19th Anniversary

19th Anniversary 108 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com The nineteenth-century swan bench is either English or German and was acquired during Anthony’s travels abroad. Also visible are the medieval music scores and Ethiopian crosses. the Philip Cheney mansion; the Charles Cheney mansion being in stable condition. Their efforts subsequently expanded to include a third home, the circa–1896 Shingle-style Horace Bushnell Cheney mansion, under threat of demolition. The Viscogliosi’s retained that house until 2016, when they sold it to a young family who agreed to a condition that the seventeen-room, 6,800-square-foot residence not be torn down. Properly restoring the Philip Cheney mansion to its prior glory was paramount to the couple. On the docket was the residence’s massive slate roof, sixty-two rooms, nine fireplaces, nine bathrooms, seven staircases, ninety-nine doors, ninety-one windows, and interior floors and paneling. To assist them in the project they enlisted the help of preservation architect Jared Edwards, AIA. A scholar of Charles Platt’s work, Edwards guided the Viscogliosis as they restored the mansion. Current mechanicals and new heating and cooling systems were installed. Using an aerial photograph from 1928, the couple also restored the grounds, which includes an Italian-style garden with sunken rose garden that Platt had designed. The entire preservation project took seven years to complete, during which time the couple resided in the Charles Cheney mansion and their Manhattan apartment. The couple moved into their completed Philip Cheney residence in 2011. Within two weeks, heartbreak hit in the shape of a massive fire. Devastated but not deterred, Anthony and Paula moved back to the nearby Charles Cheney residence and enlisted Edwards’ help facing page  The sun streams into the loggia along the back of the mansion. The doors open to the formal gardens and the wicker furniture and marble elements, including the original 1920s mantel, play to the indoor/ outdoor atmosphere of the room. The pink tones highlighted by the walls and decorative elements in the room complement the marble. Creams with a touch of blue are used as accents. Some of the pillows are covered with original Cheney Brothers silk. The most prominent feature in the loggia is the ceiling, decorated with a nineteenth-century painting, Homage to the Guilds, Anthony purchased at an auction in Vienna. The work is signed “J . Reiner May 1893.” The couple’s master carpenter designed, built, and installed the frame. The carved marble relief, from the estate of mezzo-soprano Maria Callas, is a nineteenth-century copy of a sarcophagus in the Museo Nazionale Romano. It depicts the Emperor Hostilian (ruled from July to November 251 AD) with barbarians.