Art: Mice in the Attic

Harry Truman, an enthusiastic amateur of U.S. history, gave out a gloomy report last week on the state of the White House furniture. In a letter to Junius B. Wood, an authority on antiques, Truman wrote:

“It is tragic what has happened to the wonderful old pieces of furniture which were bought by the early Presidents. Except for the Blue Room suite, there is not a single stick of that original furniture left, and the two clocks [the Minerva, in the Blue Room, and the Hannibal, in the Green Room], along with a number of clocks in the various bedrooms, are the only early pieces that are left . . .

“I found four of Lincoln’s Cabinet chairs in the attic of the Treasury Building, with parts of them broken and the upholstery mouse-eaten. I had them upholstered in the colors which were supposed to have been used in the Lincoln Cabinet Room. When the White House was renovated, the interior decorator re-upholstered these chairs in black, which should not have been done . . .

“I’ve been told, although I have no documents to prove it, that one of the Presidents cleaned out the attic of the White House and had an auction on the Pennsylvania Avenue side, and scattered many wonderful antique pieces from one end of the country to the other . . .*

“It is like the chandeliers in the East Room. All three of the original chandeliers are down in the Capitol . . . I tried to get these chandeliers back and put them where they were before McKim, Mead & White and Teddy Roosevelt gave them away. I had the three monstrosities that replaced the beautiful chandeliers remodeled, and they do not look quite as terrible as they did before . . .

“We have been slowly and gradually collecting samples of the chinaware and glassware with which the House was furnished. Monroe bought some very fine decanters and glasses to go with them, made of blue cut glass. Not a single piece of this purchase can be found anywhere . . .* We have no samples of Monroe’s chinaware.”

* The putative auctioneer: Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), who reportedly removed 24 carloads of furnishings during his term.

* Laurence Hoes, president of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation and great-great-grandson of Monroe, expressed surprise at this news. Said he last week: “If the Monroe cut-glass decanters are missing, they have been lost in recent years. I myself saw them in the White House as late as the Hoover Administration.”