Wender·Vista
Old Westbury Gardens
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileNew York
on Long Island's North Shore, twenty miles east of Manhattan

Old Westbury Gardens

— — a Charles II house dropped into a hundred acres of allée.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“John S. Phipps built the Westbury House in 1906 for his English wife, Margarita Grace, and asked the London designer George Crawley to make it look as though it had been on Long Island for two hundred years. Two hundred acres of formal gardens, woodland walks, and a beech allée wrap the house. The lilac walk peaks in mid-May. The rose garden holds through October. The Gold Coast quiet survived the rest of the Gold Coast.

from the studio
Old Westbury Gardens
— bring it home

Old Westbury Gardens, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Old Westbury Gardens

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Old Westbury Gardens occupies 200 acres in the village of Old Westbury, Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island. The estate was built in 1906 for John Shaffer Phipps, a son of Carnegie Steel partner Henry Phipps, and his English wife Margarita Grace. The Westbury House, a 23-room Charles II revival in red brick, was designed by the London architect George Crawley. The Phipps family lived on the property until 1958, when it opened to the public as a non-profit garden and historic house.

— the season

The garden year on the North Shore opens with the daffodils and magnolias in late March and runs through the chrysanthemums in early November. The lilac walk peaks in the second week of May. The walled English-style rose garden, replanted in the 1990s on the original George Crawley plan, holds bloom from June through the first frost. The beech allée — the property's signature axis from the house south to the lake — leafs out in late April. Weekday mornings in late September are the quietest hours on the grounds.

— the visit

The gardens open daily from late March through October and on weekends through December, with a small admission fee that supports the non-profit foundation. The house is shown by guided tour. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the few Gold Coast estates of Long Island still standing with grounds substantially intact; many of the others — the Vanderbilt, Guggenheim, and Pratt houses among them — were lost to development between 1945 and 1975. Parking is on-site and free.

— where
United States · Nassau County, New York
— position
40.7847° N · 73.5984° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
12 km NE
Planting Fields Arboretum
estate garden
14 km NE
Sagamore Hill
historic house
32 km W
Manhattan
city
N
Old Westbury Gardens
Planting Fields Arboretum
Sagamore Hill
Manhattan
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Old Westbury Gardens — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

In the village of Old Westbury on the North Shore of Long Island, Nassau County, New York, about twenty miles east of Manhattan and three miles south of the Long Island Sound.

John Shaffer Phipps, heir to the Carnegie Steel fortune, built the house in 1906 for his English wife Margarita Grace. The London architect George Crawley designed both the Charles II revival house and the formal gardens around it.

Charles II revival — a red-brick English country house style modelled on late seventeenth-century work. Crawley designed it to read as though it had been on the property for centuries rather than newly built.

Yes. It is one of the few North Shore Gold Coast estates still intact, with house and grounds preserved together. Most of the surrounding estates were subdivided or demolished between 1945 and the 1970s.

The walled English rose garden, the boxwood-edged Italian-style Walled Garden, the beech allée running south from the house, the lilac walk, and the woodland Cottage Garden built for the Phipps children.

Daily from late March through October and weekends through December. The Westbury House is shown by guided tour during open season. A small admission fee supports the non-profit that runs the site.

— about the piece in your home

It has been for many of our customers in both. Old Westbury is a Long Island touchstone and a destination for gardeners up and down the East Coast. A Medium or Large with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

English country, warm traditional, and grandmillennial interiors. The brick rose, boxwood green, and chalk-cream tones of the artwork sit beside walnut, brass, and printed linens without crowding.

Yes. Garden imagery in painterly treatment is a current direction in both. The Large reads well above a dining sideboard, and a Coaster Set on a tea table extends the motif.

Above a standard sofa, a single Large or a 4-tile Mural at room scale. Above a console, a Medium centred or a row of three Smalls. A 9-tile Mural suits a stair wall.

Yes, with the Dura Satin or Matte finish. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath a thin protective layer and is unbothered by steam, splash, or temperature change.

A soft microfibre cloth and plain water. No solvents, no abrasives, no ammonia. The surface is durable, and the cloth keeps the finish even across the tile.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. Nothing is licensed in or resold; Reid Wender curates the atlas and the studio hand-finishes each tile.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.