Californii 
 legional 
 'aeility 
 
 4/ *>o 
 
 '..
 
 THE DISTAFF SERIES 
 
 Issued under the auspices of the Board of Women 
 
 Managers of the State of New York for 
 
 the Columbian Exposition
 
 t 
 
 
 ft 
 
 THE DISTAFF SERIES. 
 
 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00 each. 
 
 WOMAN AND THK HIGHER EDDCATIOS. Edited by 
 
 Anna C. Brackett. 
 THK LITSBATUBK OF PHILANTHROPY. Edited by 
 
 Frances A. Goodale. 
 EARLY PROSK AND VKRSK. Edited by Alice Morse 
 
 Earle and Emily Elleworth Ford. 
 TBS KINDERGARTEN. Edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin. 
 HOUSEHOLD ART. Edited by Candace Wheeler. 
 SHORT STORIES. Edited by Constance Gary Harrison. 
 
 PUBLISHKD BY HARPER A BROTHERS, N. Y. 
 
 (^* for sale by all booksellers, or will be tent, pottage 
 prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or 
 Mexico, on receipt of tie price.
 
 UCSD LIBRARY 
 
 ,HOUSEHOLD ART, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CANDACE WHEELER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 MDCCCXCII1
 
 Copyright, 1893, by HARPER 4 BROTHERS. 
 
 All rigktt mmtd.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 MRS. WHEELKR'S " The Philosophy of Beauty 
 Applied to House Interiors " in part has ap- 
 peared in The Christian Union ; " The Devel- 
 opment of American Homes," by Mrs. Van 
 Rensselaer, was printed in The Forum ; Mrs. 
 Carter's " Wall-papers, Ceilings, and Dados " 
 and Miss Humphreys's "The Progress of Amer- 
 ican Decorative Art" were originally published 
 in the London Art Journal ; and Mrs. Morse's 
 " About Furnishings " is an extract from Fash- 
 ions. Mrs. Runkle's "The Limits of Decora- 
 tion " and Mrs. Harrison's " Some Work of the 
 Associated Artists " were first printed respective- 
 ly in Harper's Bazar and in Harper's Magazine. 
 The concluding paper, "Decorative and Applied 
 Art," was prepared expressly by Mrs. Wheeler 
 for the Columbian Exposition Art Congress.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEAUTY APPLIED TO 
 
 HOUSE INTERIORS 3 
 
 BY MRS. CAXDACE WHEELER. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN HOMES . 35 
 BY MRS. M. G. VAN RENSSELAER. 
 
 SOME WORK OF THE "ASSOCIATED ARTISTS" 56 
 BY MRS. BURTON HARRISON. 
 
 WALL-PAPERS, CEILINGS, AND DADOS ... 74 
 BY SUSAX N. CARTER. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN DECORATIVE 
 
 ART 122 
 
 BY MARY GAY HUMPHREYS. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF DECORATION 169 
 
 BY LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE. 
 
 ABOUT FURNISHINGS 175 
 
 BY FLORENCE MORSE. 
 
 DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART 194 
 
 BY CANDACE WHEELKR.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THH series of collections of which this volume 
 is a part is made up of representative work of 
 the women of the State of New York in period- 
 ical literature. 
 
 This literature has been classified under its 
 conspicuous divisions Poetry, Fiction, History, 
 Art, Biography, Translation, Literary Criticism, 
 and the like. 
 
 A woman of eminent success in each depart- 
 ment has then been asked to make a collection 
 of representative work in that department, to 
 include in it an example of her own work, and 
 to place her name upon the volume as its 
 Editor. 
 
 These selections have been made, as far as 
 possible, chronologically, beginning with the 
 earliest work of the century, in order that 
 the volumes may carry out the plan of the
 
 ''Exhibit of Women's Work in Literature in 
 the State of New York," of which they are 
 an original part. 
 
 The aim of this Exhibit was to make for the 
 Columbian Exposition a record of literary work, 
 limited, through necessity, both by sex and local- 
 ity, but, as far as possible, accurate and com- 
 plete, and to preserve this record in the State 
 Library in the Capitol at Albany. 
 
 It includes twenty-five hundred "books, begin- 
 ning with the works of Charlotte Ramsay Lennox, 
 the first-born female author of the province of 
 New York, published in London in 1752, closing 
 with the pages of a translation of Herder, still 
 wet from the press, and comprising the works of 
 almost every author in the intervening one hun- 
 dred and forty years. 
 
 It includes also three hundred papers read be- 
 fore the literary clubs of the State, a summary 
 of the work of all writers for the press, and the 
 folios which preserve the work of many able 
 women who have not published books. 
 
 The women of the State of New York have 
 had the honor of decorating and furnishing the 
 Library of the Woman's Building. Believing
 
 the best equipment of a library to be literature, 
 they have therefore prepared this Exhibit, and 
 have made its character comprehensive and his- 
 toric, in order that it may not be temporary, but 
 that it may be preserved in the State Library 
 and may have permanent value for future lovers 
 and students of Americana. 
 
 In the preparation of these volumes Messrs. 
 Harper & Brothers have arranged that the com- 
 position and other mechanical work, as well as 
 the designing of the cover, should be done by 
 women, thus giving especial significance to the 
 title, " The Distaff Series." 
 
 BLANCHE WILDKR BELLAMY, 
 Chairman of the Committee on Literature 
 of the Board of Women Managers of the 
 State of New York.
 
 HOUSEHOLD DECOKATIOK
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEAUTY AP- 
 PLIED TO HOUSE INTERIORS. 
 
 BY MRS. CANDACE WHEELER. 
 
 THE element of beauty in the house was 
 until recently a result of quite accidental 
 fulfilment of unknown and unformulated 
 laws rather than of any conscious effort to 
 secure it. If it existed in any house it was 
 by the fortuitous combination of good shapes 
 in furniture, sympathetic tints in walls and 
 draperies, the subtle and harmonizing ef- 
 fects of time, or to that unrecognized creator 
 of beauty harmonious human living. 
 
 There are houses not many, to be sure, 
 but enough to have come within the ex- 
 perience of most people which have always 
 possessed a mysterious charm, a nameless 
 something, an attractive ghost of harmony 
 and tranquillity, a spirit which diffused con- 
 tentment and quiet happiness. It might be 
 an historic house with permanent furniture, 
 blossed by many years of placid occupation,
 
 or it might be a succession of bouses in- 
 habited iii turn by people blessed with in- 
 stinctive knowledge of the laws of color 
 people who can command the charm of beau- 
 ty, and whom it will follow like an obedient 
 slave from habitation to habitation ; for this 
 mysterious something that distinguishes 
 particular rooms and makes beautiful par- 
 ticular houses is the charm of color color 
 used iu fair proportions and possessing sym- 
 pathetic qualities. 
 
 Occasionally the tones have been softened 
 and harmonized by a perspective of years, 
 as hues in a landscape are harmonized by at- 
 mosphere and distance. This beautifying 
 effect of time, however, has been generally 
 resented by the average householder, and 
 ruthlessly swept aside as often as occasion 
 offered. On the other hand, the charm of the 
 house may have been referred solely to age, 
 forgetting that in material things the only 
 charm of age is in its power of harmonizing 
 color. 
 
 The laws of color, used in such masses or 
 spaces as are necessary on walls of rooms or 
 in house interiors, even now have been 
 scarcely formulated, only the more funda- 
 mental having become a part of human 
 knowledge.
 
 The greatest possibilities of beauty de- 
 rived from this element of tint belong to 
 bnt the few " born colorists " of the world 
 to whom it is a natural language, and who 
 scarcely know how or wherefore they are 
 guided to sure results. 
 
 What is called among painters the color 
 sense is much more rare than that other 
 natural endowment or susceptibility known 
 as an ear for music, and yet the one is to the 
 eye precisely what the other is to the ear 
 an instinctive knowledge of the laws which 
 govern harmony. 
 
 The "born colorist" is one who without 
 special training, or perhaps in spite of it, can 
 unerringly combine or oppose tints which 
 charm the eye and satisfy the sense. 
 
 Even among painters this is by no means 
 a common gift, and it is almost more rare to 
 find a picture distinguished for its harmony 
 and beauty of color than to see a room in 
 which nothing jars and everything works 
 together for beauty. 
 
 It seems strange that the color sense 
 should be a rarer personal gift than the 
 musical sense, since Nature apparently is far 
 more lavish of her lessons for the eye than 
 for the ear. The tones of the octave cer- 
 tainly exist in the world, but they have
 
 
 
 been gathered from widely different sub- 
 stances, and carefully linked in order and 
 sequence by human ingenuity; while to the 
 painter harmonies occur and sequences fol- 
 low each other, not only over the great sur- 
 faces of land and sea and sky, but in the 
 tints and shadows and reflections of every 
 flower and plant and tree. 
 
 The object-lesson begins when we first 
 open onr eyes upon the world, and continues 
 through all the circle of sensation and ex- 
 perience which makes np onr human lives. 
 
 I have said that our first teacher in color 
 is Nature, and I might go further and say 
 that an intelligent study of the distribution 
 of tints in the natural world will make a 
 successful colorist ; but it must be an intelli- 
 gent, broad, and philosophical study not a 
 partial one. 
 
 The whole of the art is founded upon 
 natural laws, but it is very possible to mis- 
 read or misinterpret them by only partial ob- 
 servation. Principles of masses and spaces 
 and gradations must underlie all acciden- 
 tal harmonies and effects, just as in music 
 the simple strong under-chords of the bass 
 must be the ground for all the changes and 
 trippings of the upper melodies. 
 
 The principles and laws of beautiful color,
 
 so far as we understand them, correspond 
 curiously to the principles of melodious 
 sound. It is as impossible to produce a 
 beautiful effect from one tone of color as to 
 make a melody upon one note of the har- 
 monic scale ; it is the skilful variation of 
 tone or opposition of tint which gives per- 
 manent satisfaction to the eye. 
 
 In one art, sequence produces the effect 
 upon the senses, and in the other, juxtapo- 
 sition. 
 
 There is no need even of a different nomen- 
 clature for the qualities peculiar to the two 
 scale, notes, tones, harmonies, the words ex-, 
 press effects common to both. But color has 
 this advantage, that its harmonies can be 
 fixed ; once expressed, they remain as a con- 
 stant and ever present delight. 
 
 In what is popularly called " House Deco- 
 ration," or, in other words, the attempt to se- 
 cure beauty as a permanent quality of the 
 home, the first and most important necessity 
 is harmony and effect of color ; in fact, with- 
 out this all effort is vain, all expenditure 
 futile. Color is the beneficent angel or the 
 malicious devil of the house. Properly under- 
 stood and successfully entreated, it is the 
 most powerful mental influence of the 
 home ; but if totally disregarded or igno-
 
 rautly dealt with it is able to introduce 
 an element of unrest, to refuse healing to 
 tired nerves and overtasked energies, to 
 stir up anger and malice and all unseen en- 
 emies of household comfort the enemies 
 that lie in wait for the victims of weakness 
 and fatigue. 
 
 This may seem a very far-fetched conclu- 
 sion, but it is a fact, experienced and tested 
 by every sensitive temperament. 
 
 In applying principles of color to honse 
 decoration, the first and most important one 
 is that of gradation. The strongest, and 
 generally the purest, tones of color belong 
 naturally at the base ; and the floor of a 
 room means the base upon which the scheme 
 of decoration is to be built. The carpet or 
 floor covering should therefore carry the 
 strongest tones of color. 
 
 If a single tint is to be used, the walls 
 must take the next gradation, and the ceil- 
 ing the last. 
 
 These gradations must be far enough re- 
 moved from each other in strength or in- 
 tensity to answer any requirements of light 
 or depth ; but not far enough to lose their 
 relation. The connecting grades must be 
 easily imaginable, and the relation between 
 them perfectly apparent. These three masses
 
 of related color are the groundwork upon 
 which one can play infinite variations. 
 
 The tint of any particular room should bo 
 chosen with reference not only to personal 
 liking, but first of all to the quantity and 
 quality of light which pervades it. 
 
 A north room will require warm and bright 
 treatment. Warm reds, and golden browns, 
 or pure gold colors especially in curtains 
 and draperies will give an effect of perfect 
 sunshine in a dark and shadowy room ; but 
 the same treatment in a room fronting the 
 south would produce an almost insupport- 
 able brightness. 
 
