The Wedding of Sarah Cordelia Mellon and Alan Magee Scaife at Pittsburgh

29 vintage silver prints (9 x 13 inches) mounted to album leaves, printed title-page. Oblong folio. Privately produced photograph album to mark the occasion of the marriage of Sarah Mellon (1903-1965) and Alan Scaife (1900-1958). The wedding, which received national news coverage for its ostentatious display of wealth, took place at the estate of Sarah's father, Richard B. Mellon, brother of Andrew Mellon. The wedding was reported in the press as the most expensive yet in the history of the United States. Attended by some 1,000 guests, the wedding featured a purpose-built three-tiered pavilion decorated in lavish style at a cost of over $1 million dollars in today's money, while over $6 million worth of gifts filled three rooms of the R.B. Mellon mansion. The press was breathless in its coverage, with special attention paid to the extraordinary decor. An example from The Pittsburgh Press: "In the ballroom the third of the terraces, banded with gold shaded chrysanthemums in huge silver urns, broad Oriental tapestries hung from balconies overlooking the dance floor. The tables in the ballroom were covered with white cloths and held tall white tapers in silver holders. At the farther end of the room two pergolas hung with jade and crimson velvet with tall ostrich plumes forming a point in the center top, screened the orchestra [note: the band members are visible in one of the photographs in this album]. The mural ceiling and walls of the room, hung in jade green and gold, formed a sharp contrast to the twisted gold pillars and clusters of silver leaves which formed the decorations beneath each balcony . It was like a scene from the Arabian Nights, so colorful and magnificent was the entire spectacle." The present album, which comes from the estate of Richard Mellon Scaife, son of Sarah and Alan, captures all of the splendor of the setting, with multiple views of the R.B. Mellon mansion exterior and detailed views of the pavilion interior. Contemporary news accounts, while detailed in their written accounts of the wedding, offered few or no photographs of pavilion, and then only in grainy half-tone reproduction. We find no examples of this album, which presents the wedding pavilion in extraordinary detail. A fascinating artifact from the height of Roaring Twenties decadence WITH: Photo of Bridal Part with identities of 21 members including a young Paul Mellon. Provenance: estate of Richard Mellon Scaife, son of Sarah Mellon and Alan Scaife Full leather album. Covers with wear and red-rot 29 vintage silver prints (9 x 13 inches) mounted to album leaves, printed title-page. Oblong folio

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