Vanderbilt Mantelpiece date panel

This carved and inlaid panel was created for the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt II on Fifth Avenue at 57th Street (demolished 1925-27). Working for the architect George B. Post, the artist John La Farge created a lavish decorative program, to which Saint-Gaudens contributed many of the sculptural elements. The panel features the date of the Vanderbilt house’s completion, 1882, in Roman numerals and flanked by beribboned wreaths. It was originally set in the ceiling of the dining room. Following extensive renovations between 1892 and 1894, the panel was moved to the second-floor billiard room where it was installed above the colossal mantelpiece of Saint-Gaudens’s design (25.234) that was moved from the entrance hall.