_ I
ME FURNISHING
SbRGE LELAND. HUNTER
Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
1980
HOME FURNISHING
GEORGE LELAND HUNTER
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
TAPESTRIES
THEIR ORIGIN
HISTORY AND
RENAISSANCE
WITH
FOUR COLOR PLATES
AND
147 HALF-TONE ENGRAVINGS
SQUARE 8vo. CLOTH, $5.00 NET, BOXED.
LARGE PAPER EDITION LIMITED TO
500 COPIES. VELLUM, $12.50 NET.
X
a
03
U
03
5
HOME
FURNISHING
FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT FURNITURE
CARPETS AND RUGS, LAMPS AND LIGHT-
ING FIXTURES, WALL PAPERS, WIN-
DOW SHADES AND DRAPERIES,
TAPESTRIES, ETC.
BY
GEORGE LELAND HUNTER
AUTHOR OF
"TAPESTRIES: THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY
AND RENAISSANCE"
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
JOHN LANE COMPANY: NEW YORK
BELL & COCKBURN: TORONTO
MCMXIII
Copyright, 1913, by
JOHN LANE COMPANY
PUBLISHERS PRINTING COMPANY
207-217 West Twenty-fifth Street. New York
PREFACE
I HOPE that this little volume will be judged rather
by its virtues of commission than by its sins of
omission. It is not a complete handbook and guide
to the decoration and furnishing of homes, but it
treats adequately for the first time many subjects
usually slighted or neglected. Most of the chapters
have already appeared in magazine form. For per-
mission to reproduce Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, VI,
VII, X, XI, XIII, XVI, XVII, XIX, XX, I am
indebted to " Country Life in America"; to " Suburban
Life" for Chapters IX, XII and XXI; to "House
and Garden" for Chapter XV; to "American Homes
and Gardens" for Chapters VIII and XXII.
The attention of readers is called particularly to
the value of the chapters on Real Tapestries, Oriental
Rugs, Domestic Rugs, Hand-Blocked Draperies
and Papers, and Lighting Fixtures.
G. L. H.
CONTENTS
I GOOD AND BAD FURNITURE ... 17
II CHAIRS 24
III ORIENTAL RUGS 30
IV DOCTORED RUGS 43
V DOMESTIC RUGS 65
VI CARPETS AND CARPETING .... 81
VII LAMPS 90
VIII LIGHTING FIXTURES 98
IX VENTILATION 117
X CHAMBER FURNITURE 124
XI SUMMER FURNITURE 133
XII CHOOSING WINDOW DRAPERIES . . 139
XIII DRAPERIES FOR BUNGALOWS . . . 147
XIV LACE CURTAINS 158
XV WINDOW SHADES 169
XVI DOMESTIC PRINTS 174
XVII DOMESTIC TAPESTRIES 178
XVIII CHOOSING WALL PAPERS .... 183
XIX EUROPEAN HAND-BLOCKED PAPERS . 190
XX EUROPEAN HAND-BLOCKED DRAPERIES 197
XXI ART POTTERY 205
XXII REAL TAPESTRIES 218
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chamber set of the highest quality Frontispiece
PAGE
Austrian bentwood chair 1 8
Oak chair crudely made 1 8
Good mahogany chair 18
Oak chair upholstered in leather 18
"Washington chair" 20
Tapestry-upholstered oak chair 20
Windsor type arm-chair 20
Mission type 20
Mahogany finish arm-chair 22
Mahogany finish arm-chair 22
Chiffonier in green oak 22
Oak dresser 22
Rococo Chippendale chair ." . 24
Hepplewhite arm-chair 24
9
r I* >',(
io ILLUSTRATIONS
PACING
PAGE
Hogarth arm-chair 24
Queen Anne arm-chair 24
Adam arm-chair 24
Colonel Lyon Chippendale 24
Louis XVI arm-chair 24
Chinese Chippendale 24
Ladder-back Chippendale chair 24
Superb Daghestan 30
Samarkand 34
Feraghan 34
Kazak 34
Ghiordes prayer rug 38
Mosul 38
Bokhara 38
Daghestan 38
Serebend 44
Modern Bokhara 44
Rare antique Guenje 44
Mending an Oriental rug 60
Wilton . 66
ILLUSTRATIONS
Axminster 66
Brussels 66
Eagle Head 82
Henry Clay 82
Martha Washington 82
Lamp with wooden standard 90
Square Chinese porcelain lamp 90
Lamp with painted silk shade 90
Chinese porcelain with bronze mountings 90
Colonial style lamp 94
Adam style 94
Simple classic standard 94
Bronze standard 94
Prairie grass arm-chair 134
Wickerwork basket 134
White willow 134
Prairie grass desk 134
Rattan fan chair 134
Chinese linen basket 134
Chair with matting seat 136
iz ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Prairie grass chair 136
Swamp cedar arm-chair 136
Wicker desk 136
Chinese linen chair 136
Rattan tea-wagon 136
Treating two windows as one 148
Group of casement windows 148
Scrim with printed border 154
Curtains with Valance 154
Draped-backed hangings 154
Side curtains in silk 154
Filet italien 159
Cluny lace 159
Filet antique 159
Point de venise 1 60
Coventry bird pattern on cretonne 174
Tapestry effect on rep cretonne 1 74
Ambitious rep cretonne 174
Successful taffeta 174
Woven-stripe taffeta 176
ILLUSTRATIONS 13
FACING
Chinese pattern cretonne 176
Printed-strie ground 176
Hampton taffeta 176
Tapestry pattern 178
Armure 178
Armure 178
Colonial couch cover 1 80
Ashley net 1 80
Russian net 1 80
Morris, the Pimpernel 190
Acanthus Scroll 190
Chrysanthemum 190
Walter Crane, the Golden Age 190
Peacock 192
Macaw 192
Roses 192
Regence pattern 192
Golden Pheasant 194
Modeled on Van Orley tapestry 194
Paper reproducing toile de Jouy 194
i 4 ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Dutch Garden, a modern paper 194
Tulip, a Morris wall-paper 198
Quaint Chinoiserie 198
Rhode Island wall-paper 198
From a Gibbon carving 198
French Renaissance paper 200
Eighteenth century effect 200
Compton 200
Strawberry Thief 200
Most beautiful vase in the world 206
Jacob blessing two children 218
St. Luke painting the Virgin 226
HOME FURNISHING
HOME FURNISHING
i
GOOD AND BAD FURNITURE
ORTHODOXY," said Professor Sopho-
cles of Harvard, "is my doxy. Hetero-
doxy is somebody else's doxy." So
it is with regard to taste. Good taste is what I
like. Bad taste is what the other fellow likes.
Taste is the most intimate and definite ex-
pression of personality. Even more than by his
friends is it possible to judge a man by what
appeals to him artistically. If he prefers musical
comedy to grand opera, and wall paper to Re-
naissance tapestries, we know that his artistic
education has been neglected, or that he was
born deaf to the beautiful.
Good taste is not wholly a natural gift, nor is
it wholly the result of knowledge and experience.
It is a combination of both. Without great nat-
ural gifts, no one can ever become delicately
sensitive to the finer and higher forms of art.
Without acquaintance with the best that has been
17
i8 HOME FURNISHING
done, no one can ever become noted for the
quick accuracy of his critical opinions.
The shibboleth of the novice is simplicity.
The young lady reporter can in half a column
of the Woman's Section of the Sunday news-
paper easily demolish all the French styles, and
particularly Louis XV.
But while simplicity is a doctrine easy to
preach, it is both hard and dangerous to fol-
low. Simple furniture, like simple gowns, may
be inexpensive to look at, but expensive to pur-
chase and use. Ornament skilfully applied con-
ceals uninteresting lines and joints and surfaces,
and accentuates beautiful ones. In furniture
and architecture, paints and finishes and hard-
ware, though often ornamentally applied, are
primarily important from the point of view of
usefulness. But of moldings and inlays and
carvings and piercings the primary purpose is
ornamental, and they are valueless except as they
add beauty.
The line between good ornament and bad
ornament is the line between beauty and ugli-
ness.
The only good furniture is that which is both
beautiful and useful.
All furniture that lacks either beauty or use-
fulness is bad furniture.
I. Austrian bentwood chair, finished
in oak or mahogany, at $2.75. It
excels in strength and durability.
2. Oak chair at $2.50, crudely and
roughly made. The proportions and
finish are detestable.
3. A good mahogany chair of simple
design, an offshoot of the Chippendale
family. It costs $12.
4. Oak chair upholstered in leather,
with heavy carvings that attempt to
reproduce the Italian Renaissance.
HOME FURNISHING 19
Furniture that is well constructed, of good
shape and excellent finish, is good furniture no
matter how elaborately it may be decorated.
Furniture of bad shape or bad finish, is bad
furniture no matter how free from meretricious
mounts and carvings.
A large proportion of the worst furniture ever
made belongs to the so-called Mission or Arts-
and-C rafts type.
The shopkeepers claim that the reason they
carry in their showrooms and warerooms so
much bad furniture, is that the public demands
it. The professional educators of public taste
claim that the reason people buy bad furniture
is because the shopkeepers force it upon them.
The truth probably lies in between. Undoubt-
edly the dealers do follow rather than lead, and
undoubtedly the cheap trade particularly that
of instalment stores do demand quantity of
ornament and color rather than quality.
The abomination of abominations in the form
of bad furniture, is the conventional parlor set,
copied remotely and ignorantly from some
French original and upholstered in fancy ve-
lours or satin damask. Nothing more ghastly
could be imagined except the illustrations of
them that appear in newspaper advertisements
with the sign underneath, "Just like the cut."
20 HOME FURNISHING
Other abominations are dining-room tables
and sideboards and chairs in oak with huge Ital-
ian Renaissance machine carvings obtruding
where they will do the most harm; easy chairs
and sofas in massive mahogany that has been
tortured into incredible shapes ; metal beds with
stamped and spun trimmings that part company
with the object adorned at the first opportunity;
wooden beds and bureaus whose veneered and
polished surfaces are mirror-like when new, and
patchy after a few months' use; writing desks
that, in sinuosity of line and fragility of ap-
pearance and fact, surpass the most extreme
rococo ever devised even in Germany: curio
cabinets with painted or transferred ornament
under lacquer, that makes the name vernis-
martin ridiculous.
Of these abominations, the worst are no longer
found in the larger shops and departments.
During the past ten years the standard of taste
has risen appreciably. In the store from which
our illustrations are taken, it is evident that a
serious and intelligent effort has been made to
avoid bad design, bad construction, and bad
finishes.
But the mass of inexpensive furniture is still
full of serious faults, as our "bad furniture"
illustrations show.
5. "The Washington chair," repro-
duced from the original. In ma-
hogany, upholstered with Colonial
denim, $12.
6. A tapestry-upholstered oak chair
at $10.50, illustrating the effort of
American designers to improve on
Chippendale.
7. A durable and comfortable arm-
chair of the Windsor type at {9.
8. An inferior arm-chair of the Mis-
sion type at $7.
HOME FURNISHING 21
Even when well built and finished, it is apt
to have bad proportions. Legs are too short
or too long or too slender or too thick to rhyme
with the body. Chair backs are too wide or too
narrow or too straight or too curved. Arms
are too light or too heavy. Seats are too wide
or too deep. The upholstery is out of tune with
the color and texture of the wood, or with the
style to which the frame belongs.
Of expensive furniture that is good modern
reproductions as well as antique pieces the
different historic periods have bequeathed us
much. If one has a fat purse there is no excuse
for buying bad furniture.
But when the purse is lean, the case is differ-
ent. The cheap imitations of historic pieces
are ridiculous for instance, the dwarfed and
skimpy copies of Chippendale and Louis XV
chairs of which there are so many.
Inexpensive furniture should be chosen for
its intrinsic merits, and not for its more or less
shadowy resemblance to museum examples.
The designs whether classic or modern will
of necessity be those adapted to production in
large quantities and inexpensively; the ornament
such as is natural to the machine and durable
in use.
Especially interesting from the modern point
22 HOME FURNISHING
of view are the bentwood furniture made in
Austria, and the new turned furniture made in
Germany. Both are avowedly and pronouncedly
machine-made, and designed along the lines best
adapted for machine production. They are
splendid examples of good furniture at the least
possible cost. Of course, No. i suggests the
restaurant, but it is vastly more durable and
more graceful than No. 2, which is plain
"kitchen chair."
No. 4 is a pretentious failure. Elaborate carv-
ing is acceptable only when executed by a mas-
ter. Crude, pasted-on, machine carving is an
abomination. This chair costs enough to be
good, but any one who can afford to pay $94
for a five-piece set ought to have taste enough to
choose No. 3 or No. 5.
No. 6 represents the way some American
manufacturers murder Chippendale. Note par-
ticularly the front legs. Could anything be more
hopelessly ugly?
It is positively refreshing to turn to No. 7.
It not only looks well and wears well, but it is
comfortable. It is a model of grace compared
with No. 8, and is built well.
Not all Mission furniture is cumbersome, but
No. 8 is. Obvious construction, moreover, is
not necessarily good or honest construction, and
9. An arm-chair in mahogany finish,
part of a three-piece set, at $65.
10. An arm-chair in mahogany finish,
one of a five-piece set, at $130.
ii. A chiffonier finished in green oak
at $12.50. Lines and proportions
excellent.
12. An oak dresser at $12.50, crowd-
ed with meaningless curves.
HOME FURNISHING 23
cheap Mission furniture shows an aptitude for
falling apart.
Of course, I do not pretend that No. 9 is a
beautiful chair; but compare it with No. 10!
Is it any wonder that boys leave home when
the front parlor is equipped with "suits" of this
type?
II
CHAIRS
THE great name in chair making is Chip-
pendale. For many years before and
after the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury, he flourished in London, and his famous
book, "The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Di-
rector," published in 1754 and sold mainly to
the trade, brought him posthumous reputation
as well as immediate business. Ever since then
the strongest and handsomest chairs used in Eng-
land and America, and to some extent in Ger-
many, have been Chippendale chairs made in
the master's own shop or reproduced from them
and from Chippendale's book.
Thomas Chippendale was a genius in the
workroom. Chinese and Rococo, Dutch and
Gothic, were all alike to him. From bad de-
signs, as well as from good designs, made by
architects as well as by professional furniture
designers, he produced models that are marvel-
ous for beauty of proportion and comfort in use.
One may rail at the fragility of cheap American-
made Louis XV and Sheraton chairs, but of
24
I. Rococo Chippen-
dale chair at $55.
2. Hepplewhite arm-chair
at $63.
3. Hogarth arm-chair,
with hand - painted
splat, at $85.
4. Queen Anne arm-chair
at $33-
5. Adam arm-chair at
$50.
6. Colonel Lyon rib-
bon-back Chippendale
arm-chair at $90.
7. Louis XVI tapestry-
covered arm-chair at
$700.
8. Chinese Chippendale
arm-chair at $55.
9. Ladder-back Chip-
pendale chair, $35.
HOME FURNISHING 25
Chippendale chairs even the faintest transat-
lantic echoes seldom lack apparent as well as
real solidity.
Distinctive of Chippendale chairs is the open-
work of the splat in the back. Chairs of the
Hogarth and Queen Anne type, that preceded
Chippendale, have a solid splat like Nos. 3
and 4. No. 4 is a particularly simple model
and can be used in any spacious room with
Classic background. Of Queen Anne and Chip-
pendale chairs in general, it may be said that
the architectural background of the former tends
to be French, and of the latter Italian, with
heavy architectural ornament in the form of
mantels and pediments and tabernacles in bold
wood or plaster relief.
While the accepted name for the decorative
style that prevailed during the reigns of George
I and George II is Georgian, the principal style
of the period of George III is Adam. The
Scotch architects, the four brothers Adam, of
whom Robert was chief, dominated not only
architecture but also interior furnishings. Rob-
ert Adam was a Classic of the Classics, drawing
his inspiration direct from ancient Roman orig-
inals, particularly the palace of Diocletian at
Spalatro, which he described and illustrated in
a book of wonderful drawings. It is stupid
26 HOME FURNISHING
to talk of a Hepplewhite or a Sheraton style, as
is often done. Heppkwhite was a maker and
Sheraton a designer of furniture who followed
where Robert Adam led. It was theirs to take,
not give, orders, and Hepplewhite, as well as
other London cabinet-makers, was only too
happy to be allowed to execute the designs of
the distinguished architect.
Architecture and furniture of the Adam pe-
riod were characterized by lightness and grace.
Straight lines took the place of curves and
scrolls. Simple compo-ornamented columns and
pilasters formed the framework and Greco-
Roman floral wreaths, ribbon-tied husks and
drapery festoons were favorite motifs. Delicate
paneled ornamentation, sometimes in compo,
sometimes painted by artists like Angelica
Kauffmann, and like Pergolesi, was freely em-
ployed.
Noticeable about Adam and Hepplewhite
and Sheraton chairs is the light construction as
compared with those of Chippendale. They
are smaller and lighter and look comparatively
less solid than they really are. Moreover, there
is no longer any splat running down the middle
of the back into the frame of the seat and making
for strength. The Classic backs, as illustrated
by Nos. 2 and 5, rested on the side posts only.
HOME FURNISHING 27
But it is noteworthy that the only chairs Chip-
pendale built for Robert Adam came through
absolutely Chippendale in construction and feel-
ing, though completely Classic in line and after
designs by Adam.
Characteristic of Hepplewhite are his chair
backs shaped like shields or hearts. His favorite
legs were square, tapering down almost to fra-
gility, but often strengthened by the spade foot.
Ornamental forms that he loved, sometimes
painted, sometimes in low relief, were ribbons,
flowers, husks, urns, and the wheat ear that is as
characteristic of him as the lyre is of Sheraton.
Sheraton's carved forms were also very sim-
ple and very conventional the cornice dentil,
the Greek egg and dart, the laurel, the berry.
His inlays were medallions, fans, vases, shells.
His chair backs were often composed of four,
five or seven uprights, slender and variously
shaped. His chair legs were slender and taper-
ing, and sometimes round but usually square.
The arms of his armchairs started high on the
back, thus supporting it and rendering unneces-
sary the heavy splat of Chippendale.
The French style contemporary with that of
Adam was Louis XVI, also a Classic style. No.
7, a superior model in dull gold, with seat and
back upholstered in real Aubusson tapestry, and
28 HOME FURNISHING
with tapestry cushions on the arms, costs $700.
It is well worth the price, but of course is only
suited for a very fine interior. There are many
Louis XVI chairs in gilt or enamel or walnut
of exquisite lines and beautiful construction at
comparatively small prices, suitable for either
French or English Classic interiors.
Of the furniture most commonly regarded as
Colonial, much is not only post-Colonial but
post-eighteenth century. In these late Colonial
pieces the Empire feeling is strong, and there is
a marked similarity to the contemporaneous fur-
niture of Germany, called Biedermeier by the
Germans. An example of this late Colonial
style is the so-called Abraham Lincoln chair used
by the Lincolns in their home at Springfield,
111., from 1844 to 1 86 1. It was finished in ebony
with painted decorations in gold. The repro-
duction of the side chair sells for $15; arm chair
to match is $20.
All of the chairs illustrated in this chapter
were "made in America." This does not mean
that we are beating out the English at their own
game. Far from it. For many years to come
they will continue to send us chairs in the vari-
ous English styles. For the making of a good
chair, like the weaving of a good tapestry, de-
pends more on the workman than on the design,
HOME FURNISHING 29
and the best English workmen stay in England,
while our American boys become clerks rather
than learn a trade. But we have at last reached
the point where only the very best English is bet-
ter than or as good as our best.
Especially interesting to visit are the furniture
factories of the English town of High Wycombe,
not far from London. They use machinery less
and men more than on the American side of
the Atlantic. And they have methods and tra-
ditions of workmanship that are invaluable. But
they certainly do concentrate their attention on
chairs. I had not been in the burg ten minutes
before I was invited to visit an ancient inn that
enshrines the local Palladium the Beaconsfield
chair. It seems that the first time Disraeli ran
for Parliament, he ran in this district and was so
confident of election that he had a big chair
built in which as victor he might be carried
around in triumph by his faithful supporters.
Alas! He not only lost the election but appa-
rently forgot about the chair or no longer liked
the idea of it. At any rate he never claimed it.
':*<. .-'-:
'j *
Ill
ORIENTAL RUGS
MYSTERIOUS and fascinating are the
tales that have been woven around
Oriental rugs for the benefit or delu-
sion of Occidental customers.
"This royal Fantasieh," chants the itinerant
auctioneer, "consumed thirty years in the weav-
ing, and was given as a present over two centu-
ries ago to Harun-al-Raschid, Shah of Mesopo-
tamia, by his faithful subjects of Bagdad. On it
he knelt and prayed thrice each day, and like-
wise his successors for five generations, until
the Sultan of Turkey overran the land. Then
the rug went to Constantinople to adorn the pal-
ace of the Sultan, whence it was secretly taken
by an escaping slave and sold for thrice five
thousand francs to a rich rug merchant who
saw at once its extraordinary preciousness.
"Now what am I offered for this treasure of
treasures, this priceless jewel? Five thousand
dollars, do I hear? No? But ladies and gentle-
men, it is the opportunity of a lifetime. Never
again," etc., etc., ad nauseam, until finally some-
30
i. A superb Daghestan, 6 feet by 4 feet 6, at $165.
HOME FURNISHING 31
body buys the pearl of pearls for five or six hun-
dred dollars, making glad the heart of the itin-
erant auctioneer, because he has doubled his
money.
Not all rug auctions are faked or even faky.
This is the regular and legitimate method for
disposing in New York City of collections of
antiques and special pieces. But it is also the
common method by which imperfect rugs and
rugs of poor quality are palmed off on the public
by dealers who flit from store to store, with
occasional changes of name. Whoever buys of
such dealers is sure always to pay dear for his
purchases and frequently to be fleeced.
Few Americans have an expert knowledge of
Oriental rugs; and indeed to few would such
knowledge be of value. It is required only for
the purchase of important antiques.
But an acquaintance with the types and prices
of rugs to be found in better-class shops through-
out the United States will both save the pur-
chaser money and enable him to buy rugs ap-
propriate in pattern, color and size to the rooms
they are to adorn.
THE SIZES AND SHAPES OF RUGS
The question of size is vital. Some of the best
decorative firms in the country advise against
32 HOME FURNISHING
the use of large rugs in any private residence.
They point to the fact that the smaller sizes are
less expensive, more durable and more truly
artistic in pattern and weave and feel, being the
natural product of the native weaver. Formerly
the only large rugs woven were for mosques or
the throne room of governor or shah or sultan.
The common sizes of other rugs were from
3 x 6 to 4 x 12.
Now, in response to the Western demand,
large rugs nearly square 9 x 12, 10 x 12, 1 1 xi3,
12 x 14, etc. are produced in quantities at the
rug-weaving centers. Their size makes heavier
construction imperative and increases the diffi-
culty of weaving, as well as the amount of yarn
necessary, thus doubling or tripling the price
per foot.
Furthermore, in the small sizes, rugs whose
colors have been mellowed by time genuine an-
tiques can still be procured at prices that are
not prohibitive. Only millionaires can afford
antique large rugs.
At the Marquand sale in New York City in
1902 a Fifteenth Century Persian rug (6x12
and of wool, not silk) sold for $38,000 over
$500 a square foot.
Because many antiques are admirable is no
reason for denying the merit of modern rugs.
HOME FURNISHING 33
There are more rugs of high quality being woven
to-day than ever before, and this is due princi-
pally to the fact that there is a better market
for them than ever before. The United States
alone imports five million dollars' worth a year
about three and a half millions before the duty
is paid. No wonder that the Shah of Persia
nurses the rug-weaving industry tenderly, be-
stowing orders and honorable rewards on suc-
cessful rug merchants and inflicting the most
severe penalties for the use of aniline dyes or
anything calculated to bring Persian rugs into
disrepute.
Very fine large rugs are woven in northwest-
ern Persia and are marketed mostly at Tabriz.
Names attached to different types of these rugs
are: Tabriz, Gorevan, Scrape, Herez, etc.
Other large rugs of high quality are those from
Kerman in southern Persia and from Khorassan
in northeastern Persia.
Oriental rugs vary materially in size, shape,
design and color effects, and this variety offers
a wide field for selection for various uses. There
are Oriental rugs appropriate for use in rooms
of almost any decorative style and color treat-
ment, and rugs particularly appropriate for use
in the different rooms of the country house.
34 HOME FURNISHING
This phase of the subject is discussed with some
care elsewhere.
SOME PERSIAN TYPES
The finest rugs in the world are woven in
Persia. For centuries Persian rugs have been
the pride of Shah and provincial governors, and
just as in France, at the Gobelins, tapestries of
wonderful fineness and surpassing design are
woven for the French government, so in the
palaces of Persia reproductions of the famous
rugs of old, as well as original creations true in
every detail to the traditions of a glorious past,
are woven without regard for cost as gifts for
mosques and for powerful friends, and as treas-
ures to bequeath to posterity.
Some writers have lamented the fact that at
the two principal Persian rug-weaving centers,
Tabriz and Sultanabad, the industry is under
European control. Their lamentations hardly
seem justified, inasmuch as it is in these two
cities that more has been done to raise the stand-
ard of materials, dyes, and designs than any-
where else, and the improvement in qualities
has been rewarded by a constantly increasing
foreign demand.
To the high quality of Kerman wool is due
2. A Samarkand, 10 feet by 5 feet 4, at $185.
3. A particularly fine Feraghan, 10 feet by 5, at $320.
4. A Kazak, 6 feet by 3 feet 8, at $80.
HOME FURNISHING 35
part of the fame of Kerman rugs, that are also
distinguished for boldness and originality of de-
sign, in which were formerly introduced birds,
beasts and even human figures, as well as flowers,
trees and landscapes. To-day the patterns are
mostly floral, and the birds and flowers are
shown in relief like the French rugs that they
inspired over two centuries ago not flat as in
most other Orientals. The warp is usually of
cotton, the filling of wool, the pile short, and
the weave fine, the colors delicate but at the
same time rich and soft. Large Kermans sell
for from $4 to $15 a foot, small ones from $2.50
a foot up. Care should be taken not to con-
fuse these Persian Kermans with the Turkish
Kermans woven at Oushak, which are of a
greatly inferior type. It is probably to avoid
this that Persian Kermans are frequently called
Kermanshahs.
Tabriz rugs come in small and large sizes and
are sold for from $2.50 to $10 a square foot. They
are well worth the price, for they excel in in-
tricacy of design and in fineness of weave, the
average number of knots to the inch being about
200 but not infrequently 300 or 400. The wool
used to form the pile, and the cotton of the
web, are of the best quality; the colors are
durable, and the workmanship is of the highest
36 HOME FURNISHING
type. For durability they are unsurpassed,
although many prefer the softer surface and
more pliant body that go with coarser and more
loosely spun yarns and longer pile. Tabrizes
bear the same relation to other Oriental rugs
that Gobelin tapestries bear to Flemish, and
while executed with fidelity to the best Persian
traditions, show a tendency toward that calcu-
lated beauty which is characteristic of the Occi-
dent rather than of the Orient. The patterns
are brilliantly harmonious, and usually have in
the center a medallion on an ivory field, with
the corners of the field and the wide borders
overrun with florals exquisitely fine in detail.
These are florals that do not lose by comparison
with those of the finest Kerman rugs from which
they draw their inspiration. The colors are deli-
cate pastel pinks, greens and blues.
Sehna is famous for small and medium rugs
that excel in fineness of weave. The pile of
Sehnas is clipped surprisingly close and the sur-
face is like velvet to the eye. The most usual
patterns show a white or ivory field covered
with small cones, also called pears, or palms, or
river loops, or crown jewels, or flames. The
border consists of stripes, of which the middle
one is the widest and bears the Herati design
two lanceolate leaves framing a rosette. The
HOME FURNISHING 3?
dominant colors are red and yellow. Small
Sehnas are worth from $2 to $6 a foot.
Modern Feraghans, named after a Persian
province near Sultanabad, sell from $i to $2
a foot, and are of coarse weave, with pile
of medium height, and with cotton warp and
filling. The Herati design is characteristic of
the field, and the dominant colors are dark green,
blue and red.
TURKISH AND RUSSIAN TYPES
Oushak, with a population of over 100,000, is
one of the most important rug-weaving centers
in Turkey. As at Tabriz and Sultanabad the
industry is principally under European control.
