MARDI GRAS TREASURES JEWELRY of the GOLDEN AGE Mg13efm.Qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 2 Mg13efm.Qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 3

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MARDI GRAS TREASURES JEWELRY OF THE GOLDEN AGE mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 2 mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 3

MARDI GRAS TREASURES JEWELRY OF THE GOLDEN AGE

Henri Schindler

PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY GRETNA 2006 mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 4

To the memory of Eugenie Schwartz and Grace Gage

The word “Pelican” and the depiction of a pelican are trademarks of Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., and are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schindler, Henri. Jewelry of the Golden Age / Henri Schindler. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-1-56554-725-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Jewelry—Louisiana—New Orleans. 2. Decorative arts— Louisiana—New Orleans. 3. Carnival—Louisiana—New Orleans— History. I. Title. NK7312.S33 2006 394.25’09763’3509034—dc22 2005023258

Page 1: Scepter, Queen of Carnival 1928, Elizabeth Watson. Page 2: Comus Cup, 1928. Page 3: Momus favor, 1912, “Chronicles of Momus.” Page 5: Mace, probably Twelfth Night Revelers, circa 1876. Page 6: Scepter, Queen of Carnival 1924, Margaret Fayssoux.

Printed in Singapore Published by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc. 1000 Burmaster Street, Gretna, Louisiana 70053 mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 5

CONTENTS

Introduction 7

Chapter One Mistick Krewe of Comus 13

Chapter Two School of Design 53

Chapter Three Tableaux Societies 103

Chapter Four Knights of Momus and 129 Krewe of Proteus

Index 158

Acknowledgments 160

Picture Credits 160 mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 6 mg13eFM.qxp 4/18/2006 11:11 AM Page 7

INTRODUCTION

n urban sensibility was at the pinnacle of her economic greatness, unique in North America Queen City of the South, proclaimed by Harper’s flowered in the French and magazine “one of the famous places of the world, a Spanish sub-tropical colony glittering capital, a gaudy metropolis, to be seen to of New Orleans. The old Creole be believed.” Twenty years later, after the twin tolls city was Latin and Catholic, closer in manner or of the War Between the States and Reconstruction, culture to Havana or Port au Prince than to any much of the Creole sector was an antique ruin. It city in Georgia or Virginia. Puritan visitors and was during this period that Carnival became a reformers from the East found New Orleans a counter kingdom, an otherworldly empire in which wicked city, teeming with vice. Among the most the worldly old city still reigned. The reign contin- offended was Henry C. Night, a New Englander ues today, with the New Orleans flair for celebra- who wrote in 1824, “As to the morals of this city, tion, in the original meaning of that word: “to extol the word is obsolete.” Most other writers and or honor with solemn rites, with ceremonies of joy diarists visiting New Orleans in the early nine- or respect, to set aside ordinary business.” One key teenth century were more intrigued by the city’s to understanding the power of Mardi Gras’ mystique fabulous textures—its quaint architecture and nar- is appreciating the depth of seriousness with which row streets, the lavish vegetation, the teeming mar- many of its ritual frivolities have been enacted. kets with their multitude of races and tongues, and The names of the old-line Carnival societies are by the curious cemeteries and the city’s devotion to woven into the psyche of New Orleans with the dead. But above all, they were dazzled by the threads of gold. Seven generations of New Creole zest for living and the Creole passions for Orleanians have witnessed the shimmering proces- music, dance, and masquerade. sions and opulent balls of Carnival’s masked gods By the mid-nineteenth century, New Orleans and bearded kings. Comus, Rex, Momus, and

