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The new exhibition "Possessions, Personalities and the Pursuit of Refinement," which opened Saturday at The Frick Art & Historical Center in Point Breeze, will be a sight to behold.

That's true not only for those who consider themselves lovers of art, but also for those who hold an interest in all things Victorian or antique, including clothing, furniture, toys and books.

That's because this unprecedented exhibition pulls together more than 200 objects from the more than 5,000-piece collection of The Frick Art & Historical Center, the fascinating complex of museums and historical buildings located on over five acres of lawns and gardens in Point Breeze that was once home to industrialist Henry Clay Frick and his family.

Most of those objects are on display in the Frick Art Museum for the very first time -- many were in storage or on display in Clayton, the Frick family's Victorian mansion on the grounds of the center that was restored and opened year-round as a house museum in 1990.

The idea behind the exhibition, says Frick registrar Sarah Hall, is to link The Frick Art & Historical Center's permanent collection to the life and interests of Henry Clay Frick's family, especially in regard to the pursuit of self-improvement, something that characterized the Victorian era.

Hall says that by reuniting the diverse elements of the collection, it illustrates the relationships between the family's attitudes, their possessions and their aspirations.

"We think of (the exhibition) as the beginning of really doing a deeper investigation into our source material and completing the family story itself."

To further that investigation, as well as expand on the visitors' understanding of the Frick family, objects on loan from organizations such as The Frick Art Reference Library in New York City, West Overton Museums in Scottdale, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History also are included to illustrate how the family's interests influenced and were influenced by the broader cultural and social life of the time.

"It's a huge concept, and we're merely scratching the surface here, but we've tried to create groups of objects, groups of possessions, that reflect upon personalities, that reflect upon the times that the Fricks were living in, but also this notion of refinement."

One of the earliest groupings includes some fascinating pieces of furniture. One exceptional piece is a circa-1774 writing table by 18th-century French cabinetmaker Martin Carlin. Made of oak and tulipwood, the ornate table that sports green leather inlay on the top, as well as pull-out leafs, features several Sevres porcelain tiles that surround the sides.

It originally came from Eagle Rock, the 104-room brick neoclassical-style house that once sat on 25 acres in Prides Crossing, Mass., and served as the family's summer estate until 1969 when Helen Frick had it demolished. Other items on display that once adorned Eagle Rock include several British paintings on permanent display in the museum as well as a few bronzes.

Another unusual piece of furniture on display is a mid-19th-century black lacquer etagere. Used by Mr. Frick as a dressing table in his bachelor days, it represents one of his earliest purchases.

Not far away hangs another early purchase. It's a double portrait Frick commissioned local artist A. Bryan Wall to paint of Frick's bride, Adelaide, and her sister Martha in 1882, a year after they were married. On an opposite wall, several original drawings by premiere French realist painter Jean Francois Millet lining the walls give evidence to one of Frick's earliest ambitions, says Hall, to become "a world-class Millet collector."

Frick's love of art and friendship and patronage toward artists is perhaps best displayed in a small grouping related to a dinner party held in Paris on July 3, 1899, at the Palace Hotel. On menus and dinner cards are small drawings by several artists in attendance, one of which was ThÈobald Chartran.

"They were great friends," Hall says of Frick and the artist who drew a portrait on the back of a menu of his patron eating a canary. "Chartran is one artist who he had a really longstanding relationship with. We have a number of Chartrans in the collection, and Frick is credited for introducing Chartran to Pittsburgh society."

It's worth noting here that oil portraits by Chartran of Frick, Mrs. Frick and their daughter Helen all hang in Clayton.

Hall says that for the Fricks, the notion of refinement stretched beyond developing taste. "They were not just interested in refinement in terms of aesthetic tastes and art collecting, but also refinement in the way that they educated the children," she says.

Well-to-do Victorian parents took the education and moral upbringing of their children seriously. Unlike many other children of the time, the Frick children, Helen and Childs Frick, also enjoyed finely made, imported toys as well as a house of their own in which to play.

In 1897, the Fricks commissioned Alden and Harlow to design a children's Playhouse -- converted to a visitors center and museum shop in 1990 -- where a selection of toys that were cherished by Helen and Childs Frick are on display. These items include a cap gun, a toy sewing machine and several bowling balls and pins that were used in the bowling alley that was once there.

In the Frick Art Museum, visitors will find even more toys on display such as a doll once cherished by Helen and several pieces from a 98-piece magic set Childs used to play with.

The exhibition also contains objects that relate to the Frick children's respective adulthoods as well. Helen, of course, went on to establish The Frick Art Museum in 1970 as well as lay the groundwork for the center as it is today. And Childs had a successful career as a naturalist and curator of mammalogy at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

One of the most poignant objects in the exhibition is a scrapbook on loan from The Frick Art Reference Library, which documents Helen's travels in Italy in the mid-1920s and her love of Italian art, a passion which manifested itself in the works displayed in the Italian Gallery of the permanent collection of the Frick Art & Historical Center.

Childs, on the other hand, had a passion for science. Among other pursuits, the work he conducted in his 1911 expedition to Africa collecting specimens for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History resulted in the museum's initial core holdings of African mammals, many of which are still on view today. Illustrating this aspect of his life are boyhood playthings and books from the Frick's permanent collection and specimens on loan from Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

By exploring the family's life, interests and cultural ambitions, "Possessions, Personalities and the Pursuit of Refinement" provides not only a larger view into the values of the Victorian era, but also an intimate look into the lives of one very important local family.

"We're trying to tell a broader Frick story than what we tell in Clayton," Hall says of the exhibition. And it most certainly does.

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