The large, thick, coarse rugs woven here, with
wool filling and warp, are sold in several quali-
ties under various names Kermans, Ghiordes,
Yaprak, Sparta, Gulistan, Enile, etc., some in
Persian, some in Turkish, and some in European
designs. Prices per foot range according to the
fineness of weave and intricacy of pattern from
seventy-five cents for Ghiordes rugs to $4 for
Sivas rugs. The colors are strong greens, green-
blues, reds, maroons.
Anatolia is another name for Asia Minor.
Under the name Anatolian are sold small odds
38 HOME FURNISHING
and ends of every variety of Turkish weave. Im-
perfect pieces 2 x 4 or smaller are sometimes
offered as low as fifty cents a foot.
Ghiordes, home of the Ghiordes knot that
ties the pile of most Oriental rugs the other
rug knot being the Sehna and said to be Gior-
dium, the home of the knot that was cut by Alex-
ander the Great, is a Turkish city which has
long been famous for prayer rugs. Ghiordes
antiques are among the most cherished pieces in
European museums. The contrast of the solid-
blue or rich red, or pale yellow arched field,
with the alternating colors of the border stripes,
is fascinating. Florals in form mid-way be-
tween the straight lines of Caucasian designs and
the curves of Persian break up the border
stripes into tiny blocks of color that balance in
a wonderful manner. Reproductions of antique
Ghiordes, Kulah, Melez, Bergamo, Ladik and
other small Turkish rugs that had a high repu-
tation in the past are still produced, but are
often inferior in quality of wool, fineness of
weave, and delicacy of coloring. Ghiordes an-
tiques sell for from $10 a foot up ; modern repro-
ductions, from $i to $3.
Many Americans some of them in the trade,
at that seem not to be aware that many of the
finest Oriental rugs are woven in Russian Cen-
5. A Ghiordes prayer rug, 6 feet
by 4 feet 2, at $100.
6. A Mosul, 6 feet 4 by 4, at
$80.
7. A Bokhara, 5 feet by 3,
at {30.
8. A Daghestan, 6 feet by 4 feet
6, at $165.
HOME FURNISHING 39
tral Asia and in the Russian Caucasus. All of
these rugs are pronouncedly geometrical in de-
sign, with straight-line figures and motifs pre-
dominating. This differentiates them definitely
from most Persians, and particularly from Ker-
mans.
Bokhara, capital of the Khanate of Bokhara
in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan, was
merged into the Russian empire in 1868.
Bokhara rugs in medium sizes sell for from $3
to $5 a foot and are well worth the money. The
wool is of high quality and the pile is short. The
web is entirely of wool and frequently extends
three or four inches beyond the pile at the ends,
where it is finished with long fringe. The weave
is fairly fine and the shapes tend toward square-
ness.
Samarkand, a city in Russian Central Asia,
234 miles by rail east of Bokhara and only a
little over 300 miles west of the present Chinese
frontier, attained its greatest magnificence at the
close of the fourteenth century, as the capital of
Tamerlane the Great, who adorned it with the
"grandest monuments of Islam." Henry Nor-
man calls it the most interesting city in the
world after Athens, Rome, and Constantinople.
Samarkand rugs are almost exclusively Chinese
in pattern, with fretted field that bears from
40 HOME FURNISHING
one to five equilateral or round medallions. In
these, Chinese pheasants or dragons or flowers
often appear. Yellow, that is as typically Chi-
nese as green is typically Turkish, is the dom-
inant color, with reds and blues that form superb
contrasts and harmonies. The web is usually
of cotton and the weave is fairly fine. Samar-
kands 5x9 sell for about $2 a foot.
Daghestan, Kabistan, Derbend, Chichi, Shir-
van, Kazak and other Caucasian rugs are woven
in the Caucasus, a Russian isthmus six hundred
miles wide, between the Black and the Caspian
seas, and connecting Europe with Asia. A large
part of the territory represents conquests made
during the nineteenth century from Persia
and Turkey. Just as nature abhors a vacuum,
so Caucasian rugs abhor the curves characteris-
tic of Kerman and other Persian rugs. Cauca-
sian rugs represent the highest development of
the straight line designs with which primitive
peoples always start to interpret nature forms.
Here we have mosaic-like patterns that are as
interesting as they are intricate, and that occa-
sionally combine symbolism with interpretation
Noah's ark, animals, and human figures not to
be mistaken, set in frames that are now purely
geometrical, though once also alive.
HOME FURNISHING 41
Both filling and warp of Daghestan rugs are
of wool, and the weave is fine. They come only
in small sizes often in prayer-rug patterns
and sell for $2 a square foot. Their usual colors
are ivory and grayed reds, blues, yellows and
greens, that do not shade into each other but
sharply accentuate the preciseness of the tile and
trellis effects, stars, squares, hexagons, and other
geometrical forms.
Kabistan rugs are finer in weave, shorter in
pile, and more interesting in design than Da-
ghestans. The color contrasts are less violent, and
crude bird and animal shapes are frequently
introduced. The individuality of Kabistan rugs
is remarkable, exact duplication of pattern being
rare. Each is the product of the imagination of
a weaver who loves his task. The average price
per foot is $3.
Small Anatolian silk rugs, usually with cotton
web, bring from $1.75 a foot up.
Persian silk rugs, frequently with silk web,
bring from $7 to $60 a foot according to fine-
ness, weight and size. I saw a most interesting
Tabriz silk rug lox 15 feet in the warerooms of
a New York importer, which was being held for
$10,000, and was well worth the money. It is
easy to go wrong in the purchase of silk rugs,
42 HOME FURNISHING
as there are numerous mercerized and wood silk
imitations, many of them not even hand-knotted.
These imitations are seldom beautiful and never
durable.
IV
DOCTORED RUGS
AMERICANS seem to be crazy over the
word "antique." They clamor for an-
tique furniture, antique silver, antique
jewelry, antique linen, antique Oriental rugs;
and in most cases they expect to pick them up
"for a song" from some itinerant auctioneer or
from some dealer in antiques who has a nasty
little shop on an obscure side street, and whose
white hair and evident age give them confidence
to believe that his stock consists of heirlooms.
The amateur collector of antiques is almost
without exception a victim easy to pluck. En-
thusiasm and ignorance combine to make him
credulous, and by the time his mistakes have
educated him, his collecting days are over and
his collection goes to the auctioneer for redis-
tribution.
The difficulties of the American who tries
to make a notable collection of antique Oriental
rugs are almost insurmountable. The impor-
tant pieces were long ago locked up in the mu-
seums and palaces of Europe, and the few ex-
43
44 HOME FURNISHING
amples in good condition that come occasionally
on the market are snapped up at astoundingly
high prices.
Small antique Caucasian, Mosul and Anato-
lian rugs from twenty-five to one hundred years
old are still to be procured if you are willing
to pay the price; but most of the so-called an-
tiques have had merely the first glare of new-
ness rubbed off and less than ten years have
passed since the wool left the backs of the sheep.
It must be admitted that many dealers through
ignorance or cupidity encourage this "accursed
thirst for antiquity" and make a practice of ad-
vertising antiques at prices that would be low
for new rugs. Out of ten advertisements in
New York newspapers, one Sunday last winter,
by houses of high standing, six announced an-
tique rugs; but, as a matter of fact, there was
not a single genuine antique in any one of the
offerings, and many of the so-called antiques
were not even well washed, or else had not been
washed at all.
Yet it is hardly fair to put all the blame on
the dealers. It is the attitude of the purchasers
that makes continued deception possible almost
inevitable. People demand antiques and abso-
lutely insist on regarding as antique any rug the
colors of which are subdued. And when it
I. Serebend, 6 feet by 4, with pronounced abrashes, at $85.
2. Modern Bokhara, 4 feet by 2, improved by washing,
at {28.
3. Rare antique Guenje at $550.
HOME FURNISHING 45
comes to weaving romantic history into a rug,
they are quite the equal of any rug salesman.
They buy to-day a Bokhara that not only is fresh
from the loom but is sold as such, and in a few
months after dust and dirt have dulled it, they
call the attention of friends and acquaintances
to "this extraordinary royal Bokhara (royal
sounds well) that it is now impossible to dupli-
cate, since the introduction of aniline dyes and
the commercial spirit into the Orient."
There are no "faked antiques" that an expert
cannot quickly detect, but when I write "expert"
I mean expert in the full sense of the word not
some amateur, who, having read Mumford, and
listened to the yarns of Orientals as ignorant as
himself, imagines that he is an authority but
a man who has lived with rugs for a generation,
studying their moods and expressions under
varying lights and varying atmospheric condi-
tions, stroking their faces until his fingers be-
come sensitive to age and quality of wool, buy-
ing and selling them until his judgment of values
is exact and formed at first glance.
People don't expect to learn all about horses
in a day. They have read enough horse-trading
stories to appreciate the fact that the only good
judge of horses is a man who has summered and
wintered with them. Why should they imagine
4
:
46 HOME FURNISHING
that some heaven-born faculty will enable them
to outwit the wily itinerant dealer in Oriental
rugs?
Unfortunately, pseudo-experts are many and
most of them seem to thrive. A few weeks ago,
one of them, a man of considerable general cul-
ture and decorative knowledge, who lectures in-
terestingly about rugs and also adds to his in-
come by assisting his clients in the purchase of
rugs, entered one of the largest rug stores in the
country. He wanted an antique about lox 15
for the dining-room of one of his customers, and
his ideas as regards color and design were def-
inite. Antiques lox 15 are not to be met with
every day; but it chanced that the dealer had
one that he could guarantee to be at least 200
years old. The pseudo-expert was delighted.
He caressed the soft pile with enthusiasm, he
pointed with delight to the various evidences
of age and then he asked the price.
"$16,000," was the answer. Mr. Pseudo-
Expert gasped. "Why, I only expected to pay
about $300," he said, when he finally realized
that he had heard aright. The dealer can hardly
be blamed for seizing the opportunity to give
him a much-needed lesson on values, and this
pseudo-expert departed a sadder, but a wiser
man. Before leaving, however, he selected a
HOME FURNISHING 47
modern washed rug. It will be interesting to
know whether he was as honest with his client
as the dealer had been with him.
Another pseudo-expert brought his clients
with him and under his chaperonage they looked
at a large number of rugs of the desired size.
They finally picked out a medium-grade Tabriz
not over six months old and in unusually bright
colors.
"Are you sure that this is a genuine antique?"
asked the clients.
"Indeed it is," responded the pseudo-expert;
"it is one of the most superb Ispahans I ever saw,
three hundred years old if it is a day."
To acquire an expert knowledge of Oriental
rugs from books or magazine articles is impos-
sible, and no set of rules can be laid down for the
guidance of purchasers that will guarantee them
against deception.
One point, however, I would emphasize again
and again. Rug values are staple and there are
no bargains to be had. If you want an antique
you must pay an antique price, and if you want
a modern rug of high quality you must pay pro-
portionately. The only cheap Oriental rugs are
imperfect ones.
A friend said to me the other day, with horror
in his voice:
48 HOME FURNISHING
"You don't mean to tell me that you would
actually advise people to buy 'washed rugs'?"
My answer was promptly, "Yes."
First and foremost comes the fact that the
colors of unwashed modern rugs are too crude
and the contrasts too violent for Occidental
taste. Like the ancient Greek, the Persian loves
strong tones and staccato effects.
But American architects and decorators in-
sist on soft tones, elusive harmonies and subtle
gradations. These are qualities that many an-
tique Oriental rugs possess preeminently. Cared
for tenderly through generations and never
bruised with nail-studded shoe heels, their faces
have grayed variously, losing sharpness of out-
line and of contrast, and acquiring the kind of
living luster that is seen on the flank of a well-
groomed horse.
Unfortunately, the price of small antiques is
exceedingly high, while that of large antiques
is prohibitive. This is the cause of the attempt
to finish modern rugs in antique tones.
The first washing done in Constantinople was
of the roughest kind. The rug was plastered
with a mixture of mud, lime, and sulphuric acid
and then rolled up until the mordants did their
work.
The desired effect was quickly gained and for
HOME FURNISHING 49
a time some buyers were delighted at the number
of large antiques on the market. But before
long it was discovered that the process left to
the rug only a few months of life, and many
dealers had the doubtful pleasure of redeeming
spoiled rugs.
This put a quietus on rug washing temporarily
and would probably have ended it forever if the
American demand had not continued insistent.
American buyers came to Constantinople with
instructions to purchase antiques at any cost, and,
if necessary, to go into the interior where most
of them are about as helpless as a South Sea
Islander on the Bowepy and this not through
any fault of their own, but because the Oriental
has ways of doing business that are distinctly
un-American.
What part these American buyers took in put-
ting rug washing on a proper basis is difficult to
say. Several of those most actively concerned
never mention washed rugs except in a whisper,
while others say that they have merely followed
the example of the pioneers.
Be that as it may, to-day rug washing is a
flourishing industry in New York as well as in
Constantinople and in Persia, and of the vege-
table-dyed rugs sold in this city practically all
of the larger ones and 50 per cent of the smaller
50 HOME FURNISHING
ones have been washed. Aniline-dyed rugs are
seldom washed because no method has yet been
discovered to "antiquate" them successfully.
Aniline dyes do not grow old gracefully and
the consistent opinion of experts is that the con-
tinued use of aniline chemical or coal-tar
dyes would have ruined the industry. Aniline-
dyed rugs, instead of improving with age, "rust"
and grow blotchy. The wool out of which ani-
line dyeing cuts the oil grows constantly stiffer
and harder and dryer. There is no life in it, and
the difference in "feel" is apparent even to the
amateur and is conclusive to the expert. The
least trustworthy rugs in this respect are those
from India and from Turkey, but in the latter
country, at least, the condition of things is rap-
idly improving. The frequent use of European
designs has also injured the reputation of rugs
from Turkey and India.
Under no circumstances, then, purchase a rug
dyed with anilines. Consult reputable dealers
who can "make good" if themselves deceived, as
will sometimes happen, and make sure that the
blues are made from indigo, yellows from Per-
sian berries, greens from yellow and blue, reds
from madder, etc., etc.
If the dealer shows you rugs at the staple
prices given in Chapter III, you are right to
HOME FURNISHING 51
assume that they are modern. If the tones are
soft and agreeable, you may also assume that
they have been washed.
Why some dealers continue to deceive their
customers on the subject of washed rugs I can-
not understand. If people only knew that
proper 'washing is a legitimate form of finishing
and does not injure the fabric, they would be
glad to pay the extra price that washed rugs
cost from five cents to one dollar a foot, a fair
average price being twelve and one-half cents
a foot. And they would not be tempted to search
for "antiques at a song" among the badly washed
and second-class stocks of the itinerant auc-
tioneer.
Washing is a most interesting process that re-
quires skill and experience of the highest type,
and that has been brought to great perfection
in the United States. It not only grays either
white-grays or black-grays according to the con-
ditions the colors, and hatches them; it also
removes the surplus color and sets the rest. In
other words, after washing, vegetable colors are
there to stay.
It is, I believe, still a favorite diversion for
"cozy-corner editors" gravely to inform their
readers that the way to test a rug for aniline
dyes is to rub it with a handkerchief that has
52 HOME FURNISHING
been wet in the mouth ; if any loose color comes
off, the rug must be wrong.
The opposite is true. Aniline dyes are com-
paratively fast and the test you can easily try
for yourself on any American carpet. But many
vegetable-dyed rugs run when water is applied,
while Bokharas "bleed like a stuck pig." To
prevent them from running, they must be care-
fully washed.
A case in point is that of a rich merchant who
bought for his dining-room a fine Gorevan rug
that by some strange chance had not been
washed. One day somebody spilt a cup of cof-
fee on it and made a nasty splotch of colors. The
merchant promptly sent the rug back to the
dealer and the dealer put it up to the importer as
an instance of aniline dyes.
This, of course, was promptly denied, the
facts were explained, and the rug was sent to
the washer who eliminated the surplus dyes,
leaving the rest fast, and at the same time mel-
lowing the tones. The rug has been back in
that dining-room now for five years and is the
pride of the owner's heart.
Avoid badly washed rugs, or, if you do buy
them, do not pay more than they are worth.
All washings are not successful. Sometimes two
rugs similar in weave and color will be differ-
HOME FURNISHING 53
ently affected. One will come out in soft tones
with a velvet surface, the other with colors
blotched and mixed. The value of the first may
be doubled, of the second cut in two.
I saw a Tabriz the other day that was worth
$200 before washing. After washing, the dealer
offered it to me for $20, and this was not be-
cause the fabric had in any way been injured.
The wear was still there and the "feel" of the
surface was good; but the colors were piebald.
Another Tabriz, landed here, that cost about
$ 1,000, was so much improved by washing as to
sell quickly for $2,500.
Rugs that are particularly dangerous for the
average customer are those the fabric of which
has been injured in the washing. This is due
to cheap washing as well as to washers who do
not understand the business. There are im-
porters and dealers not many who crowd
down the price they pay for washing below a
living scale and then seem surprised because
their customers complain a year or two later.
Some people say they can tell a washed rug
because washing is only skin deep. This is an-
other fallacy. Washing is sometimes skin deep,
but it often affects the whole depth of the pile.
With antique rugs it is exactly the same. Age
touches only the surface of some but permeates
54 HOME FURNISHING
the whole of others, according to the depth of
the pile, the fineness of the weave, the way in
which the rug has been used, etc.
The first requisite in a fine rug is life. Here
the analogy with furs is interesting. Most of us
need no education or training to make us un-
derstand that if, in curing, the oil and the life
have been taken out of a sealskin or sable, irre-
parable harm has been done. With rugs it is
quite the same. If the wool has not been washed
and dyed in the most perfect manner, the weaver
may exercise his utmost skill, may express in
the most spirited manner his interpretation of
a pattern famous for centuries the result will
be disappointing, the surface of the rug will be
harsh and unsympathetic to the eye and to the
hand.
If you stroke the back of a self-respecting cat
that with indefatigable care keeps its fur licked
into glossiness, the touch of the fur sends electric
thrills through the fingers; and if, in cold dry
weather, in spite of remonstrances, you rub
a fine Oriental rug against the nap, actual elec-
tric sparks will be developed.
This is one of the most important tests of
quality in a rug. The feeling of electric smooth-
ness should result from rubbing with the nap,
of spirited remonstrance from rubbing against it.
HOME FURNISHING 55
This, however, is not a test for age. It is
true that as the years pass not only do the colors
of a rug that is loved and cared for grow softer,
but the nap also develops richer life a super-
silkiness to look and touch.
It is also true that years bring to the surface
the inner characteristics of a rug, and make it
an individuality, entirely unlike any other rug
in the world when once seen, never to be for-
gotten. But just as all babies look much alike,
so infant rugs resemble each other in spite of
differences of wool, weave, color, pattern. It is
only when the abrashes appear that the rug can
claim to have reached its majority.
WHAT IS AN ABRASH?
Abrash is a most interesting word. In Persia,
if father, son and grandson have Roman noses,
then a Roman nose is the abrash of that family.
If gluttony is characteristic of generation after
generation, then is gluttony the hereditary
abrash. If it is a strawberry mark on the left
shoulder, then the strawberry mark is an
abrash.
The abrashes of a rug are the stripes or bands
that run partially or entirely across the pile.
When seen for the first time by Americans ac-
56 HOME FURNISHING
customed to admire and insist on the death-like
uniformity that characterizes machine products,
abrashes are apt to impress them as defects, par-
ticularly if wide. It takes experience and ac-
quaintance with the art industries to grasp com-
pletely the significance and artistic value of in-
dividuality.
No two rugs are marked alike. The abrashes
in number, in width, in tone, combine themselves
in as many different ways as there are rugs. It is
possible that in some cases the abrashes are in-
tended by the weaver, but in general it may be
said that they are due to accidental variations
of wool, structure or dye. Between the wool of
different provinces great differences exist. Some
of the staples have deep serrations, others are
comparatively smooth. Between the wool of
different sheep in the same province differences
undoubtedly exist, though too small to detect
except as they manifest themselves in abrashes.
Dyeing is also responsible for abrashes. The
skein that hangs in the sun a little longer will
betray the fact in the form of an abrash. The
failure exactly to match the red of one dyeing
to the red of another will cause an abrash.
The process of washing brings out the abrashes
most interestingly. It enables the rug to achieve
its character and tell its story early, and it does
HOME FURNISHING 57
it without inflicting on the rug the infirmities
that age produces.
THE PASSION FOR ANTIQUES
Ten years ago the passion for antiques in this
country was so strong that people seemed to love
them for their imperfections rather than for
their perfections. The worm-holes in antique
furniture thrilled them with sentiment. The
dents in old silver and pewter were so many
beauty spots. The frayed fringes and worn-
down naps and ragged holes in antique rugs
were more to be cherished than fine gold.
Already the point of view is more sensible.
While an antique may be highly valued in spite
of its imperfections, the antiques that are really
competed for are those whose old age is hale and
hearty. At the Heber Bishop sale several years
ago I trembled lest enthusiasts might strive to
outbid each other for a silk Samarcand, once no-
ble, but through neglect and abuse now ragged
and threadbare. I was happily disappointed.
The rug, which is 12 feet 7 by 6 feet 4, sold for
only $225 and is hardly worth even that. Of
the seven Chinese rugs sold that day the one
that brought the highest price $2,800, in size
16 feet 8 by ii feet 3 deserved the preemi-
58 HOME FURNISHING
nence in every way. The detached figures of
the field were wonderfully delicate and dis-
played the Chinese mastery of conventional de-
sign in its highest form, while across the rug,
near the upper end, ran an abrash two feet wide,
whose paleness beautifully accentuated the
deeper tones of the rest.
Rugs should be so placed in the room as to
put the best front forward, or, rather, the one
that suits the environment best. Of course,
everybody knows that the nap of an Oriental
rug slants down, like the fur on an animal, and
that when you look against the nap of a rug the
colors are darker. Ordinarily, in viewing a
rug, one stands back to the light and looks against
the nap, the darker side being considered the
more beautiful. But as first impressions count
most and as the rug in a reception-room is most
often seen as one enters from the hall, it is usually
desirable to let the best face of the rug be seen
from there.
However, the color scheme of the room some-
times makes the lighter coloring the one to bring
forward. There is one man of exquisite taste
and fine discrimination who not long ago, being
shown an antique Herez silk rug fourteen feet
square for $7,000, had it sent to his house and
placed in the room where it was to have its
HOME FURNISHING 59
home. But it was no sooner placed than he saw
that it was too dark for the draperies and up-
holstery. He was about to send it back when
the thought occurred to turn the rug around
so that the lighter side would be the one most
observed. The result was harmony.
While people should be praised rather than
blamed for exercising their own taste when
they have any they should make the effort to
acquire familiarity with objects of art before
posing as connoisseurs or investing large sums
on their own judgment. It was a young man of
considerable decorative experience who rejected
positively the rug that the salesman recommend-
ed for the reception-room of his own home and
his wife was just as positive in the rejection as
he. To suit them was difficult. For twelve
months they came in to look whenever a fine
Persian about 7x18 arrived. At the end of the
year the salesman one day showed them the iden-
tical rug that he had first recommended. The
experience of the year had done its work. They
had seen so many rugs as to be capable of form-
ing an intelligent opinion for themselves. The
rug was a Kerman that had been carefully
washed, and they paid $800 for it. It suited its
Louis XV environment perfectly.
60 HOME FURNISHING
REPAIRING RUGS
When rugs are injured they should be prompt-
ly repaired and by the most highly skilled pro-
fessional. If the web wears off at the end or
at the selvage at the side, so that the adjacent
knots of the pile loosen and begin to pull out,
the missing knots should be promptly restored
and the missing web replaced, and the pile care-
fully sewn down all around the outside of the
rug to prevent ravelling. Obstinate inkstains
are removed only by slipping the pile of the rug
down flat to the web and carefully pulling out
the knots from the back of the rug and inserting
new knots.
It often happens that rugs must be cut down
to fit rooms or spaces for which they are too
large, or badly injured sections must be replaced
or cut out. This is work that can be successfully
done only by those experienced in the weaving
of rugs. They must also have the suitable ma-
terials, not only yarns of similar wool, but yarns
that match in color, and when the rug is an old
one it is often difficult in modern wools to make
an exact match.
It is perhaps needless to say that the wools
employed for mending should be vegetable
dyed. In sewing together the parts of a rug
c.
O
I'
HOME FURNISHING 61
that have been cut down it is customary to em-
ploy black linen thread waxed. In repairing
a hole, where web as well as pile is gone, the
first step is to insert new warp threads, sewing
them far back into the rug above and below.
Then new knots are tied and new filling threads
inserted, repeating the process that was em-
ployed in the first weaving.
HOW TO CLEAN THEM
The care of a fine rug is everything. Just as
thoroughbred racers have luxury and affection
lavished upon them, so thoroughbred rugs
should be treated gently and tenderly. The
broom should be used daily on them and they
should be swept with the nap. Every third day,
after the sweeping, sawdust that has been slightly
moistened should be sprinkled over the rug,
which should then be gone over with a carpet-
sweeper. Be careful to have the sweeping pre-
cede the application of sawdust, as otherwise
the moisture will turn some of the dust into mud
that, caking itself in the threads, will ravel the
fibers. Once a week rugs should be taken out on
the lawn, spread out face down and then gently
tapped gently, mind with a flat rattan beater.
Fine rugs, like razors and people, too re-
::*.
s, ' If '-; " ':>
62 HOME FURNISHING
quire rest. By no means leave rugs in use during
the summer. When the warm weather ap-
proaches have them taken up, carefully cleaned,
and sent to cold storage. The process of clean-
ing as practiced by experts is as follows: First
of all the dust is removed by the vacuum system ;
then the rug is spread on its face, liquid olive
oil soap is poured over the back, and it is gently
rubbed with a brush until a fine lather forms.
Then the same thing is done to the face of the
rug. After that, warm water is played over the
rug until it revives. After the hot shower, of
course a cold shower follows, and for about an
hour, on a concrete floor that slants slightly,
cold water runs over the surface of the rug from
sprinklers. Then, in order to take the water
out, the rug is rolled with the nap, a light
wooden roller being the tool employed. After
which the rug is spread out on the roof, face up,
for three clear days and nights. When the sun-
light has removed the last vestige of moisture,
the rug is rolled up with the nap and is ready for
storage.
COTTON WARPS
In spite of being accused of invidiousness be-
cause of the numerous errors I am obliged to
point out in what has been written by others on
HOME FURNISHING 63
the subject, I cannot refrain from asking you to
laugh with me over the statement frequently
made that:
"In the good old days Oriental rugs were en-
tirely of wool, and it is due to modern commer-
cialism that the warp is sometimes of cotton. So
look first to see if the warp is of cotton, and if it
is reject the rug."
Which, of course, is simple "rot." In some
rug-weaving districts, and particularly among
nomadic tribes where cotton is difficult to pro-
cure, webs have always been entirely of wool,
but in other districts cotton warps have been
employed since cotton was available, and are
found in the most precious museum antiques.
Cotton warps and webs are not used for cheap-
ness. They are used because they make a more
satisfactory hide for the furry nap to grow from.
Among large modern rugs, Kurdistans have a
woolen warp and almost without exception are
crooked.
The web, it must be remembered, has to stand
all the strains and stresses that come to a rug
in being rolled or folded or pulled from one
place to another. For shipment across the ocean,
large rugs are invariably folded and the folding
usually pulls them out of shape, so that it is de-
sirable for the dealer to straighten them again
64 HOME FURNISHING
before he sends them to the customer's house.
This re-shaping to symmetry is possible in most
rugs where there is no imperfection of weave,
and should be insisted on.
V
DOMESTIC RUGS
THE American is proverbially fond of the
paradoxical, and credulous before the
marvels of the faker. But obvious facts,
a knowledge of which is important in everyday
life, he is apt to distrust or despise. So that an
acquaintance of mine who sells to dealers the
product of a manufacturer of domestic rugs dis-
played considerable acumen when he said :
"There's no use telling the public the secrets
of the trade. The less they know about rugs the
better. Just give the salesman his samples and
prices and start him out on the road. If the
prices are right and the goods are right, and he
is right, he'll come back with orders. And the
less he knows about the goods the better. The
manufacturer takes care of that. It's up to the
salesman to be a good talker and a good mixer.
But if he tries to tell the local dealer his business,
he'll make more enemies than friends."
