If you’ve already got enough Tiffany jewelry, why not a Tiffany house?
The Ayer Mansion, the only home in the world completely designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the son of Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Lewis Tiffany, just went on sale for $17 million in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston .
Unveiled in 1902, the five-story Gilded Age mansion spans a whopping 15,600 square feet. Developers are hoping to restore it to its origins as a single-family home that features six bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 10 fireplaces and a roof deck, among other luxe amenities. A rendering of the drawing room Despite the renovations, many of the home’s original details will ideally remain in place. Tiffany took inspiration for the mansion from ancient Greece, the Far East and even the Chicago World’s Fair. The impressive foyer’s white marble staircase showcases Tiffany mosaic tiles, and a trompe l’oeil Greek temple is seen through the proscenium arch. Stained-glass windows and skylights, beautiful plasterwork and elaborate mantels are just a few additional highlights.
“The character of the home is what really makes it special,” David J. Hacin, the principal and creative director of Hacin + Associates, the architecture firm tasked with updating the Ayer Mansion, said in a statement. “It immediately struck me as both modern and rooted in the construct of the Back Bay at the same time, and that is really unique.”
The home was originally designed for the businessman Frederick Ayer and his wife Ellen, who commissioned Tiffany for the design. While better known for his leaded-glass lamps, Tiffany had a hand in everything from the exterior of the house to the decorative objects and wallpaper. In 2005, the property was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Ayer Mansion is being marketed by Ruth Kennedy Sudduth and Greta Gustafson of LandVest. The current sellers are the developers Charles Reed of CNW Capital Partners and Jean Abouhamad of Sea-Dar Real Estate . The two men had initially planned to convert the property into condos, but after seeing the extraordinary home and all of its historic details, they thought otherwise.
“It’s a piece of art,” Abouhamad told The Wall Street Journal .
And who wouldn’t want to live in this particular artwork?
