Presentation Drawing of a Dining Room in the English Perpendicular Style, for Knoll (now Lyndhurst), Tarrytown NY

Perspectival rendering of a vaulted room in the English perpendicular style, identified as a dining room in the inscription below the drawing. The entire rendering is set up with graphite and ruler, with various lines and a numeric calculation still visible along the outer margins of the drawing. The interior of the room has been finished in watercolor and gives a vivid impression of the materials used for the walls and floors. The design represents a relatively early idea for the dining room at Knoll (now known as Lyndhurst), the house Davis was commissioned to build by the Paulding family near Tarrytown. Davis would continue to work on the property after it was acquired by the merchant George Merritt. In 1880, the mansion was sold to railroad tycoon Jay Gould and it remained in Gould family possession until the 1960s when it was bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.