 Interiors with a southern exposure should 
 be treated with cool, light colors blues in 
 various grades, water greens, and silvery 
 tones which will contrast with the positive 
 yellow of sunlight. Kooms with an east or 
 west light may carry successfully colors of 
 any tint without violating fundamental 
 laws. 
 
 I have already given the scale in which 
 color should be used upon the floor, walls, 
 and ceiling, and with this, and reference to 
 direction and amount of light, one may be- 
 gin to indulge in the personal fancies which 
 give originality and individuality to a home. 
 
 After the masses of color are properly dis-
 
 10 
 
 tributed comes tlie enjoyable work of em- 
 bellishment; of intensifying it iu one place 
 or softening it in another; of arranging con- 
 trasts which will enhance the value of each 
 of the tints contrasted. 
 
 If the walls are hung with paper or inex- 
 pensive textile the change of tone may be 
 obtained in their design ; that is, the materi- 
 al, whether paper or textile, must be orna- 
 mented iu monochrome. It is not safe to de- 
 pend upon hangings of the ordinary class for 
 variety in color. 
 
 Knowledge of the laws of color does not 
 enter largely into general manufactures, and 
 the contrasts obtainable in paper-hangings 
 and chintzes are too crude and inartistic to 
 make good walls, except in the safe and fre- 
 quent examples of printing iu one tint a 
 darker design upon a lighter background. 
 These give a soft general effect, and the 
 relief to the eye produced by gradation of 
 tone. 
 
 This matter of variation without contrast 
 in wall surface is one of the most important 
 in house decoration. Some difference of tone 
 there must be in large plain surfaces which 
 lie within the level o f the eye, or the mo- 
 iiotony of a room becomes fatiguing. A 
 plain painted wall may, it is true, be broken
 
 by pictures, or cabinets, or bits of china 
 anything, in short, which will throw parts 
 of it into shadow, and illumine other parts 
 with gilded reflections; but eveu then there 
 will be long plain spaces above the picture 
 or cabinet line, where blank moiiotony of 
 tone will be fatal to the general effect of the 
 room. 
 
 It is in this upper space where the wall 
 is a plain and painted one that a broad 
 line of flat decoration should occur ; but on 
 a wall hung with paper or cloth it ia by no 
 means necessary. 
 
 Damasked cloths, where the design is 
 shown by the crossing of woven threads, are 
 particularly effective and satisfactory as wall 
 coverings. The soft surface is luxurious to 
 the imagination, and the play of light and 
 shadow upon the warp and woof interests 
 the eye, although there is no actual change 
 of color. 
 
 Too much stress can hardly be laid upon 
 the variation of tone iu wall surfaces, since 
 the four walls stand for the atmosphere of a 
 room. They are what the eye constantly 
 sees and feels, and one might almost as well 
 be shut up in the dark as to have an abso- 
 lute blank presented on every side to that 
 most active minister of happiness, the eye.
 
 13 
 
 Floor coverings, on the contrary, .are bet- 
 ter in what are called solid colors, and there 
 is philosophy in it as "well, since it is pleas- 
 anter to be unconscious of one's footing than 
 to have the attention constantly attracted 
 by change of tint or even of tone. A good 
 wood floor is in some respects the best 
 possible one for a living-room; but unless 
 it be stained or partially covered the whole 
 scheme of color in the room must be sub- 
 ordinated to it, and instead of a sknple prob- 
 lem it becomes rather a complex one. The 
 fact, however, remains that a hard wood floor 
 well filled and finished, and carrying one 
 large or several small rugs, fine in them- 
 selves and not out of key with the general 
 color of the room, is the most satisfactory 
 foundation for general purposes. 
 
 But in this, as in all decoration, details 
 based upon general principles of color are 
 quite within the power of the average home- 
 maker. 
 
 It is not in detail so much as in considera- 
 tion of underlying principles that the crea- 
 tor of the home is often at fault. 
 
 The preliminary study, the careful consid- 
 eration of the circumstances under which 
 the house is to be maintained, the place and 
 use, should be much more earnestly taken
 
 into account than the amount of money to 
 be expended upon it or in it. The instinct 
 of the house-maker may do much, but it can- 
 not, without study of appropriateness in 
 every direction, make even the simplest sum- 
 mer cottage a true expression of beauty. 
 
 The instinct of home-making which abides 
 in the minds of women at the present period 
 in America is greatly stimulated by a very 
 general artistic impulse a drift of the popu- 
 lar mind towards art. The enjoyment of 
 perfected methods of manufacture, of beau- 
 tiful lines and surfaces, of exquisite harmo- 
 nies of color in short, of the material crea- 
 tions of the true artist-artisan is an almost 
 universal feminine experience. 
 
 It follows that those who are possessed of 
 this artistic insight and love of beauty not 
 only find the keenest enjoyment in the 
 natural exercise of those gifts in house- 
 furnishing, but often produce most charm- 
 ing and original effects by the clever choice 
 and happy arrangement of things which go 
 to make up the home. 
 
 It is true that they sometimes fail in com- 
 passing the fitness or appropriateness which 
 makes the full perfection of this beautiful 
 art, and shirk the preliminary study which 
 is necessary to thorough completeness. They
 
 are apt to follow fancy and taste uot based 
 upon the requirements of circumstances, 
 and as a consequence the result is a lack of 
 the restfnlness and calm which are given 
 by careful fitting of beauty upon use. 
 
 A perfectly furnished house is a crystalli- 
 zation of the culture, the habits, and the 
 tastes of the family, and not only expresses 
 but makes character. 
 
 Children living in such a home grow up 
 with the knowledge of form and color, a 
 sense of beauty and fitness in short, with 
 a standard of taste which in maturity stamps 
 them with that unconscious superiority 
 which distinguishes men or women whose 
 cultivation has been gradual and unles- 
 soned. 
 
 It is the completeness of a home, which 
 includes provision for the mental as well as 
 physical wants of the complex human creat- 
 ure, which makes some houses so much 
 more delightful than others, and may add 
 to the simplicity of the modest summer cot- 
 tage a comprehensive charm which is en- 
 tirely lacking in many an elaborate and 
 overflowing dwelling. 
 
 A summer cottage is not a difficult prob- 
 lem to deal with, if it is constantly remem- 
 bered that it is a summer cottage, to be used
 
 through only a portion of the year, ami that 
 portion when "out-of-doors," with its large 
 bounty of light and air, is really a part of 
 the house and home life. When these con- 
 ditions are not fully recognized and under- 
 stood, it argues a total want of the home- 
 making instinct, as well as an absence of 
 the gift of color, should the house fail to be 
 satisfying and even charming. 
 
 After the purpose of the house is fully 
 considered, its position conies in also as a 
 condition to be constantly remembered, 
 since much and lasting charm is derived 
 from harmony of motive with nature's sur- 
 roundings in decoration, and choice of color 
 as appropriate to place. Whatever design 
 appears in wall - decoration or hangings is 
 far more effective if it bears some relation 
 to the surroundings and place of the house. 
 
 It goes without saying that classic forms 
 and highly artificial designs are not appro- 
 priate in cottages of the character we are 
 considering, and also that furniture should 
 be simpler and lighter than in houses in- 
 tended for constant family liviug. While 
 chairs and sofas should be entirely without 
 elaborate upholstery, hangings and cushions 
 can be made of some well-colored cotton or 
 linen material which wind and sun and
 
 16 
 
 dampness cannot spoil, and of which the 
 freshness can always be restored by laun- 
 drying. These are general rules, appro- 
 priate to all summer cottages. 
 
 A house which is to be closed for six or 
 eight months of the year should really, to 
 be consistent, be inexpensively furnished. 
 
 If the house is by the sea, the walls 
 should repeat, with many variations, the 
 tones of sea and sand and sky : the gray- 
 greens of sparse grasses and- rushes; the 
 blues which change from blue to green 
 with every cloud - shadow ; the pearl tints 
 which become rose in morning or evening 
 light, and the browns and olives of sea- 
 mosses aud lichens. This treatment of 
 color will make the interior of the house a 
 part of the great out-of-doors, aud create a 
 harmony between the artificial shelter and 
 nature. 
 
 There is philosophy in following, as far 
 as the limitations of simple color will allow, 
 the changeableuess and fluidity of natural 
 effects along the shore, aud allowing the 
 inood of the brief summer life to fall into 
 entire harmony with the dominant expres- 
 sion of the sea. 
 
 If, harmonious color being once secured, 
 most of the materials used in the furnish-
 
 17 
 
 ing of the bouse are chosen for design based 
 upon or suggested by forms belonging to 
 the life of the sea, an impression is pro- 
 duced of having entered into complete and 
 perfect harmony with the elements and as- 
 pects of nature. The artificialities of life 
 fall more and more into the background, 
 and one is refreshed with a sense of having 
 established relations with natural surround- 
 ings which are entirely harmonious and sat- 
 isfactory. 
 
 It may seem very far-fetched to ascribe 
 this influence to appropriate furnishings of 
 a house, but the house is the shell of the 
 human being, and the mental shape of the 
 inmate must necessarily be affected by its 
 most iutimate surroundings. 
 
 Suppose, on the other hand, that the 
 summer -house is placed in the neighbor- 
 hood of fields and trees and mountains, it 
 will be found that strong and positive 
 treatment of the interior is more in har- 
 mony with nature. Even heavier furniture 
 looks fitting where the house is surrounded 
 with massive tree-growths; and stronger 
 and more positive colors cau be used in 
 hangings and draperies. This is due to the 
 deeper and more positive coloring of a land- 
 scape than of a sea view. The masses of
 
 18 
 
 strong aud slightly varying green in foliage, 
 the red-browns or vivid greens of fields and 
 crops, the dark lines of tree trunks and 
 branches, as well as the unchanging forms 
 of rock aud hill-side, call for a corresponding 
 strength of interior effect. It is a curious 
 fact, also, that where a house is surrounded 
 with myriads of small natural forms of 
 leaves and flowers and grasses, plain spaces 
 of color in interiors, or spaces where form is 
 greatly subordinated to color, are inoia 
 grateful to the eye than prominently dec- 
 orated surfaces. A repetition of small 
 forms which exist but sparingly in nature, 
 and are for the most part hidden under 
 lengths of liquid blue, is pleasing aud sug- 
 gestive in a home by the sea ; but iu the 
 country, where form is prominent and posi- 
 tive, and prints itself constantly upon both 
 mental and bodily vision, unbroken color 
 surfaces are found to be far more agreeable. 
 It will be seen that general principles of 
 furnishing depend upon arbitrary circum- 
 stances and natural surroundings quite as 
 much as upon the character and pursuits of 
 the family who are to be lodged, aud that 
 the final charm of the home is attained by 
 a perfect adaptation of principles to condi- 
 tions both of nature and humanity.
 
 19 
 
 Tliis is equally true of all classes of houses 
 which are to become homes, so that particu- 
 lar directions or rules for the sensible and 
 beautiful arrangement of interiors must al- 
 ways follow the guiding incidents of class 
 and locality. 
 
 The circumstances and surroundings, as 
 well as the kind of use required of a house, 
 must be considered as conditions of beauty. 
 Jt is equally necessary to study each part or 
 division of the house to secure the full and 
 complete result. 
 
 The predominant use of each room gives 
 the clew to the best rules of treatment in 
 decoration and furniture. 
 
 For instance, the hall, being an interme- 
 diate space between in and out of doors, 
 should be colored and furnished in direct 
 reference to this, and to its common use as a 
 thoroughfare by all members of the family. 
 It is not a place of prolonged occupation, 
 and may therefore properly be without the 
 luxury and ease of lounges and louuging- 
 chairs. But as long as it serves both as en- 
 trance-room to the house and for carrying 
 the stairways to the upper floors, it should 
 be treated in such a way as to lead up to 
 and prepare the mind for whatever of inner 
 luxury there may be in the house. At the
 
 same time it should preserve something of 
 the simplicity and freedom from all at- 
 tempt at effect which beloug to out-of-door 
 life. The difference hetweeu its decoration 
 and furniture and that of other divisions of 
 the house should be principally in surface, 
 and not in color. 
 