All of which has been true, and as regards
most salesmen and purchasers still is true. Last
65
66 HOME FURNISHING
week on a street-car I heard one woman say to
another: "Yes, I'm going to get a real Oriental
rug for the parlor, 9x 12, for twenty-eight dol-
lars and fifty cents at It's a Kazak."
Poor woman! Misled by an advertisement
that was not intended to mislead, and that was
put out by a firm who are scrupulous to state facts
exactly, she was about to purchase a domestic
Smyrna "made like Orientals in one piece with-
out seam," and in pattern copied from a genuine
Kazak. The fact that it was double-faced and
therefore "would wear twice as long" helped to
persuade her to prefer it to the much more ex-
pensive Turkish rugs that she had seen in a
shop where Orientals only are sold.
"It certainly is a temptation," said a salesman
in a retail rug house to me recently, "when peo-
ple have just about enough money to buy a
Smyrna,* to clinch the sale, after you have found
a pattern they like, by flopping the thing over
and pointing to the pile that backs the rug. You
don't need to tell them it will wear twice as long.
Just say, When it's worn out on the face, turn
it over and wear the back out.' '
As a matter of fact, the back of a rug wears
* Much confusion arises from the fact that domestic rugs have been
given foreign names. To make the distinction, in this chapter capital
letters are used only with the names of rugs actually made in the local-
ity designated. Thus: Donegal, Bokhara, brussels, Smyrna.
I. Wilton.
2. Axminster.
3. Brussels.
HOME FURNISHING 67
out nearly as fast as the face, and by the time
the face pulls loose the back also is gone. The
heel that scrapes the face also causes the back
to scrape against the floor. But the stain that
spoils one side does not necessarily spoil the
other, and reversing the rug frequently keeps
the colors fresh twice as long. Smyrnas should
come into favor once more.
A working knowledge of the various weaves
in domestic rugs, and their differences in ap-
pearance, price and durability, is essential to the
purchaser in deciding the question, "What kind
of a rug shall I buy?"
The principal types of domestic rugs with pile
of wool are: axminster, wilton, body brussels,
tapestry brussels, velvet, Smyrna. The principal
types of domestic flat rugs are: ingrain, terry,
rag carpet, fiber, grass.
The last three are soon disposed of. They are
all alike in weave, having coarse strips of filling
(the term commonly used in this country for
weft) that interlace with a warp of cotton strings
not close together. Rag carpets were the first
made in the United States, and the industry con-
tinued important until a generation ago. Every
village had its weaver to whom the housewives
used to bring their big balls of bright-colored
rags sewn together in long strips. As late as
68 HOME FURNISHING
1890 there were 854 rag carpet establishments
in the United States with an output of $1,714,-
480. Rag carpets are most suitable for cham-
bers and for summer cottages and come mostly
in light blues, greens, pinks, yellows, etc., with
plenty of white intermingled.
In 1841, when Erastus Bigelow introduced the
first power loom for weaving carpets, there were
thirty yarn carpet factories in the United States,
mostly weaving ingrains. Ten years later Mr.
Bigelow invented a power loom for weaving
brussels carpets. The United States is to-day
the greatest producer and consumer of rugs and
carpets in the world.
Ingrains, also called art squares, have no pile,
and in England are sometimes called kidder-
minsters after the town that had become an im-
portant center of the industry by 1735. They
are a double cloth with face pattern the reverse
of the back. Terry that is used as a filling for
rugs and stair carpeting is ingrain in solid color.
The origin of the name ingrain is interesting.
In the Middle Ages the difficulty of dyeing reds
that would be fast brought fame to successful
dyers and dye materials. The Gobelins acquired
their fame as "dyers in scarlet." They made ex-
tensive use of cochineal, an insect whose dried
body supplies a red dye. Another name for
HOME FURNISHING 69
cochineal is grain, and carpet dyed "in grain"
were famous in England for the quality of the
color. So that originally ingrain designated car-
pets in a fine red; later, carpets in any fast dye;
to-day, woolen rugs or carpets woven flat with-
out pile.
Of domestic pile rugs, the body brussels prob-
ably return most wear for the money. As the
pile consists of uncut loops, they gather little
dust and are easy to take care of. The range of
patterns is limited by the number of warps used
from two to six colors and it is impossible to
secure the happy individualism that distin-
guishes the Oriental hand-knotting. The body
brussels rug is avowedly and honestly a machine
product. It comes in every type of pattern
Oriental, French two-tone, and I even saw
one that was definitely and unfortunately Art
Nouveau.
The hide of the brussels (if for purpose of
explanation I may so call it) consists of a cotton
or jute warp and filling that interlace to hold the
loops of the woolen pile. The pile is formed by
extra warps. After each pass of the shuttle the
colors that are to show are looped over a wire
that holds them until the next pass of the shuttle
binds them in place.
Wiltons are heavy brussels, the loops of which
70 HOME FURNISHING
have been cut. In the weaving of wiltons a
knife at the end of the wire cuts the loops as it is
withdrawn, leaving a much more velvety sur-
face than in the brussels, and one in which the
tones of color play most interestingly. The fact
that all cut-pile surfaces absorb the dust readily
makes wiltons hard to clean but agreeable to
live with. Wiltons far outsell all other domestic
rugs.
The tapestry brussels is an imitation of a body
brussels invented by Richard Whytock in Eng-
land in 1831. The process is ingenious. Instead
of from two to six extra warps, but one is used.
But this one, in order to form the pattern, has
been printed in colors before weaving. The
loops are formed over a wire as in body brussels.
Velvets bear the same relation to tapestry
brussels that wiltons do to body brussels the
loops of velvets and wiltons being cut, while
tapestry and body brussels are uncut. Velvets
and tapestries lack body and the dyes are usually
inferior, as are the patterns. Many of the better-
class shops do not carry them in stock.
In brussels and wilton rugs, as I have ex-
plained, the intricacy of the pattern is limited
by the number of warps. Not so in axminsters.
The ingenious loom on which they are woven
makes it possible to insert a loop of any desired
HOME FURNISHING 71
color, at any point. The arlington axminster
comes in a wide range of colorings and designs.
The leamington axminster, in light colors for
bathrooms, comes only in small sizes.
The chenille axminster is a totally different
fabric. Like chenille curtains and Smyrna rugs,
it demands a double weaving. In the second
weaving the worsted weft (or filling) consists
of chenille braids that are bound into the web
in the usual way by the interlacing of cotton
warp and weft. Chenille axminsters come in
solid colors and two-tone effects. There is no
better domestic rug than this except the chenille
axminsters that are made only to order and in
any desired pattern. Formerly hand-knotted ax-
minsters were made in New York, profitably as
well- as artistically. The suspension of the in-
dustry was due principally to labor difficulties.
The weaving of chenille axminsters, as I have
said, is a double process. First, the chenille
braid is woven as follows: A cotton warp in
groups of from five to eight threads twists
around and binds a worsted filling. As this
fabric passes from the loom, the groups are cut
apart. The result is caterpillar-like (the French
for caterpillar being chenille) cords, fuzzy all
around. As these cords come out, each passes
into a machine that steams the fuzz soft and
72 HOME FURNISHING
forces it all to point up, thus making a thick
braid, interlaced cotton threads on one side
binding the worsted pile that extends to the
other.
In the weaving of Smyrna rugs, that are made
without seam up to 12 x 18 feet, the steaming and
flattening process is omitted and chenille cord
is used in its round condition just as it appears
in a chenille rope portiere. The result is of
course a double-faced fabric, the fur of the che-
nille being exposed on both sides of the web.
Smyrnas are not easy to keep clean, and beat-
ing them makes the fur fly. This, however, is
true of any cut pile rug and I should like to
impress the fact on the reader. Don't spoil your
rugs by harsh treatment. Get them of good
quality and sufficient body and then handle them
gently. Their construction makes them tough
for their peculiar duty, which is to resist the
wear and tear of human feet and chair feet. It
also renders them soft and agreeable to the tread.
The softness and durability are both increased
by the use of rug linings.
The fact that wilton and body brussels rugs
are woven on carpet looms in twenty-seven inch
widths, and have to be sewn together to make
the rug, detracts from their appearance for some,
and is much used as an argument against them
HOME FURNISHING 73
by manufacturers of smyrnas and chenille ax-
minsters. It is doubtful, however, if the aver-
age purchaser ever notices the seams, so exact
is the matching of the pattern and so excellent
the work done by the special carpet-sewing ma-
chine.
A strong argument in favor of domestic rugs
generally is the variety of sizes and shapes in
which most of them can be procured. Common
sizes are: single door, 18x36 inch; bureau,
21x45; 3O-inch rug, 30x60 inch; 4-4 (four-
quarter) ,3x6 feet ; sofa, 4x7 feet ; 3o-inch rack,
30x33 inch; 4-4 rack, 36x40 inch; 5-4 rack,
48 x 54 inch ; hall, 2.3 x 9 feet, 2.3 x 1 2, 2.3x1 5,
3x9, 3x12, 3x15. The most common carpet
sizes are 6x9 feet, 8.3x10.6, 9x12, 10.6x12,
11.3 x 15. Of these, the 9x 12 is the one most
used.
The term "quarter" used above is a trade sur-
vival and is still used to describe lace curtains
as well as rugs and carpets and other fabrics.
The quarter meant is a quarter of a yard, or 9
inches. A 12-4 (twelve-quarter) lace curtain is
one three yards long, a 14-4 is three and one-half
yards long, etc.
To match domestic rugs is easy because the
same pattern runs through the various sizes. If
you want to use 39x12 and two small rugs to-
74 HOME FURNISHING
gether, you can buy them all with the same
design.
A large majority of the patterns and colorings
found in body brussels and wilton rugs are
Oriental. A few only are French, or French
Americanized. Smyrnas are notable for their
imitation of the general effect of the coarser
grades of Oriental weave.
A noticeable style-tendency to-day is toward
two-tone effects solid-colored fields with bor-
der just a little lighter or just a little darker
and extremely simple a straight band, a fret,
etc. It is all in line with the general movement
in the direction of good taste that started by sub-
stituting rugs for carpeting.
The most luxurious domestic rugs are the che-
nille, axminster whole carpets, some of them
seven-eighths of an inch thick, with five-eighths
as the regular and three-eighths the least expen-
sive grade. They come without seam, and al-
though the weave is not limited as to colors, they
are sold mostly with plain 'fields, and in two-
and three-tone effects. The very cheapest grade
of this make is called agra axminster and is sold
for $8 a square yard; the first regular grade,
for $10.75 a square yard. They can be made
with curved edges and in all kinds of irregular
shapes to fit unusual conditions, and can easily
HOME FURNISHING 75
be matched to any desired tone of color. This
influences in their favor decorators who wish to
reproduce historic interiors exactly or to execute
schemes of their own with perfect harmony be-
tween all parts of the environment.
The descent toward less expensive rugs is
marked by the increased use of colored patterns.
People who want pattern in high-priced rugs
purchase Orientals.
The cheaper grade of chenille axminster, that
is sold for stock in the usual sizes, 39x12 cost-
ing $55, is also made to order in two-tone effects
up to nine feet wide for $6 a yard. Special
colors cost $7.50, and when in unusual widths,
$8.50.
The 9x12 axminster (not chenille) previ-
ously mentioned, that sells for $37.50, is made in
3-4 widths and seamed like the brussels, wilton,
tapestry brussels and velvet. It resembles the
wilton, although the weave permits an unlimited
range of colors, and a standard grade like the
arlington axminster runs a little thicker and a
little coarser than a wilton of the same price.
For general use the wilton is the rug. Most
of them are only one-fourth of an inch thick and
do not sink under the foot like rugs of higher
pile. But they are made in an immense range of
patterns and qualities to please every taste. The
76 HOME FURNISHING
saxony wilton is three-eighths of an inch thick,
imitates Orientals closely, and has a soft, flexible
back that adds to the similarity. The price of a
9x 12 is $50, and where one cannot afford an
Oriental, but wants a durable rug that resembles
an Oriental, this is the rug to buy. I recom-
mend it for libraries, dining-rooms, halls and
dens.
The so-called french wiltons, at $52.50 for a
9X 12, are not thick, but the weave is exceed-
ingly fine and the color tones delicate. The best
reproductions of Louis XV and Louis XVI pat-
terns, as well as good Oriental patterns, are
found here. For the reception-room and the
boudoir they are to be recommended.
The cheaper grades of wiltons are to be recom-
mended in proportion as they approach the
standard of these two. Many of them as low as
$30 for the 9x12 are well made, of a fair grade
of materials, and in patterns and colorings that
are not ugly. I would recommend the increased
use of wiltons in two-tone effects. If people will
crowd walls with pattern and the room with
furniture, at least allow the floor to remain neu-
tral in the Battle of the Styles.
If your purse is very limited and the rug must
stand hard wear, then buy a brussels, which in
the 9x12 size costs $27. Avoid most of the pat-
HOME FURNISHING 77
terns and colorings and choose the simplest that
you can find. Nobody will mistake a brussels
for an Oriental, but on the other hand it won't
look shabby at the end of six months like a cheap
rug with cut pile.
Smyrnas come in simplified dark and medium
Oriental patterns and colorings chiefly, and the
standard price for a 9x12 is $28.50. There
are also superior grades in two-tone and mottled
effects that are well worth their price, $42.
Do not buy a cheap Smyrna. It will prove to
be partly coarse jute and the colors will fade.
The lower you go the more complex and awful
the patterns and the fiercer the color discords
that serve to hide the imperfections of weave
and material. Tapestry brussels for $19.50, vel-
vets for $22.50 (the better grades of which are
called wilton velvets to encourage the buyer),
and art squares are the last resort of the patterns
of a generation ago. You can buy a 9x12
art square in wool for $9 and in cotton for but
no, I refuse to name the price of cotton or
printed cotton imitations of art squares. A bare
floor is at least honest and respectable.
Not that I would bar cotton from the floor.
Far from it. The cotton pile rugs, 3 x 6 at $4,
for the bathroom are attractive and fairly dura-
ble. The numerous brands of rag carpet at $18
78 HOME FURNISHING
for a 9x 12 are worthy of all respect and can
be most decoratively employed in the furnishing
of chambers. In fact, to me the rug par ex-
cellence for a simple Colonial chamber is one
of these rag carpets of the type inherited from
our ancestors.
The fiber rugs at $10.50 for a 9 x 12 and the
grass rugs at $7.50 for a 9x 12 are convenient
for use in bungalows and summer cottages and
in smaller sizes on porches; and for temporary
furnishing, or where the rugs are to be exposed
to treatment that will ruin the better qualities
quickly. Decoratively they are not long satis-
factory even when pleasing at first. They are
woven like a rag carpet with slender cotton warp
tying together the coarse filling. The elaborate
patterns sometimes produced on the grass rugs
by painting are as offensive to the nose as to the
eye.
If you are obliged to buy something cheap
and nasty, do it with your eyes open. Don't
imagine that you are cleverer at the game than
the people who are selling the goods. And don't
chase too wildly after bargains. It is true that
discontinued patterns are frequently sold at a
considerable reduction but the discontinued
patterns are not apt to be the best ones. Whether
you need a fine rug or an inexpensive one, do
HOME FURNISHING 79
not go to dealers who advertise wildly that they
are sacrificing themselves for your benefit. Dis-
trust them. Buy of dealers who have a high
reputation for regularly selling goods at a fair
price.
A SUMMARY
Body brussels, uncut pile, limited to six colors,
woven twenty-seven inches wide, seamed, very
durable, easy to take care of, and inexpensive.
Wilton, cut pile, limited to six colors, seamed,
softer, handsomer and heavier than the brussels,
but harder to clean. Tapestry, uncut pile, warp
printed before weaving; an imitation of body
brussels cheaply made for cheap trade. Velvet,
cut pile, warp printed before weaving; an imi-
tation of the wilton ; the better grades are called
wilton velvets ; the poorer grades do not deserve
house room. Ingrain, flat cloth without pile and
seamless; much pattern and little art, with a few
exceptions. The better grades of ingrain carpet-
ing called filling or terry are excellent, where
thickness is not important; used as a foundation
for rugs where the floor is bad. Axminster, cut
pile, unlimited as to the number of colors,
seamed. Chenille axminster, thick, unlimited
colors, cut pile formed by weft of chenille braid ;
in one piece without seam; the most luxurious
8o HOME FURNISHING
domestic rug, used mostly in solid and two-tone
colors. Smyrna, double-faced, cut pile formed
by weft of chenille cords; thick, but inexpensive,
without seam. Rag carpet, no pile, body formed
by thick weft, without seam. Grass and fiber,
rag carpet weave. Piece-printed tapestries and
velvets are woven plain and printed after weav-
ing.
VI
CARPETS AND CARPETING
DURING the past few years, carpets and
carpeting that cover the whole of the
floor have been treated with open abuse
or silent contempt by nearly all writers on in-
terior decoration and furnishing. Oriental rugs
have been honored with numerous magazine
articles and many books containing sumptuous
illustrations in color. Even domestic rugs, espe-
cially those produced by the arts-and-crafters,
have received their quota of kind words. But
for carpets and carpeting there was nothing but
knocks.
Many are the sins committed in the name of
sanitation and fireproofing. Lace curtains and
other draperies are banished, carpets and carpet-
ing give way to rugs or even tiles and linoleum,
wall papers are eliminated, and we are urged by
some architects to make our houses resemble
hospitals as closely as possible. Mr. Edison
looks hopefully forward to the time when con-
81
82 HOME FURNISHING
crete dwellings equipped with concrete furni-
ture can be flushed clean every morning with the
hose that will no longer be needed for protec-
tion against fire.
Nevertheless, carpets and carpeting continue
to be used in immense quantity and the industry
continues to be one of enormous importance; this
despite the fact that, owing to the long cam-
paign of vilification, many persons undoubtedly
use rugs where carpeting would be much more
attractive decoratively as well as much more
comfortable.
Forty years ago carpets were the most im-
portant part of the furnishings of an American
home. It was considered hardly respectable to
leave any part of the floor bare. Even if it was
sometimes necessary to go without draperies and
economize on mirrors and chairs and tables,
carpeting was imperative, and the selection of it
made large and important demands upon the
artistic taste of the whole family.
Illustrated on another page are patterns of
ingrain carpet that date from before the Civil
War, and that for more than half a century
have delighted the eyes and comforted the feet
of patriotic Americans. The patterns are still
popular in the rural districts and with those
who like what their grandmothers loved. The
1. Eagle Head.
2. Henry Clay.
3. Martha Washington.
HOME FURNISHING 83
names of the patterns are Henry Clay, Eagle
Head, and Martha Washington.
Henry Clay shows a huge floral conventional-
ized to the limit, and evidently draws its original
distantly from some ancient Roman floor of
marble tiles with metal inlay. Eagle Head not
only shows the two-headed bird that crowns the
arms of Russia, of Austria, and of the old Holy
Roman Empire which Napoleon superseded in
1806, but also two lyres of Classic shape and
suggestion. Martha Washington is more mod-
est and appeals to a simpler and less learned
taste.
Red and green are the two colors that form
these patterns, and the price is 75 cents a yard,
all wool (except the cotton warp) and a yard
wide.
The principal types of carpeting on sale in
the shops of the United States are ingrain at from
75 to 85 cents a yard, spool axminster at from
$1.50 to $3, Scotch chenille axminster at $4.50,
brussels at from $1.25 to $1.75, wilton at from
$2.75 to $3.50, warp-printed tapestry at 90 cents,
warp-printed velvet at from $i to $1.75, piece-
printed tapestry at from 60 to 80 cents, and
piece-printed velvet at from 85 cents to $1.10.
There is also a half-wool plain ingrain or filling
at 50 cents a yard.
84 HOME FURNISHING
Ingrain is in flat weave without pile, with
slender warp threads, and body formed by two
or three sets of heavy weft threads in pairs.
When there are two wefts the red one appears
on the face at the points where the green appears
on the back. When there are three, one of them
is always buried.
Plain ingrain or rilling is particularly useful
in refurnishing old houses that have rough and
leaky floors. Laid upon a fairly heavy carpet
lining, it is soft and comfortable to the foot and
absolutely shuts off those drafts of wind through
the floor that make many homes cold and
dangerous to the health in winter. Plain in-
grain also furnishes a good color background for
any kind of decorative scheme, and if supple-
mented with two or three small Oriental rugs in
the reception-rooms, seems even luxurious. It
is vastly to be preferred to many of the tapestries
and velvets that cost twice as much. The most
serviceable color is tan.
Brussels and tapestry carpets have a pile
formed in the loom by looping over a wire, but
left uncut and suggesting the rep surface of the
ancient and famous Brussels tapestries, but of
course much more open and less solid in struc-
ture. Wilton, velvet and (spool) axminster
carpets have a pile also formed by looping over
HOME FURNISHING 85
a wire but cut when the wire is withdrawn so
that the surface is like that of fur or of an Orien-
tal hand-knotted rug. All of these five types of
carpet are built on the same principle with face
of wool or worsted and back of jute and cotton.
Thus weight and body are secured at minimum
expense.
Of these types, wilton is by far the best. Not
only the design but also the materials average
better, although much (spool) axminster comes
in excellent patterns and' has a looser pile and
softer texture that is very agreeable.
Tapestries and velvets are in their origin
merely cheap imitations of brussels and wilton.
They are of two types warp-printed and piece-
printed. (The corresponding trade terms are
drum-printed and machine-printed.) The piece-
printed goods are a comparatively recent devel-
opment and are, as the name implies, woven
plain or "in the natural" and then printed in the
piece after weaving. The warp prints have the
pattern printed on the warp before it is woven,
the change of shape in the designs due to looping
up over wires having been calculated before-
hand.
The unfortunate fact about tapestry and velvet
is not that they are by origin imitations, or that
they are made out of less expensive materials
86 HOME FURNISHING
in designs that are not so good. Indeed, some
of the finer grades of velvet are decidedly to be
preferred to cheap wiltons. Also, for the thin
purse that is limited to tapestry-velvet prices,
but wants the brussels-wilton effect, tapestry and
velvet are the goods to buy. In both warp-
printed and piece-printed tapestry and velvet,
there are many excellent patterns, and the defi-
niteness of impression in the piece prints is note-
worthy.
The unfortunate and damning fact about
them is that they are very widely advertised
and sold as brussels and wilton. The cheaper
stores that have tapestry- velvet customers with
brussels-wilton longings very generally deceive
them. The evil has become so pronounced that
I advise my readers to cut from their lists any
dealer who advertises as brussels and wilton,
goods that on examination turn out to be tapestry
or velvet. If in doubt, get a sample and send it
to me with the advertisement. I would also
suggest to dealers that they discontinue the use
of the misleading terms, tapestry brussels, velvet
brussels, and wilton velvet, the first two of which
have even found their way into the dictionary.
To call tapestry a tapestry brussels, or a velvet
a wilton velvet, doesn't improve the quality any,
HOME FURNISHING 87
but it does deceive the public, especially the
very poor, who can least afford to be deceived.
Even the term body Brussels, that was in-
vented to distinguish the real from the tapestry
brussels, is sometimes used by unscrupulous
dealers to advertise tapestry. The instalment
houses are particularly given to frauds of this
character.
Scotch chenille axminster at $4.50 a yard is a
floor covering of the finest. The regular width,
like that of all other carpeting except ingrain, is
three-quarters of a yard (three-quarter goods
they call them in the trade), but special width
in special designs and colorings cost not much
more per square yard. "Old axminsters," a
beautiful loose weave with deep pile texture like
that of Chinese rugs, comes in fascinating Chi-
nese patterns, one in blue and gold, and one in
blue and salmon. There are borders and fillings
to match and the price is $4.50 a yard.
The more I think about carpets and carpeting,
the less defense they seem to need. The vacuum
cleaner removed any objection that could be
made against them as dust collectors. And the
fact they do collect and hold the dust instead of
leaving it to float loose in the air every time a
door or a window is opened, is a strong argument
in their favor as well as in favor of textiles gener-
88 HOME FURNISHING
ally. Against fire they are not proof, but they
are slow burning unlike paint and not par-
ticularly inflammable. I know of no instance
where they have been an element of added dan-
ger in case of fire.
Certainly, in halls and on stairways and espe-
cially in dining-rooms, they not only are more
comfortable but they are often more decorative.
Rugs break a room up and make it look smaller,
carpets pull it together and give the maximum
appearance of size. A long, narrow hall looks
much better proportioned with full carpeting
than with a runner.
Carpets are not only comfortable; they are
also safe. This is more than can be said of
polished floors which not only look slippery but
which are slippery and a source of actual bodily
peril, especially to the aged. I could never find
it in my heart to blame the old Chicago merchant
whose wife persuaded -.him to install parquet
floors in all the main rooms of his new residence.
The first week after they moved in he slipped
and fell in a most undignified manner and in the
presence of guests. That was enough for him.
Immediately he ordered carpeting to cover every
foot of the parquet.
The principal argument against carpeting is
that we Americans are too nomadic ; we change
HOME FURNISHING 89
our abodes so often that all our goods and chat-
tels must be easily removable and adaptable.
Carpets are a luxury for persons who have per-
manent homes.
VII
LAMPS
NO matter how complete the installation
of gas or electric lighting fixtures,
beauty and efficiency can both be in-
creased by the addition of lamps. For the height
at which fixtures must be placed at least six
and a half feet for ceiling pieces and five and a
half for wall brackets not only removes the
light sources too far from the eye for comfort-
able work with needle and book; it also raises
the plane of decorative interest to too great an
elevation provided the fixtures be decorative.
At a dance or a reception, table lamps are in the
way; but in a family living-room or in a bed-
room they can be extremely useful and economi-
cal as well as ornamental.
The lamp on the somno stand concentrates the
illumination where it is wanted, and a small
lamp there oil or gas or electric is more effi-
cient for reading or sewing in bed than a light
ten times as powerful and expensive in the ceil-
ing or inconveniently placed on the wall.
So, too, in the library. A lamp on the center
90
I. Wood standard, finished in an- 2. Square Chinese porcelain base
tique gold; French silk shade; at with square silk shade painted to
175- match, $35-
3. Silk shade painted to match the
porcelain base, $48.
4. Shade, painted silk; base,
Chinese porcelain, with bronze
mountings, $85.
HOME FURNISHING 91
table means convenience and comfort for several
members of the family, and if the room and
family be large, can be supplemented to advan-
tage by lamps on small tables.
The problem is not to prove that lamps in a
home are a necessity; it is to procure lamps that
are efficient and beautiful and not too expensive.
With candles and lamps of the primitive kind
employed by the Greeks and the Romans, it was
easy to light a room beautifully, but practically
impossible to light it sufficiently. Indeed, the
very dimness and inefficiency of the ancient
lamps was to some extent a safeguard against
ugly and vulgar installations. Only since the
comparatively recent introduction of the incan-
descent electric bulb and the gas mantle burner,
has overlighting become a danger that one must
be constantly on the watch to avoid. Very seri-
ous are the eye troubles resulting from exposure
to unshaded light sources of high power. They
have wrecked many lives and seriously impaired
the usefulness of others. Good eyesight is a
blessing that cannot be too jealously guarded.
This means that the light must be shaded and
toned in such a manner as to eliminate glare
and shadow streaks, and remove injurious violet
and ultra-violet rays.
The most useful light and the easiest for the
92 HOME FURNISHING
eye to work with is that in the middle of the spec-
trum the gold and golden-brown light with
which leaded glass shades in amber and yellow
glow so beautifully. Blue light and red light
that is to say, the light which comes through blue
and red shades is of little value for purposes
of illumination. Orange light and green light
occupy an intermediate position, and when han-
dled with care and employed only in the more
luminous tones, are useful for seeing by as well
as decoratively pleasing.
I have dwelt on the efficiency value of the
different colors, because in selecting lamps the
color and translucency of the shades is of pri-
mary importance. No shade in any material
paper, cretonne, silk, iridescent glass, leaded
glass can possibly be a useful shade if it con-
tains much blue or red, or much opaque green
or orange. The useful shade is the one in which
golds and ambers predominate, with oranges or
greens to introduce contrast and variety, and
with only small spots of gray-blue or pink to
give jeweled effects.
Moreover, gold light and amber light are safe
to use in rooms of any color. For red rooms,
green light is inadvisable; for green rooms, red.
Green light will not illuminate a red room, nor
red light a green room.
