Octagon Room

In 1920, Sleeper wrote his friend, art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), that he had “all the details visualized” for Beauport’s Octagon Room. When he assembled such incongruous objects as this stuffed ibis, toleware tray, leather knife box, and camera obscura, Sleeper prized them not for their intrinsic value but rather for their contribution to the room’s symphony of reds. The knife box was a gift, and likely an inside joke, from Gardner herself. Though not strictly red, it once belonged to a cardinal. 

Click on the image at right for full view and zoom into objects below.