 Difference of surface is secured by the use 
 of materials which are permanent and dur- 
 able in effect, such as wood, plaster, and 
 leather. These may all be colored without 
 injury to their impression of permanency, 
 although it is generally preferable to take 
 advantage of indigenous or " inherent col- 
 or," like the natural yellows and russets of 
 wood and leather. 
 
 When these are used for both walls and 
 ceiling, it will be found that,- to give the 
 necessary variation, and prevent an impres- 
 sion of monotony and dulness, some tint 
 must be added in the ornament of the sur- 
 face, which could be gained by a forcible 
 deepening or variation of the general tone, 
 like a deep golden brown, which is the low- 
 est tone of the scale of yellow, or a red, 
 which would be only a variant of the pre- 
 vailing tint. 
 
 The introduction of an opposing or con- 
 trasting tint, like pale blue in small masses
 
 21 
 
 as compared with the general tint, even if 
 it is in so small a space as that of a water- 
 color on the wall, adds what an artist calls 
 snap to the general effect, and enlivens and 
 invigorates a harmony. 
 
 Perhaps no color carries with it a more 
 appropriate influence at the entrance of a 
 house than red in its different values. Cer- 
 tain tints of it, which are known both as 
 Pompeiaii and Damascus red, have suffi- 
 cient yellow in their composition to fall in 
 with the yellows of oiled wood, and give 
 the charm of a variant but related color. In 
 its stronger and deeper tones it is in direct 
 contrast to the green of abundant foliage, 
 and therefore a good color for the entrance- 
 hall or vestibule of a country house ; while 
 the paler tones, which run into pinks, hold 
 the same opposing relation to the gray and 
 blue of the sea-shore. If walls and ceiling 
 are of wood, a rug of which the prevailing 
 color is red will often give the exact note 
 which is needed to preserve the room from 
 monotony and insipidity. 
 
 A stair-carpet is a valuable point to make 
 in a hall, and it is well to reserve all oppos- 
 ing color for this one place, which, as it 
 rises, meets all sight on a level, and makes 
 its contrast directly and unmistakably. A
 
 stair-carpet has other reasons for use in a 
 country house than aesthetic ones, as the 
 stairs are conductors of sound to all parts of 
 the house, and should therefore be muffled, 
 and because a carpeted stair furnishes much 
 safer footing for the two family extremes of 
 childhood and age. 
 
 The furniture of the hall should not be 
 fantastic, as some cabinet-makers seem to 
 imagine. Impossible twists in the supports 
 of tables and chairs are perhaps more ob- 
 jectionable in this first vestibule or en- 
 trance to the house than elsewhere, because 
 the mind is not quite free from out-of-door 
 influences, or ready to take pleasure in the 
 vagaries of the human fancy. Simple 
 chairs, settles, and tables, more solid per- 
 haps than is desirable in other parts of the 
 house, are what the best natural, as well as 
 the best cultivated, taste demands. 
 
 If there is one place more than another 
 where a picture performs its full work of 
 suggestion and decoration, it is in a hall 
 which is otherwise bare of ornament. Pict- 
 ures in dining-rooms make very little im- 
 pression as pictures, because the mind is en- 
 grossed with the first and natural purpose 
 of the room, and consequently not in a 
 waiting and easily impressible mood ; but
 
 in a ball, if one stops for even a moment, 
 the thoughts are at leisure, and waiting to 
 be interested. 
 
 Aside from the color effect, which may be 
 so managed as to be very valuable, pictures 
 hung in a hall are full of suggestion of 
 wider mental and physical life, and, like 
 books, are indications of the tastes and ex- 
 periences of the family. Of course there are 
 country houses where the halls are built 
 with fireplaces, and windows commanding 
 favorite views, and are really intended for 
 family sitting-rooms and gathering-places ; 
 in this case it is generally preceded by a 
 vestibule which carries the character of au 
 entrance-hall, leaving the large room to be 
 furnished more luxuriously, as is proper to 
 a sitting-room. 
 
 The dining-room shares with the hall a 
 purpose common to the life of the family, 
 and, while it admits of much more variety 
 and elaboration, that which is true of the 
 hall is equally true of the dining-room, that 
 it should be treated with materials whicli 
 are durable and have surface quality, al- 
 though its decoration should be preferably 
 with china rather than with pictures. It is 
 important that the color of a dining-room 
 should be pervading color that is, that
 
 walls and ceiling should be kept together 
 by the use of one color only, iu different de- 
 grees of strength. 
 
 For many reasons, but principally be- 
 cause it is the best material to use in a 
 diniug-room, the rich yellows of oiled wood 
 make the most desirable color and surface. 
 The rug, the curtains, the portieres, and 
 screen, can then be of any good tint which 
 the exposure of the room and the decoration 
 of the china seem to indicate. If it has 
 a cold northern exposure, reds or gold 
 browns are indicated ; but if it is a sunny 
 and warm - looking room, green or strong 
 India blue will be found more satisfactory. 
 
 The materials used in curtains, portieres, 
 and screens should be of cotton or linen, or 
 some plain woollen goods which are as easily 
 washable. A one-colored, heavy-threaded 
 cotton canvas, a plain linen ticking in solid 
 color, or indigo-blue domestic, all make ex- 
 tremely effective and appropriate furnish- 
 ings. The variety of blue domestic whicli 
 is called denim is the best of all fabrics for 
 this kind of furnishing if the color is not 
 too dark, and that can be made lighter by 
 bleaching. 
 
 The prettiest country house dining-room 
 I know is ceiled and wainscoted with wood,
 
 the walls above the wainscoting carrying 
 an ingrain paper of the yellow-brown of the 
 wood ; the line of division between the 
 wainscot and wall being broken by a row 
 of old bine India china plates, arranged in 
 groups of different sizes and running en- 
 tirely around the room. There is one small 
 mirror set in a broad carved frame of yellow 
 wood hung in the centre of a rather large 
 Avail-space, its angles marked by small 
 Dutch plaques ; but the whole decoration 
 of the room outside of these pieces consists 
 of draperies of blue denim in which there is 
 a design, in narrow white outline, of leap- 
 ing fish, and the widening water-circles and 
 showery drops made by their play. The 
 white lines in the design answer to the 
 white spaces in the decorated china, and 
 the two used together in profusion have an 
 unexpectedly decorative effect. The table 
 and chairs are, of course, of the same colored 
 wood used in the ceiling and wainscot, and 
 the rug is an India cotton of dark and light 
 blues and white. The sideboard is an ar- 
 rangement of fixed shelves, but covered 
 with a beautiful collection of blue china, 
 which serves to furnish the table as well. 
 
 If the dining-room bad a northern expos- 
 ure, and it was desirable to use red instead
 
 of blue for coloring, as good an effect could 
 be secured by depending for ornament upon 
 the red Kaga porcelain so common at pres- 
 ent in Japanese and Chinese shops, and 
 using with it the Eastern cotton known as 
 tes. This is dyed with madder, and exactly 
 repeats the red of the porcelain, while it is 
 extremely durable both in color and text- 
 ure. Borders of yellow stitchery, or strag- 
 gling fringes of silk and beads, add very 
 much to the effect of the drapery and to the 
 character of the room. 
 
 The parlor of a country house is often, or 
 generally, a composite room. It answers 
 the purpose of a receptiou-room for guests, 
 and it is also, if the house does not contain 
 a library or sitting-room, the only iu-door 
 gathering-place of the family. If the house 
 includes a library or sitting-room, the par- 
 lor can be made uinch more exclusive in 
 treatment not always, however, to its ad- 
 vantage, even from an aesthetic point of 
 view. 
 
 It is a kiud of homage we pay to friend- 
 ship, and to the people whom we value out- 
 side of the family, to set apart one room for 
 their visits, and this room, in deference to 
 the sentiment of friendship and to the sup- 
 posed largeness of the circle which com-
 
 prises it, has generally more space and is 
 more carefully proportioned than any other 
 of the rooms in the house. Ou account of 
 this unconscious dedication to society in 
 general, it is desirable to treat it with a con- 
 servatism of taste and liberality of expendi- 
 ture which are not appropriate in other 
 rooms. It would be impossible to give a 
 formula for furnishing such a room, but 
 general treatment can be suggested and gen- 
 eral ideas given, which may be adapted to 
 the different wants of different situations 
 and families. 
 
 It must begin by being beautiful in color, 
 and as, if it is used strictly as a parlor or 
 reception-room, it will lack the variety and 
 richness which is given to the library by 
 books, lounging-chairs, and all the odds and 
 ends of comfort and use which distinguish 
 the family-room of the house, it will be nec- 
 essary from the very first to keep to a gen- 
 eral idea of delicacy and elegance, no mat- 
 ter how simple the furniture and decorations 
 are intended to be. It may be like a lady's 
 summer afternoon toilet of fresh muslins 
 and ribbons, or one of richer material, but 
 the idea of being prepared for observation 
 and for criticism properly underlies all that 
 goes to make up the parlor or reception-
 
 91 
 
 room. In the life of the house, it answers 
 to the afternoon toilet of the individual. 
 
 The walls may be hung with paper or 
 chintz, or they may be painted, and carry a 
 stencilled frieze or a scattered design done 
 in gold or silver; but there should be a pre- 
 vailing tone or tint of color, which holds 
 and softens all the differing elements which 
 make up the interior, as the misty atmos- 
 phere of a landscape softens all the hard 
 and rocky features which compose it. The 
 tint may be blue or green or rose or cream, 
 but it must be delicate, and everything 
 which goes to make up the whole should be 
 in gradations of the same tint ; or it may be 
 in white, or in pale yellow, which has the 
 property of harmonious combination in a 
 greater degree than any other color. 
 
 If the walls are hung with paper which 
 carries some design, the curtains should be 
 of a plain tint, without design ; but if, on 
 the contrary, the walls are plain, the cur- 
 tains may well introduce design. 
 
 This is by no means an invariable rule, 
 for one of the most delightful color effects 
 in the world is produced by walls of a pale 
 greenish blue, and India silk curtains of 
 the same tint but darker in tone, which 
 give all the variation possible to one color
 
 29 
 
 by the transparent effect of light through 
 them. 
 
 For a summer room of this character the 
 floor should not be covered with carpet, but 
 show the floor between white goat's-hair 
 rugs, or other rugs of sufficiently soft tints 
 for the purpose ; but it is difficult to find 
 India rugs sufficiently light in tone not to 
 seem positive and harsh in a room as dainty 
 as this. 
 
 One or two water-colors in narrow gold 
 frames are almost necessary to the effect of 
 such a scheme of decoration if the walls are 
 plain', but if they are covered with figured 
 paper or chintz, these are not so imperative- 
 ly needed. Photographs of interesting pict- 
 ures mounted in white-wood frames seem 
 also to be in accord with a room treated in 
 this fashion. 
 
 The furniture should be of light wood or 
 of cane painted white, and furnished with 
 abuudaut cushions of various tints which 
 are in harmony with the general color. It 
 is quite possible to play a color-chord iu 
 snch trifles as this which will go far towards 
 completing the successful influence of the 
 room. 
 
 After all, the final charm of any room 
 lies in the addition of bits of things which
 
 give character as well as beauty little 
 treasures which are too choice for the wear 
 and tear of every day : a cup of Venetian 
 glass which cau be carried iu the tray of a 
 truuk and go back to the city home when 
 summer is over ; a small, smooth plaster 
 copy of a Barye bronze : the latest and 
 daintiest books; and, above all, here and 
 there a jar of flowers, or branches which go 
 with the room. These are the things which 
 complete and perfect any scheme of beauti- 
 ful color, aud give character to a delicate 
 interior. 
 
 In considering the treatment of a room 
 which must serve the purpose of both recep- 
 tiou-roorn and library or family gathering- 
 room, it is necessary to keep in mind this 
 double use. If it is a large one and it 
 needs to be for this double and almost op- 
 posing dedication it is possible to harmo- 
 nize the claims of ceremony aud of family 
 ease by the arrangement of certain parts of 
 the room for the one and for the other, de- 
 fending the family lounge or writing-table 
 or easy-chairs by au outwork which may be 
 a screen, or a judiciously looped curtain, 
 the back of au upright piano, or a double 
 bank of book-shelves turning an irre- 
 proachable phalanx of decorative standard
 
 editions to the caller who does not know 
 the password, and showing the well-thumbed 
 shabbiuess of the familiar literary ne'er-do- 
 well to the family side of the room. Such a 
 room is apt to be a fascinating one by rea- 
 son of this very variety of use and purpose, 
 and because it is a centre for all the family 
 treasures. Books, pictures, papers, photo- 
 graphs, bits of decorative needle-work, all 
 centre here, and all are on most orderly be- 
 havior, like children at company dinner. 
 