HOME FURNISHING 93
Among the most attractive and least expensive
shades on the market are the Japanese ones in
oiled paper, often hand painted, mounted on
light but substantial black wooden frames. They
are rather too opaque for kerosene lamps, but
for the more powerful gas mantle lamps are
splendid, particularly with Japanese porcelain
bases, or with simple metal bases in pompeian
green.
The most obvious fault of pretentious pottery
and metal bases for kerosene lamps is massive-
ness. They look as if the manufacturer mistook
size for quality, and was trying to make his par-
ticular product the most prominent object in
the room. To the so-called art lamps produced
by amateur potters and imitated by those who
make them for merchandise stocks, I infinitely
prefer the very inexpensive and exceedingly ef-
ficient kerosene lamp, with yellow porcelain
shade, offered to the public by the corporation
that makes the profit on the oil.
First among shades, as far as making the light
beautiful is concerned, are those in leaded glass.
And by leaded glass I mean leaded glass not
mere sheets of colored glass more or less covered
with a filigree of thin metal. Leaded glass
shades of the kind worth having are mosaics
formed of copper-bound pieces of colored glass
94 HOME FURNISHING
held securely and permanently together by the
leading. Leaded glass shades properly made
will last after more perishable materials are
worn, soiled, or broken. They range in price
from $10 to $60, with others more expensive for
those who prefer bases of bronze to bases of
brass.
On this question of bronze, and of cast brass
vs. spun brass no matter whether the finish
be gold or silver or verde antique or statuary
bronze there is a great deal of poppycock
handed out to those who visit shops. Bronze is
indisputably the best metal to receive and retain
intricate shapes and delicate ornament. Its su-
perior hardness and malleability give perma-
nency of form combined with possibility of
working. But a beautiful shape in spun brass
is infinitely preferable to a commonplace one
in bronze, or to any of the numerous monstrosi-
ties pushed by salesmen upon customers in the
name of "all cast brass." Of course, a large
proportion of the over-ornamented bases are in
spelter and soft metal alloys that receive im-
pressions easily but retain them briefly, and are
secondhand as soon as the shellac finish is
bruised. These are the lamps that enable shops
to spend much money and get it back adver-
tising "tremendous bargains in lamps."
5. Yellow bronze base, Colonial style;
leaded glass shade in tones of crystal,
light green and gold. $50.
6. Gold-finished bronze standard,
Adam style ; shade, alabaster and gold
with ruby accents. $75.
7. Simple classic standard of gold-
finished brass, with shade in alabas-
ter, gold, and red. $75.
8. Bronze standard and yellow chrys-
anthemum shade. 5"o.
HOME FURNISHING 95
Shades of silk and cretonne are not especially
durable, or efficient for the transmission of light;
but many of them are exceedingly beautiful
particularly the hand-painted ones and the plain
silk ones that fit beneath frames in carved wood
or compo. These frames, as well as the bases
and standards to match, are finished in antique
wood finishes, and in the Italian Renaissance or
the Old English style, often in polychrome with
exquisite Gothic reds and blues and yellows and
gold and silver. Most of them are too massive
for small rooms and too elaborate for very sim-
ple rooms.
Particularly suitable for country houses and
for informal rooms generally are the bases and
shades in willow, bamboo, and reed basket work.
Many of the shades are of distinguished excel-
lence, and they are equally adaptable for oil,
gas, or electricity. These, of course, must be
lined with silk made on a wire frame so as to be
easily removable and changeable, for silk shades
fade quickly and soil easily.
The shades in Japanese grass cloth painted or
stenciled, with skirts of fringe or brocaded gal-
loon, look well when new, but are hard to keep
in good condition, and are too opaque to be
recommended from the illumination point of
view. The cut-out paper shades wi ! th fancy
96 HOME FURNISHING
insertions and linings are also apt to be too
"fussy" for constant everyday use. So also the
exquisite imported French shades in the style of
Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, that utilize
rich and unusual and especially dainty woven
materials in combination with fringes that have
a distinct individuality. Some of these shades
are sold with bases to match in Dresden china
with quaint shepherdesses and rustic lords and
ladies, or dull gilt metal work of classic form.
The foreign metal work is uniformly far su-
perior to the American in design and finish,
even when made of much cheaper materials.
The chief objection to foreign lamps is the light-
ing attachments, which are seldom suitable for
American use with oil or gas or electricity. This
objection is removed by some importers and
dealers who supply American attachments and
wiring.
Many of the lace shades, particularly those
with quaint-figured filet panels, are most at-
tractive.
Iridescent shades are beautiful rather than
useful. Those in dark blues and violets spoil
any interior that they are required to illuminate,
and have won for one prominent Western hotel
the doubtful distinction of having the worst-
lighted lobby and cafe in the country. Even the
HOME FURNISHING 97
iridescent shades in cream and pearl are de-
vourers of light, and advisable only where the
appearance of illumination, rather than the act-
uality, is desired.
The very best inexpensive standards for elec-
tricity are in plain turned wood. They can be
had in maple or mahogany-finished birch, and
with a variety of simple shades in tissue or other
colored paper, or hand-painted, Japanese fash-
ion. Some of them can be adapted for gas, but
they are too slender to have room for the tank
of oil lamps, that requires either to be concealed
in a bulbous base, or made an obvious part of
the construction, as in student lamps.
VIII
LIGHTING FIXTURES
RESIDENCE illumination is compara-
tively a new art. Before the invention
of the incandescent electric lamp and of
the gas mantle, it was difficult to get enough
light; now the problem is to distribute the light
properly and shade and tone it so as to eliminate
glare. To residence illumination comparatively
little attention has been devoted by illuminating
engineers. Their efforts are concentrated on
commercial and public buildings, where con-
tracts are larger and more lucrative. And when
they attempt to apply to the lighting of houses
the experience gained in the lighting of hotels
and stores, they discover that conditions are di-
ametrically dissimilar. Even in commercial
lighting, engineers are apt to rely too much on
the photometer and on algebraic formulae, trust-
ing them rather than the less complicated and
more direct conclusions of the human eye and
common sense. In other words, they do not
appear to realize that while the photometer is
useful in figuring cost and quantity, the final
98
HOME FURNISHING '99
test of illumination, public or private, under
scientific direction, is its effect on the vision.
It is absolutely necessary to approach the
lighting of houses from the decorative point of
view. The location of the outlets and the num-
ber of lights per outlet depend not only on the
size and shape of the room, but also on the color
and pattern and texture of walls and furniture.
Important also is the question of style. If an in-
terior is Colonial, or Georgian, or French, or
Mission, the lighting fixtures should conform,
in finish as well as in shape and ornament. Dif-
ferent periods also have their preferences as re-
gards material wood and compo fixtures as-
sociating themselves with Gothic and Renais-
sance, crystal glass beads and balls and prisms
with the Louises, the Queen Anne and the Geor-
gian periods, dull brass with the Colonial, ham-
mered old brass and hammered old iron with
Mission, etc.
The best lighted houses are those whose illu-
mination has been planned and whose lighting
fixtures have been selected by the architect or
decorator, working in close understanding with
the manufacturer. Here the architect has a dis-
tinct initial advantage not always appreciated
the fact that the owner's confidence is his from
the very beginning from the time of the adop-
ioo HOME FURNISHING
tion of the plans and that he is in a position,
where the use of electricity is concerned, to im-
press upon the owner the desirability of select-
ing the lighting fixtures before the 'wiring is
done. The wiring is of fundamental importance.
Unless the outlets are properly placed, with suf-
ficient current for each, the skill of the wisest
decorator and of the most competent engineer
will fail to accomplish good lighting. Re-wir-
ing is so expensive and often so difficult in-
volving the mutilation of finished walls and
floors that owners cannot often be persuaded
to authorize it. The wiring of many houses is
too often left to the electrician, who seldom
knows anything about the art of effective and
economical illumination and whose interest it is,
usually, to complete his contract with as little
cost to himself as possible. Either he under-
wires the house and makes it impossible ever to
light it well, or he overwires the house in such
a way as to secure the minimum of illumination
from the maximum of current
Important in wiring for electric lighting is the
question of control. Fixtures that are out of
reach, and fixtures and brackets with candle
lights and miniature bulbs, should have switch
control. The sarko switches, with key often
used in the backplate of candle brackets and
HOME FURNISHING 101
others too small for regular sockets, are not par-
ticularly trustworthy or durable, especially when
overloaded, as they often are. Despite the in-
itial cost, it will pay in the long run to have
all ceiling fixtures of the average house con-
trolled by switches. In the more expensive
houses the brackets also will all be on switch,
and there will be such useful refinements as
burglar lights and master switches, and switches
to light the hall above or the hall below, etc.
In preparing a general scheme of illumina-
tion for a house, the problem should be ap-
proached room by room and floor by floor, the
main rooms of the first floor taken into consid-
eration first. Starting, for instance, with the
dining-room, 14 x 17 feet, with ceiling ten feet
from the floor, this means 238 square feet of
floor space, which divided by fifty, equals a
trifle under five as the number of i^-candle-
power lights necessary, where ceiling and walls
are not too dark. At this point I should explain
that I have found fifty to be a convenient divisor
for use in determining the proper number of
lights to a room of given size, with ceiling 9 feet
6 inches, which is the average height for ceil-
ings through the United States, and for which
many manufacturers plan their ceiling fixtures,
giving them an overall drop of three feet unless
102 HOME FURNISHING
otherwise ordered. This brings the bottom of
the fixture 6 feet 6 inches from the floor, which
is right for most drop fixtures with lights up.
But in very large, higher rooms fixtures should
hang higher than this, and in some low rooms
perhaps three inches lower. Of course, the
higher a room is the more light it takes to illu-
minate it something like 10 per cent, for every
additional foot over 9 feet 6 inches while
rooms as low as 8 feet 6 inches, with light ceil-
ing and walls, need considerably less.
To return to our dining-rooms that require
five lights. For a ceiling fixture we can choose
between a hanging dome, that should drop to a
height of 4 feet 6 inches above the floor, a shower,
a stem fixture, or a ceiling plate, all with lights
pointing down. Once leaded domes were the
fashion. The dining-room without a dome was
as much out of it as the living-room without a
dado was twenty years before this time. To-day,
in many parts of the country, the shower is the
sine qua non of the multitude. In these locali-
ties, the dining-room without a shower is con-
sidered as barren as the Desert of Sahara. It
makes not much difference what kind of a
shower, or whether it gives the right kind of
light in the right place; the great thing is to
have a shower, like other people. The reason
HOME FURNISHING 103
for having the dining-room fixture bulbs and
shades point down is to light the table much
while lighting the walls and ceiling little. Only
when the room is used also as a living-room, or
for general entertainment, is much general illu-
mination necessary.
On the whole, it seems to me that a leaded
dome of good design, in luminous colors, lights
a small dining-room more suitably and more
agreeably than any other fixture. But every-
thing depends on the colors and the quality of
the glass. The cheap opaque dome that reflects
all the light down, leaving the upper part of the
room in black shadow, is hard on the eyes and
decoratively ugly. But the dome that glows
with golden radiance, distributing enough to
ceiling and upper walls to avoid blackness there,
is easy on the eyes and right decoratively. The
fault with ceiling plates and showers and stem
fixtures is that they give too much general illu-
mination and not enough at the table. But when
the lights hang low, shades carefully selected
will cure the fault. A special reason for leaded,
or iridescent, or color-enameled shades in a
dining-room is that of all the rooms in a house
it is usually and rightly the richest in color. But
be sure that the colors of the shades are close to
the colors of the room with a tendency away
104 HOME FURNISHING
from reds and blues and greens toward golden
yellows and oranges.
Here a few words on color in lighting may
not be out of place. As everybody knows, many
persons are color-blind to reds and blues the
red rays at one end of the spectrum being too
long for their eyes, and the blue rays at the other
end too short. But with the golden yellow rays
in the middle of the spectrum every one can see
well, and in them is contained the effective lu-
minosity of light. Once it was the fashion to
cry for white light, and every new electric lamp
put on the market was advertised by its pro-
moters as giving whiter light than any other
and light more like that of the sun. Now, white
light may be all right when matching ribbons
and dress goods and millinery although one
would imagine that in matching fabrics to be
seen by night the kind of artificial light com-
monly found would be better. However, white
light at its best is not at all suitable for decora-
tive illumination. No one who has had ex-
perience in decorating would use tungstens in
residence lighting, except in the kitchen or in
domes and in lanterns and shades that partially
eliminate the reds and blues, turning the white
light in the direction of golden yellow. Good
light in a kitchen prevents waste and promotes
HOME FURNISHING 105
quickness and accuracy of domestic service. The
best way to secure it is with a single 60 to 100-
watt tungsten, close to the ceiling, with frosted
top and with wide shade of alba glass. At mini-
mum cost, on account of the superior efficiency
of the tungsten, the room will be flooded with
illumination that is brilliant but not disagree-
able, though not satisfactory for the master
rooms. It is the master rooms main halls,
library, reception-room or parlor, sitting-room
or living-room that call for the principal part
of the fixture appropriation. The fixtures must
be in harmony with the furniture and draperies
that in these rooms are more expensive and elab-
orate than elsewhere. And in these rooms the
illumination must be brilliant; not only the gen-
eral illumination when guests are present, but
also the local illumination, when one wishes to
read, or write, or sew, or embroider.
General illumination, of course, means light
evenly distributed through the whole of a room,
while local illumination is light concentrated at
one particular spot. This general illumination
is most economically and agreeably obtained
by wall and ceiling reflection. When walls and
ceilings are light in color especially in ivory
or cream and the ceiling is not high, light is re-
flected and re-reflected and efficiency is mul-
io6 HOME FURNISHING
tiplied. Twenty-five watts here produces more
illumination than one hundred watts in a room
with dark walls and ceiling. It is important to
remember that the amount of light generated in
a room by no means determines the amount of
i
illumination. Complicated pattern and intricate
texture in dark tones on furniture and draperies
and walls swallow up the light. Under such cir-
cumstances lights must be many and widely dis-
tributed, for the only luminous surfaces are those
of the lights themselves and their shades. A
room looks high only in proportion as luminous
surfaces meet the eye. And what the eye says
about the brightness of a room is the only real
measure of illumination that we have. In other
words, the room that looks dark is dark, and no
photometer test counts in rebuttal.
Also, the most useful light for general illu-
mination of a residence is that which is reflected
back and forth between the heights of three and
seven feet. It is in this space that are located the
persons and objects and surfaces whose visibility
give character and individuality, even existence,
to a room. The floor of a room need not in-
deed, should not be brilliantly lighted. So that
the custom of covering all or part with rugs
whose pile devours the light is an excellent one
from the point of illumination. Whether the
HOME FURNISHING 107
ceiling shall be brightly lighted depends upon
the height of the room as compared with its
lateral dimension. Lighting the ceiling bril-
liantly increases its apparent height, while
throwing it in shadow brings it down. So that
keeping the light away from the ceiling of small
bathrooms and narrow halls and concentrating
it on side walls tends to make the proportions of
these rooms more agreeable. Fixtures with
lights at about the height of six feet six, and
pointing down, with lights and shades adjusted
to give the desired distribution, will accomplish
this.
The lighting of large square halls presents the
same problems as the other master rooms. If the
ceiling is of average height and light in color,
we can utilize ceiling reflections from fixtures
and brackets with lights up. But if the walls
and ceiling are dark and non reflective, we must
have many outlets with both fixtures and brackets
so placed as to give the maximum distribution
laterally. This means that a dark, nonreflect-
ing room twelve feet square must have at least
four wall brackets in order to look illuminated,
and in larger rooms there must also be one or
more fixtures to light the middle of the room.
The shades on the lights should be large in order
to present a large area of bright surfaces.
io8 HOME FURNISHING
The old-fashioned way of lighting such a room
was from fixtures only, with transparent glass
bulbs pointing down. The fixtures were usually
combination gas and electricity, and the loca-
tion an inheritance from the gas-only period.
This style of installation is not only wasteful but
dangerous. The glowing electric filaments burn
the eyes terribly by contrast with the prevailing
dark surfaces, and have ruined the vision of
thousands. In this respect the old-fashioned
open-flame gas-burner was far better. It does
flicker, and it does vitiate and heat the air, but
the broad, yellowish flame is almost as agreeable
to the eye as that of the kerosene lamp.
Frosted bulbs are one of the most blessed in-
ventions of the age. They absorb 10 or 15
per cent of the light, but increase the amount
of effective illumination. With 85 per cent of
the light, the eye can see better than it could
with 100 per cent. For the burning of the eye
by the filament closes the pupil and makes it
inefficient Frosting also tones the light slightly
toward the cream. Frosted bulbs, especially
round ones, large for their power, are among
the most efficient distributors of agreeable illu-
mination. By them the quality of tungstens and
tantalums is much improved and the ultra-
whiteness softened. Many architects now rec-
HOME FURNISHING
ommend brackets only for the main living-rooms
and chambers. Some of them seem to be in-
spired by animosity toward the word "chande-
lier," while others object to any kind of ceiling
light except cove lighting or other forms of the
so-called indirect lighting, which are wasteful as
well as "bad" art. Light is the most beautiful
thing in the world. It is not only beautiful in
itself, but upon it depends the beauty of all beau-
tiful objects. Without light, they might as
well be nonexistent. Carefully to conceal light
sources is deliberately to abandon the greatest
decorative possibilities. The work of the illu-
minating artist is to place and so shade the lights
correctly that they glow with gentle, grateful
radiance. A room 20 x 22 and 9 feet 6 inches
high can be lighted perfectly well with brackets
only (one two-light and four one-light ones),
provided the color scheme of the room is light
and surfaces and textures plain and simple. But
if there are rich and heavy upholsteries and dra-
peries, and dark woodwork and furniture, and
brocade-paneled walls with compartment ceil-
ing, the number of bracket lights should be
doubled, and four or five lights at the ceiling
will also be advisable.
Reverting to the matter of underwiring, there
recently came to the writer's notice an instance
i io HOME FURNISHING
wherein a lighting-fixture salesman, in default
of blue-prints or wiring plans, had distributed
brackets and fixtures and lights among the out-
lets according to his best judgment, the result
being a house by no means overlighted. Unfor-
tunately, the electrician had been given the wir-
ing contract for a lump sum and without definite
specifications just a general understanding to
do a satisfactory job. Only after the fixtures were
up was it discovered that the circuits were over-
loaded, i.e., had to carry more i6-candle-power
bulbs (or their equivalent) than is allowed
by the regulations of the National Board of Fire
Underwriters. Consequently, several two-light
brackets had to be replaced by one-light
brackets, a sixty-watt tungsten substituted for
three regular pear lamps on the dining-room
dome, and one ceiling fixture omitted altogether.
The only alternative was rewiring, at a cost
three times that of the original wiring. Of
course, the fixture salesman should have insisted
on plans showing the arrangement of outlets on
circuit, and the man who did the hanging should
have reported the situation before making the
installation. But they didn't, and the electrician,
not being financially responsible, the final out-
come was a poorly lighted house and a consider-
able loss to the firm who sold the fixtures. If the
HOME FURNISHING in
lighting had been planned first, and the blue-
prints marked with outlets, and lights to outlet
given to the electrician as part of his specifica-
tions, this would not have happened.
I cannot sufficiently emphasize the difference
that exists between the simple rooms in light col-
ors and the elaborate rooms in dark colors. The
latter take from two to five times as much light,
without being satisfactorily illuminated. With
gas there is much more reason for avoiding fix-
tures than with electricity. The electric bulbs
can turn up or down or at any angle, making
it easy to control the field of distribution, but
gas open-flames point up only, and must be kept
far from the ceiling lest they burn or smoke it.
For a long time electric fixtures copied the awk-
wardness necessary to open-flame gas installa-
tion, and, of course, combination gas and electric
fixtures are still obliged to do so. Only recently
did there seem to come understanding of the
completeness of the release from cramping con-
ditions. Now we point our electric fixture lights
up or down or at any angle, and locate the lights
in the ceiling or close to it, or eighteen inches
below it, or wherever else the best and most
agreeable distribution can be obtained.
The open-flame gas fixture is an ugly thing
that casts ugly shadows below, and the mantle
ii2 HOME FURNISHING
flames, pointed either up or down are not much
better. But a single mantle flame, high in a
small light room, with abundant ceiling and wall
reflection, is the extreme of economy and ef-
fectiveness. Groups of mantle flames on a sin-
gle fixture destroy the attractiveness of a room,
and burn the eye quite as badly, though differ-
ently, as the clear glass electric bulb. Mantle
flames are best and most effective, as well as least
ugly, in a large room when installed on brackets
extending far enough from the wall to give good
wall reflection. Two of them are sufficient to
light a room 12x22. This is the cheapest illu-
mination known in cities where the price of gas
is reasonable and the gas is of fair quality.
Of fixtures and brackets the shades are a
most important part. While frosted, round, and
pear, and cone bulbs can be used uncovered, the
desire, founded on reason, to increase the area
while decreasing the intensity of the luminous
surface makes the use of crystal, iridescent, or
opalescent glass shades common. The crystal
shades of better quality are ground and ribbed,
ground and cut, or plain ground (roughed or
frosted or sandblasted) . They come in the most
various shapes and sizes, from narrow to wide,
making it possible to secure any desired dis-
tribution, and the majority of them are planned
HOME FURNISHING 113
to cover the regular i6-candle-power incan-
descent bulb. The light of this being slightly
orange, is very agreeable when sifted through
the frosted shade. The incandescent shades are
extremely interesting, with their mysterious tones
and rainbow tints, but only the light ones are
satisfactory from the illumination point of view.
The dark ones absorb too much light. Particu-
larly interesting and fairly economical of light
are the pearl and crystal iridescents. Leaded
shades are satisfactory on fixtures and brackets
in the luminous tones only the golden yellows
and soft browns and pale greens. Silk shades are
comparatively opaque, but very beautiful, espe-
cially to direct the light down from upward-
pointing candle lights. Of course, they are lined
with white cambric to increase the reflection.
Beautiful beyond description are the carved ala-
baster bowls imported from Italy. They glow
with a milky light that brings out the beauty
of the carving sufficiently, but not too much.
The designs are classic, and they demand a
classic environment. The glass imitations of ala-
baster are surprisingly good and far less expen-
sive. Alabaster bowls and lanterns of various
styles and materials are especially suitable for
entrance halls, where brilliant illumination is
not desired. The material of which most fix-
p
) it ^T
'' : IrJ W
- "i.
1 1 4 HOME FURNISHING
tures are made is brass, which is very obedient
in the foundry, or on the lathe, or under the
hammer, or in the press. It also takes numerous
finishes easily, and holds them well when they
are well applied. But the finish of very cheap
fixtures is fleeting and looks more stained and
spotted after six months than it should after six
years. The metal work of very cheap fixtures
also lacks durability, being so thin and weak
that slight knocks and injuries injure it beyond
repair. The finest fixtures are made of bronze,
that might be described as a "sublimated kind
of brass." It costs much more and is more diffi-
cult to cast and work, but is vastly harder and
more durable, interpreting the most delicate
outlines definitely, and deserves the reputation
in the arts it acquired thousands of years ago. At
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
the bronze statuettes and other objects from Ro-
man and pre-Roman days are a permanent testi-
mony to its durability.
Once polished brass and bright gilt appealed
to the multitude; now even they accept dull
brass and dull gilt. But there are other finishes,
like antique brass and yellow bronze arid Pom-
peian, that should be more generally ordered.
The antique brass finish is particularly good on
the hand-hammered brass fixtures and brackets
HOME FURNISHING ,15
for Mission and rustic rooms. Pompeian (vert
antique) is above all a finish for porches and
out-of-door pieces, and for pieces in the classic
styles (being reproduced from the ancient
bronzes that during the ages turned a white
and flecked green of delightful texture). Yel-
low bronze is much warmer than dull brass,
and better for living-rooms and rooms fairly
rich in color. Gold and silver, which increases
the cost by 20 per cent, are suitable only for
more expensive fixtures.
Fixtures that deserve to be put in a class by
themselves on account of their great beauty are
those in carved wood or compo, principally in
the Gothic and Italian Renaissance styles and
styles derived from them. The finishes are an-
tique gold, antique silver, and antique oak, often
with polychrome, and the effects are large and
noble without the ponderosity of metal. Compo
fixtures are at least a third cheaper than carved
wood, and do not split like wood when subjected
to moisture. But they do check and chip,
slightly, which, with reasonable care, does not
injure them rather accentuating the antique
character with which they are born. Fixtures in
similar models that will not check or chip are
those in the so-called armor bronze, which is
copper-plated compo.
ii6 HOME FURNISHING
Among attractive novelty fixtures are those
with ground and slightly tinted glass shades,
enameled in color. These are suitable for din-
ing-rooms and Mission rooms and unconven-
tional rooms generally. They give a very soft
and agreeable light, and have a distinct decora-
tive character of their own. Another feature
is, they are not at all expensive.
IX
VENTILATION
IF architects and builders did their duty,
owners of homes would not have to worry
over ventilation problems. Every room in
the house would have at least two outlets for
foul air, one near the ceiling and one near the
floor, and at least one inlet for fresh air, not
over four feet from the floor. The outlets would
lead into a chimney or flue with sufficient draft
to pull breathed air out, lessening the air pres-
sure in the room so that fresh air would rush
in through the inlet to take its place.
Unfortunately not all architects and builders
appreciate the importance of the ventilator, or
give much thought to it, except in the construc-
tion of schools and public buildings, where they
install elaborate and so-called scientific systems
of air-pumping which seldom accomplish satis-
factorily, or continuously, the purpose for which
they are intended. Indeed, some builders will
tell you that in the average residence the leakage
of air through the windows and doors is all the
117
ii8 HOME FURNISHING
ventilation desirable, will deplore the amount of
heat that is wasted by opening windows in cold
weather, and will insist upon weather strips.
Not that I would say a word against the judi-
cious use of efficient types of these strips. On
the contrary, I would positively recommend
them for all windows, against which prevailing
cold winds blow in winter. They lessen appre-
ciably the amount of fuel required to heat the
building, rendering heating systems adequate
that previously left the windward rooms chilly.
Many of us are familiar with north chambers
that are never warm as long as the north wind
blows.
The trouble with most houses is that in cold,
windy weather, there is too much ventilation,
and in warm weather too little. When the tem-
perature of the outside air is 25 F. and the in-
side air as high as 70 F., the drafts are tre-
mendous. The chimneys are crowded with col-
umns of heated air seeking to rise, lessening the
pressure in the rooms so that ice-cold air is
pumped in violently through the windows. No
wonder that people complain of drafts and catch
cold under such circumstances. They would be
better.off with no heating system at all.
When the wind blows hard, the movement
of the air is accelerated. It forces air in on the
HOME FURNISHING 119
windward side of the house, and pumps it out on
the leeward side. It directs the course of and
vastly increases the drafts due to difference of
temperature. That is why furnace and hot-air
systems of heating are apt to be inefficient when
most needed. The heated air never gets near
the windward side of the house. As fast as it
comes out of the register it is blown and pumped
the way the wind is blowing, and too often the
drafts are so strong that it cannot even reach
the mouths of the register in the room on the
windward side of the house. For this reason
furnaces should be put on the side from which
the wind most frequently blows in cold weather.
Steam heat without chimneys or flues to assist
the hot air out is the most objectionable. In
weather that is both frigid and windy, the win-
dow leakage may be sufficient ventilation. But
in moderately cold weather without wind, the
circulation is too little, even for one person in a
room, not to speak of five or six.
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of
breathing air that is fresh air that has not been
turned into poison by being breathed. This is
a question of life and death, of tuberculosis and
pneumonia versus health. As long as the blood
is healthy we are strong against disease of any
kind. But unless all of the body is brought in
120 HOME FURNISHING
contact with pure air, once a minute, the blood
cannot remain pure.
The human body is a living stove, surrounded
by self-created drafts that carry off the used
air and bring in air that is fresh. When the tem-
perature of the surrounding air is above 81 F.,
the breathed air sinks, so that in hot weather the
lower stratum of air in a room quickly becomes
polluted, which suggests the desirability of a
high outlet for foul air in cold weather and of
a low outlet in warm weather.
Happily, nature has provided for the removal
of the refuse matter. Unbreathed air from 76
to 81 F. has the same density as breathed air;
below 76 it is heavier; about 81 it is lighter.
This means that when the temperature is below
76 the foul air expelled from the lungs rises,
creating a draft of its own. The air that comes
in contact with the human body is also warmed
and rises, creating its drafts.
