Two Santas On A Victorian Fireplace Mantel Poster

"Two Santas on a Victorian Fireplace Mantel" by Catherine Sherman. A pair of Santa Clauses in white velvet and gold brocade with fur trim are surrounded by an extravagant Victorian display on a mantel in a room in the Vaile Mansion in Independence, Missouri. The Vaile Victorian Society decorates the mansion for Christmas every year in a different Victorian theme and welcomes the public for tours. The mansion, built in 1881, has 31 rooms, nine marble fireplaces and beautiful ceiling murals and woodwork. Built by Colonel and Mrs. Harvey M. Vaile, the Vaile Mansion was "the most princely house and the most comfortable home in the entire west," the Kansas City Times reported in 1882. Situated on North Liberty Street, a mile north of the historic Independence Square, according to the Vaile Mansion's website. The Vaile Mansion was designed by Kansas City architect Asa Beebe Cross (1826–1894) in the Second Empire style; its design was reportedly inspired by a large house visited by Vaile and his wife Sophie in Normandy. The mansion is constructed of hand-pressed red brick, partially trimmed with white limestone. The Christmas decor includes touches of mauve, a popular color during the late Victorian period. Mauve contains more grey and more blue than a pale tint of magenta. Mauve is also sometimes described as pale violet. British chemist William Henry Perkin, then an eighteen-year-old college student, was attempting to create a cure for malaria in 1856. An unexpected residue caught his eye, which turned out to be the first aniline dye – specifically, Perkin's mauve or mauveine, sometimes called aniline purple. This new dye was originally called Tyrian Purple and was only called mauve after it was marketed in 1859. Perkin was so successful in marketing his discovery to the dye industry that his biography by Simon Garfield is simply entitled "Mauve." However, as it faded easily, the success of mauve dye was short-lived, and it was replaced by other synthetic dyes by 1873. As the memory of the original dye also faded, the contemporary understanding of mauve is as a lighter, less-saturated color than the original Perkins mauve. The 1890s are sometimes referred to in retrospect as the "Mauve Decade," because of the color became very popular in Europe and the United States.