 The color of such a room may, and should, 
 be much warmer and stronger than that of 
 a parlor pure and simple, the very constancy 
 and hardness of its use indicating tints of 
 strength and resistance ; but, keeping that 
 in mind, the rules for general use of color 
 and harmony of tints will apply as well to 
 a room used for a double purpose as for a 
 single. 
 
 Of course the furniture should be more 
 solid and darker, as would be necessary for 
 constant use, but the deepening of tones in 
 general color provides for that, and for the 
 use of rugs of a different character. In a 
 room of this kind perhaps the best possible 
 effect is produced by the use of some textile 
 as a wall-covering, as in that case the same 
 material with a contrasted color in the
 
 39 
 
 lining can be used for curtains, and to some 
 extent in the furniture. 
 
 This use of one material has not only an 
 effect of richness due to the best room of 
 the house, but it softens and brings together 
 all the heterogeneous things which different 
 members of a large family are apt to require 
 iii a sitting-room. 
 
 The bedrooms of a house demand the ut- 
 most individuality of expression, and are a 
 pretty sure test of the liberality of the mind 
 and understanding of character of the female 
 sharer iu the house partnership. 
 
 As each room is in a certain sense the 
 home of the individual occupant, almost the 
 shell of his or her mind, there will be some- 
 thing narrow and despotic in the house 
 rules if this is not expressed. The fact 
 should never be lost sight of that the first 
 principle of beauty is appropriateness, and 
 no room could be beautiful which failed to 
 express the individuality of the occupant. 
 
 Even in advance of this reference to indi- 
 viduality, color must come iu as the prime 
 factor of beauty. Strong, simple, good 
 color is a proper fouudatiou for any treat- 
 ment of country interiors. 
 
 All bedroom walls aud furnishings should 
 bo washable, aud therefore papers and car-
 
 pets should not come into the list of possi- 
 bilities. Stained or painted walls and par- 
 tially uncovered floors are a necessity, but a 
 liberal use of washable textiles in curtains, 
 portieres, bedspreads, and table-covers will 
 give quite as much sense of luxury as dec- 
 orated walls and carpets. In fact, one may 
 run through all the variations, from the 
 daintiest aud most befrilled and elegant of 
 bedrooms to the " boys' room," which in- 
 cludes all or any of the various implements 
 of sport or the hobbies of the boy collector, 
 and yet keep inviolate the principles of har- 
 mony of color aud appropriateness to use, 
 and so accomplish beauty. 
 
 I liave taken the summer cottage, or the 
 country house, as an illustration of the laws 
 of color, treatment, aud arrangement of in- 
 teriors, because it is the country house which 
 more generally comes under the ministra- 
 tions of the inexperienced home-maker ; but 
 the philosophy which should govern the 
 treatment of the most elaborate and costly 
 interior, whether for public or private use, 
 and that which will make the simplest cot- 
 tage a success, is identical. It is the prin- 
 ciple of appropriateness, and the intelligent 
 and instructive use of color. Of course, in 
 public buildings the color effect depends 
 3
 
 upon materials aud not upon use of pig- 
 ments, but the architect who should ignore 
 the effect of color and reflection in his ma- 
 terials would lose almost as much as be 
 could hope to gain by proportion.
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN 
 HOMES. 
 
 BY MRS. M. G. VAN RENSSELAER. 
 
 THE social condition of the communities 
 of the past may be divined in a broad way 
 from a mere list of their most conspicuous 
 and characteristic buildings. How much is 
 told when we say that the typical structures 
 in Egypt were stupendous temple - palaces 
 and rock-hewn tombs ; in Assyria palaces 
 that were not temples ; and in Greece temples 
 that were not palaces, but the people's treas- 
 uries and trophy-chambers, and near neigh- 
 bors of the public rostrum. How large a 
 glimpse of history is afforded by the thought 
 that the Romans were especially construct- 
 ors of bridges, aqueducts, amphitheatres, 
 and triumphal arches; that mediaeval Eu- 
 rope built chiefly fortified castles and huge 
 churches ; and that in later times the Low 
 Countries expressed themselves in town- 
 halls and trade-halls, France iu royal cha-
 
 teaus, Italy in princely city palaces, and 
 England in baronial country homes. 
 
 Civilization is more complex to-day than 
 in earlier ages, and communities less isolated 
 and therefore less individual; and for both 
 these reasons architecture nowhere devotes 
 itself conspicuously to any single class of 
 buildings. It expresses national traits and 
 social facts with as much truth as ever; only 
 these traits are less strongly marked, these 
 facts are more numerous and involved, and 
 so the record in stone is less easily deci- 
 phered. Nevertheless, there are character- 
 istic, typical buildings to be found in every 
 laud, and they may be discovered if we re- 
 verse the process of thought, and, instead of 
 reading history in architecture, read archi- 
 tecture in the light of social conditions. 
 From the temple - palaces and tombs of 
 Egypt we can reconstruct in the rough Egyp- 
 tian society ; but likewise, were all the build- 
 ings of Egypt lost, we might imagine their 
 nature had we any knowledge of her people 
 and her rulers. Surely, then, we must know 
 enough of our own country to determine, 
 amid all the welter of current architectural 
 effort, where it is that we most clearly and 
 characteristically express ourselves. 
 
 A truism brings us indeed at once to our
 
 87 
 
 goal. Every American knows, every for- 
 eigner sees, that ours is a laud not for a class 
 or caste, but for the people as a whole. 
 This means that it must be a land upon 
 which individual rather than federal, mu- 
 nicipal, or corporate activity has set its 
 mark. When individuals build, it is houses 
 to live in, shops and offices to work in ; and 
 so our choice of typical buildings must lie 
 between these two classes. As between the 
 two it is not hard to select. Be it ever so 
 costly and conspicuous, ever so novel in di- 
 mensions, design, aud arrangement, ever so 
 interesting from the purely architectural 
 poiut of view, a business building caunot 
 express the personality of its owner as does 
 the house in which he lives. Aud it is the 
 expression of personalities in the aggregate, 
 the expression of the men and women who 
 make up a nation, which gives a class of 
 structures a truly typical character. To see 
 where the American people stands in the 
 matter of taste, to see how far it has got on 
 the road of {esthetic progress, and whither 
 this road is likely to lead, we must look at 
 its homes and especially at their interiors. 
 
 The first fact they prove is the truth of 
 the truism just set down. Ours is a land 
 for the people : its immense wealth is very
 
 38 
 
 widely distributed. Even our few biggest 
 and finest city houses do not equal the many 
 private hotels of modern Paris, nor would 
 our most magnificent country homes take 
 similar rank in England. But on the other 
 hand an English architect recently said to 
 his professional brethren: "Take the ordi- 
 nary house of the middle-class American and 
 compare it with the building of the same 
 class on this side, and I think the odds will 
 be found to be largely in favor of the 
 former." If we are in search of the lessons 
 as well as of the facts that our typical 
 buildings teach, do we not find one just 
 here? It is the lesson that in America prog- 
 ress in art must come as a general advance 
 of the whole nation. The improvement of 
 a class cannot help us much when we have 
 really no upper class permanently marked 
 off by birth or possessions. Architecture 
 cannot here devote itself to country homes 
 like those of which we think when we say 
 "Elizabethan art," or to city palaces like 
 those which resume the meaning of the 
 words "Italian Kenaissauce art." It is 
 above all the average dwelling that will be 
 improved if our architecture grows, and of 
 course it can be improved only by the devel- 
 opment of good taste in the public at large.
 
 :tO 
 
 What now is the present condition of this 
 dwelling more narrowly examined? 
 
 The Englishman just quoted says that our 
 city homes, whether single houses or apart- 
 ment houses, are particularly well planned 
 both for- convenience and for beauty. We 
 may venture to include our best country 
 homes in the verdict, and may be greatly 
 pleased with it, remembering that to plan 
 well is the beginning, source, and inspiration 
 of all architectural excellence. A French- 
 man who also wrote about us not long ago 
 says that iu our house-architecture, especial- 
 ly, we pay too much attention to contour and 
 silhouette, and thus render our plans irregu- 
 lar, but that "notwithstanding this defect" 
 there is a great charm about our houses, 
 villas, and cottages which are "less formal 
 and far more home-like" than their English 
 prototypes. The first fact he mentions is 
 a fact, but he has got it, so to say, by the 
 wrong end. It is because we distinctly want 
 diversity and irregularity in our plans that 
 our houses show broken masses and outlines. 
 We think much less of exterior effect than 
 Frenchmen who, to keep the outside of a 
 house dignified and harmonious, make use 
 of plans which, while excellent for French- 
 men, would never content the American soul.
 
 iO 
 
 Nor is the irregularity of our plans really 
 a defect. We ought not to be couteut with 
 the simpler, more formalized planning of 
 French houses. Architecture can never be 
 anything unless it is the faithful interpreter 
 of actual needs, instinctive wants.; and in 
 their homes men of so-called Anglo-Saxon 
 blood need comfort in a much more detailed, 
 complicated, and varied sense of the word 
 than is understood by men of Latin blood. 
 In most artistic matters we are unlike the 
 English ; but our iuherited wish that a 
 house should exactly fit the needs of its in- 
 habitants has drawn us pretty close to them 
 in our ideals of domestic architecture. Yet 
 we have fallen into no slavish imitation. 
 For instance, our customs in feuestratlon 
 are very different from theirs, because we 
 need rather to exclude the summer sun than 
 to admit it generously, and our love for wide 
 verandas is certainly indigenous. And does 
 not the French critic say that in general we 
 have improved upon our English models ? 
 
 If, then, our plans are irregular and varied, 
 it means that we have started right in the 
 path of domestic architecture ; and if they 
 are excellent, it means that we have made 
 the first and most important step in advance. 
 So here is the second lesson : Let us cherish
 
 our instinct for individual expression in 
 the planning of our homes while trying iu 
 their exteriors to attain more unity, dignity, 
 and grace than as a rule we have yet 
 achieved. 
 
 Let us cherish this instinct, I say. It 
 might better be written, Let us develop it 
 to a nicer, keener sensibility than we feel 
 to-day. Many of our recent homes are quite 
 perfect in their planning, not only as exer- 
 cises of architectural skill, but as expres- 
 sions of the special needs, habits, and tastes 
 of their occupants. But in others, especially 
 of the costlier kinds, which are equally good 
 if considered as solutions of an abstract 
 problem, we see in the character of the 
 problem an affectation of needs that did not 
 exist. The American client does not think, 
 as a foolish French client might, that he 
 should sacrifice the interior to the exterior 
 of his house, but he sometimes is willing 
 that the interior should misrepresent him- 
 self. If we have much money but no desire 
 or no opportunity to lead a hospitable social 
 life, we may need a big house and a hand- 
 some one, but we do not need one like our 
 neighbor's where dinners and balls are of 
 constant occurrence. Stately, somewhat 
 stiffish drawing-rooms are a necessity to
 
 him, and a dining-room to seat four dozen 
 guests. To us they are worse than luxuries : 
 they are affectations, and so both vulgar and 
 inartistic. Getting them we may get in one 
 sense a beautiful house. But it will not be 
 a good house, for it will have little more ex- 
 pression, vitality, or human interest than a 
 piece of scene-painting. Nor will the chance 
 we give in its construction help the advance 
 of art as much as though we should say 
 to our architect: "Build me a house in 
 which I and my family can live thus and so; 
 make it big, make it beautiful, but give me 
 a billiard-room for the boys instead of a ball- 
 room for the guests who will never come, a 
 great play -room for the children, a fine 
 office or library for my work, a gallery for 
 my pictures rooms for us to live in, not 
 rooms which exist merely because it is ' the 
 thing' to have them. Make it my house, 
 my own, not just a house, however beauti- 
 ful." If we do not say something like this, 
 how are we more intelligent than the farm- 
 ers' wives we laugh at because they live in 
 the kitchen and open the parlor only for 
 weddings and funerals? Here, then, lies 
 another lesson : If we want good houses and 
 if we want our architecture to grow supple, 
 subtile, skilful, and apt for any task, we
 
 should know iu aclvauce exactly how we 
 mean to live, and demand a house which 
 exactly expresses that intention. 
 