Consumption and pneumonia are house dis-
eases. We shut ourselves up in boxes and poison
ourselves with our own breath, and when the
disease is far advanced we go to live out-of-doors.
An ounce of bad-air-prevention is worth a
pound of fresh-air-cure, and yet, how to ventilate
our homes at all seasons, keeping them warm in
winter and cool in summer, is a problem that has
HOME FURNISHING 121
nut yet been solved; but the general principles
have been established with sufficient exactness to
be of greatest practical help to owners of subur-
ban houses. And there are a number of ven-
tilators on the market that help to admit pure
and exhaust foul air without exposing the oc-
cupants of the room to chilly drafts.
The simplest are those that attach to the win-
dows. Of these there are a number of styles,
each possessing points of superiority. None of
them add to the beauty of the window. The
principle of all is similar an opening above the
window to let the warm air out and an opening
to let the cold air in. These openings are in the
glass, in the sash rail, or in special panels at the
top and bottom of the window. One popular
type of the ventilator utilizes the opening be-
tween upper and lower sashes as outlet. All pre-
vent drafts and some claim to eliminate dust and
smoke from the air that they admit. Several
utilize the force of the wind to accelerate or
regulate the inward current. One claims supe-
riority because the extra panel carrying the ven-
tilator takes only two inches of window space
and is easy to remove for window washing or
when summer comes. Another that can be ad-
justed to admit varying amounts of air is spe-
cially recommended for the windy days of sum-
122 HOME FURNISHING
mer and spring, when the breeze from an open
window is likely to disarrange papers or send
a cloud of dust over the desks. Still another
instals an electric fan at the top of the window,
costing "from one-half cent to one cent per day
to run," that draws fresh air from the outside.
I recommend this for use in the hot days of
summer, in connection with fireplaces or other
low outlets for the used air. It should take the
place of the ordinary electric fan.
The ventilation of furnace-heated houses
should be satisfactory, but seldom is so. The
furnace is constantly drawing fresh air from
outside, which it heats and moistens and sends
up through long pipes to the different registers.
Provided there are outlets in each room
through the chimney or special ventilatory flue
or transom the upward movement of air will
be constant.
While local treatment will do much for the
different rooms of a house it cannot take the
place of a comprehensive scheme. The build-
ing should breathe as a whole, drawing air from
below and exhaling it above. This breathing is
natural, if flues or transoms and openings in the
roof give it a chance. Especially is the air in
the attic, superheated by the summer sun, anx-
ious to rise. Rising, it draws up air from below
HOME FURNISHING 123
which leaves behind it room for fresh air from
outside. There are several excellent ventilators
that assist and regulate the upward draft by
means of chimneys, and there is a "ventilated
ridging" that is most effective in inducing a
house to breathe.
Even with steam or hot-water heating, it is
desirable to lessen the leakage of the windward
windows, thereby lessening the heating cost, per-
haps as much as one-third, but there should be
inlets and outlets in each room, under local con-
trol and part of the comprehensive scheme for
the house.
Furthermore, don't be afraid to open the win-
dows in all kinds of weather and to keep them
open in warm weather. There is no substitute
for the open window. Where ventilators are
necessary, don't hesitate to install them. They
may prolong your life twenty years, or for that
matter fifty.
CHAMBER FURNITURE
I DO not know of a more perfect American
example of fine workmanship in cham-
ber furniture than the set shown in the
frontispiece. At every stage of its construction,
money and labor were spent without stint to
execute every detail in the most superior manner
known to the best makers. The result is cabinet-
work that will defy time, and a hundred years
from now be evidence of the high accomplish-
ment of the United States during the first quar-
ter of the twentieth century, in at least one of the
art industries.
The materials are worthy of the workman-
ship. All the wood is curly maple, except the
drawers that are in oak. The maple comes from
selected logs, none of which has been seasoned
for less than eight years. There was no kiln
drying to force out the sap quickly, and warp and
twist the fibers and cells in a mad rush to trans-
form the tree into merchandise. The curly ma-
ple in this furniture is alive and will be alive
for generations,
124
HOME FURNISHING 125
This curly maple has a far deeper and more
interesting texture than the satinwood commonly
used in suites of the Adam type. Also, while the
satinwood is usually applied as a thin veneer,
the surface layer of the curly maple in this
suite is from y to % of an inch thick, with two
ther layers of maple crossgrained behind it.
The set is finished in camegon, and the decora-
tions are painted in tones of rose, white, green,
and yellow. Each wooden knob bears a rose.
Daisies also appear in the painted decoration
that was done by a master.
The joints are mortised, so that changes of
temperature and moisture do not pull them
apart. They are also flush, without the project-
ing edges of ordinary and less expensive cabi-
network. The backs of all the pieces in the set
are as perfectly finished as the fronts. The bed
or the bureau or the chiffonier can be backed
away from the wall without exposing rough, un-
finished surfaces and open seams and joints. The
drawers move silently and easily, but are dust-
proof and completely finished.
The price of the bureau in this set is $385,
and it is not a dollar too much. The value is
there just as much and more so than in many
of the inexpensive chamber pieces that I shall
later introduce to your attention. The prices of
i 2 6 HOME FURNISHING
the companion pieces are as follows: of the
foot bed with caned panels, $400; of the large
lowboy, $450; of the small table, $125; of the
somno table, $145 ; of the side chair, $100; of the
rocker, $110.
Evidently these are not goods for popular
consumption. They are goods for those who
can afford the best, and I am dwelling on their
merits in order to drive home the lesson that
quality costs money. There is so much twaddle
written and talked nowadays about getting some-
thing for nothing, that many persons waste their
substance trying to do so. They believe the ad-
vertisements of unscrupulous shops, and pay
what would be a low price for what they think
they are getting, but a high price for what they
are getting. Or they are misled into trying to
make their own furniture, and pay more for ma-
terials than the finished piece should cost, and
when they get the materials they are unable to
put them together. Undoubtedly, there is noth-
ing Americans should study so closely as quality
and durability. If they begin with the good
models in honest shops it will be harder for the
faker to fool them.
Recently I walked up and down the floors of
one of the large New York shops, and noted the
prices of some of the luxurious pieces and sets,
HOME FURNISHING 127
that nowadays seem to move quickly side by side
with goods at the extreme other end. A bed-
room set in the style of Sheraton with fan inlay
and twin beds was $745. A Louis XVI set in
white enamel was $900. A terribly overcarved
Colonial set in mahogany, with fourposter that
will impress somebody as richly magnificent,
was $1,950. A Dutch marqueterie set was
$1,800. A Heppelwhite set in satinwood with
delicate inlay was $1,700. A so-called Chinese
Chippendale set in antique finish was $1,000,
getting its name evidently from the excised fret-
work.
Presently I came to the inexpensive chamber
furniture chiffoniers and bureaus without mir-
rors from $6 up, and with mirrors from $9 up,
and other pieces in proportion. Pinched in
size not only to suit the tiny rooms they will
help to furnish, but also to economize on the
lumber that in this grade of goods is an impor-
tant item. Casters and drawer-knobs of the
cheapest possible construction, sure to give way
under the first strain. Sloppy finish that will
bruise and darken at the first opportunity.
But (and let me emphasize this but) they were
incomparably better than the cheap furniture
of a generation ago, despite the great advance
in the price of lumber. Then the lines of all
i 2 8 HOME FURNISHING
the bureaus harked back to Rococo, and Rococo
of such a type! Gone from it all the French
grace and beauty of proportion. Nothing left
but awkward and ugly curves and swells, and
the more pronounced they were the better the
goods sold. Then, too, those dreadful machine
carvings made by the mile and sold by the foot
that they used to paste on in the name of orna-
ment. And the thin and atrociously ugly brass
drawer pulls, that have not yet entirely disap-
peared, and that are always bending and break-
ing and tarnishing.
Yes, the cheap bureaus and chiffoniers to-day
are distinctly of better model than before Mis-
sion furniture came into the field, and it is large-
ly to Mission furniture that I attribute the
improvement. Some of the oak bureaus and
chiffoniers at from $18 to $30, in natural finish,
demand more than mild approval ; they are posi-
tively good in model ; the drawers work smoothly
and fit close, and the lumber is of excellent tex-
ture. There is room for more of this natural
oak in residence furniture. The office furniture
makers are doing wonders with it.
Good, too, are many of the inexpensive pieces
in white enamel and in French gray enamel.
These give the most cheerful and daintiest effect
that can be secured inexpensively. They also
HOME FURNISHING 129
go particularly well with the enameled metal
beds and with the combination brass-and-enamel
beds. Certainly one of the example rooms fur-
nished by one of the big shops to show how a
bachelor's tiny chamber should be done would
be much improved by substituting for the golden
oak chiffonier at $30, a white enameled one at
$18; and for the golden oak bed at $26, a metal
bed with low posts and simple design at $8.
The smaller a room is the lighter should be the
colorings and the simpler the patterns and
models, for light, unpatterned surfaces recede
from the eye and increase the apparent size of
a room.
The staple finish in cheap oak furniture is
"G. O.," as the tags write golden oak. Of this
finish there are infinite varieties, from the cheap
and muddy types to those with mirror-like luster
in which you can see your face until the luster
gets tarnished or bruised. But there are also
golden oak finishes that are dull, and that bring
out rather than conceal the grain and texture
of the wood. These, for ordinary use in bed-
rooms, are to be preferred to the darker finishes,
such as early English and weathered oak.
The bureaus and chiffoniers at from $25 to $35
are in most ways superior, but in design not
always. Some of the pieces in this grade are
, ; . ,-..,v 'i4
> if^l ?*
fr fefiJ *3
130 HOME FURNISHING
far worse than any that can be found in the
cheaper grades. In walnut and Circassian wal-
nut and bird's eye maple, as well as in mahogany,
and imitation mahogany, there are monstrosi-
ties that appeal only to those who are decora-
tively deaf, and who have to be hit with a club
before they can receive an ornament impression.
Especially to be recommended are many of the
simpler models in birch, both dark and light, and
most of those in what is called satin walnut, but
which really is gum wood. The texture of this
gum wood is particularly soft and gray and
agreeable, and a bureau I saw at $30 and a
chiffonier at $28 were of such excellent propor-
tions and spacing as to recall distantly the
cabinetwork of China and Corea. Instead of
the conventional drawers, all alike, of the ordi-
nary chiffonier, it had one very deep one in the
middle with three small ones below, and two
half-width ones above.
If a man is furnishing his own room he can-
not do better than to spend from $60 to $150 on
a man's chiffonier or bachelor's wardrobe, with
special compartments for hats, ties, gloves, shirts,
suits, etc. It will not only save him time and
worry, but will help keep his attire in fine con-
dition. The corresponding extravagance for a
bachelor maid would of course be a cheval glass.
For tiny bedrooms metal beds and couches
are preferable. But these should have as little
cheap enamel and cheap brass ornament showing
as possible. Single beds can be bought as low
as $6 and couches for even less, but by going a
little higher you will get better value and bet-
ter wear for your money. There are splendid
models built for strength and durability, in a
guaranteed satin finish, at $15 in the single size.
Very vital indeed is the question of finish. The
cheaper enamels and brass finishes are so trans-
parent that they seldom even reach the home of
the purchaser in good condition. It means much
to have the durability of the finish guaranteed
for five years by a responsible manufacturer or
dealer.
As regards elaborate effects or attempts to
express the period styles in brass, I regard them
for the most part as failures. Perhaps the most
successful are the Colonial and Dutch models
with elaboration of the spindle effects that seem
so natural to brass. But the "Adams" (sic) beds
with cast ornament in low relief, and the Louis
XVI beds with cane-work imitated in metal
No! They won't do. Among the most ambi-
tious attempts in the metal line are the beds in
brass that has been triple plated in dull silver.
132 HOME FURNISHING
Chacun a son gout. But I don't like it. Metal
beds should be decoratively subordinate.
In the inexpensive wooden beds, some of
which with their upright slender splats and spin-
dles copy the style effect of metal beds, there are
good models at low prices, the cheapest not
always well constructed and usually poorly fin-
ished. There are single beds in curly maple at
$8, in oak and imitation mahogany for a little
more, in white enamel and well made at from
$15 to $18, while mahogany four-posters of
Colonial type start at about $40 and soar.
XI
SUMMER FURNITURE
ONE might as well admit at the start that
we Americans are very stupid about our
summer furnishings. Some of us carry
over into the out-of-doors season the heavy and
stuffy trappings of the indoor ones. Some of us
have a wrong idea of rusticity and imagine that
because Mission furniture is of simple design
and construction it is, despite its ponderosity,
ideal to help one live the simple life.
Let it be admitted that rough-tiled floors with
Mission furniture and architecture make a pleas-
ant background on a torrid day for groups of
gayly dressed pleasure-seekers; it nevertheless
remains that it is to the Chinese and Japanese,
as well as to the French, that we must look for
examples of the most comfortable and beautiful
and appropriate hot-weather furnishing.
The French of the eighteenth century devoted
much attention during the reigns of both Louis
XV and Louis XVI to the art of polite rusticity.
The paintings and prints of the period show us
133
134 HOME FURNISHING
many examples of villas and furniture planned
for summer use only, and most of them were
largely copied from or influenced by Chinese
and Hindoo rustic architecture fantastic ki-
osques and pavilions, across bridges that top
marvelous waterfalls and mysterious rivers, with
romantic forests and mountains in the back-
ground. And if we try eighteenth century Eng-
land, we find summer furnishings also under the
Chinese influence.
So that we might as well go to China and
Japan first as last, and study a group of three
rooms recently fitted up in a New York shop as
examples of the best that can be done to utilize
the delights and advantages while overcoming
the discomforts of "close to nature." Room No.
i had fascinating panels of wall paper in a stork
pattern, with delicious peach-trees in blossom,
lilies, chrysanthemums, etc. The wooden joists
that framed the panels and the room had faces
of dull ebony with sides of dull gold. The joints
where the joists met near the ceiling were
crowned with metal plates in Pompeian finish.
The center of the room was occupied by a large,
inverted paper umbrella in bright colors, about
seven feet from the floor, with tiny lanterns dan-
gling in a circle from the projecting ribs. The
doorway that led into room No. 2 was framed
i. Prairie grass arm-chair. 2. Floor basket in wicker-
work.
3. White willow.
4. Prairie grass.
5. Rattan fan chair.
6. Chinese linen.
HOME FURNISHING 135
on top and sides with a three-foot fret-work in
ebony and dull red. The walls of rooms Nos. 2
and 3 were paneled in Japanese grasscloth, plain
in the dado and figured above with a delightful
stenciled gourd design. The draperies were in
scrim with a simple stained-glass design printed
in soft colors.
I must admit that to me personally the most
fascinating summer furniture in the world is
found in France, fashioned of cane and reed
enameled in greens, blues, terra cottas, and
whites. It has a gay vivacity that no other furni-
ture seems to possess, not even the light maple
or birch rustic chairs and tables and lattice work
enameled in similar colors. However, there is
much of our domestic enameled furniture, in
French grays and blues as well as in white, that
is very inexpensive though of fairly good con-
struction. It should be used more than it is,
and in thousands of chambers could be substi-
tuted for the present "golden oak" all the year
around.
Among the illustrations accompanying this
chapter, No. 3 is a white enameled willow settle
with cretonne cushions for back and seat at
$26.50; No. 7 is in leaf-green finish with mat-
ting seat at $6.
Particularly attractive and particularly sum-
136 HOME FURNISHING
mery are the Chinese linen and the prairie grass
pieces. Both have a reputation for wearing well,
and both "look cool." The former are made in
China out of wild flax curiously twisted to bind
and upholster the wooden frame. No. 6, a Chi-
nese linen work-basket, with handle to lift it
from the floor and standing about 30 inches
high, sells for $9; No. n, an armchair, for
$10.75; tables, side chairs, tea wagons, settees,
etc., in Chinese linen are priced proportionately.
No. 8, a side chair in American prairie grass,
sells for $4.75; No. 4, a desk with imitation
leather top, for $22; No. i, an armchair for
$12.25. The models more than 400 of them
of this prairie grass furniture are uniformly ex-
cellent and the two finishes, "nature green" and
"baronial brown," are soft and pleasing, the lat-
ter being preferable for cold-weather use, except
in sun rooms, which I believe should always be
kept as summery as possible. It may be of in-
terest to note that this furniture is made on Long
Island from grass that grows on the prairies of
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The source of the materials used in wicker,
rattan, reed, and cane furniture is Oriental,
Singapore being the great world market. The
reeds are used both full and split, the split reeds,
of course, being proportionately less expensive.
". Leaf-green finish with 8. Prairie grass,
matting seat.
9. Swamp cedar.
10. Wicker desk.
ii. Chinese linen.
12. Rattan and linen tea- wagon.
HOME FURNISHING 137
No. 12, a tea wagon in brown rattan and Chinese
linen, sells for $30. Other tea wagons for vaca-
tion use sell for $6, $8, $10, $18, and $20, in
maple, reed and cane, and prairie grass. No. 10,
a wicker desk in shellac finish, with glass top
over cretonne, sells for $23.50. There is a very
attractive chair to match. No. 2, a wicker work-
basket, is priced at only $2.50 not an imposing
piece but well put together and serviceable.
No. 5, an imported fan chair in peeled rattan
with ornament formed by interweaving of black
with natural, is to me a fascinating piece of
furniture, of beautiful shape and tenacious struc-
ture. The price is only $23.
Also from the Orient, as everybody knows,
comes bamboo, which in combination with mat-
ting and cheap boards composes the bamboo fur-
niture that is too cheap to be often good. You
can buy a taboret in bamboo with matting top
for only 35 cents. And the moment you are
willing to spend two or three dollars you can
have your choice of chairs, bookcases, tables, etc.
You can furnish a whole room of a New York
apartment for $25 or $30, unless you are so
reckless as to select one of the very elaborate
desks for $23. Furthermore, on some of the mat-
ting covers you will find a very pretty stenciled
ornament in colors, while the wooden shelves of
138 HOME FURNISHING
the bookcases are diaper-figured by pyrography.
The hickory and swamp-cedar rustic furniture
brings us back to materials of American growth.
The hickory furniture is made of hickory only
nothing but hickory legs, arms, spindles, and
stretches of the whole wood bark, heart and
all seats and backs from woven strips of tough,
but pliable and elastic inner bark. The prices
range from $1.20 for a child's chair 23 inches
high with seat 10x12, to $2.50 for a 4O-inch
armchair, $4.75 for a rocker with wide-swelling
curved arms, $6 for grandfather's favorite, $5.50
for a settee 36 inches long and 36 inches high,
$18 for a couch 6y 2 feet long, $12 for a rustic
bench 7 feet long, $75 for a summer house 8
feet square, etc.
The swamp-cedar furniture I like particularly
and regret that space does not allow me to show
some of the pergolas costing from $50 to $150.
A good idea of this furniture, however, can be
got from illustration No. 9, showing the Klon-
dike armchair at $7.
XII
CHOOSING WINDOW DRAPERIES
WINDOW draperies have much to do
with the comfort of a room. Without
them it seems cold and bare ; with too
many, it seems stuffy. But when they conform
in size and shape and weight and pattern to the
character of the environment, the result is a
background that makes the rest of the furnishing
easy.
If they are too long and narrow, the height of
the room will be exaggerated. If they are too
short and wide, it will be diminished unduly.
If they are too dark and heavily figured, they
will seem to stand out boldly from the wall, les-
sening the size of the room and dwarfing the
furniture. If they are too light and trivial, such
as muslin in a stately room that has heavy wood-
work and elaborate mural ornamentations, they
look like a calico apron worn with a ball gown,
or Mission chairs in a Louis XIV salon.
The variety of materials suitable for draping
is extraordinary, and the range of price permits
139
140 HOME FURNISHING
good taste to both small and large purses. Grace-
ful lines and pleasing texture can be secured
by the expenditure of pennies, and also by the
expenditure of dollars; and to secure them re-
quires no prolonged study of the technical prin-
ciples of draping, or the nature of weaves and
fibers only an acquaintance with three or four
of the rules that control the putting together of
line and color, and the shading of light.
Draperies divide into two great classes cut
and uncut, French and classic, elaborate and sim-
ple the three pairs of words being nearly syn-
onymous. French is the term applied in a gen-
eral way to all cut draperies, and cut draperies
are apt to be more elaborate than those that
hang free from rod and ring, or at most are
gathered into "chous."
It is, of course, a truism to say that simple
and modern rooms should be draped simply;
elaborate apartments, elaborately. But it is a
truism that needs to be constantly reiterated.
For no error is more common than to overdrape
or underdrape.
In the average home, elaborate draperies are
entirely out of place. But between the simplest
draperies and those that are appropriate for the
average living-room there is a broad distinction,
and wide opportunity for individual taste, so
HOME FURNISHING 141
that the whole matter may well be given con-
siderable study.
There is also a wide distinction between the
draperies suitable for chambers and those suit-
able for living-rooms, between those intended for
the individual and those that are to be shared
by the family. The latter are rightly more ex-
pensive and more formal.
Take the dining-room, for instance. If it is
small, with Mission furniture, and has plenty
of color in wall-paper and rug, colored draperies
of light weight are to be recommended. The
most interesting color combinations are those to
be found in madras, that on account of its deli-
cate, translucent net ground and rough-figured
surface, breaks up the light agreeably and per-
mits the association of colors that in plainer
weaves would fail to harmonize.
Particularly suitable for dining-rooms is the
madras in stained-glass effects. It drapes well,
either straight, or looped back with a band of
the same material. It should hang from a small
brass rod, and be gathered about one-third full.
The heading should rise an inch and a half or
two inches above the rod.
Besides madras, there are a number of other
open-weave cotton drapery stuffs of interesting
and individual texture. Where the cost must be
142 HOME FURNISHING
reduced to the minimum, there are several very
inexpensive domestic prints that are attractive,
if skillfully hung to conceal their lack of body,
among them printed madras and trellis cloth.
Even in simple dining-rooms, it is often desir-
able to have a short upper curtain, or valance,
that seems to finish off draperies and windows at
the top. When the windows are high and nar-
row, this is almost imperative. If the side dra-
peries are narrow, and they and the valance are
of denim or velours or some opaque fabric,
plain net or lace curtains should be hung flat
against the glass, to soften the light.
Only when the window-panes are very small
or of glass that is not wholly transparent, should
the light of the sun and sky be admitted without
curtains next the glass to tone down glare and
shadow.
By draping, the apparent shape of windows
can be radically modified. Tall windows can
be pollarded, and wide windows can be made
slim. As already pointed out, the addition of a
valance or lambrequin tends to lessen the height
of a window, and this in proportion to the low-
ness of its position. The valance that hangs
down over the glass shortens the window appre-
ciably, but the valance that hangs above the win-
dow, in combination with side curtains that
HOME FURNISHING 143
lessen the width of the window, may even in-
crease the apparent height.
The best way to study out for oneself the
effect of draperies of different size and shape
on windows of different size and shape is to ex-
periment with uncut length of cheese-cloth or
cretonne, or any available material. This will
quickly demonstrate how much higher windows
look with curtains that hang straight than with
curtains that are looped back, and with narrow
side curtains than with wide side curtains.
In general, it may be said that small rooms
should be simply draped, and that elaborate dra-
peries are permissible only in interiors of mag-
nificent dimensions. Perhaps the only exception
is small boudoirs in the Louis XV style, where
an embroidered lambrequin and side-curtains
cut in rococo curves are necessary to harmonize
with the other furnishings. Certainly, the dra-
peries of Louis XVI interiors should be simpler
and more classic than is usual in the United
States, or even in France. For the style of Louis
XVI and of the Directoire represented a return
to Greek and Roman draperies, and to the sim-
plicity of line and of conventional ornament that
characterizes only the more classic forms of our
own Colonial.
Just as Mission is not a style but the nega-
144 HOME FURNISHING
tion of style, so Colonial is not really a style but a
congeries of styles. It embraces all the periods
of the past, except Gothic and those that come
from the Orient. Most prominent in it are the
French and English styles of the eighteenth cen-
tury. But in form they have been more or less
colonialized and assimilated to cisatlantic purses
and traditions. The materials are less fine, the
ornament less elaborate, and the execution less
skillful.
Simplicity is the rule in Colonial draping. In
more elaborate interiors, with heavy architec-
tural background pilastered and colonnaded and
arched, gold-braided draperies in velours, with
straight valance or lambrequin or cornice, are
appropriate. As the ceiling decreases in height
and the walls come together, the gold braid and
the lambrequin disappear, and the valances be-
come short and flat.
In small Colonial chambers, the tendency to
simplicity reaches its extreme. Here ruffled and
fluted muslins, cretonnes and inexpensive prints
are appropriate. In the larger chambers, the
cretonnes are often made up elaborately with
lambrequin and side curtains, and with tester
and flounce for the fourposter.
To the writer, however, the effect of too much
boldly-figured cretonne, especially when the
HOME FURNISHING 145
wall-paper matches in pattern, is unpleasant. It
contracts the room in size and, because of the
repetition of motif, suggests a merry-go-round.
I recall particularly a peacock pattern imported
from England that turns a chamber otherwise
admirably planned into a pavonic aviary.
There are some chambers where the only dra-
peries necessary or desirable are inside the cas-
ing, next the glass. These can be in plain net,
or in some of the fancy nets which are inexpen-
sive and of which there are many fascinating
weaves. Suitable also are madras and many of
the fancy cotton weaves figured with stripes in
cloth or gauze and with tiny conventional fig-
ures. Nor must we forget the dotted Swisses,
especially those of delicate texture. An interest-
ing way to drape these curtains is to cut them in
half-length, attaching one pair to the upper sash
and one pair to the lower sash. If the material
is very light in weight, bottom rods may be neces-
sary to hold the curtains in position and keep
them from getting mussed.
The reception-room or parlor naturally re-
ceives the most formal and elaborate treatment.
If it has a bay-window, a valance or lambrequin
across the entire width, with narrow side and
center curtains, may be the most prominent and
indispensable decorative feature of the interior.
146 HOME FURNISHING
An undraped bay-window is an ugly thing, that
admits too much bright light and throws the
room out of balance. Translucent curtains next
the glass are necessary on most bay-windows.
ABOUT draperies for town houses almost
everybody knows something; also about
draperies for country houses that have
windows of regular size and shape. But when
it comes to bungalow draperies, uncertainty
prevails.
Out of the hundreds of photographs of bunga-
low interiors that find their way into the edi-
torial offices of Country Life in America, less
than 5 per cent show draperies at all, and less
than i per cent show suitable draperies. Evi-
dently most people take it for granted that dra-
peries are inconsistent with the simplicity that
is supposed to characterize bungalows, or in
searching for bungalow draperies have been
unable to find anything they regard as suitable.
Yet bungalows quite as much as any other type
of residence need draperies to soften the hardness
of wood and plaster and brick and stone, and to
introduce the rich and warm and picturesque
textures possible only in the products of the
loom.
147
148 HOME FURNISHING
It is obvious that the Flemish, Arabe, Cluny,
and Filet Italien laces appropriate for stately
apartments, are out of place in a bungalow
even a pretentious one. A bungalow stands for
informality just as definitely as does a log cabin.
And just as the colors and the cut of golf and
tennis and yachting costumes are less conven-
tional than those of evening clothes, so in the
clothes worn by the windows and connecting
doorways of bungalows there is unusual oppor-
tunity for homespun and chintz effects.
I think every one will agree with me that
bungalow draperies should be characterized by
coarseness of weave and roughness of texture, as
well as by strength and solidity and intensity of
color. The bungalow is no place for French
grays and pinks and pastel effects. It is a place
for stained-glass and shadow (warp-printed)
effects in iridescent tones that flash like a kaleido-
scope, and glow like fires made with ocean drift-
wood. Above all, it is a place for warm tints
and mellow colors.
Such effects are easier to describe and long
for than to obtain, especially if the expenditure
be limited. Such effects enable weavers and
dyers of the newest school to ask and get prices
that cause the merchandise dealers to wonder.
Such effects take one back to the wonderful fif-
i. Treating two windows as one, by framing them in a luminous
Dutch print.
2. A group of casement windows, with over-draperies of silk monk's cloth and
draw-curtains in striped net with diagonal mesh.
HOME FURNISHING 149
teenth century when tapestries and brocades were
heavy with gold and silver, and rich with the in-
dividuality of the maker.
