Northern Minnesota is an unlikely place for Asian lotus leaves and flowers, but they dominate this room from the William and Mina Prindle House in Duluth. John Bradstreet, who designed the room, perfected the aging and carving of cypress wood in his Minneapolis interior design company around 1900, based on a technique he learned in Japan. This unique woodwork, combined with fireplace tiles and light fixtures by Tiffany Studios and matching textiles, fill the homey historic interior with rich color and texture. The look went out of style around 1915, but Mrs. Prindle never redecorated, making this an interior that can’t be seen anywhere else.
In his Japanese-inspired interiors, Bradstreet liberally referenced the lotus plant and flower. He “planted” them above the mantel, in the glass bookcase doors, even in the rug and curtains.
Bradstreet’s creative carpenters even translated his design for a pedestal table into a lotus pond, with the table as the water’s surface covered with lotus leaves and flowers, and roots and pads forming its support.
Bradstreet used many Asian decorative details in this room, including dragons with mother-of-pearl eyes for wall-light sconces. Tiffany Studios made the glass shades. Bradstreet’s logo was a Tatsu, a dragon with a leg circling its body.
This carving of flying cranes resembles Chinese carvings in the eaves of the 17th-century reception hall in the second floor galleries at Mia. Some of Bradstreet’s pieces were imported; others were made in his Minneapolis Craftshouse.
This piano is a standard Steinway with a cypress case placed atop a partial original mahogany case. Dolphins, as they were thought to look in the 18th and 19th centuries, decorate each end. With its “double case,” it is incredibly heavy to move.
Mina Prindle took great care of her Bradstreet interior until she died in 1965. When Mia received the room in 1981, staff found her handwritten labels on several pieces of furniture.