 General success in the arrangement of our 
 homes is a product of recent days, and hand 
 in hand with it has come also progress in 
 the matter of their fashioning. Look back 
 some fifty years, and we see chiefly white 
 walls, articles of furniture that are plain 
 and few, and draperies meant to keep out 
 the draughts rather than please the eye. 
 Pass over some twenty years, and we come 
 to gold or "velvet" wall-papers and costly 
 "suites" of rosewood and satin furniture, 
 while the ornamentation which was almost 
 wholly lacking before is supplied by gilded 
 cornices and mirror- frames, Landseer en- 
 gravings, a few dismal pictures, and bronzes 
 of strictly commercial quality. Of course 
 there were exceptions to the rule during 
 both these periods, but such were the typ- 
 ical homes of America until the present gen- 
 eration began to build. In the first period 
 we wanted serviceable, respectable-looking 
 houses ; in the second we wanted " hand- 
 some" houses; but in neither did we think 
 much of beauty or interfere much with the 
 upholsterer, not yet risen to the rank of a 
 " decorative artist."
 
 There is much in the very sound of the 
 words "decorative art" to make the judi- 
 cious grieve, aud more in the results of our 
 recent devotion to the ideas they have been 
 made to convey. One is sometimes almost 
 tempted to feel, indeed, that the art of mak- 
 ing beautiful homes, which is architect- 
 ure, has had no deadlier enemy in America 
 than the "artist in decoration." Neverthe- 
 less, he and his kin, including the house- 
 mother who imitates him in amateur fash- 
 ion, and all their results, from the Fifth 
 Avenue house, which looks more like Sy- 
 pher's shop than like a home, to the cottage 
 bestrewed with silly paintings, Japanese 
 fans, coarse pottery, and ribbon bows all 
 these have been signs of a most happy 
 change, heralds of a promising advance. 
 They mark the time when indifference to 
 ugliness passed away ; the period they il- 
 lustrate is the first within the memory of 
 living Americans when a desire for beauty 
 in the home has been genuine aud wide- 
 spread. It is not wonderful that a desire 
 so new should have failed at first to find the 
 right expression, or even the right road tow- 
 ards expression. It is natural that we should 
 have thought at first, not of art, but of" dec- 
 oration," aud should have employed " dec-
 
 4.-, 
 
 orators" instead of artists; or, when forced 
 to depend on ourselves, that we should have 
 studied, not the eternal canons of beauty, 
 but some novel, superficial doctrine of 
 "household beauty." I do not wish to 
 imply that among our decorators there have 
 been no artists, or that none of their work 
 is well adapted to aid the beauty of our 
 homes. I mean merel} 7 that we have given 
 primary rank to secondary things,and wrong- 
 ly employed the talents at our disposal. We 
 have thought that a mass of beautiful minor 
 things might make the one large beautiful 
 thing we wanted. Sometimes we have even 
 bought our things first, built a house to 
 hold them, and been surprised if the result 
 lacked coherence, meaning, individuality, 
 and charm. Of course the way in which 
 many of us live camping in hired houses 
 has had much to do with twisting our per- 
 ceptions of true beauty. Necessity rather 
 than choice has often limited us to the ef- 
 fort to disguise the architectural sins of 
 those who had not built with our tastes in 
 mind. But we have been too well satisfied 
 with the result, have misconceived its char- 
 acter, and carelessly imitated it when getting 
 houses of our own. 
 
 However, this stage, too, is passing away.
 
 Ki 
 
 We are learning that all art is one, that no 
 sharp line can be drawn between what is 
 decorative aud what is not, and that things 
 which are less than " artistic " cannot be 
 properly " effective iu decoration." We are 
 learning that we may show our love for art 
 otherwise than by " collecting," aud may 
 create our homes iu better ways than by 
 turning them into museums. We are learn- 
 ing that the essence of all beauty is design ; 
 that a clear, coherent idea should underlie 
 every effort; that to get a beautiful house 
 we must build it beautifully and furnish it 
 iu a harmonious way. 
 
 And very beautiful houses have been 
 built iu America of late, from city homes 
 that are little palaces to modest country 
 cottages which are none the less sensible 
 for being eminently picturesque. As a rule 
 our country houses are the best. Here we 
 are most successful because at once most 
 rational and most individual, least conven- 
 tional aud imitative, least beset by the de- 
 sire for mere display or for mere collecting. 
 Here we have most frequently asked for just 
 what we wanted, aud wanted things of a 
 sensible kind. Here our native desires and 
 tastes most genuinely express themselves, 
 and we find the buildings we should prefer
 
 to show a foreigner as both very American 
 and very good. Of course here and there in 
 our cities we may pick out a building which 
 equals our best country homes iii true ex- 
 cellence, and surpasses them by far in pure 
 architectural importance. But I am speak- 
 ing now of classes of buildings, and I am 
 sure we have a better right to be proud of 
 our country homes as a class than of our 
 municipal structures, our churches, our busi- 
 ness blocks, or anything else that is ours. 
 Naturally, we may be glad of the fact iu 
 view of their typical, representative char- 
 acter. To have begun well iu the build- 
 ings which most clearly show the desires 
 and aims of the American people as a whole 
 entitles us to hope for future success along 
 all other architectural paths. 
 
 Let us see now whether we can guess 
 from the character of our new homes in 
 what direction these other paths may lead 
 us. If anything that can bo called an Amer- 
 ican style has yet given signs of itself, we 
 ought to read them here ; and if we find 
 them here we should at least reflect upon 
 their possible prophetic value. Of course 
 no one can predict how an " architecture of 
 the future " may develop, because the world 
 of to -day, fed on much knowledge, keen
 
 criticism, wide appreciation, and amateur 
 theoretical preaching, is very different from 
 those old artistic worlds where men knew 
 only the work of countries close at haud, 
 had small antiquarian reverence or aesthetic 
 sympathy for the work of their predecessors, 
 and did their own work in an instinctive, 
 untheoretical, boldly creative way. Perhaps 
 there will never again be a period when all 
 architects shall build in the same spirit, 
 when one style shall rule in great works and 
 small until, carried to its logical end, it shall 
 form the soil for another development as 
 wide-spreading and harmonious. Perhaps 
 when American architecture eventually does 
 its best, it will build as it does to-day 
 things of a hundred different sorts. But I 
 do not think so. I might give many reasons, 
 all seeming to point towards harmony if not 
 absolute unity as an unalterable condition 
 of architectural triumph. But I have only 
 time to cite the evidence of one fact the 
 fact that in our house-building we have even 
 now begun to agree upon something which 
 may be called a style. 
 
 Many of our new country homes, if we 
 look at their outside only, seem to be built 
 in no style at all, being quite devoid of or- 
 nament, dependent for their effect on mass
 
 and outline only, and differing in mass and 
 outline from any Old-World models. But 
 look inside. Here there must be some de- 
 gree of ornament if tbe house is more than 
 a cabin, lodge, or studio built for a half- 
 camp-like mode of life. If it is very sumpt- 
 uous we may possibly find that, while much 
 attention has been given to architectural 
 styles, no one style predominates ; we may 
 see a Moorish room, a Japanese room, a 
 Louis Qninze room, a seventeenth-century 
 Dutch room, and perhaps even a Gothic 
 room, forming a house to which it would be 
 hard to give a name. But in almost all cases 
 the rooms are similar in conception, or, at 
 least, if one or two arc different they are im- 
 mediately recognized as fanciful interpola- 
 tions in a generally consistent scheme. And 
 this scheme is based upon some form of that 
 great development of art which we call Re- 
 naissance. 
 
 The name is a broad one. It covers all 
 the work done in all the four centuries which 
 elapsed between the perishing of Gothic art 
 and the birth of the brief ueo-Greek move- 
 ment less than a hundred years ago ; and 
 during those centuries art was very much 
 alive, and therefore developed and modified 
 itself persistently. But, throughout, all 
 
 4
 
 men worked together as the cnrrent ideal 
 changed, and all sub-styles were united by 
 one characteristic, determiuing thread the 
 use in modern, variously reorganized, and 
 transmuted ways of motives drawn from 
 classic art. 
 
 Our home interiors, with few exceptions, 
 now show our allegiance to Renaissance 
 ideals. But if no more than this could be 
 said it would not mean unity or even true 
 harmony in impulse and results. More than 
 this, however, can be said. They show our 
 allegiance to those earlier, purer types of 
 Renaissance work which best deserve the 
 name, and, indeed, when we speak with 
 exactness, are the only ones we call by it 
 in contrast to such later sub-styles as the 
 "Palladian," the "Louis Quatorze," the 
 " Louis Quinze," the " Queen Anne," and so 
 forth. 
 
 But, you may ask, how long will this 
 agreement last ? Does not our brief archi- 
 tectural history show that fashion in styles 
 is scarcely more permanent with us than 
 fashion iii clothes ? Ten years hence may 
 we not all be agreeing upon something that 
 we do not especially care for to-day, or, just 
 as likely, again agreeing to disagree? 
 
 Perhaps so; but I think we may at least
 
 cherish a, pretty strong doubt. I think a 
 promise that onr present preference will en- 
 dure may lie in the fact that it has been in- 
 stinctively rather than self-consciously de- 
 veloped. For does not this mean that we 
 have chosen as we could not help choosing? 
 We have not been impelled to build in this 
 way by a mere theoretical consideration of 
 the abstract claims of different styles, or by 
 the persuasive words of any critical writer, 
 or even by the example of any one con- 
 spicuous architect. While trying with an 
 impartial hand a dozen different ways of de- 
 signing, we have hit, almost without know- 
 ing it, upon one that really serves. We now 
 build almost all our houses in one fashion, 
 not because we fancy it may be the best for 
 us, but because in a keen competition it has 
 actually proved the best. 
 
 It is instructive just here to remember 
 that the only architect who has profoundly 
 affected the American profession and public 
 threw his influence against the style which, 
 in domestic building, nevertheless prevails. 
 We prefer Eenaissauce houses in spite of the 
 fact that all Richardson's work had a dis- 
 tinctly Romanesque or Byzantine character. 
 Under the immediate sway of his impressive 
 personality and his magnificent talent, half
 
 the profession turned into his path with as- 
 sured or stumbling steps; and the public, 
 hitherto uninterested by architectural mat- 
 ters, showed a surprisingly strong interest 
 iu the new departure. Here, it seemed to 
 us, lay the mine which onr artists should 
 work if an American style was to he horn. 
 Here were materials essentially novel, un- 
 questionably attractive to the majority, and 
 seemingly plastic enough to be moulded with 
 the versatile touch that modern building 
 problems require. Could anything more 
 "original" he expected in these latter days 
 of art ? Could anything more pleasing to 
 the public eye be found ; or anything that 
 might give a freer hand to the inventive- 
 ness which American architects have always 
 shown, and which, we believe, needs only to 
 find the right channel to show itself as crea- 
 tive power? Thus many of us thought, 
 and thus, I confess, some of us made bold to 
 write. 
 
 But meanwhile, as we were trying to de- 
 vote ourselves to Romanesque art, we did 
 devote ourselves, in the branch where our 
 work is most spontaneous, to art of a very 
 different kind. It is not yet six years, re- 
 member, since Richardson died, and only 
 sixteen since his influence began to be felt.
 