The nearest approach to such effects in cotton
and linen prints are the reproductions of English
eighteenth-century hand-blocked prints repro-
ductions printed from the ancient and original
blocks in all-over patterns, where every inch of
the surface is packed with fruit and leaves that
glow with autumn golds and browns. They are
expensive, but they come 50 inches wide and can
be split for the narrow side draperies that suit
many bungalow windows.
Still more expensive $3.50 a yard are the
5O-inch shadow silks that excel in iridescence
and drape back most gracefully where the in-
troduction of curves is desirable. Other rich silk
draperies are the grenadines and the tapestries.
Less expensive silk draperies are the shikiis plain
and broche, the brilliants plain and broche, the
Colonial prints, and the Bagdads. One of the
shikii type is Algerian silk, 50 inches wide, at
$1.70. Shikii brocade in bold relief is $1.80 a
yard. Kaneko stripe has a basket-weave ribbon
on shikii ground a most unusual contrast of
irregular textures. Punjab silk is a crepe effect
in splendid colors especially the reds and
browns. Tussah broche is $3.75 a yard. Monk's
150 HOME FURNISHING
cloth, 50 inches wide, at $1.50 a yard, is what
the name implies, a very rough, plain fabric
for some places superior to anything else woven.
It must be seen to be appreciated. The Colo-
nial prints, 31 inches wide at $1.40 a yard, are
reproductions of the old black prints that had
tiny figures rosebuds and butterflies and little
blossoms swarming thickly over the surface
another find for the person with individuality
who is looking for means of expression in the
form of individual draperies.
But some of my readers at this point, I fear,
are beginning to say to themselves: "All these
things are too expensive to be practical for our
purpose. We want results for little money."
Of course, to the indictment I must plead
guilty. I did start at the upper end, because at
the upper end the range of qualities is wider.
Thus I have been enabled to get a background
against which to display very inexpensive tex-
tiles that, without such backgrounding, might
seem tame and uninteresting.
Plain nets and scrims in ecru and coffee colors,
and also in reds and greens and browns, make up
into excellent bungalow draperies. But better
still are the cross-bar and lattice-work effects
woven like the nets on the lace-curtain machine.
One of the best is the simplest of all just square
HOME FURNISHING 151
lattice-work of tiny open rectangles, framed by
narrow intersecting bands of lace. Either in
white or ecru 45 inches wide it is only 20 cents
a yard and a little more in color. Another of
these lattice-work lace nets has diagonal meshes
43 inches wide at 32 cents a yard ; another oval
meshes 45 inches wide at 25 cents a yard; an-
other with large diagonal meshes and half-inch
vertical stripes, imported 48 inches wide at 55
cents a yard; other imported ones from 31 to
60 inches wide in great variety of yarns and
textures range from 65 to 75 cents a yard.
Scrims, both plain and with drawn-work ef-
fects, are useful in bungalow draping not white
scrims but those in cream and ecru. Sometimes
the stringing of a bright-colored ribbon through
the open path left by the drawn-work adds to
the gayety of the environment. Sometimes the
gayety is secured by draping back with bright-
colored ribbons.
The printed scrims mostly border patterns
40 inches wide, range in price from 12^2 to 40
cents a yard. The open nature of the texture
and the hardness of the threads make the printed
effect particularly agreeable. The borders are
used also horizontally as valances and head-
ings.
Where the size and importance of the win-
HOME FURNISHING
dows makes two sets of draperies necessary, the
rough basket-weave cotton cloths called cloister,
and friars', and druid, make splendid overdra-
peries. The warps and wefts of the coarsest are
in groups over a quarter of an inch wide, pro-
ducing a texture that is "bungalowy" to the
limit. It contrasts wonderfully well with scrim
curtains beneath.
Of all the fabrics that can be suggested for
bungalow draping, however, I know of none
more generally useful in the living-rooms than
madras and crete. In the chambers there is rea-
son for seeking the lighter color and smoother
surface effects of nets and scrims. But for the
living-rooms the rich colors of the fuzzy figures
of crete and madras are exactly fit.
Cream-colored madras, 36 to 50 inches wide,
costs from 25 cents a yard up; chintz-colored
madras from 40 cents a yard up ; crete, 45 to 50
inches wide, $i to $1.75. Crete has an etamine
ground (like scrim) with inserted figures that
are cut on the wrong side of the fabric. Madras
not only has figures that are cut on the right
side of the fabric, but also a most interesting
gauze ground formed by the twisting of the
warp threads in pairs around the weft threads.
Both madras and crete should be treated with
the greatest simplicity, merely hemmed with a
HOME FURNISHING 153
broad hem, without galoons and figures by which
I have sometimes seen them disfigured.
Among the coarse linens, agra cloth, 50 inches
wide at $1.25 a yard, stands first. It is as coarse
as burlap but soft and agreeable to the touch
and no end durable. Sometimes it is ornamented
in a manner appropriate to bungalows, with
border and edging in coarse, bright-colored em-
broidery. Like all of the very coarse weaves,
agra cloth is suited for large rather than small
windows.
Among the imported prints none are better
for bungalow use than those from Holland and
Japan. There is a quaintness and unconven-
tionality about them that goes straight to the
heart. The Dutch prints, 32 inches wide at 90
cents a yard, excel not only in quaint effects but
also in the all-over fruit and flower patterns.
Among the best of the plain fabrics on the mar-
ket are the Japanese cotton crepes, 30 inches
wide at 50 cents a yard. The mulberry is a par-
ticularly pleasing color.
The tour de force from Holland is a sampler
print a print reproducing an old embroidered
sampler pattern. It is the most different print I
have seen for several years and comes 32 inches
wide at 90 cents a yard.
The draperies illustrated in connection with
154 HOME FURNISHING
this article were designed and sketched from the
actual fabrics. They suggest the possibilities not
only of the goods selected but also of all kinds
of similar stuffs, and should be useful to deco-
rators and dealers as well as to the public. Above
all they are practical and do not set problems
impossible to solve, which so often cause men in
the trade to lament the ignorance of writers on
decorative subjects, and assume an attitude of op-
position toward publicity.
The valances in my illustrations are tacked
to the under side of cornice or molding made to
match the trim of the room. The side and glass
curtains hang on small brass rods, over which
they draw easily, draw cords being added when
desirable. In some cases the glass curtains are
hung from an extension rod with rubber ends
that snap fast into position against the inside of
the casings. In No. 5 each of the overdraperies
is on its separate short rod that swings free on a
hinged bracket attached to the casing. This en-
ables casement windows that open in, to be
opened without drawing back the draperies.
Valances can also be divided in the middle and
treated in the same way.
In Fig. i the window is framed in a rich
orange-brown and gold all-over Dutch print,
32 inches wide at 90 cents a yard. It is pleas-
3. Next the glass is scrim, with 4. Valance and side curtains in
printed border. silk golden-brown net.
5. Arranged to let casement 6. Side curtains in Colonial
window open in, without draw- printed silk,
ing curtains back.
HOME FURNISHING 155
ingly translucent. It tacks to the inside of the
improvised cornice, and behind it are the rods
carrying the square-mesh lattice net that costs
only 20 cents a yard. Notice the simple panel-
ing outlined on the net in machine or hand stitch-
ing. Notice also the transparent and translucent
effect of this and all the other schemes that will
tone and soften and cool the hot light of sum-
mer, without introducing closeness or stuffiness
or gloom.
Next the glass in Fig. 3, scrim with a printed
border is suggested, and for valance and side dra-
peries, cloister or druid cloths with their coarse
basket weaves at from 60 to 75 cents a yard, 50
inches wide, or linen agra cloth at $1.25 a yard.
The narrow band across the valance just under
the heading is a plain galloon.
In Fig. 4, plain net or nothing next the glass.
Valance and draped curtains in golden-brown
net with tiny open mesh formed by warp threads
twisting in pairs around pairs of weft threads.
The two pairs of lines across the valance are
simple stitching, while plain ruffles of the same
material head the skirts of the side draperies.
The glass curtains of Fig. 6 are in lattice net,
with diagonal mesh, 43 inches wide at 32 cents
a yard, with applique edging in woven lace. The
overdraperies, the knotted valances hiding and
156 HOME FURNISHING
tacked to the wooden rod, and the loops, are all
in the printed silk known as Colonial. It is ex-
quisitely soft in texture as well as in color. The
lower part of the curtains should be shirred
on a wire or metal tape to hold in the position
illustrated.
The overdraperies in Fig. 5 are in Kaneko
cloth. The rough and contrasting textures of
stripes and ground, and the open translucency of
the stuff, tone the light marvelously. The orna-
mental medallions and stripes at the top can be
either embroidered, or applique of cut-outs from
cretonne or muslin prints. So, too, the edgings.
This is the only one of the six schemes in which
the rod shows, but here it shows boldly and ob-
viously and is a definite and recognized part
of the plan. Next the glass, plain net
Fig. 2 is in monk's cloth, a wonderful silk
weave almost as coarse and rough as burlap, but
soft and clingy and drapy to an extraordinary
degree, more so than any other fabric with which
I am acquainted. Valance and draped curtains
carry a simple silk fringe on the bottom. The
windows are leaded in glass not quite transparent
and full of texture. Between the glass and the
overdraperies are draw curtains in striped lattice
net with diagonal mesh.
All of the fabrics recommended in this chapter
HOME FURNISHING 157
are suitable for use in much simpler schemes
than those illustrated. Often the only draperies
desirable will be next the glass, shirred loosely
at the top on rod or wire or tape or cord at-
tached to the sash, so as to permit of easy draw-
ing back. If the windows are comparatively
small, sometimes half-sash curtains only will be
enough, with roller shade to cover the upper sash
when necessary. If the windows are very large
and high (whether guillotine or casement) , two
sets of curtains, one above the other, are usually
best. Again, if the windows are very small or
the glass is leaded in small panes or only semi-
transparent, the glass curtains can be omitted,
and the work of excluding and toning the light
entrusted to side overdraperies with draw cords
that pull them easily along the brass rod. Some
of the very light stuffs will need to be weighted
at the bottom with shot, or, in the case of sash
curtains, held fast by a second rod or tape or
cord.
XIV
LACE CURTAINS
THE lace curtains, spread and pillow
cases that draped the bed of Marie
Louise were of Alen9on lace made en-
tirely by hand Napoleonic bees composed with
the needle and applique inextricably into the
substance of the pillow-made net. There have
been other famous examples of draperies orna-
mented exclusively with point lace. But as a
rule it is the coarser and firmer bobbin- or
pillow-made hand laces that are employed for
curtain work, and when they are mounted as in-
sertions or edgings on net, the net is net that has
been woven on the loom. Instead of net, etamine
and fancy open-work or drawn-effect weaves are
also employed.
Lace draperies like those just described are
very properly classified as real lace curtains,
while all others count as imitation lace curtains,
but are none the less useful and beautiful because
of it. As most of the real lace curtains used
in the world were formerly made in France,
158
5S8SSK55HRK5fi52MK!*^
In the middle, filet italien; above, Cluny; below, filet antique.
HOME FURNISHING 159
while most of the embroidered lace curtains were
made in Switzerland, the former were once
almost universally called French lace curtains,
the latter Swiss lace curtains. For convenience
and clearness I retain these two terms in my
classification of the varieties of lace curtains, as
well as the term bobbinet, once employed to des-
ignate curtains with insertions and edgings of
machine-woven lace. We have then as the basis
of our classification:
1. French or real lace curtains of which real
lace made by hand with the needle or with the
bobbin, forms an important part.
2. Bobbinet or imitation lace curtains with
machine-woven insertions and edgings applique
on machine-woven net.
3. Swiss or embroidered lace curtains.
4. Renaissance, lacet Arabian, Marie Antoi-
nette, and braid lace curtains.
5. Nottingham lace curtains woven in one
piece on the lace curtain machine.
6. Madras and Crete lace curtains.
7. Muslin curtains.
The principal varieties of hand-made lace
used in curtain work are those illustrated in con-
nection with this chapter: Venise, Flanders,
Cluny, filet italien; filet antique. Flanders and
Cluny are pillow-made laces, Venice is point-
160 HOME FURNISHING
lace made with the needle, the two filet laces
are made by darning or embroidering with the
needle on square-meshed hand-made net. Real
or thread Arabe lace is made on the pillow like
Flanders lace, but has the patterns outlined by
a cord. In combination with these laces, squares
of hand-embroidered cut work in the form of
broderie anglaise are often employed as well as
squares of embroidered drawn work. Cut work
and drawn work occupy an intermediate posi-
tion between point and pillow laces, and woven
laces. The poinfand pillow laces are made en-
tirely by hand, the woven laces entirely on the
machine, but the cut work and drawn work by
hand on machine-woven cloth and etamine
grounds. Often imitation laces, like those made
on the schiffli embroidery machine, as well as
machine-woven drawn-work effects, are com-
bined with the real laces. To the ingenuity of
the converter there is seemingly no limit.
The antithesis of French curtains is Notting-
hams, so-called from the English city where the
lace-curtain machine, as well as the imitation-
lace machine, was invented. French curtains are
made largely by hand and consist of many sep-
arate pieces sewn together. Nottingham cur-
tains are made entirely by machine and in one
piece. Formerly we imported all our machine-
Point de venise panel framed in Flanders lace.
HOME FURNISHING 161
woven laces and lace curtains from England.
The first lace curtain woven in America was
made at Fordham, N. Y., in 1885. To-day the
American makers of Nottinghams not only con-
trol the home market but in the style of their
patterns and the interest of their product lead
the English. One of the new effects is that of
a double net border obtained by weaving at the
edge of the curtain an extra width that is turned
back and sewn down fast after it leaves the loom.
Of course, the part that turns under the edging
matches it exactly.
As the standard of American machine-woven
curtains has risen, the makers have exerted every
effort to get away from the word Nottingham,
which, on account of the cheap and inferior cur-
tains made for the mail-order houses, had fallen
into disrepute. Some adhered to the old term
of Scotch laces, others advocated American laces
as a slogan for this American industry, and the
name craft laces has also been introduced.
However, Nottinghams are Nottinghams, no
matter how called, and while coarse of texture
and obviously a cheap substitute, are compara-
tively durable because made in one piece, and
have been especially favored by hotel propri-
etors who had to make a lace-curtain show at the
minimum of expense, and with the least possible
i6a HOME FURNISHING
loss from wear and tear. Of course, Notting-
hams, like other imitations, are apt to masquer-
ade under real-lace names, especially in mail-
order catalogues, and I have no doubt that
farmers' wives in many remote parts of the coun-
try think that for $3 a pair they are getting the
real thing. The Swiss as well as the real laces
are also widely imitated on the lace curtain
machine.
Just as Nottingham was the first center of the
woven lace-curtain industry, so St. Gall stands
preeminent for the manufacture of Swiss or
embroidered curtains. But it is a house-to-house
industry there, and the bonnaz machine is still
run by foot in the cottage instead of by
steam or electric power in the factory as here.
In the rural districts of New England, fifty
years ago, women used to employ their leisure
at home profitably sewing together braid into
straw hats. So still in St. Gall and vicinity,
when outdoor work is not urgent, the Swiss
families take to the embroidery machines.
The printing, designing, cutting, perforating,
and stamping of Swiss lace curtains are done at
central factories; the embroidery, applique
work, and cutting out, at the houses of indi-
viduals. Most of the embroidery is done on
foot-power machines, the needle stitching firmly
HOME FURNISHING 163
a trail of soft yarn into the net. The hand em-
broidery is accomplished, not with the needle,
but with the crochet hook and thimble, the re-
sult being in buttonhole stitch. The mending
that rectifies the omissions and mistakes of ma-
chine or hand is done at the central factory,
while for the bleaching and finishing there are
special factories.
The tambour curtains are so called because
they were once made by hand on the tambour or
drum that is used for hand embroidery. Now,
the foot-power machine is used, and tambour
curtains show a design in bonnaz stitch applied
on a ground of plain net.
The Brussels curtains are made on much finer
net with much finer embroidery stitch, and the
design-enclosed surfaces are filled in with solid
embroidery of still finer yarn. The very finest
brussels curtains bear the name "duchesse."
Double-net curtains consist of one fine net em-
broidered on another, the ground of the upper
net being completely cut away, so that the net
remains doubled only in the field of the design.
Hand embroidery is general on double net cur-
tains, and for additional ornamentation, spaces
are often covered with needle-made dots and
tiny conventional figures (called hohl work).
In applique curtains the designs are in thin
1 64 HOME FURNISHING
muslin applique on net with the bonnaz stitch.
This is the least expensive variety of swiss cur-
tains.
Irish point lace curtains are distinguished
from appliques by their open-work effects
spaces where the net has been cut away and the
opening bridged with cords or brides. When
the cords meet in a knot at the middle of an
opening the lace figure is called a spider.
Etamines have etamine instead of net for
ground. The figures are formed in hand em-/
broidery, the field of the designs being cut away
and the open space bridged in various manners.
Etamine curtains are admirable for use as por-
tieres in simple and modern interiors.
Those who are not afraid of rich color turn
gladly to the so-called novelty Swiss curtains,
mostly on colored nets, with colored applique
and colored embroidery, and in the important
period styles Gothic, Empire, Heraldic, Re-
naissance, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI,
Biedermeier, and Colonial.
To the braid variety of lace curtains belong
those that applique the braid directly on the
net ground as well as those that use insertions
of Renaissance and Arabian lace made by tack-
ing together with brides and spiders, etc., flat
woven braids into motifs that imitate Flanders
HOME FURNISHING 165
and Arabe (real) lace. Renaissance lace cur-
tains have a bold and showy effect that once was
very popular, but is so no more. Nor are the
imitation Arabians holding their own. But the
Marie Antoinettes, with their soft ribbon ef-
fects, often supplemented with real lace inser-
tions, maintain a popularity that is deserved.
The variety of braids used by novelty cur-
tain makers for applique by a machine with
two needles that cleverly sews down both sides
of the braid simultaneously, is very great. And
the addition of cut-out and hand-work effects
often adds to the laciness of the result.
Madras is a fabric with mosquito netting
ground and figures formed by soft coarse extra
weft threads that are allowed in the process of
weaving to float loose where not wanted, to be
sheared off afterward. The rough side of
madras is the right side, and a distinctive fea-
ture of the weave is that the warp threads twist
in pairs about the weft.
Crete, on the other hand, has a plain or
etamine ground, and the rough or cut side of
crete is the wrong side. Both ground and fig-
ures are much heavier in crete than in madras.
Madras comes in a wealth of colors, richer
and brighter than would be permissible in a
fabric of heavier structure. It is seen at best
1 66 HOME FURNISHING
in a bright light, and the darker tones like the
darker tones of velours are apt to look muddy
when the light is dim. In rooms where only
one set of draperies is to be used and where
color is desirable at the window, one has to
choose between madras, crete, colored Irish
points, and colored fancy nets. Of these the
madras drapes, gathers and pleats best and
dresses the window most completely. The nets
and Irish points should usually be supplemented
by some light overdrapery. The crete shuts
out too much light for use in most windows.
Muslins have their greatest popularity in
New England where ruffled muslins were first
manufactured about twenty years ago. In New
York and Philadelphia fluted muslins are much
used, probably because windows average larger
here, and on large curtains the ordinary ruffled
band is apt to look mussy. The only objection
that is urged against the fluted band is the
difficulty of refluting after cleaning. The ordi-
nary laundry is unable to accomplish it, but all
the better class cleaning establishments can.
The variety of muslin curtains on the market
is enormous from thirty-five cents for abom-
inations made only two and one quarter yards
long by thirty inches wide, out of the cheapest
materials from the bargain counter up to the
HOME FURNISHING 167
finest Swiss grades of embroidered muslins at
eight or nine dollars a pair. Ruffled muslin
curtains are admirable for chambers. In coun-
try houses those with applique colored border
and ruffle are frequently available. But to hang
ruffled muslin curtains at two dollars a pair in
the windows of fine city residences as they do
in Boston is both undignified and inartistic.
The finest part of the residence is properly the
facade that faces the street; the draperies at
the front of the house should correspond.
Even on the cheaper muslins, braids and Not-
tingham laces are often applied with good ef-
fect. Perhaps the best method of ornamentation
is with the bonnaz machine. There is no ob-
jection to the use of real laces on the very
finest muslins, and the effects obtained with
muslin or with etamine ground are exceedingly
good. But the more open structure of net shuts
out less light.
One of the best tendencies of the past few
years has been the increased use of plain and
fancy nets, and one of the first to set the exam-
ple was Stanford White, who draped the win-
dows of his residence in Gramercy Park with
perfectly plain machine-woven net, merely bor-
dering it by turning over and tacking down
about two inches of the edge. Even more
i68 HOME FURNISHING
pleasing and vastly more lacey and drapey are
many of the fancy nets with tiny floral or geo-
metrical figures woven in very fine point thir-
ty-two threads to the inch as contrasted with
sixteen or fewer in Nottingham lace curtains.
The texture is exquisite and there is less sug-
gestion of imitation than in other of the ma-
chine lace products. These nets come forty-five
inches wide at from $1.25 to $2.50 a yard.
XV
WINDOW SHADES
THE decorative effect of window shades
is often disregarded, the selection de-
pending on the momentary whim of
purchaser or salesman. Almost without excep-
tion parsimony is practiced, even when the rest
of the furnishing is on a generous scale. Yet
the window dressing of a house has everything
to do with the appearance of both interior and
exterior. And of window dressing, except in
metropolitan mansions, where draperies are
elaborate, with lace next the glass and over-
hanging of tapestry, damask or brocade, the
shades are one of the most obvious features.
In all decoration an important law is: "Avoid
violent contrasts." If the shades are very dark
or densely opaque, the contrast between the
shaded and unshaded parts of a window, seen
from the interior, is extreme deep shadow
above bright light. For during the day shades
are commonly rolled up to leave the lower half
or two-thirds of the window exposed. But if
169
' '
170 HOME FURNISHING
the shades are light in color and semi-translu-
cent, the contrast is gentle and pleasing.
The color of the room is an important factor.
Green shades in a red room, or red shades in
a green room are an abomination, as are dark
shades in a light room. But while the shades
in a room with dark walls and furniture should
correspond in tone, the contrast with the out-
door light must be kept in mind, and the shades
should be lighter than the other furnishings.
If the windows have small panes, or leaded and
colored glass, the brilliancy of the light that
comes through them is less, and there is less
danger of too violent contrast with the shades
and interior walls.
The night effect of the shades (when the
source of illumination is inside the room) is
economically as well as decoratively important.
Dark shades and shades rough of texture re-
flect little light, so that if the windows are
many and the shades completely lowered, the
necessary cost of gas or electricity may be half
as much again as with light, smooth shades.
To leave the shades up only aggravates the
evil, for clear window glass lets out practically
all of the illumination that strikes it, and the
windows are then black boxes against lighted
walls the most unpleasant kind of contrast.
HOME FURNISHING 171
Extreme contrast is also the most common
fault in the exterior appearance of shades.
From outside the house, light shades against
dark walls, and dark shades against light walls,
are equally distasteful. Unshaded windows are
black boxes when seen from the outside too
black even by contrast with a house that has
been painted dark, and aggressively ugly against
light paint, as may be seen in the illustration
below.
In hue the shades should harmonize with the
exterior, red with red, green with green, and
yellow with yellow, but as a rule, should be
lighter in tone. Shades darker in tone look
opaque and stand out against their background.
Some attention should be paid to the environ-
ment of the building. The colors and tones
that dominate in the landscape invite repre-
sentation and reflection in the shades, especially
if their presence has already been appreciated
by the house painter.
At this point some reader asks: "How recon-
cile the decorative demands of the exterior
with those of the interior? What shall be done
when the exterior is dark red and the interior
is light green?" There is the rub. Duplex
shades with red outside and green inside are
sometimes suggested and used. This makes it
172 HOME FURNISHING
possible to have shades that correspond on the
inside with the different colors of half a dozen
different rooms, and are all the same color on
the outside. But duplex shades are necessarily
opaque, and usually offensive. They are an
attempt to solve a difficulty that should never
have been created. In other words, the con-
trasts between interiors and exteriors should
never be so strong as to call for shades of dou-
ble face. If these contrasts are gentle, it is
easy to find shading of intermediate color and
tone. When in doubt, use gray, brown or light
yellow.
I have emphasized the disagreement between
reds and greens because it is the one that most
often troubles, yet it is one that is regarded by
many persons as harmony. However, reds and
greens do not always disagree violently. They
can be reconciled by toning them together.
Light red against dark green is hideous, as is
dark red against light green. Yet the contrast
between light red and light green is pleasing.
For in both the hue has been softened and
toned down by the addition of white or gray.
The addition of red to the green or of green
to the red, or of some third color to both, also
brings them together.
Of these facts the reader can assure himself
HOME FURNISHING 173
by personal observation unless he is color-
blind. It is not necessary to accept the dictum
of the decorator or the epigram of the faddist.
It is possible by practice and experiment to ac-
quire a working knowledge of light and color.
The use of two sets of shades the outer set
opaque to shut out the light completely, the in-
ner set translucent to tone the light agreeably
is the best solution of the whole problem.
And if the light be also modified by leaded
glass, or latticed sashes, or by net curtains next
the glass, glare and shadow will be entirely
avoided.
XVI
DOMESTIC PRINTS
BETWEEN the hand-blocked French and
English prints illustrated and described
in Chapter XX and the domestic dra-
peries that form the subject of this chapter, no
comparison or competition is possible. The
former sell at from $i to $5 a yard, the latter
from 10 to 50 cents. But the latter are only
36 inches wide (and the tickings a little nar-
rower still), while many of the former are from
50 to 54 inches wide, and some of them on
linen or even wool, instead of cotton.
Technically and artistically the color work
of the roller prints is inferior. The colors are
necessarily thinner, and being impressed on one
another wet, equal accuracy and delicacy of
toning cannot be secured. Most significant of
all, the repeat of the patterns in roller prints
must occur at least once in 18 inches, the en-
graved copper roller being from 9 to 18 inches
in circumference. This means that compared
with block prints, the repeat of which is lim-
ited only by the number of blocks employed,
the effect of roller prints is monotonous.
174
I. Coventry bird pattern on plain 2. A tapestry effect on rep cre-
cretonne. tonne.
*a&*a *~
mte.
* I A
3. An ambitious attempt on rep 4. Another ambitious and not un-
cretonne. successful attempt on taffeta.
HOME FURNISHING 175
However, this has at least one compensating
advantage, for it makes roller prints safer in
the hands of the decorative ignorant and in-
experienced. To apply the large-figured prints
from abroad successfully on walls, windows, or
furniture, requires taste and skill of no mean
order.
In short, the domestic goods are excellent of
their kind, and meet the necessities of house-
holders who have limited purses. The fact that
the design standard is constantly and rapidly
improving shows not only that the manufac-
turers are alive, but also that the taste of those
who purchase domestic goods is being educated.
For of one thing we may be sure: while force
may bring horses to the trough, it cannot make
them drink. What the public want they get in
the long run, and no one but a genius like
William Morris is able to make an immediate
and lasting impression upon their taste.
Worth noting is the fact that a large propor-
tion of the domestic printed patterns are put
forth on several cloths taffetas as well as plain
and rep cretonnes. Tickings and dimities have
patterns peculiar to themselves, mostly stripes,
although they do share a few designs with the
taffetas and the cretonnes. Silkolines have
dropped out of most of the better-class stores,
176 HOME FURNISHING
and are confined to the comforter trade and
the rural districts. Once the piano trade ab-
sorbed many in the form of lambrequin-printed
scarfs or throws, given away with the instru-
ment as an inducement to purchase.
The prices of domestic prints range as fol-
lows: Taffetas from 30 to 35 cents a yard; rep
cretonnes 35 to 50 cents; plain cretonnes 15 to
20 cents; linen taffetas 50 to 75 cents; tickings
and dimities 25 to 30 cents; silkoline 10 to 15
cents; and even less for very inferior fabrics;
chintzes, painted on plain cloth in imitation
of the small-figured English chintzes particu-
larly the hand-blocked ones with their delight-
ful smudgy effects from 35 to 40 cents.
I am afraid that the European manufac-
turers look with no friendly eye upon the imi-
tations and reproductions of their goods made
in America. One can hardly blame them. In
some cases the effort and the accomplishment
have been to kill the sale of the original with-
out bringing much profit to the imitator. But
on the whole, the tendency of American makers
to improve their product in the European di-
rection, has worked to the advantage of the
importers. The farther our American makers
get away from the "bargain counter" price
basis, and closer to the quality and style basis,
5. A well-arranged floral on woven- 6. Chinese floral on plain cretonne,
stripe taffeta.
