, and panels of Japanese leather. The furniture was a subtle ruby. The Blue and East rooms received similar attention. A screen of jeweled glass, fifty feet long, fitted with imitation marble columns, was made in New York by Tiffany and used to replace old glass doors that formerly separated the main corridor from the north vestibule. The screen was a showpiece for twenty-one years before it was removed by Theodore Roosevelt during a more thorough White House renovation.
Arthur moved into the White House on December 7, 1881. Tiffany's renovations are considered to be the firm's most notable work. In 1886, Charles Tiffany would be one of the pallbearers in attendance at Arthur's private funeral service. The Tiffany firm broke up in 1885, as Louis Tiffany desired to concentrate on art in glass, andopted to establish his own glassmaking firm that same year. The first Tiffany Glass Company was incorporated December 1, 1885, and in 1902 became known as the Tiffany Studios.
In 1893, Tiffany built a new factory called the Stourbridge Glass Company, later called Tiffany Glass Furnaces, which was located in Corona, Queens, New York. At the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, he won a gold medal with his stained glass windows The Four Seasons. Much of his company's production was in making stained glass windows and Tiffany lamps, but his company designed a complete range of interior decorations. At its peak, his factory employed more than 300 artisans. Tiffany died on January 17, 1933, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Arthur was one of the era's more popular collectors and he was also popular within the Republican party as he efficiently collected campaign assessments from the staff and placed party leaders' friends in jobs when positions became available. Over time, a movement for civil service reform would erode the patronage machine. In 1874 Custom House employees were found to have improperly assessed fines against an importing company as a way to increase their own incomes, and Congress reacted by repealing the moiety system and putting the staff, including Arthur, on regular salaries. As a result, his income dropped to $12,000 a year, which was still more than his boss, the Secretary of the Treasury, but far less than what he had previously received. Arthur would lose this job in 1878 when President Rutherford Hayes fired him during a congressional recess. But three years later, in 1881, Arthur would have Hayes' job, becoming President following the death of James Garfield on September 19, 1881. Judge John R. Brady of the New York Supreme Court administered the oath of office to Arthur in Arthur's home at 2:15 a.m. on September 20.
After Arthur became President, he did not live in the White House initially. He permitted First Lady Lucretia Garfield to remain there and planned to have the residence remodeled to suit his tastes. He took up residence at the home of Senator John P. Jones, while a White House remodeling he had ordered was carried out. In giving the White House its makeover, he sought the assistance of famed New York City designer Lewis Comfort Tiffany.
Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts. He was best known for his work in stained glass. He was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels, and metalwork. He was the first design director at his family company, Tiffany & Co., founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany.
Arthur stayed at Senator Jones' home for three months. He called on Tiffany to send designers to fashion the alterations to the White House. According to leading Arthur biographer Thomas C. Reeves, Arthur took special interest in the project and each evening he would personally inspect that day's work and would make suggestions to the designers and workers. Reeves writes:
Initially much furniture and many carpets and were replaced. Twenty-four wagonloads of furniture and household articles, dating back to the first Adams administration, were cleared from the premises and sold at public auction. Special attention was given to the President's private dining room on the first floor. The walls were covered in heavy gold paper in large designs and the windows and mantlepiece draped with hangings of pomegranate plush. An open fireplace and sidelights of crimson glass were suggested by Arthur. A sideboard was made to match an elaborate one ordered by Mrs. Hayes, and on both pieces could be seen specimens of Limoges china designed by Theodore Davis.
In the fall of 1882, following failure of a proposal to construct a new Presidential residence south of the White House, more extensive redecorating of the executive mansion was undertaken. The walls of the main corridor were tinted a pale olive and the large niches covered with squares of gold leaf. The frieze consisted of a narrow border of India brass-work backed with colors and geometric designs in pale tints and gold and silver. The ceiling was decorated in gold and silver broken by traceries and colors in which "U.S.A." was interwoven. The walls of the Red Room were tinted in a dull Pomeranian red; its ceiling boasted circles of stars in gold, silver and copper, with a border of the national stripes, studded with stars. The open fireplace was surrounded by a cherry mantlepiece, a jeweled glass screen, and panels of Japanese leather. The furniture was a subtle ruby. The Blue and East rooms received similar attention. A screen of jeweled glass, fifty feet long, fitted with imitation marble columns, was made in New York by Tiffany and used to replace old glass doors that formerly separated the main corridor from the north vestibule. The screen was a showpiece for twenty-one years before it was removed by Theodore Roosevelt during a more thorough White House renovation.
Arthur moved into the White House on December 7, 1881. Tiffany's renovations are considered to be the firm's most notable work. In 1886, Charles Tiffany would be one of the pallbearers in attendance at Arthur's private funeral service. The Tiffany firm broke up in 1885, as Louis Tiffany desired to concentrate on art in glass, andopted to establish his own glassmaking firm that same year. The first Tiffany Glass Company was incorporated December 1, 1885, and in 1902 became known as the Tiffany Studios.
In 1893, Tiffany built a new factory called the Stourbridge Glass Company, later called Tiffany Glass Furnaces, which was located in Corona, Queens, New York. At the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, he won a gold medal with his stained glass windows The Four Seasons. Much of his company's production was in making stained glass windows and Tiffany lamps, but his company designed a complete range of interior decorations. At its peak, his factory employed more than 300 artisans. Tiffany died on January 17, 1933, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.