 B3 
 
 We have riot developed the seed he sowed, 
 got tired of its flower, and in a spirit of 
 reaction turned to another seed - bed for 
 the materials of another "fashion." Wo 
 have simply strayed away while thinking 
 that our eyes were fixed upon him as our 
 leader. It seems as though we must have 
 confounded those underlying qualities of his 
 work which proved him a great architect 
 with those more superficial ones which ex- 
 pressed his personal feeling for a certain 
 style. We thought he had shown us the 
 virtues of the Romanesque style when what 
 ho had really shown us was the difference 
 between weak, confused, commonplace, triv- 
 ial buildings and buildings instinct with 
 vigor, individuality, and beauty. We are 
 not likely to forget his teaching with regard 
 to the essentials of good architecture : in a 
 greater degree than any one can estimate it 
 has affected and will affect the work of the 
 whole profession, the appreciative power of 
 the whole public. Nor do I think that even 
 as regards style his influence will be entirely 
 outlived. There is a much closer kinship 
 between early Renaissance work and early 
 mediaeval work than between the former 
 and Gothic work. The Renaissance styles 
 followed immediately upon the Gothic, but
 
 they were uot based upon them. They 
 were based upon a study of classic architect- 
 ure, and so of course was early mediaeval 
 work. In calling our attention so strongly 
 to Byzautiue and southern Romanesque 
 buildings, it seems as though Richardson 
 may have unlocked a forgotten treasure- 
 house wherein the designers of future days 
 will find inspirations and lessons which will 
 enable them to make of modern Renaissance 
 art something fresher, more individual, and 
 more plastic than they would have produced 
 had this great architect never lived. If 
 they remember merely how he showed that 
 ornamentation may be executed in intaglio 
 as well as in relief, and that strong effects 
 of contrasted color are admirably suited to 
 our bright sunshine and clear atmosphere, 
 his choice of style will have had a conspic- 
 uous influence upon American art. But 
 even the current work of Richardson's 
 own pupils shows that we can hardly ex- 
 pect, as we did a dozen years ago, that Ro- 
 manesque art will eventually rule in the 
 laud. Some of them certainly follow in 
 his path with hearty enthusiasm. But 
 very far away from it have travelled oth- 
 ers, designing, for example, the new Public 
 Library in Boston, the Madison Square
 
 Garden, and the Judge Buildiug in New 
 York. 
 
 It would be interesting to inquire a little 
 into the nature of Renaissance art as re- 
 vealed by history and by current practice, 
 and to explain some of the reasons why it 
 has proved itself the best for our domestic 
 use at least. But just now I can only ask a 
 final question, leaving it unanswered as one 
 which deserves to be thought about, but can 
 be authoritatively settled by Time alone : 
 
 If, almost unconsciously, we are coming to 
 agree upon a style for our domestic work, 
 and if in our domestic work we most clearly 
 and truthfully express ourselves, should 
 we adopt this style in all other departments 
 of architecture ? Are we taught by a study 
 of our homes that Renaissance art is the 
 true art for modern men in America as well 
 as in France, and that upon it will be based 
 our "American architecture "if future con- 
 ditions and native abilities ever combine to 
 develop such a product f
 
 SOME WORK OF THE "ASSOCIATED 
 ARTISTS." 
 
 BY MRS. BURTON HARRISON. 
 
 THE wave of popular decorative art has 
 broken over us ami receded. With it have 
 gone the sticks aud straws of iucompe- 
 tency. Away floats many a fond illusion 
 of whilom artists, who have reluctantly lived 
 to see their blurred ideals piled high ou 
 the cupboard shelf, or bestowed upon the 
 married maid-servant intending house-keep- 
 ing. Torn from the pedestal where so long 
 it stood upon one weary leg, the immemo- 
 rial stork has gone down the stream in com- 
 pany with sunflowers aud apple- blossoms in 
 every stage of experimental presentment. 
 
 In plain words, the decorative " craze " 
 has had its day. Amateurs no longer creep 
 in where artists dare not tread. The legit- 
 imate adorners of our homes breathe a long 
 sigh of relief. The field is theirs. What 
 happily remain with us of the stimulating 
 period just past are a more enlightened
 
 taste in all these matters and. a more impar- 
 tial understanding of aesthetic la\v. Stripped 
 though they are of home-made faience aud 
 pre-Raphaelite crewel-work, our houses bear 
 internal evidence of a hundred decorative 
 fancies, well imagined and fitly applied. 
 To know ho\v to adjust the things we have 
 is of far greater value than to know 
 how to yearn for those we have not. This 
 naturally applies to those who have fol- 
 lowed, as a fashion, what they style " dec- 
 orative art." To the earnest workers, es- 
 pecially among women, what a hoon has it 
 not been ? Of the various schools established 
 in New York, beginning with the noble 
 Society of Decorative Art, all have been suc- 
 cessfully and honorably maintained, while 
 to reckon up the benefits they have con- 
 ferred upon the self-helpers of our country 
 at large would be a task of magnitude. 
 The roots of every one of these large estab- 
 lishments where the decorations of life are 
 considered to the exclusion of Us necessa- 
 ries, strike deep aud far into the soil fed by 
 our national industries. 
 
 A few years ago a little baud of artists of 
 New York, headed by Mr. Louis C. Tiffany, 
 determined to inaugurate a new era in liou.se 
 decoration, where each member of the ad-
 
 visory firm should be a specialist of skill and 
 ripe culture. This was done ; and the re- 
 sults they have brought about may, with- 
 out exaggeration, be called the first - fruits 
 of the American Renaissance. Very little 
 was attempted by the association to secure 
 the attention of the public that througs and 
 wonders. Their work, principally executed 
 to beautify certain elaborate interiors, has 
 been hurried by the owners from work-room 
 or atelier into jealous seclusion as soon as it 
 was finished. The curtain for the Madison 
 Square Theatre, decorations for the beauti- 
 ful interior of the Church of the Divine Pa- 
 ternity, for the Union Club House, and for 
 the picturesque Veterans' Kooin of the Sev- 
 enth Regiment Armory, were almost the 
 only exhibits of their industry known to 
 New York until the exhibition of embroid- 
 eries in the Loan Collection of December, 
 1883, held in aid of the Pedestal Fund for 
 Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty. Then was 
 displayed a series of bold and original nee- 
 dle-woven tapestries, before which the art- 
 ist world paused to do homage, as the most 
 decided advance in needle-work known to 
 the century. Of this tapestry a full de- 
 scription will be given further on. Since 
 the earlier work mentioned the artists have
 
 59 
 
 been enabled, by repeated efforts in com- 
 binations, through advanced skill on the 
 part of their work-people, and with success- 
 ful development of native industries, to 
 show continual progress in all these depart- 
 ments. In their hands wood, metals, glass^ 
 mother-of-pearl, gold and silver, canvas, 
 silk, serge, "cloth o' gold and cloth o' 
 frieze," dyes and pigments, threads of silk 
 and gold and wool, have been alternately 
 treated to the action of tool, brush, or nee- 
 dle, and dismissed bearing unmistakable 
 evidence of their artistic birthplace. 
 
 In this development of combined indus- 
 tries it was soon found that the department 
 of tapestries and embroideries had assumed 
 a character of distinct national and com- 
 mercial importance, requiring for develop- 
 ment certain conditions materially hin- 
 dered by an association for the production 
 only of combined forms of decorative work. 
 After three years of co-operative study and 
 fruitful experiment it was decided, there- 
 fore, to detach this department of artistic 
 needle-work, allowing it to convene a new 
 group of artists having taste and gifts es- 
 pecially adapted to its growth. The orig- 
 inal scheme of the enterprise was continued 
 under the name of Louis C. Tiffany & Co.,
 
 its offshoot retaining the impersonal title of 
 Associated Artists, as better suited to the 
 requirement of an enterprise nuder feminine 
 control. Of these artists themselves it is 
 permitted me to say little. That the asso- 
 ciation is directed and inspired by Mrs. 
 Wheeler, Miss Dora Wheeler, and Miss Ro- 
 sina Emmet, is to Americans an earnest of 
 the results attainable, as well as an explana- 
 tion of those attained. And it is pleasant 
 to record here a tribute to the progressive 
 excellence of the designs furnished by Miss 
 Ida Clark, formerly a pupil, and now an ac- 
 tive worker in the councils of the Associated 
 Artists. 
 
 It is in the blending of art and manu- 
 facturing industry that we Americans are 
 vitally interested, and we shall now see how 
 far into this fresh field the footsteps of a 
 few brave women have led the way. One 
 who is fortunate enough to possess an open- 
 sesame to the modest dark green portal in 
 East Twenty-third Street behind which the 
 Associated Artists conjure into existence so 
 many marvels will at the outset be forcibly 
 struck by the fact of the growth in Ameri- 
 can taste making such an establishment 
 not only possible, but remunerative. Here, 
 under Mrs Wheeler's inspiring rule, are pro-
 
 dnced the beautiful pieces of embroidery of 
 which this paper designs to treat. To de- 
 scribe the furniture, iulay-work, ceilings, 
 wall-papers, panellings, parquetry floors, and 
 glass mosaics originating in the fertile brain 
 of Mr. Tiffany and his coadjutors in the ate- 
 liers of Fourth Avenue close by would be a 
 chapter apart. 
 
 Now that the reign of stuffs has asserted 
 itself in our homes when we sigh before a 
 yard of imperial yellow damask, and caress 
 a bit of plush as a lover might the cheek of 
 his fair one, singing them over like honest 
 Autolycus with his inkles, caddisses, cam- 
 brics, lawns, " as they were gods or goddess- 
 es" it will be a satisfaction to the unsym- 
 pathizing to hear the practical side of this 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Eeinemberiug the gallant struggle made, 
 during the last twenty years especially, by 
 the silk weavers of the United States, who 
 have tried in the face of so many obstacles 
 to obtain for their products footing with 
 imported goods, it is pleasant to record to 
 their honor an unqualified success. One of 
 the first problems the Associated Artists set 
 themselves to encounter was how to lighten 
 the cost and extend the variety of silk and 
 woollen stuffs. American women have, as a
 
 62 
 
 rule, withheld their patronage from Ameri- 
 can silks; but it is safe to say that any 
 cue examining the recent products of Con- 
 necticut and New Jersey looms, woven to 
 the order of the Associated Artists, after de- 
 signs furnished by them, will go away re- 
 penting past omissions, and zealous of fut- 
 ure purchase. These fabrics include filmy 
 "India" silks, silk sail-cloths of great lus- 
 tre and durability, silk canvases, and dam- 
 asks like those in which Paul Veronese 
 clothed his golden blondes. 
 
 For hangings of all kinds, and for "pict- 
 ure " dresses, these materials are not to be 
 surpassed. The designs, where a pattern is 
 employed, are admirable, and the tints sup- 
 plied range from silver-white to amber, gold, 
 and orange, from blush-pink to copper and 
 pomegranate, with many greens and blues, 
 in some cases intermingled, as in the goxvn 
 bestowed on Enid by Earl Doorm, 
 
 "Where, like a shoaling sea, the lovely blue 
 Played into green." 
 
 Not satisfied, however, with producing 
 stuffs to exchange for the plentiful shekels 
 of American plutocracy, the artists have 
 wisely carried their experiments into the re-
 
 gion of cheap materials. One result is a 
 fabric of raw silk, serving to utilize the 
 waste of costlier webs, and dyed in the 
 skein, in varied tints of the same color, giv- 
 ing it when woven all the effect of the East- 
 ern hand-dyed, hand-woven stnffs so much 
 admired. This is sold at a very moderate 
 price. Chintzes and cottons receive as much 
 care in the design as their expensive bro- 
 cades, and Kentucky jean or denim has been 
 known to take upon itself the semblance of 
 Oriental drapery for wall or door. A sort 
 of dado of this homely dark blue stuff (so 
 familiar to the eyes of Southern or of West- 
 ern people in the common garments of their 
 negro population) has been decorated with 
 interlaced rings of chestnut plush, a space 
 on the wall above covered with blue and 
 white striped awning stuff, and the frieze 
 painted in reds and pinks above. Always 
 design is studied with reference to use. A 
 woven stuff designed by Miss Ida Clark for 
 the hangings of a palace car has for its pat- 
 tern a peal of bells, scattered as if driven by 
 the wind, with a border of coupled car 
 wheels, and drifting smoke between. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the aesthetic 
 honse-keeper ambitious to adorn her room 
 of state, the modest mother of a household
 
 who can spare this much and no more for 
 a thing of beauty in her home, and the em- 
 broiderer seeking fresh fields for the vaga- 
 ries of her needle, need no more look to 
 sources over the sea for their material. 
 