7. Flower and bird pattern on printed 8. Hampton, a ribbon-floral on taf-
stri6 ground. feta.
HOME FURNISHING 177
the larger the proportion of our fine trade that
will be sufficiently educated to pay the price
for the best hand-blocked draperies.
Several years ago a great deal of noise was
made over the fact that domestic printed dra-
pery and wall paper manufacturers were swap-
ping patterns, so that the customer could match
his walls in paper, to his draperies and furni-
ture upholstery in cretonne. Sketches were
made and illustrations printed in the trade
magazines showing one pattern regnant and
rampant throughout an entire interior. Occa-
sionally, of course, this may be permissible if
the pattern selected be not too pronounced.
And often the effect of matching slip covers
to wall paper will be delightful. But as a
rule, one of the three, and usually two of the
three draperies, wall hangings, upholstery
should be free from emphatic ornament.
I would call the especial attention of my
readers to the availability for cutting up into
applique borders on plain-ground cotton dra-
peries, of the stripe patterns found mostly on
tickings and dimities. Some of the florals on
cretonne also make up well into coverings and
flounces for simple bedroom furniture. How
well, is illustrated in the upholstery departments
of many of our big shops.
XVII
DOMESTIC TAPESTRIES
IN its broadest sense, tapestry includes all
fabrics woven, painted, printed, embroid-
ered used to clothe and adorn walls and
floors. In its narrow and special sense, it de-
notes the product of high warp and low warp
looms.
In this chapter the term will be confined to
machine loom and jacquard drapery and up-
holstery stuffs, all of which it covers in a gen-
eral way, though also employed especially to
designate ribbed imitations of verdure and
picture arras and gobelin.
During the past five years a great advance
has been made in the manufacture of domestic
tapestries. Once they were notable for ugliness
and stuffiness. A generation ago chenille por-
tieres and couch covers were the staple stock
of shops that supplied furnishings for the home.
To-day the extra heavy weaves are a drug on
the market, and at windows openwork weaves
are taking the place of those impervious to
178
1. Tapestry at Si.oo a yard.
2. Armure at i.io a yard.
3. Armure at 1.70 a yard.
HOME FURNISHING 179
light and air especially in country houses,
seaside cottages, and mountain bungalows, and
most of all in city flats and apartments with
their small rooms and scanty outdoor exposure.
To-day there is less attempt to imitate in in-
expensive materials the elaborate effects that
are appropriate only for palaces. To-day both
demand and supply are turning toward simple,
unconventional patterns suitable for expression
in cotton on machine looms, and for use by
families of limited income.
Probably the most important element in ac-
complishing the change has been the perfection
of the mercerizing process, and the discovery
that mercerized cotton can be dyed both sun-
fast and tub-fast fast against both light and
water. As long as mercerized upholstery and
drapery goods were sold merely as imitations
of silk, it seemed impossible to surround them
with a distinctive halo; but as soon as a Scotch
firm began to advertise "sundour" madras and
other cotton draperies, the bogie was stilled,
and customers became willing to pay from 10
to 15 per cent more for mercerized than for
unmercerized cotton. The silkiness and more
attractive appearance of the mercerized stuffs
have, of course, played an important part in
changing the attitude of dealers and the pub-
i8o HOME FURNISHING
lie; but it is the guarantee given by the foreign
and domestic makers which caused that attract-
iveness to become effective in producing sales.
One of the guarantees reads :
"These goods are guaranteed absolutely fade-
less. If color changes from exposure to the
sunlight or from washing, the merchant is
hereby authorized to replace them with new
goods, or to refund the purchase price."
The tub-fast quality is quite as important as
the sun-fast quality. It means that the laun-
dress supplants the expensive dry cleaning
process for unlined curtains and portieres. It
means that dust and dirt lose half their terrors
for the housekeeper.
Another change in domestic tapestries is the
decline in the demand for made-up curtains
and portieres. The introduction by architects
of smaller windows, and of windows of irregu-
lar size and shape, calls for smaller draperies,
and even on large windows and windows of
conventional size and shape, the tendency is
toward the use of narrower and shorter hang-
ings. This is a matter of serious concern to
some of the lace-curtain manufacturers, and it
has even been suggested that they should ap-
peal to American architects to construct win-
dows easier to fit with ready-made curtains.
4. A Colonial couch cover for $6.00.
5. Ashley net at fi.so a yard.
6. Russian net at .85 a yard.
HOME FURNISHING 181
Of the tapestry curtains now sold by the manu-
facturers, the common size is 50 inches wide by
8 feet 3 inches long (eleven quarters).
Particularly in madras, that shows to best
advantage when the light shines through it, is
sun-fastness desirable. It removes the chief de-
fect that has always prevented the more gen-
eral use of madras. The variety called Cerean
cloth, in heraldic and modern designs, and in
an extensive line of colorings, some with black
and some with self-toned ground, sells at 80
cents a yard 32 inches wide, and $1.25 a yard
50 inches wide. The same cloth, plain, is from
50 to 80 cents a yard 32 inches wide, and from
80 cents to $1.25 a yard 50 inches wide.
Then there are sun-fast damasks at from $2
to $4.25 a yard; armures from $1.10 to $1.30;
reps plain and moire from $1.20 to $1.35; tapes-
tries from $1.90 to $2.25; velours strie at $3.50;
double-faced flax velours at $2.60.
Among the made-up curtains are Venici
damask at $12.50, and fancy velours curtains
with armure back at $15. Interesting couch
covers in needlework effects are those copied
from the one in Paul Revere's bedroom, and
sold 60 inches wide and 3 yards long at $6
each.
Among the open-work weaves of delightfully
i8z HOME FURNISHING
irregular texture are Russian net and Ashley
net, the former at 85 cents, the latter at $1.50.
The former has a madras ground (warp threads
twisting in pairs around the wefts), with lattice
work formed by pairs of very coarse threads.
It comes in a range of colors as well as natural.
Ashley net has open-work blocks on the madras
principle, alternating with blocks in plain
weave, and between-stripes also in plain weave
but finer. It drapes most gracefully.
In some respects most interesting of all is
Dutch linen at from $1.40 to $2 a mercerized
linen with detached broche figures in mercer-
ized cotton that stands out boldly like embroid-
ery. It is especially recommended for pillow
and slip covers, but would also make up into
bright and attractive summer draperies. The
motifs are of the modern straight-line type.
It also comes with broche stripes and in a
Louis XVI rose basket pattern.
XVIII
CHOOSING WALL PAPERS
IN choosing wall papers for the different
rooms of the house, it is not necessary to
trust to guesswork and inspiration, or to
the advice of the Sunday Supplement and the
Ladies' Page of the Evening Magnifier. There
are guiding principles which, though sufficient-
ly general to leave much room for individual
taste, are yet sufficiently definite to prevent
gross error.
It is obvious that the treatment of a dining-
room should be different from that of the cham-
ber. It is clear that the upper floors of the
house which receive more outdoor light, are
easier to illuminate brightly in the daytime
than those on the first floor or in the basement.
But the situation is complicated by the fact that
we must consider artificial as well as natural
lighting.
To illuminate even a small room the walls
and ceiling of which are dark, is practically
impossible. It can be accomplished only by
183
1 84 HOME FURNISHING
multiplying three or four times the amount of
light used, and by enclosing the light sources
in opal or other globes that vastly increase the
amount of illuminating surface, and by distrib-
uting the light sources so completely that no
part of the room is far from one of them.
The effect of dark walls cannot be overcome
by the use of refractors that send the light
down, thus insuring high photometric tests.
There is no more wasteful way of distributing
light than to direct it toward the floor. If the
floor is dark all the light is eaten up that
reaches it. If the floor is light it is slippery
to walk on and disagreeable to look at. One
reason why rugs, particularly pile rugs, are so
satisfactory, is that they swallow up the light
that does descend and give a firm foothold.
The highly waxed parquet floor, unfigured and
uncovered, is almost as unsafe as clear ice.
Fortunately, the majority of wall papers are
comparatively light in color. Whether by day
or by night, they reflect a generous proportion
of the light. If they are light in color, free of
surface and plain of design, the walls do all
that can be done to illuminate an interior cheer-
fully and inexpensively.
The use of a room has everything to do
with the wall paper. If the room is used
HOME FURNISHING 185
mostly by day, the wall paper should be chosen
with that in mind, and may be much darker
than if the room is used principally by arti-
ficial light. But in natural lighting as well as
in artificial lighting, strong contrasts of light
and shade must be avoided. If an interior is
long and narrow, with windows at ends only,
or at only one end, the wall paper must be
luminous with grays and golds, and free from
complicated patterns.
In the living-room, that has external light on
at least three sides, a comparatively dark color
scheme is permissible. But in the living-room
that receives little light from the sky, the wall
paper must be light or the interior will be
gloomy.
The shape of a room can be completely trans-
formed by the kind of wall paper that is se-
lected. If the room is too low, stripes or small
figures and dark colors will push the walls in,
while light ceiling paper in plain ivory, cream
or gold will send the ceiling up. If the room
is too high, it can be lowered by using a frieze
wainscot or dado with filling paper that is un-
figured and light in color. The ceiling should,
of course, be darker than usual, and if figured
with a small pattern, will be made to appear
much lower.
1 86 HOME FURNISHING
To panel a room or to use a picture frieze
or a figured ceiling paper, because it happens
to be the fashion, or because the lady of the
house is moved by momentary fancy, is absurd.
The size and shape of the room and the size
and shape of the windows absolutely control
the situation. And if the room is to be used
as a reception-room of any type, drawing-
room, or parlor, or sitting-room, or living-
room, the position of the lighting fixtures must
always be considered.
As the dining-room does not need to be
lighted brilliantly, darker colors in wall paper
as well as draperies are often preferable. In
libraries that are used for studying and seldom
for entertainment, the darker colors are also
permissible. In dens that are intended to be
always dimly lighted, dark wall papers are
permissible.
The walls of the hall should never be dark.
If the hall is long and narrow and high, the
ceiling should be brought down, the side walls
should be spread out, and the amount of light
increased whenever practicable.
People generally are more fortunate in their
selection of wall papers for chambers than for
other rooms. It has been the custom to em-
ploy cheerful florals in light tones. But there
HOME FURNISHING 187
are many small chambers, the wall paper for
which is too elaborately patterned, and many
large rooms the wall paper of which has not
pattern enough.
Other things being equal, walls tend to re-
cede from the eye when hung with paper that
is smooth, or unpatterned, or large-figured, or
light in color. They tend to advance when
rough of service or heavily patterned, especially
with small figures, or in dark colors.
Of all the colors golds and yellows are the
most luminous, and to them the term bright
particularly applies. Nearly all the luminosity
of the spectrum is to be found in yellow and
its two neighbors, green and orange. It is
possible to eliminate red and blue entirely
without appreciably lessening the amount of
light in white that is the union of all colors.
But if we eliminate yellow, green and orange,
there will be little light left. All red rooms
and all blue rooms, even though the red has
been grayed and the blue has been overpowered
with white, are expensive to light.
The colors in the middle of the spectrum are
also the easiest to see by. They are better
adapted to the human eye. They represent the
average wave-length, which almost all persons
can see with equal distinctness. At the red
i88 HOME FURNISHING
end of the spectrum, the eyes of many are
color blind. At the blue end of the spectrum,
the eyes of others are keen.
The woodwork and furniture of the room
should be taken into consideration in selecting
the wall paper. If the doors, windows, side-
boards and cabinets are many and large, the
use of plain or small diapered patterns on the
side wall is imperative. To spread huge Re-
naissance pomegranates and florals over a sur-
face that is much broken mutilates them dis-
agreeably. To use wall paper that contrasts
violently in color with the woodwork and fur-
niture is also disagreeable. Dark furniture in
a room with light walls is as obtrusive as is
light furniture in a room with dark walls.
Simplicity is the only safe principle. But
this does not necessarily mean muslin curtains
and absence of ornament It means absence of
mixture and absence of violent contrasts. It
means that when furnishing an inexpensive
Colonial interior, you do not introduce the
grandiosity of Louis XIV. It also means that
when you are doing a dainty boudoir after the
fashion of Louis XV, you should employ the
colors and shades that were rightly employed
in the Eighteenth Century, because they went
well together. Undoubtedly any assemblage of
HOME FURNISHING 189
furnishings that accomplishes harmony is deco-
ratively good, even though founded not on pe-
riod style.
The trouble is that few of the masters as
well as few of the laymen are sufficiently fa-
miliar with the principles of decoration, and
have senses sufficiently keen to color, and line,
and mass, to originate anything that is really
good. Even in Germany and Austria, where
straight lines and squares and rectangles are
being manipulated with such wonderful suc-
cess, failures are frequent. And as for the
French Art Nouveau that flourished at Nancy
and Paris a few years ago, its sinuous stems
and parabolic curves have long since uncoiled
themselves into nothingness.
I
'
XIX
EUROPEAN HAND-BLOCKED PAPERS
THE paper hangings illustrated in con-
nection with this chapter represent the
best that has been accomplished in pat-
terned wall papers. They range in price from
$i to $12 a roll, the English rolls being 12
yards long and 21 inches wide exclusive of the
plain edges, the French and German ones 9
yards long and 18^2 inches wide, as compared
with our American roll length of 8 yards and
width of 1 8 inches. All of the papers illus-
trated were printed by hand from wooden
blocks in France or England or Germany (Al-
sace), and are sold in one or more shops in
every large American city.
In bringing these papers to the attention of
my readers in different parts of the country, I
do not wish to emphasize the hand-blocked
part or the European part unduly. Both in
America and in Europe excellent papers are
printed by machine, and America as well as
Europe produces hand-blocked papers of good
design and high quality. But as a general prin-
190
KWr?^4^M^^
f*^,*4Al:A ysw&Mvv > <
jC^^ t^K^&f- > w;
iV ""' " 4 fY^&lf&t'&f--*}''
'^ ^^^&5M 4^'^ ^^
^^VS^^^^^T^^
^^t^sr^Ht^M^^
3. Morris, Chrysanthemum. 4. Walter Crane, the Golden Age.
HOME FURNISHING 191
ciple it may be stated that hand-blocking, after
the manner invented in 1688 by Jean Papillon
in France, is superior to machine work, and
that the finest papers, patterned as well as scenic,
are made in Europe, although one American
wall paper manufacturer has had the audacity
to carry coals to Newcastle by opening a shop
in London. I understand that the shop has
been very successful, which is perhaps the best
testimonial to the merit of his wares.
The principal points of inferiority of ma-
chine to hand-blocked papers are:
The stock of the cheaper machine papers is
so rough and full of impurities that it could
not receive a clean impression even from hand
blocks. It also tears easily and fades quickly.
The colors used in machine printing are
necessarily thin, and all are printed at one
operation, one on top of another while still
wet. In hand blocking, rich colors are avail-
able and each color is allowed to dry before
the next is applied. Large, flat flowers and
leaves and broad stripes cannot be successfully
printed on the machine.
The wooden blocks of the hand printer, with
only dots and thin lines in brass, produce a
much softer and more interesting impression
than the brass and felt machine rollers.
192 HOME FURNISHING
Aside from the difference in artistic merit,
it is easy to tell hand-blocked from machine
papers by the narrow blank border at each end
of the roll, and by the guide marks in the mar-
gin that show the printer where to place his
blocks.
The effect of machine papers is apt to be
monotonous, even when variety is secured by
combining different rolls that have been planned
to go together as frieze and border and filling.
This is due to the smallness of the unit of de-
sign and the necessary frequency of the repeat
Elaborate and scenic designs are not only bet-
ter, but also cheaper when printed by hand.
Such papers as those ancient scenic ones illus-
trated in Country Life In America for Novem-
ber 15, 1911, it would not be possible to print
by machine. Even by hand they present enor-
mous difficulties. The famous Cupid and
Psyche series designed by Lafette and printed
by Dufour in 1814, has twenty-six different
widths that together form the complete story,
and no less than 1,500 separate blocks. It is
interesting to note that this paper is still on the
market, having been reprinted from the original
blocks, f and has been used with splendid effect
in American residences.
The Stag Hunt that appeared as a frontis-
5. Walter Crane, the Peacock. 6. Walter Crane, the Macaw.
m
7. Muller, Roses.
8. Regence pattern.
HOME FURNISHING 193
piece in the number of Country Life in America
mentioned above, and that was from a photo-
graph taken by Mr. Cousins of one side of a
room in the old Andrew Safford house, in
Washington Square, Salem, Mass., has been
identified by Mr. Harry Wearne as one orig-
inated by Reveillon, the famous and most im-
portant French late eighteenth century manu-
facturer of wall paper, whose business was
ruined by the French Revolution that in 1789
broke out in his factory in the Faubourg Saint-
Antoine, the establishment being raided, set on
fire, and destroyed by the mob. The Stag Hunt
took thirty-one widths of paper to form one
complete set or collection.
And now for the papers shown with this
chapter. Nos. i, 2, and 3 are English papers
designed by William Morris, who did more
than any other man of the nineteenth century
to raise the standards of industrial art, and not
only designed but what was of far greater
importance and significance actually made and
superintended the making of wall papers,
printed draperies, real tapestries of the old
Gothic type, and furniture. He knew what so
many forget or never learn, that in the creation
of masterpieces of art the hand is more im-
portant than the head, and the execution than
i 9 4 HOME FURNISHING
the design. Pattern No. i is called the Pim-
pernel (the pimpernel being not the large but
the small flower), No. 2 the Acanthus Scroll,
No. 3 the Chrysanthemum.
Pattern No. 7 is the best "roses" paper in the
world. The bold simplicity of the lines, com-
bined with the exquisitely soft delicacy of the
colorings, appeal to him who sees it, quite in
the same way as a wonderful painting, a mar-
velous tapestry, or a perfect statue in marble.
This paper was designed by Muller about 1850
and is made in Paris. It takes 185 blocks to
print from and the widths are twenty-six in-
stead of the regular eighteen and one half inches
wide.
Patterns Nos. 4, 5, and 6, shown two widths
together, were designed by Walter Crane and
printed by the firm who did and still do all
the Morris papers. No. 4 is called the Golden
Age, No. 5 the Peacock, No. 6 the Macaw. I
regard the Golden Age as a masterpiece. It
comes in self tones and also in many colorings,
as do most of the papers here illustrated. Some
of these patterns can also be had on cretonne.
Nos. 8, 9, 10, u, and 12 come from Alsace
from a factory that has been established for
more than a century, and consequently in char-
acter class properly with French rather than
9. The Golden Pheasant, a modern 10. Modeled on a Renaissance tap-
Zuber paper. estry after Van Orley.
ii. Reproduced from an old toile de 12. The Dutch Garden, a modern
Jouy. paper.
HOME FURNISHING 195
with German papers. No. 8 is a Regence pat-
tern originated in the early part of the nine-
teenth century. No. 9, the Golden Pheasant,
was originated only three years ago. However,
the form in which it now appears is not the
original one that was rejected after the blocks
had been cut and samples printed. I saw the
original cartoon. It was evident to me, after
I had been told, that when assembled on the
wall the tails of the birds would mark too
strongly. This and other defects caused the
maker to destroy the paper that had been print-
ed and the blocks that had been made, and after
an interval of twelve months, to bring out an
entirely new and much modified set of blocks
from which was printed the paper before us.
The result is worthy of the effort.
No. 10 is a paper taken from one of the
famous tapestries designed in the sixteenth cen-
tury by Van Orley, the Belles Chasses de
Guise, also called the Hunts of Maximilian.
No. n was reproduced from a Louis XVI
toile de Jouy, Jouy being a little town near
Paris where were made the most famous linen
drapery prints of the eighteenth century. The
ground of No. u is faintly but charmingly
damasse.
No. 12 is a modern paper, the Dutch
196 HOME FURNISHING
Garden, designed by the famous Frenchman,
Arthur Martin, whose collection of tapestries,
furniture, wall paper, etc., is worth crossing the
Atlantic to see, and whose services to French
makers of damask, brocades, and other woven
stuffs are noteworthy. This Dutch Garden ap-
peals to me most when printed in gray.
XX
EUROPEAN HAND-BLOCKED DRAPERIES
IN my chapter on "European Hand-Blocked
Papers" I pointed out some of the reasons
why hand-blocks produce better results than
machine-rollers. This applies not only to wall
papers but also to the linen and cotton drapery
cloths that form the subject of the present chap-
ter. Those illustrated are fifty inches wide, ex-
cept as otherwise noted, were made in France
and England, and range in price from $3 to $5 a
yard. The designs and colorings are of extraor-
dinary excellence, and should be studied even by
persons who cannot afford the best. Noteworthy
is the size of the design units, in most cases larger
than would be practicable with machine-rollers.
These large-figured patterns are especially suit-
able for window and door draperies, but must
be handled with unusual skill and taste when
applied to walls and furniture. Anybody can
manage papers and cloths that show tiny figures
and small repeats.
The most famous name in the history of hand-
197
198 HOME FURNISHING
blocked prints is Jouy. Now Jouy was not a
man, as one of our American decorators seemed
to think who asked Mr. Harry Wearne if he
could help him locate that Parisian cretonne
manufacturer named Chouy. (Almost as bad
as the lady from Kansas City who besought a
salesman in a New York shop to direct her to
Mr. Chippendale's shop, and when the salesman
managed to respond without smiling that he be-
lieved Mr. Chippendale was dead some years
since, went on to inquire about Mr. Sheraton
and his shop.) Jouy is a little village near Ver-
sailles, famous for the printed linens made there
from 1768 to 1815 by Christophe Philippe Ober-
kampf, a naturalized Frenchman, born at Weiss-
bach in Bavaria in 1738.
Oberkampf, however, was by no means the
first to establish this industry in France. The
manufacturers of upper Normandy preceded
him by nearly ten years in the production of
persiennes, indiennes, and siamoises (Persians,
Indians, and Siamese) , as the first French domes-
tic prints were called in imitation of those im-
ported from the Orient. The earlier develop-
ment of the industry in France had been for-
bidden by law and the manufacture was not
authorized until the publication of the Royal
Decree of Louis XV, dated November 9, 1759.
i. The Tulip, a characteristic Mor- 2. A quaint and curious Chinoiserie.
ris pattern.
3. From an old Rhode Island wall- 4. From one of Grinling Gibbon's
paper. famous carvings.
HOME FURNISHING 199
By that time much had been accomplished in
other countries, notably by Koechlin, who in
1746 started to make indiennes in the small Re-
public of Mulhouse in Alsace.
Oberkampf was late in starting, but he soon
surpassed all his competitors. In 1768, with a
total capital of 600 francs, he hired an aban-
doned building in Jouy, built his equipment and
tools with his own hands, and was designer, dyer,
engraver, and printer, all in one. Success was
almost immediate, and his goods soon became so
fashionable that he was able to send men to Eng-
land, Germany, and even Persia to study pro-
cesses, especially dyeing, in which the East sur-
passed. In 1787, by an edict of Louis XVI, his
works became a royal factory. The destruction
of the plant in 1815 by the invading allies, ruined
him and he died that year of a broken heart.
Oberkampf produced not only patterned
stuffs, some of which we illustrate, but also large
scenic designs with personages and landscapes,
such as the "Fables of La Fontaine" after J. B.
Oudry; "The Village Festival"; "The Balloon
Ascension"; "Paul and Virginia." Among de-
signers whose reputation is linked indissolubly
with Jouy is J. B. Huet, of whose designs the
Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris has a won-
derful collection.
200 HOME FURNISHING
Of the cloths illustrated by us, No. 2 is an
exact reproduction of an old toile de Jouy. It
is 34 inches wide and is also exceptional because
printed in several colors, most of these old
chinoiseries being monochromes. Quaint and
certainly interesting and most decorative are the
Chinamen shown, one with parasol walking up
a tight rope, another swinging, another skipping
a rope as he juggles, while a squirrel on a branch
adds comical gravity to the situation.
No. 3 is on linen, though not a toile de Jouy.
The design was taken from an old wall paper in
a house near Providence, R. I. Another with
delightfully soft and smudgy tones was taken
from an old Cordova leather, and another re-
produces an ancient piece of Jacobean needle-
work.
No. 4, on linen, is of unusual origin, being
modeled from a carving by Grinling Gibbons,
whose skill was utilized to such happy advantage
by Sir Christopher Wren, the famous English
architect. The colorings are dull and rich, quite
unlike the carving that was in limewood without
color.
No. 5 is a French linen, 31 inches wide, whose
intricate tones of soft orange and green required
many blocks for the printing. It is full of the
exuberant richness that characterized the Ital-
5. A rich French Renaissance pat- 6. An eighteenth-century Chinese
tern. effect.
7. The Compton, by Morris and 8. The Strawberry Thief, by Morris.
Dearie.
HOME FURNISHING 201
ian Renaissance, and reminds one of some of the
work of Primaticcio. No. 6, a 32-inch linen
with Chinese groupings on a gray stripe, is
French and distinctly of the toile de Jouy type.
One very rich design was suggested by an an-
cient Portuguese embroidery. It is especially
recommended for the main floor of a country
house or for a man's bedroom. Another on cot-
ton, was recently originated for the English
Royal Family, and the large leaves and flowers
rest against a black ground.
Among English chintzes not illustrated here
is a collection 30 inches wide with very small
figures, flowers, peacocks, cashmere designs, etc.,
at from $1.25 to $1.50 a yard. These also are
printed from ancient English blocks. They can
be had glazed or unglazed, and cost a little more
when glazed.
Among the old English blocks that have been
preserved are also many with very large figures
that are now printed on cotton 54 inches wide.
The reassembling of these blocks to form the
various patterns was no easy task and only the
fortunate discovery of certain written documents
made it possible. It was with blocks like these
that the ancient printers flattered the pride of
local magnates and provincial nobles, using the
same background for a dozen families, but
202 HOME FURNISHING
changing the bird or some especially significant
feature in order to produce a cloth individual
to the user.
A modern English pattern that delights me
shows birds and flowers and winding branches in
tones of rose and blue green and mauve on a
white ground of cotton 32 inches wide. The fact
that the shades and furniture coverings in the
drawing room of the Duke of Westminster's
home in London, Grosvenor House, are made
of it, will also commend it to many. Of course
Westminster used it glazed in the English
fashion.
The late nineteenth century revival of block
printing in England was due to William Morris,
who not only made the designs but also worked
out the processes at Merton Abbey, a quaint lit-
tle village not far from London, where the same
prints are still made in the same way to-day, with
the same blocks, and the same dyes, and sent to
art lovers in different parts of the world. Sev-
eral of the patterns I am permitted to reproduce.
All of them come 36 inches wide on cotton or
linen or wool. A print that in cotton would
sell for about $3, would bring $3.50 in linen,
and $4.50 in wool.
To these "wool challets" I want to call par-
ticular attention. They have a far more in-
HOME FURNISHING 203
teresting fine twill surface than either the cotton
or the linen, and possess the crisp and clinging
qualities so uniquely characteristic of wool.
Very grateful, too, is the way in which the wool
takes the colors.
No. 8, the Strawberry Thief, is produced by
discharging, that is to say by printing dark blue
cloth with acid-wet blocks that eat part or all
of the color out where the pattern indicates.
No. 7, Compton, only 25 inches wide, shows the
influence of John W. Dearie, who for many years
rendered important assistance to Morris in de-
signing and coloring, and who still carries on
the work of the master at Merton. No. i, the
Tulip, is a characteristic Morris pattern, and
like all his others splendid for use in many
interiors that are not at all "in the Morris
style."
Among the two-tone prints at from $i to $1.25
are Bird and Anemone, Rose and Thistle, and
Brother Rabbit.
As the illustrations show, Morris's idea of a
drapery print was something gay, something
made up of "the naivest flowers (and birds, too,
or animals), with which you may do anything
that is not ugly." He would tell designers,
wrote Lewis Day years ago in the Art Journal,
that they could not well go wrong so long as
204 HOME FURNISHING
they avoided the commonplace and kept "some-
what on the daylight side of nightmare."
Frank color Morris always insisted on. He
said a "right-minded" colorist would make his
work as bright as possible and as "full of color,"
and if he did not bring it out "pure and clear"
he had not learned his trade. To be prejudiced
against a particular hue, he thought indicated
"disease in an artist." But yellow he himself
found "not a color that can be used in masses";
red "a difficult" one; purple a color "no one in
his senses would think of using in bright masses."
