The New Yorkers who attend benefit parties tend to be handsome and pretty, but at Monday night’s Spring Party for the Frick Collection, they were trumped by their surroundings.

The Fifth Avenue mansion of Henry Clay Frick, designed by Thomas Hastings, was in full spring glory. Dramatic lighting showcased the classical structure, completed in 1914, as well as trees and flowerbeds, filled with deep purple lilacs, in its gardens bordering 70th Street, which are not usually open to the public.

Electric cellist Sean Grissom played songs by Cole Porter and Georgeand Ira Gershwinal fresco, helping guests imagine they were at a party held by the steel magnate himself. The reverie ended when a taxi whizzed by or a waiter proffered a silver tray laden with cupcakes.

Inside, guests were isolated from contemporary intrusions (this was the rare crowd that seemed to have checked their cell phones and Blackberries at the door). In the Music Room, the George Gee Orchestra played big-band standards. At the dessert buffet, butlers served antiquated desserts such as lavender lemon pound cake, pear cobbler, Granny Smith apple crumble, and chocolate bread pudding.

The hard-core art lovers among the crowd made time to visit the downstairs gallery, where an exhibition, “George Stubbs (1724-1806): A Celebration” is on view until Sunday. In the surroundings of the pristine mansion, Stubbs’ magnificently realistic and emotional depictions of a lion attacking a horse, a group of foxhounds, a moose, and a monkey, were humbling. The golden hues of the artist’s “A Lion and a Lioness” were achieved by painting with enamel on Wedgwood earthenware.

While it was a night to savor the moment, inevitably, conversations veered toward the future. Some talked of their summer plans — trips to Nantucket, Santa Fe, Sag Harbor. Members of the Young Fellows were thinking way ahead, to their annual winter fund-raiser. Bulgari has joined as the jewelry sponsor of the event, which will be a masked ball. An exact date has not been set.

agordon@nysun.com