 Embroidery silk, to take the place of fil- 
 oselle, is another industry of this busy hive. 
 Brilliant as floss, it is expected that in time 
 this silk will cost less than imported filo- 
 selle. 
 
 To properly classify the methods of em- 
 broidery used by the Associated Artists, I 
 have no hesitation in placing at the head of 
 the list a needle-woven tapestry illustrating 
 a distinctly new departure in decorative 
 needle-work, which will probably take the 
 name of the originator, and be known to 
 collectors of the future as the Wheeler tap- 
 estry. A brief history ot this work, secured 
 to Mrs. Wheeler by letters patent both in 
 America and England, may prove of interest 
 to my readers. 
 
 For some years past Mrs. Wheeler has 
 been experimenting in varieties of stitches 
 applied to varieties in material, while aim- 
 ing to produce an embroidered surface which 
 should possess all the softness of painting 
 in water-colors, yet have the enduring qual- 
 ity of ancient hand-wrought tapestries. To
 
 find a suitable grouud for such work proved 
 her maiu difficulty, and it was ouly while 
 standing by the Jacquard loom one day 
 watching the progress of a bit of silk- weav- 
 ing to her order, that she observed one por- 
 tion of the design suggesting the very ar- 
 rangement of threads so loug desired. A 
 discarded remnant of imperfect texture was 
 found having the idea still better carried 
 out for her purpose. This was made to 
 serve as a model for the new silk canvas, 
 which was promptly put under way. 
 
 The result is a stuff woven of three shades 
 of color (as, for instance, in the olive can- 
 vas, black, light green, and dark green), 
 having a raw silk back, with silk warp and 
 face. It resembles, in effect, " laid- work," 
 or " couching," as seen in the grounds of so 
 many old embroideries, as well as that vari- 
 ety of decoration recently revived under the 
 name of " Queen Anne's darned-work." Next 
 followed a series of experiments in stitches 
 to preserve the elasticity of the textile, 
 while allowing the introduction of addition- 
 al warp-threads without changing the plane 
 of the surface. 
 
 The method of working this tapestry 
 finally adopted may be best understood by 
 calling to mind the much-neglected domes- 
 
 5
 
 06 
 
 tic art of stocking darning, which, iu these 
 days of machine - made hosiery, has been 
 tossed into the waste-basket of oblivion. 
 This homely stitch is still seen in some Turk- 
 ish embroideries, and was once made famous 
 by old Flemish workers, as well as by those 
 of Italy and Germany. In the Wheeler tap- 
 estry the darned threads are carried across 
 either the woof or warp of the ground, ac- 
 cording to the desired effect of texture, and 
 are not crossed by a returning thread, as in 
 ordinary basket darning. When finished it 
 is difficult even for a practiced eye to dis- 
 cern how they have apparently become in- 
 corporated with the stuff. The impression 
 gained is that of a vignette, where the at- 
 mosphere fades into the ground tint of the 
 stuff. In many cases the last range of stitches 
 is supplied by using the ravelled silk of the 
 original material. 
 
 The general effect of color aimed at in 
 these needle-work pictures is flat, but the 
 artist who continually oversees them while 
 under the worker's hand cannot resist a sug- 
 gestion of light or shadow here and there, a 
 deepening of tone in the hollow of a plait or 
 fold, a loving touch of the brush, as it were, 
 supplying the gradations of tint that trans- 
 form a lifeless surface of needle-work into a
 
 f>7 
 
 spirited portrayal, as by pigments, of some 
 form of natural beauty. What will no doubt 
 recommend it to the artistic amateur is that 
 there are no fixed rules for the stitches to be 
 taken. Wherever, by changing the direction 
 of them, a good effect can be rendered, it is 
 done unhesitatingly. But, at the same time, 
 experienced workers will see how impossi- 
 ble would be the undertaking of such, a 
 labor as one of these tapestries without con- 
 stant supervision from the eye of a trained 
 artist. 
 
 After the design is sketched upon the can- 
 vas, a strong outline in silks is supplied, un- 
 like that made with the brush in china- 
 painting in that it precedes instead of finish- 
 ing the work. The worker is supplied with 
 a carefully colored sketch of the subject, and 
 some idea of the labor necessary to complete 
 a piece of this tapestry may be gained from 
 the fact that the " atmosphere " alone, sur- 
 rounding a breezy nymph now being clothed 
 with substance upou the frame, will require 
 to perfect it fully four mouths' time of a 
 steady work-woman. 
 
 The most conspicuous achievement in 
 hand-wrought tapestry yet sent out by the 
 Associated Artists, and certainly the most 
 important order in needle -work ever exe-
 
 cuted in this country, is the Vanderbilt set 
 of wall-hangings already alluded to as hav- 
 ing excited favorable notice in the recent 
 Loan Collection at the Academy of Design. 
 These tapestries, eleven in number, were ex- 
 ecuted after designs from Miss Dora Wheeler, 
 representing phases of life in its holiday as- 
 pect. They include groups of dancing fig- 
 ures; an Undine seated beneath the curve 
 of a wave holding a shell, from which drop 
 garnered pearls; her comrade, a creature of 
 the air, summoning birds, which come swift- 
 ly at her call ; nymphs with musical instru- 
 ments ; amorini swinging upon ropes of roses, 
 or playing at hide-and-seek amid flowers; 
 together with a design full of poetic beauty, 
 entitled " The Birth of Psyche." 
 
 To supplement these tapestries are por- 
 tieres and window curtains of a pale green- 
 ish-white satin, with underlet appliqu6s of 
 other pale-hued silks, conveying to the sur- 
 face a peculiar opaline effect. Over this is 
 embroidered a prodigal variety of roses 
 dropping from the stems in their plenitude 
 of bloom and color. Most of these roses are 
 drawn from sketches made while on a win- 
 ter journey in the South, and are pleasant 
 chronicles of life in the bowery haunts of 
 the Carolinas and of Florida. The work
 
 bestowed oil them is no artistic sleight-of- 
 hand, where the needle flies, Atlanta -like, 
 across the plain, but is the perfection of 
 close embroidery, the old opus plumarium, or 
 feather-stitch, resembliug the overlapping 
 plumage of a bird. 
 
 This brilliant use of roses in their natural 
 shape and color naturally suggests the much 
 discussed question of con ventioualizing flow- 
 er forms for the purposes of ornamental de- 
 sign. In the practice of this association a 
 plant rarely has to be twisted or perverted 
 from the lines of beauty conferred on it by 
 nature. When it is desired to decorate a 
 given surface, the flower or plant chosen is 
 found to be one entirely iu harmony with 
 its surroundiugs. It is placed finally only 
 after consideration of it in all its relations 
 to texture, color, and ultimate purpose. 
 
 The same nice care follows the piece of 
 embroidery to its destination in the home. 
 And in this connection I may quote some 
 recent sayings of a distinguished art critic 
 regarding the achievements of the associa- 
 tion : " Their exhibition has a distinct im- 
 portance in the development of decorative 
 art, which, if we ever have it fitly applied 
 to our domestic arrangements, must be in- 
 digenous. The conditions of life and light,
 
 70 
 
 manner of living and Lousing ourselves, 
 differ so widely from the corresponding con- 
 ditions in any other country that they can 
 never be adequately met except by a deco- 
 ration which grows up to them and fits 
 them. It is easy to understand that what 
 suits perfectly the gray and lightless sky 
 of England, and the comparative gloom of 
 its in -doors, or the system of furnishing 
 which accords properly with French social 
 and domestic surroundings, will jar with 
 ours. When the American decorator finds 
 his tone and style, and the women of our 
 cultivated society learn that what is 'kill- 
 ing ' on the boulevards is garish on Broad- 
 way, we shall have made the first step in an 
 escape from artistic provincialism. The 
 Associated Artists are helping us to this 
 much-to-be-desired end." 
 
 Apart from the now famous tapestries em- 
 broidered for Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the 
 Associated Artists have completed several 
 other important examples of the Wheeler 
 tapestry. A set of wall panels and window 
 curtains wrought iu opalescent tints for a 
 London drawing-room were lately shown, 
 before being packed for shipment, to a few 
 appreciative friends. A large hanging, ar- 
 ranged from Le Roux's painting of the "Are-
 
 71 
 
 na " by Miss Ida Clark, was exhibited at the 
 Loan Collection ; and there is now iu proc- 
 ess of completion at the rooms a charming 
 curtain, designed by Miss Rosin a Emmet, 
 having for subject the figure of Ruth carry- 
 ing a sheaf of wheat beneath her arm. The 
 color of the drapery in this example is ex- 
 tremely subtle, and the hand is tempted to 
 pass caressingly over its graceful folds be- 
 fore doubting Thomas can be made fairly to 
 believe that needle, not brush, has brought 
 to pass this wonder. Another delightful 
 example is a study by Miss Dora Wheeler of 
 a nymph and Cupid at a fountain, charming 
 alike in design and color. 
 
 In the department of applique" embroid- 
 ery the Associated Artists have originated 
 many interesting pieces of work. One of 
 their earliest efforts was a portiere for the 
 Veterans' Room of the Seventh Regiment 
 Armory, made of dull Japanese brocade, 
 bordered with plush representing leopard- 
 skin. Upon the main space of the curtain 
 are worked square applique's of velvet, each 
 one embodying some design suggesting the 
 days of knighthood and romantic warfare. 
 The intermediate spaces of the brocade are 
 covered with overlapping rings of steel, to 
 represent a coat of mail.
 
 For the solace of those pathetic wander- 
 ers from home compelled to seek the shelter 
 of a club-house, the artists have iu vented 
 more thau one noteworthy piece of decora- 
 tive embroidery. Among those at the Union 
 League is a large curtain for the library 
 window. This is made of cloth of gold, and 
 is framed in massive plush. Upon the cen- 
 tral panel is embroidered a* net, iu whose 
 meshes are entangled fish with jewelled 
 scales. At intervals the stuff is cut from 
 beneath the fish, leaving, when the curtain 
 hangs against the light, the effect of an il- 
 luminated transparency. 
 
 A favorite bit of embroidery is known as 
 " The Sermon." On a curtain of ordinary 
 brown holland appear appliqu6 disks con- 
 taining groups of field flowers, bees, or but- 
 terflies, with connecting traceries of silk 
 thread. It was devised as a reminder no 
 less than a proof of the fact that true art in 
 needle -work depends not upon stuffs and 
 mere externals, but upon the worker's ar- 
 tistic intuition. This delicate admonition is 
 euforced by the materials employed to pro- 
 duce this pleasing result in decoration, none 
 of them soaring beyond the ranks of ordi- 
 nary use, or exceeding the possibilities of 
 the humblest worker.
 
 T3 
 
 Thus it will be seen that although ap- 
 plique'-work iu the origiual form is classed 
 among the antiquities of needle lore, the 
 Associated Artists have contrived to throw 
 around it a mantle of originality. In every 
 case their aim has been so to bring together 
 differing shades and differing textures that 
 the result might be a scale of color other- 
 wise unattainable. Even the same tones of 
 the same color have been made to produce a 
 difference in tint through the combination 
 of varying textures. 
 
 And so, in other branches of needle-work, 
 the artists have continually striven to make 
 the development of color schemes depend- 
 ing upon the inspiration of the worker a 
 distinguishing characteristic of their pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 An attractive corner in the rooms of the 
 association is that occupied by the ancient 
 dower-chests, now made to serve for storing 
 hoards of thin stuffs used for lighter dra- 
 peries. 
 
 These diaphanous materials seem pecul- 
 iarly in harmony with poetical designs for 
 outline tracery, and are intended to be hung 
 against the light, upon the glass of vestibule 
 door or drawiug-room window.
 
 WALL-PAPERS, CEILINGS, AND DADOS. 
 
 BY SUSAN N. CARTER. 
 
 ONE of the best analyses of Art-principles 
 that has been published for many years on 
 ornament, by Charles Blanc, dwells on the 
 few simple underlying ideas which apply to 
 all decoration. The author says, in the open- 
 ing chapter of his work, that "just as the 
 twenty-six letters of the alphabet have been 
 and will be sufficient to form the words 
 necessary for the expression of all human 
 thought, so certain elements, susceptible of 
 combination among themselves, have suf- 
 ficed and will suffice to create ornaments, 
 the variety of which may be multiplied in- 
 definitely." In fact, all the methods which 
 have been devised for the decoration of the 
 person, the house, or gardens, or public 
 buildings, owe their existence to the five 
 principles of "Repetition, Alternation, Sym- 
 metry, Progression, and Confusion." 
 
