The most unusual feature of the William S. Simmons Plantation is the interior paint. Though four of the rooms no longer have their original paint, three rooms and the upstairs and downstairs foyer do. Several doors and mantels also are painted using a technique known as faux bois. Several of the doors are painted to appear as if they have raised panels where there are none and three of the mantels and fireplace surrounds have what appear to be the remnants of a marbled pattern (see photos below). In my research, I've found examples of more rustic, folk-style murals done by itinerant artists using a combination of stenciling and hand-painting techniques, but have yet to find anything that truly compares to this house except perhaps Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis' home in Mississippi. The interior of Davis' home, according to a staff member at Beauvoir, was painted by a German artist out of New Orleans named Muller. Beauvoir, like the William S. Simmons Plantation, also features faux wood designs on the doors and wall frescoes which incorporate the art technique trompe l'oeil - to deceive the eye. In the case of the Simmons Plantation, the frescoes are now quite faded. The Rococo-style frescoes at Beauvoir, which are believed to have been completed between 1850-52, were beautifully restored by Linda Croxson and Philip Ward and, based on the photos I've seen, are far more elaborate than the ones in our Cave Spring home. Still, there are definite similarities and it is easy to imagine how beautiful the walls in the William S. Simmons Plantation must have been at one time. Click here for images of Beauvoir and take a look at this CNN article (photo number 5) to see what a restored, marbled-finish fireplace looks like (this is how I imagine the fireplaces in the William S. Simmons Plantation once looked). The Wall Street Journal also has a wonderful Beauvoir slideshow which shows the foyer of the home and gives you an idea of how gorgeous these frescoes must have been when freshly painted.
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