Green, on the other hand, he described as being
"so useful and so restful to the eyes, that in this
matter also we are bound to follow Nature, and
make large use of it." Most of all he loved blue,
the "holiday" color as he calls it by way of
distinction from "workaday green." He was
against all rules of color. His experience taught
him "the paler the color, the purer it may be."
XXI
ART POTTERY
FASCINATING are the forms that clay
assumes on the potter's wheel forms that
fire makes permanent Fascinating, too,
are the elusive colors with which accident and
intention diversify the surface of pottery; and,
when the opportunity for expression is seized by
a master, the result is classic Wedgwood or
modern Rookwood.
To some persons, art pottery is a term that
designates the shapeless extreme and the ama-
teur experiment. They associate it only with
the exhibits of beginners and dabblers in the
arts and crafts. They regard it as something
that appeals peculiarly to the faddist and his
followers, and are of the opinion that plain
everyday people would do well to let it alone.
Art is a dangerous word. The ignorant use
it too much : the cultivated use it too little. To
describe anything as an art product introduces
doubt into the mind of the connoisseur; so famil-
iar are we with the art supplements of news-
205
206 HOME FURNISHING
papers and magazines, and with art shops and
the art departments of large stores. And the
manufacturer who makes a bad copy of some-
thing good almost invariably tries to lift it from
fake to fact by means of the prefix, ART. Such
is always the fate of the genuine. The more
worthy an object is of imitation, the more likely
it is to be imitated; which is why we have re-
tained the word art in the title of this article.
Man makes many things that are not art. Utility
often blinds him to the value of beauty.
The exigencies of machine construction seem
to compel shapes that are ugly. Art implies skill
and beauty. It is the raw material of nature,
shaped and made individual by human hands.
It is inspired craftsmanship, tapestry or carv-
ing or pottery that meant something to the maker
and that means something to the owner.
Take Rookwood pottery for instance. The
shapes are beautiful and grew out of the nat-
ural tendencies of the clay. This is an impor-
tant point. It is of course possible to imitate,
in clay, designs that the carver originated on
wood, or the smith on iron. But the result is
never more than imitation; it lacks spontaneity
and character. It is no more real than is the
mahogany made by staining birch with ma-
hogany stain. Rookwood pottery is genuine
The most beautiful and valuable vase in the world, the Port-
land vase in the British Museum.
HOME FURNISHING 207
through and through. Shape and surface, de-
sign and color, are produced in American clay
by methods that conform to the nature of the
material, and take advantage of all its possi-
bilities.
The illustrations indicate what the pieces
themselves show definitely that the designs are
first, last and forever, clay designs, conceived
and executed in terms of clay. The shape of a
handle, the swell of a dome, the neck of a vase,
the onlay of leaves and flowers in relief all are
done in the manner of the potter. If you would
get hold of the full significance of this, watch
the potter at work; or, better still, play potter
yourself. What you create may be valueless, but
what you learn will be invaluable. Herein lies
the importance of the arts and crafts schools,
and of arts and crafts in the public schools.
It is not part of my plan in the present short
chapter to Discuss mats and glazes, or by defini-
tion to separate porcelain from other pottery, or
to discuss and differentiate the different makes.
But I would call the attention of my readers
to the wonderful colors and tints and shades that
are attainable in clay. Peculiar to clay are many
of these color combinations. There are grada-
tions of tone that cannot be secured by workers
in glass or metal or wood or wool. Mysteriously
208 HOME FURNISHING
they lurk beneath the surface, revealing them-
selves partially and in infinite variety. They
are born of clay, and in clay only can they be
materialized.
Marvelous was the art of the ancient Greeks
and Romans. In statuary and architecture they
attained a pinnacle of perfection that we mod-
erns have not yet reached, and may never reach.
In the lesser arts they also excelled. Wonderful
were their accomplishments in tapestry and em-
broidery and bronze and wood and pottery. To
the classic arts were due not only the Italian
Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies, but also the classic revival of the latter
half of the eighteenth century, that was conse-
quent on the excavations of Pompeii and Her-
culaneum.
The single object that had the greatest in-
fluence on modern pottery was the Barberini or
Portland vase, so named from the families that
successively owned it. It is now in the Gem
and Gold Ornaments Room of the British Mu-
seum, and is not surpassed in beauty, or value
by any vase in the world. It is about ten inches
high and twenty-two inches in circumference,
with figures in snowy cameo on a dark-blue
ground.
In 1790, twenty-four reproductions of it were
HOME FURNISHING 209
made by Josiah Wedgwood in his famous jasper
ware, after four years of patient experiment
This period was of extreme importance in the
history of Wedgwood's development, and in the
history of art pottery.
According to Wedgwood, the Portland vase
pictures the Eleusinian mysteries, and dates from
the age of Phidias and Polyclitus the golden
age of Greek sculpture and relief work.
A facsimile of it in the original materials was
made by John Northwood, of Stourbridge, Eng-
land, in 1877. This facsimile is to be placed in
the British Museum beside the original.
The beauty of the vase is striking, even in our
illustration, that lacks color. So exquisite are
the proportions and composition of the figures
that it is no wonder the artist sought inspiration
here. And if the modern artist works along
other lines, it is because he cannot, along these
lines, accomplish results that are equal. Not
that the Portland vase represents the be-all and
end-all of plastic design, far from it. In differ-
ent countries, in different periods, thousands of
types of pottery and porcelain have been pro-
duced, owing nothing to Greece or Rome, and
yet perfect as forms of artistic expression. China
alone has filled the world with the product of
her potteries, and from Chinese porcelain came
2IO
the inspiration that established royal manufac-
tures of porcelain in the principal countries in
Europe. From China and Japan, to-day, come
shiploads of pottery and porcelain, much of
which deserves the name of art pottery. This is
true of the coarse and unglazed ware quite as
much or even more than it is of the elaborately
decorated and hard-finished pieces.
The product of modern European potteries is
by no means to be despised. Each locality has
worked along some special direction and ac-
complished an individuality all its own; for in-
stance, the Royal Copenhagen ware that we illus-
trate. And then there are Sevres and Doulton,
and Minton and Limoges and Berlin, and other
names innumerable, associated with the produc-
tion of art pottery.
But to an American, of course, American pot-
tery has preeminent interest. We started with
Rookwood, and we come now to Volkmaar and
Grueby and Van Briggle and Newcomb, not
naming, but at the same time not forgetting, the
numerous individual makers who exhibit at the
National Arts Club, in Gramercy Park, New
York, and at other houses of arts and crafts so-
cieties.
The importance of their work is out of all
proportion to the importance of their wares.
HOME FURNISHING 211
They are pointing the way in a new direction,
and to the creation of original types. Often,
indeed, the shapes are bizarre rather than in-
dividual, while the mats are uncertain and im-
perfect, and a distinct effort appears to have
been made to avoid use value. But here, at least,
we have what commercial pottery seldom pos-
sesses the direct embodiment of an idea with-
out a wilderness of processes between designer
and maker.
It might not do harm for some of the ama-
teurs to keep use value more in mind. The
highest form of beauty is that which associates
use with beauty, and for a designer to work
under definite limitations is often an education
more than a hindrance. Certainly, some of the
amateur vases for lamps would be vastly im-
proved by being made less unstable, and small
pieces for definite use, as ash-trays, flower-stands
and pen-holders, might be substituted for mean-
ingless vases, with advantage to art as well as to
the salesman.
The arts and crafts movement is important,
both educationally and industrially. It educates
workers and their friends and many of those who
see the work. It also develops workers who
make a business of the craft, and help to re-
generate an industry from which art as from
212 HOME FURNISHING
most American industries has been wofully
missing. It is to them and to the potteries that
occupy the borderland between the amateur and
the professional that we owe most of the interest-
ing pieces that diversify decorative and jewelry
shops, and have done so much to arouse the at-
tention of the buying public to the possibilities
of art pottery. While exaggeration and affecta-
tion are far too common, and there is a lack of
classic repose and balance in even the most suc-
cessful examples, the forms and ornament are
alive and are good for people to live with. They
tend to make one dissatisfied with ugly furniture
and wall papers and draperies, and they develop
an interest in material and method of making,
as well as in shape and color.
While the tendency of the arts and crafts
makers has been along new art lines, the Ameri-
can potteries making for the shops have often
followed European or antique precedents and
nomenclature. Our illustrations show two pieces
of Mycenean ware that is made in Baltimore. It
resembles the famous Italian Capo-di-Monte
pottery in shape and ornament and color. Many
of the models are purely Greek in origin, some
being reproductions of pieces excavated from
the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Mycenae.
Mycenean ornamentation includes geometrical,
HOME FURNISHING 213
marine, animal and leaf forms, and the human
figure, and dates back to the twelfth century
B. C. The first important discoveries at Myce-
nae were made by Schliemann, in 1876 and 1877,
and the chief objects found are now in the mu-
seum at Athens.
This tendency of the commercial potteries
toward reproduction work is by no means to be
despised. The results in most cases are far bet-
ter than would be achieved along original lines,
even though the reproductions are often unfaith-
ful and unintelligent. If the standard of the
reproductions would only be raised, and if
American potters were content to copy and the
American public were content to buy simple
shapes, simply ornamented in the Greek spirit,
it would do quite as much as the modern move-
ment to educate the public artistically. Further-
more, a large proportion of commercial pottery
is useful.
Preeminent in age as well as in achievement
is the Rookwood pottery, that was founded in
1880, in the suburbs of Cincinnati, by Mrs.
Maria Longworth Stover. From commercial-
ism it has always kept itself free, and the battle
of individualism and Americanism it has fought
with what, to some, seems almost fanatic devo-
tion. Instead of importing European decora-
214 HOME FURNISHING
tors rich in traditions of the past, American
artists were employed to work out original meth-
ods by experiment and selection. All Rookwood
pieces are signed with the mark of the etcher
and of the artist, and no pieces are duplicated.
Rookwood pottery received the Grand Prix at
Paris in 1900 and two Grand Prizes at the St.
Louis Exposition in 1904.
The eight principal types of Rookwood ware,
illustrated and described in a little book, are
standard, sea-green, iris, mat-glaze painting,
conventional mat glaze, incised mat glaze,
modeled mat glass, and bellum ware. Stand-
ard was the first ware that was produced at the
pottery, and is noted for its low tones of yellow,
red and brown, with luxuriant flowers beneath
a brilliant glaze. Sea-green is characterized by
limpid and opalescent sea-green effects, and a
favorite decoration is fish moving under water.
Iris has a light body with brilliant white glaze,
with decorations in delicate grays, pinks, soft
blues, greens and yellows, that possess a pecu-
liarly "pottery" quality as distinguished from
the hardness of porcelain.
The so-called mat glazes are distinguished by
the absence of gloss, and show wonderful variety
of texture sometimes of crystalline solidity like
quartz; sometimes mellow in color like ripe
HOME FURNISHING 215
fruit; again, the quality of old ivory or stained
parchment; or, again, unevenly translucent.
The incised mat glaze in reds, blues, yellows
and greens gets its name from the incised orna-
ment. The modeled mat glaze has modeled
ornament, in addition to the colored mat, and
is particularly effective for lamps and elec-
troliers.
The prices of Rookwood are moderate, con-
sidering the individual quality and the wonder-
ful workmanship; one hundred dollars for a
lamp thirty-three inches high in mat glaze with
conventional decoration; eight dollars for an
electrolier four and a quarter inches high in vel-
lum finish with dogwood ornament; seven dol-
lars for an electrolier four and three-quarter
inches high in vellum with mistletoe orna-
ment; thirty dollars for an iris vase nine and
three-quarter inches high with bleeding-heart
ornament; eighty dollars for a modeled mat vase
thirteen inches high with dragon ornament.
I would warn my readers against overorna-
mentation in pottery, particularly in cheap pot-
tery. Exquisitely refined effects with which
great artists triumph are absurd when imitated
or attempted by rough hands.
One of the worst forms of overornamentation
is the introduction of elaborate human figure
2 i6 HOME FURNISHING
subjects. The treatment that in its origin was
naive, conventional and decorative, gradually
aped the composition of fresco and canvas until
the pottery painter reached a point where his
work had nothing in common with the material
to which it was applied.
Particularly was this illustrated in painting
on majolica at Faenza and Urbino. The neces-
sity of graduating every tint and modeling every
form destroyed the potency of the colors. Sub-
jects that required the talent of a Maestro
Giorgio or a Fra Xanto verged on the ridiculous
when handled by a mediocre artist.
When the French soft-paste porcelain was first
made at Rouen, St. Cloud and Chantilly, the
patterns were mostly decorative. But at Vin-
cennes and at Sevres, between 1750 and 1770,
the fresh and charming ground colors of the old
pate tendre had to give way to panels of cupids
and figure groups and landscapes. No longer
content to make vases and dishes and plates, the
pottery painter copied the paintings of Oudry
and others on large flat slabs of soft-paste por-
celain with skill and pains worthy of a better
cause. Enormous vases were constructed with
paintings invading the whole piece from shoul-
der to base.
The fashion set at Sevres was followed
HOME FURNISHING 217
throughout Europe. At the successive interna-
tional expositions of 1850, 1867, 1873 and 1876
the great potteries vied with each other to excel
in elaborate painted pieces.
The first protest came from John Ruskin and
William Morris, whose pleas for sincerity and
simplicity were not without effect. A strong
reaction set in against the mechanical smooth-
ness and evenness of color and surface that was
the ideal of the pottery painter.
The great impulse toward better things, how-
ever, came from the Orient.
XXII
REAL TAPESTRIES
TAPESTRY is a broad word. It ranges
all the way from ten cents a roll for
verdure papers to ten thousand dollars
a yard for the marvelous pictures woven on the
highwarp looms of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Centuries. In between the wall papers and the
arras come numerous printed, painted, and loom-
figured textiles that, on account of their resem-
blance to real tapestry often remote have ac-
quired the same name. Consequently it is not
strange that confusion exists in the minds of
many as to what real tapestry actually is, espe-
cially as dictionaries and encyclopedias almost
without exception define the word incorrectly or
incompletely, while its trade meaning varies ac-
cording to the shop in which it is found.
Several years ago the writer was invited by
an intending purchaser to visit an antique shop
to pass on the genuineness of what purported to
be a Seventeenth Century Gobelin tapestry, de-
clared to be worth $10,000. While the dealer
218
Jacob blessing two children. Part of the Gothic Seven Sacra-
ments tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
HOME FURNISHING 219
disclaimed all expert knowledge of tapestries
and was not ready to guarantee the attribution,
the eagerness with which he pointed to the woven
signature, Ch. Le Brun Pinxit, and the willing-
ness with which he introduced references to per-
sons and books likely to spur on the hesitating
purchaser, showed that he was either extraordi-
narily ingenuous which antique dealers seldom
are or was trying to perpetrate a gross fraud
without technically violating the law. The
dealer was indignant and threatened violence
when the writer stated that the tapestry was
machine-made and worth about twenty-five dol-
lars. The purchaser covered our retreat, inci-
dentally expressing his opinion of the dealer.
Recently I related the anecdote to the manager
of a house that imports many of these Jacquard
tapestry panels, expecting him to be as surprised
at the customer's ignorance and the dealer's dis-
honesty as myself. Imagine my amazement when
he retorted : "Wha'd yer wan'der butt in on der
man's business fur? He had a ridt to get what
he could. Lodts of the tealers magke good
money on dese dapestries." He then went on
to express an unflattering opinion of writers who
give illustrations and prices that tend to make
the public less gullible. Indignant at his atti-
tude, and enlightened by it, I have since made
220 HOME FURNISHING
it a point to investigate the methods of distribu-
tion of these tapestry panels, and have discov-
ered that a large proportion of them are sold
to persons who do not understand what they are
buying, at prices that are extortionate. They are
an important source of revenue to the cheap and
tawdry auctioneers of bric-a-brac and what are
called "art" objects for the home. And, as in-
stanced above, they are a treasure trove to the
dealer in bogus "antiques" and second-hand
furniture.
Only in a few of the large establishments is it
possible to purchase these Jacquard tapestry
panels at a fair price, from a stock that is large
enough to give reasonable choice of designs and
sizes. Even there, few or none of the salesmen
have ever seen a real Gobelin or learned to un-
derstand the difference between real tapestry and
imitation. So the writer is confident that those
behind the counters, as well as those in front of
them, will appreciate the attempt here made
to present the points of difference, with illustra-
tions that effectively supplement the printed
story.
First, as to what constitutes real tapestry.
There have been many poetic descriptions glori-
fying it with the iridescent beauties of the rain-
bow, and the rich tones of sunrise and sunset;
HOME FURNISHING 221
but such descriptions are of little help in de-
ciding whether a particular textile is or is not
a real tapestry. Only a definition based on weave
can do that. It is the weave that makes the
difference.
A real tapestry is a fabric in plain weave with
warp entirely concealed by the weft, which is
of uniform thickness, and is exactly alike on
both sides, except for the loose threads on the
back that mark the passage of bobbins from
block to block of the same color. With some ex-
ceptions, it is also a rep fabric that is to say,
it has a ribbed surface and in weaving open
slits are left where two colors meet parallel with
the warp.
This sounds harder than it really is. If the
fabric is ribbed with from seven to twenty-four
ribs to the inch, is of uniform thickness and
exactly alike on both sides, with the character-
istic open slits, then it is a real tapestry. If the
threads that float loose on the back are parallel
instead of zigzag, then the fabric is not a real
tapestry, but a broche tapestry, with body that
is thicker where figured. The loose threads on
the back are not a necessary criterion, for they
can easily be clipped close, leaving the back
exactly as if it were the face showing through.
This is sometimes done to ancient tapestries,
222 HOME FURNISHING
which are then mounted back side out, like two
of the famous pieces of the "Seven Sacraments"
series of the Fifteenth Century tapestries in the
Metropolitan Museum, New York, in order to
show the colors, that have faded less on the pro-
tected back than on the long-exposed face side.
Between furniture tapestries and wall tapes-
tries there are a number of usual but not vital
distinctions. The latter are comparatively large,
with coarse horizontal ribs, and tell a story. The
former are comparatively small, with fine ribs,
either vertical or horizontal, and with designs
that are primarily decorative. Of wall-tapes-
tries, wool is the basic material, with gold and
silver to add richness and silk to increase high
lights. Of French furniture-tapestries silk is the
favorite material, with wool to serve as back-
ground and to supply the low tones.
The first step in learning how to buy real tap-
estries is to learn where to buy them. It is
foolish to seek fine china in a five-cent store,
and it is equally foolish to look for important
tapestries in ordinary shops. Tapestries are in
a class by themselves, and even the furniture
coverings are above the heads of general dealers,
few of whom are able to tell the genuine from
the imitation. Most of the business in real tap-
estries furniture coverings, as well as the vast-
HOME FURNISHING 223
ly more important wall hangings is done
through auction- rooms and decorative shops
not the average auction-room, and not the aver-
age decorative shop just a few that, on account
of their high reputation for straightforwardness
and quality, have as regular clients persons who
can appreciate good things of the sort. Among
important tapestries sold at auction in New
York City during the last few years were those
belonging to Henry G. Marquand, Stanford
White, Charles T. Yerkes, James A. Garland,
and Henry W. Poor. One of these, sold at the
Yerkes sale, a Gobelin on the subject of "Vulcan
and Venus," designed by Boucher and woven
by Audran, brought $17,700. For three or four
days before such sales begin opportunity is given
to examine the tapestries at one's leisure, and
the catalogues supplied are not intentionally in-
accurate. But they are seldom as complete as
they should be. Perhaps that is why the ten-
dency is for imperfect and damaged and artisti-
cally inferior tapestries to sell for more than
they are worth, while the superior examples
sometimes sell for less than they are worth. Out
of twenty large tapestries the writer recently ex-
amined in an auction-room, seventeen had never
been especially good, while the other three were
so badly repaired as hardly to merit house room.
224 HOME FURNISHING
Herein lies a lesson that the amateur of tapes-
tries should take to heart. Mere age counts for
little. The value of an inferior work of art does
not increase as the generations pass, although
the price paid by ignoramuses sometimes does.
It is the tapestry, or rug, or chair, or table, that
artistically excels which multiplies in value more
rapidly than the interest on money, and at last
is enshrined in the palace of a collector, in the
museum of a great city or nation.
The only museum in the United States that
contains an important collection of fine tapes-
tries is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York. Compared with the forty splendid pieces
now displayed on its walls, the collections of the
Boston and Chicago art museums as well as of
the Metropolitan Museum itself five years
ago are insignificant. The collection of books
on tapestry in the library of the Metropolitan
Museum is also large and important.
The prize tapestry in the Metropolitan col-
lection is one in the Gothic style, lent by the
late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan and called the
Mazarin tapestry, because tradition says that it
once belonged to the famous French Cardinal
who chastened the youthful haughtiness of Louis
XIV. The subject of this tapestry, which is
partitioned like a three-fold screen, with Gothic
HOME FURNISHING 225
columns between the leaves, is "The Triumph of
Christ and of the New Dispensation." Christ
is seated on a throne in the upper part of
the middle panel, with angels on each side
of Him, one bearing a long branch with lil-
ies, symbolic of the Church; the other a sword,
symbolic of the State. Below are two groups
of worshipers, the Church group headed by the
Pope and the State group by the Emperor. A
figure representing the Synagogue of the Old
Dispensation appears on the right, blinded, with
broken scepter and shattered tablets of the
Mosaic law, while the State of the New Dis-
pensation is represented by the Persian King
Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and Esther. A figure rep-
resenting the Holy Catholic Church of the New
Dispensation appears on the left with crozier
and chalice, while the State of the New Dis-
pensation is represented by Emperor Augustus,
to whom the Tiburtine Sibyl announces the
coming of the Messiah. Technically, this is one
of the most wonderful, perhaps the most won-
derful, tapestry ever woven. Certainly the flesh
tones of faces and hands and of the tiny nude
figures of Adam and Eve, and the silver tones
of hair and beards, and the gold and jewels of
the costumes are marvelously expressed.
Almost in the same class as regards excellence
226 HOME FURNISHING
of weave are two Renaissance tapestries illustrat-
ing the "Story of Herse," lent by Mr. George
Blumenthal. They were woven in Brussels by
Willem van Pannemaker, whose woven signa-
ture, together with the Brussels monogram, ap-
pears in the border. The borders are rich with
gold in basket weave, and the one of the two
tapestries that shows the "Bridal Chamber of
Herse" is almost equal to the great Gothic tap-
estries as regards the suitability of the design
for interpretation on the loom. Tapestries like
these, however, are beyond the reach, even at
present prices, of all but the greatest collectors,
and therefore the writer would call attention to
other tapestries, excellent duplicates of which
can be bought or reproduced at prices that make
them available more generally for adorning the
home. At this point I should like to remark that
the nouveau riche dog-in-the-manger spirit
which locks up many famous paintings in pri-
vate galleries, without affording the public an
opportunity to see them, is manifested to a much
less extent by those Americans whose good for-
tune it is to possess fine tapestries. Perhaps they
are influenced by the example of Leo X, who
left with the weaver, Pieter van Aelst, in Brus-
sels, the cartoons of the tapestries designed for
him by Raphael, with the result that duplicate
Saint Luke painting the Virgin, a Late Gothic tapestry in the
Louvre.
HOME FURNISHING 227
sets were woven for all who had the taste to
select and the money to pay. It is important for
the revival of the art of tapestry weaving that
every opportunity should be afforded by owners
of Gothic tapestries to those who wish to copy
them on the loom, and the writer is glad to note
the tendency of American collectors who possess
historic examples to be very substantially gen-
erous in this respect.
Among the Gothic tapestries at the Metropoli-
tan Muesum especially suited for reproduction
to-day are two from the famous Hoentschel col-
lection, lent to the museum by Morgan. One
of these, that pictures "Jesus Among the Doc-
tors" and the "Marriage at Cana," is 5 feet 3
inches high and 12 feet 6 inches long. It is the
"Marriage at Cana" that I suggest as affording
the best opportunity for the modern weaver to
attempt to emulate his Fifteenth Century fore-
bears. The composition of this scene is most
interesting. The coloring of the tapestry is ex-
tremely simple, and the weave is masterful with-
out being intricate. In copying a tapestry like
this a weaver would learn more than most
weavers now know. This dates from the age
when tapestries were still line drawings, with
long slender vertical hatchings (spires of color)
that combined with the cross-ribbed weave to
228 HOME FURNISHING
produce the most interesting and unique texture
that the world has even known.
Also interesting for the purpose of modern
reproduction would be the Gothic "Departure
for the Hunt," likewise lent to the museum
from the Hoentschel collection. It is 10 feet
high by 3 feet n inches wide, and pictures a
forest of oaks with floriated ground. A page
and three valets lead the way. Two of the
valets carry hooded falcons. On the right a
white horse, above whose head appear the busts
of a lord and a lady half hidden in the foliage.
Other figures on the left. In the foreground
there are dogs. A tapestry like this is a thing
of beauty and a joy forever, and deserves repro-
duction not only for the training in technique it
would give the weaver of to-day, but also, and
especially, for its intrinsic merit. It is worth
a multitude of "counterfeit arrases," which is
what they called painted imitations of tapestry
in the Fifteenth Century, real arras being, of
course, real tapestries, called arras from the
now French, but then Flemish, city of Arras,
that was long the center of production of high-
warp picture tapestries.
The oldest, and on the whole the most in-
teresting, tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum
are the five fragments containing seven scenes
HOME FURNISHING 229
from an early Fifteenth Century tapestry, origi-
nally containing fourteen scenes, illustrating the
Seven Sacraments in their origin and also as
celebrated contemporaneously. These tapes-
tries, given to the Museum by Mr. Morgan,
were correctly named and described for the
first time in my article in the Burlington Maga-
zine of December, 1907. Though much re-
paired, they are splendid examples of technical
perfection in tapestry weaving, and point out
the path that weavers should follow in attempt-
ing to revive the glories of the past.
A large proportion of the real tapestries that
one finds in the shops are from Aubusson looms,
and whether antique or modern, they are usually
in the style of the Eighteenth Century rustic
and pastoral scenes with verdure or landscape
backgrounds, and with narrow verdure or
woven-frame borders. One reason for their
popularity is their size, which is comparatively
small and adapted for display on the walls of
houses as they are built to-day. Another reason
is that the styles of Louis XV and of Louis XVI,
as expressed in tapestry, harmonize with most
modern English as well as French interiors
Louis XV being preferable with Chippendale
chairs and Baroque or Rococo backgrounds;
Louis XVI with Hepplewhite and Sheraton and
2 3 o HOME FURNISHING
Adam designs. A third reason is the price,
which is less, because these are the tapestries
that Aubusson weavers understand best how to
produce. Not that I would decry the art of the
Aubusson weavers. From time immemorial this
little city of Aubusson, in France, two hundred
and seven miles by rail south of Paris, has been
noted as a center of tapestry weaving. Tradi-
tion says that the industry was established there
in 732 A.D., by stragglers from the great Saracen
army, defeated nears Tours by Charles Martel,
grandfather of Charlemagne. As late as 1585
the weavers were called tappiciers sarrazinois
(Saracen tapestry-makers). The Aubusson
product is by no means confined to furniture
coverings. At the Paris Exposition of 1900 two
Aubusson manufacturers received the grand
prize, displaying among the reproductions two
of Le Brun's Seventeenth Century "Royal Resi-
dences," of which the jury said, "They are so
like the originals as to be mistaken for them."
The so-called Aubusson rugs are real tapestry
in heavy weave, and in designs suitable for the
floor.
Of Eighteenth Century tapestries in general,
it may be said that they are vastly inferior to
the Baroque ones of the Seventeenth Century,
just as these are inferior to the Renaissance ones
HOME FURNISHING 231
of the Sixteenth Century, and the Renaissance
ones to the Gothic tapestries of the Fifteenth
Century and earlier.
Among Renaissance tapestries especially desir-
able for reproduction are the Grotesque ones that
have ornament pure and simple ornament often
incorrectly called arabesque and consisting of
arbors and foliage and flowers, and occasional
human and animal forms and that get their
name "Grotesque" from the Roman excavations
(crypts or grottoes) that at the beginning of the
Sixteenth Century disclosed the Golden House
of Nero. Photographs and color sketches are
easily accessible, from which the reproductions
can be woven with finished effect.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
NK
2115
H8
Hunter, George Leland
Home furnishing
