Tiffany and the art of Gilded Age desire

America remains remarkably susceptible to a beautiful room and a difficult invitation. Perhaps our appetite for the Gilded Age begins there: social warfare beneath magnificent ceilings, and the possibility that taste might secure an entrance money alone could not. I understand the attraction. There is considerable sex appeal in an era that treated even daylight as something one might commission. Opening October 22, Designing the Gilded Age: Drawings from the Studios of Louis C. Tiffany at The Metropolitan Museum of Art follows that ambition back to the drawing table. Nearly 120 works from the Museum’s collection will join selected loans to explore the designs behind the studios’ windows, lamps, mosaics, and interiors. Organized by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen with Barbara Veith, it considers the decisions that preceded the splendor, and the people who made them. Of course, some historical perspective is useful before surrendering to the wisteria. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s