Nautical motifs are "traditionally traditional, " said Linda Eaton, curator of textiles at the Winterthur Museum.

WSJ: Nautical Home Design: D??cor Takes to the Seas

"In the United States, we tend to have a romantic view of owning a great British estate, " says Tom Savage, the director of museum affairs at Winterthur, the 175-room Delaware estate of the late chemical heir Henry Francis du Pont, which houses the foremost collection of American furniture and decorative objects.

WSJ: Upstairs, Downstairs and In Between