On his blog, Gerry has posted some 'Colors for Historic Preservation'. They are nice deep rich tones. Unfortunately, this palette was established in the minds of the paint companies and of the public in the first wave of historic preservation in the 1980s. The reality is that historic paint colors for the rich were gaudy. Our founding fathers and mothers seemed to have ascribed to the theory of 'if you've got it; flaunt it.'
Pictures from the same room in Mt Vernon - the tasteful blue was done in 1980; bright green is the most recent restoration, done using more accurate techniques and analysis. For more information on this renovation, see: Architecture Week
You can view the Biltmore House colors online. Nowhere do they actually say that these are the historic colors. In fact the exact wording is: "Inspired by Vanderbilt’s Estate".
In reality, the house was a tad more garish, as demonstrated by this restoration of the "gilded Italian 22 karat gold leaf" walls of Mr Vanderbilt's room.
It is true that the average and poorer families had to make do with earth-toned paints, often suspended in a milk binding medium.