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Proteus, Twelfth Night Revelers, Atlanteans, velvet ablaze with rhinestones, brilliants, paste Oberon, Nereus, and Mithras—year after year they stones, and pearls. would APPEAR, with the constancy of the seasons After the final tableaux, a large committee of and with near-ecclesiastical solemnity. All of them gentlemen in white tie hurried to the section of the followed the method and manner established by ballroom reserved for those ladies who would be Comus in 1857. Steeped in mystery and secrecy, called out to dance with the maskers. At the con- these early krewes were also socially exclusive and clusion of each dance, the masker reached into a extremely private—admission to their scenic satin bag roped around his arm and presented his tableaux balls was by invitation only, and the elab- partner with a favor of the occasion. These call-out orately lithographed and gilded cards were coveted. favors were most often small pins made of sterling Anyone who cared to, however, could enjoy the and enamel, and reflected the theme of the ball. spectacle of their papier-mâché pageants, and vast The brilliant illumination of the ball scenes and throngs lined the city’s streets for every parade of the stately marches of royal courts took another, the Carnival season. more mysterious form in the glittering night pag- During the Golden Age of Mardi Gras, from eants. A distant red glare of flambeaux, torches, 1870 until the advent of the Great Depression in and flares signaled the imminent arrival of the 1930, tens of thousands of visitors arrived every parade, a magical line of brass bands, masked cava- year on crowded trains and steamboats to enjoy the liers on horses, and papier-mâché floats from some New Orleans Carnival. But one season was never other world, surrounded by walls of dancing flame. enough to inculcate the tourist with the playful The first float of every pageant was the gilded joie-de-vivre of Mardi Gras masking—or to acquaint throne car, bearing Momus, Proteus, or Rex greet- the stranger with Carnival’s myriad traditions, a ing the crowds with their scepters, or Comus, with labyrinth of splendor and whimsy, high spirits and his jeweled cup. festive rites that annually stirred the native heart. There was a friendly rivalry among the krewes to This fantastic empire of Mardi Gras, founded in mount the season’s most memorable production, the nineteenth century, continued to expand in the and the subjects illustrated in their displays were early 1900s with the tableaux balls of the drawn from mythology, literature, history, nature, Olympians, Athenians, and Osiris. At a time when and whimsy. The subject of each parade was theater and spectacle were often synonymous, balls revealed on the second float of the parade, usually were staged in the city’s grand theaters, or in the on a large scroll, shield, or flowing ribbon of papi- fabulous French Opera House. Amid numerous er-mâché. A host of mythological heroes and tow- changes of scenery, the members of each krewe ering beasts, of fairies and sprites, scenes from enacted their pantomimes, masked and costumed Arthurian legend or the Arabian Nights came to in a dazzling array of satins and velvets, plumes and life on the elaborate tableaux cars that followed. turbans, tunics or gowns, whatever the subject With lofty themes, rich decoration, and ghostly demanded. Every Carnival ball was presided over effects, the long succession of these pageants by a king and his debutante queen, with their royal became in time the most beloved communal ritual court of debutante maids, dukes or lieutenants, and of New Orleans. young pages. With rare exception, the maids For two hundred years New Orleans has lived for appeared in white ball gowns, individually styled her Carnival and its panoply of masquerades, balls, and reflecting current fashion. The most anticipat- feasts, and processions. The festivities have been ed moment in these evenings brought the greatest canceled only in times of crisis: for the duration of extravagance of costume—the arrival of the king three wars (the Carnival seasons during the War and queen, wearing magnificently bejeweled Between the States, 1862-1865; World War I, crowns, their robes, collars, and mantels of silk and 1918-1919; and World War II, 1942-1945); because

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of the political unrest of Reconstruction, in 1875; the designers noted in these pages, or seeking other and the national emergency of the Korean War, in examples of their work, should turn to the preced- 1951. Following each of these interruptions, the city ing volumes on ball invitations, float designs, and quickly returned to normal, that is, to the celebra- costume designs. It has been this writer’s pleasure to tion of Carnival, and its perpetual calendar of fan- gather these kaleidoscopic fragments of glory, of tasy—of preparation, enactment, and of memory. Carnival’s strange opulence and theatrical This is the fourth and concluding book in a grandeur, to present these gilded relics from that series exploring the fabulous hoard of decorative art temple of dreams in which the venerable spirit of and design created during the Golden Age of Mardi New Orleans is enshrined. Gras. The reader desiring more information about

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MARDI GRAS TREASURES JEWELRY OF THE GOLDEN AGE