 The truth of this analysis by the French
 
 75 
 
 artist-philosopher will be recognized when 
 we consider two or three of the illustrations 
 he gives to show his meaning. He says: "Any 
 form, however insignificant in itself, becomes 
 interesting by repetition : at first, because 
 the artist by repeating it forces us to take 
 notice of it, and reveals an intention which 
 would have escaped our observation without 
 this repetition ; and, next, because number 
 often suggests thoughts which unity would 
 not have originated." 
 
 "Alternation " affects the mind like a more 
 complicated repetition ; and " if a circle be 
 placed after a square, and this is repeated a 
 certain number of times, the effect upon the 
 mind much resembles the progression of the 
 figures in the Greek fret, or the successive 
 curves of the Vitruvian scroll." 
 
 Symmetry and Progression are modifica- 
 tions of the two preceding principles, while 
 Confusion becomes orderly by contrast with 
 set figures, as when groups of people in va- 
 ried attitudes are alternated with rows of 
 pillars. Charles Blanc most imaginatively 
 remarks that " the dull square, the hard and 
 frigid cube, become ornamental when set in 
 a row." While in music the same principle 
 appears in the "rhythm, that is to say, the 
 repetition, accelerated or diminished, of a
 
 sound with vibration or without. The toll- 
 ing of a bell, sounding for a long time the 
 same note at equal intervals, may produce 
 a profound and solemn impression ;" and 
 " when we survey the ancient monnmeiits 
 of Egypt, abounding as they do in colored 
 reliefs or surface-paintings, we are often ar- 
 rested by a group of figures in simultaneous 
 and rhythmical action, all executing the 
 same gesture and the same sign. When this 
 action is not purely material, such as lead- 
 ing animals, threshing out corn, or carrying 
 bricks ; that is, when it is in harmony with 
 tbe sentiment, and expresses, for example, 
 worship or prayer this rhythmic movement 
 partakes of a religious character, and the 
 repetition of the gesture seems to bring it 
 within the pale of sacred rites. The spec- 
 tacle becomes solemn, nay, almost sub- 
 lime." 
 
 As these principles, when we reflect upon 
 them, appear so simple and at the same time 
 so full of meaning, we can easily see how in 
 the ornament of a dress a row of daisies con- 
 stantly repeated gives its own character to 
 the garment, while little triangles on a wall- 
 paper have their character of repose, and, 
 in the more ambitious work of the land- 
 scape-gardener, long rows of trees, forming
 
 vistas in park or avenue, have their dis- 
 tinctive artistic meaning. 
 
 Taking np these simple ideas as applying 
 to the adornment of life, we shall dwell on 
 them in articles on the decoration of our 
 rooms, the ornaments, whether in embroid- 
 ery, or carving, or jewels for our persons, 
 and shall endeavor to show how pleasant 
 harmonies may be obtained both through 
 form and color in the familiar objects which 
 make up onr daily external life. 
 
 Second to the adornment of onr own per- 
 sons, the background or foundation of the 
 rooms which wo inhabit is of great interest 
 to us. Our circumstances determine if these 
 backgrounds, which resolve themselves final- 
 ly into wall-papers, shall be pleasant nega- 
 tive settings to the objects with which we 
 fill our homes, or if the mural decorations 
 shall themselves supply the lack of objects 
 which our taste or our purse may have hin- 
 dered us from collecting. It is of wall-pa- 
 pers as furnishing a background and relief 
 to an assemblage of loved and familiar ob- 
 jects that we propose to treat in this paper. 
 
 Like all transient fashions of dress or or- 
 nament, where the material is comparative- 
 ly cheap, nothing changes its patterns or its 
 colors more constantly than wall-paper.
 
 78 
 
 The frescos which adorned the old saloons 
 in foreign palaces were often painted by 
 distinguished artists, and the pictures and 
 arabesques on ceiling and side - wall were 
 also frequently done under their supervision. 
 The rarity and costliness of these decora- 
 tions insured their permanence, and we still 
 see the same angels, cherubs, and historical 
 paintings, in Italy and Germany, that gener- 
 ations have looked at for the last four or five 
 hundred years. 
 
 But in the ordinary dwelling of the pres- 
 ent day, and especially in this country, each 
 new occupant of a house feels himself at 
 liberty to choose the style of his wall-adorn- 
 ment, and the small expense attending it 
 enables him to suit his own taste. We pre- 
 sume that nearly every one of our readers 
 has noticed the change of impression made 
 upon himself by the rearrangement or the 
 addition or removal of furuiture, pictures, 
 or wall-paper, in an apartment with which 
 he has been familiar. A dim, cosey sitting- 
 room, full of odds and ends of prints, tables, 
 easy-chairs, and bric-a-brac, needs but the 
 different ideas of a new occupant to be 
 transformed into a stiff, light, clean parlor ; 
 yet, the entire variation consists only in the 
 substitution of a dove-colored paper, with-
 
 79 
 
 out tone or richness of color, .and hung at 
 set intervals with steel engravings or ordi- 
 nary photographs, for a brown, mellow- 
 tiuted wall, on which interesting etchings 
 have previously been grouped. In the analy- 
 sis, we find one room not more costly, more 
 elegant, or more rare, than the other, but 
 yet they are as distinct in the impression 
 they make as two different individualities. 
 
 Nothing, iu our familiar experience, ex- 
 cites homesickness more keenly than the 
 dismantling of a room where our life is for 
 the most part spent. An ordinary house- 
 cleaning, which removes our paintings, book- 
 cases, and hanging-shelves from the walls, 
 produces a sense of loneliness that nothing 
 but their gradual restoration after the clean- 
 ing is over can entirely efface ; and we then 
 sigh with pleasure when the space over the 
 mantel-piece resumes its accustomed expres- 
 sion, and as one by one the books are on 
 their shelves, and our old spot is itself 
 again. 
 
 Wall-papers have a share in the comfort 
 and pleasure of our daily life that pictures 
 or ornaments scarcely can equal. We may 
 dispense with the favorite painting, but the 
 harmony or disagreeable tints and figures on 
 the wall-paper are not to be evaded. They
 
 so 
 
 either possess the richness and repose that 
 fit them for a background to furniture, mir- 
 rors, or paintings, or their glaring, patchy 
 colors kill the effect of the best pictures, 
 and to many a nervous invalid render his 
 hours intolerable, as he counts and combines 
 over and over again the meaningless recur- 
 rence of a marked angle or curve, or the 
 ever-repeated big, awkward rose or tiresome 
 convolvulus. 
 
 A few years ago, before Eastlake had 
 printed his book, many fine wall-papers 
 were brought over here from France, in 
 which delicate vines made a tangled mass 
 of agreeable shapes, and covered a ground- 
 work neutral in color like itself. The pat- 
 terns were not exactly like those of the 
 Morris papers, but so equally were the deco- 
 rations arid the nnder-tint balanced, that to 
 the most sensitive eye, if they did not give 
 positive pleasure, at least they produced no 
 disturbance of the mind. But the American 
 people in those days had not analyzed their 
 impressions very much, and had not yet 
 learned why such unobtrusive ornamenta- 
 tion is agreeable. They consequently were 
 constantly led away by fearful forms and 
 colors, and at that period bedrooms were 
 the especially weak points, where all sorts
 
 81 
 
 of ugly papers appeared. In the dwellings 
 of the richest, the most intelligent, and the 
 most tasteful people, in town or city, great 
 pink peonies were scattered at set distances 
 among bright-green leaves on a slate-colored 
 groundwork in the best guest-chamber of 
 the house. 
 
 The first principle that should be consid- 
 ered by the designer of a wall-paper is that 
 the decoration of the sides of a room ought 
 always to be a background, more or less 
 rich, according to circumstances, for the men. 
 and women, furniture and ornaments, re- 
 lieved against it. If this idea is kept in 
 mind, a little knowledge and experience in 
 combinations of color and figure will sug- 
 gest arrangements of patterns on a wall- 
 paper that will give a satisfactory result. 
 
 It is difficult in designing a pattern to 
 make one that shall be equally agreeable for 
 a large or a small room, because little groups 
 of objects on a paper covering a limited 
 space take pleasant general figures, which, 
 if they are seen scattered over a large sur- 
 face, make geometrical combinations that 
 destroy the effect of the most attractive 
 patterns examined iu detail. As an illus- 
 tration of this we recollect a pretty pattern 
 of grasses and wheat-heads scattered so as 
 6
 
 closely to cover a wall-paper, and the deli- 
 cate figures made a gray net-work upon a 
 light ground. At the first glance the tra- 
 cery seemed without positive plan, beyond 
 affording agreeable resting -points for the 
 eye at stated intervals, where the wheat- 
 heads focnssed the tangle of slender leaves. 
 But from further experience it became ap- 
 parent that the grasses took large curved 
 lines in a geometrical construction so posi- 
 tive that a sense of dizziness was the inevi- 
 table result of contemplating the paper for 
 any length of time. Had the room been 
 smaller, or the spaces more broken by doors 
 or windows, these long, interlacing, w r avy 
 lines would have been unobtrusive or con- 
 cealed ; but, placed in an apartment twelve 
 feet high and nearly twenty feet in length, 
 they became uncomfortably prominent. 
 
 Japanese papers, so truly beautiful for 
 screens, and so perfect of themselves as 
 works of art, are frequently open to this ob- 
 jection. We recently saw a fine imitation 
 of a Japanese paper-hanging composed of 
 cream-colored and gold tints, the figures of 
 which were on the basis of grouped circles. 
 Nothing could be more agreeable than this 
 paper when spread upon a screen, but on the 
 walls of a drawing - room the emphasized
 
 circle, which was the biggest and brightest 
 object in the group, stuck out with dazzling 
 prominence, to the destruction of the effect 
 of any pictures or furniture placed against it. 
 
 It is well known that the basis of all 
 Arabic or Saracenic decoration is geometri- 
 cal; and that certain mathematical shapes, 
 through a pattern, however completely they 
 be concealed, are appreciated by the in- 
 stinct, if not by the eye, as the real sub-struct- 
 ure. Japanese work appears to the igno- 
 rant as a very free rendering of Nature, and 
 the grouping of the forms seems to be acci- 
 dental; but no work in the world, if we 
 except the compositions of the great mas- 
 ters, is so perfectly balanced as that of the 
 Japanese in its masses of light and shade. 
 A little concentrated bundle of lines or col- 
 ors holds in its proper equilibrium a wan- 
 dering vine or a flight of tiny birds or in- 
 sects, or petals of flowers ; and this small 
 well-accented spot is always found to be the 
 apex of a triangle or the intersection of a set 
 of circles. 
 
 Such are some of the points to be consid- 
 ered in reference to figures, which reading 
 and reflection will greatly amplify; and the 
 designer will find that the grouping and ar- 
 rangement, and the character of tints and
 
 colors, have a still more important place in 
 his scheme. 
 
 Looking over a vast number of paper- 
 hangings a short time ago, the most poteut 
 fact we gathered from their survey consist- 
 ed in the impression that the beauty of the 
 papers arose ranch more from a successful 
 combination of colors than from any special 
 loveliness of design. We noticed many of 
 the Morris patterns and others, where, in a 
 small set of squares, grave and rich effects 
 were produced by a skilful variety of tints 
 of olive and bronze, here and there enlivened 
 by small touches of pale red. Some of these 
 little squares held leaves of plants, others 
 simple circles, and others again some formal 
 geometrical pattern. Yet the result of them 
 all was one and the same, of a quiet and 
 sheeny shadow, relieving against its rich 
 hues positive tints in clothing, or bright 
 china, or brilliant glass, as well as the peo- 
 ple and furniture in the room. We imag- 
 ined, as we contemplated this beautiful 
 effect, how disagreeable the papers would 
 be if, instead of pleasant secondary and ter- 
 tiary tones of bronzes and gray reds and 
 blues, a bright green trefoil had been con- 
 trasted on a scarlet background; and we 
 thought whether any combination of line
 
 would have charm where bright purple vio- 
 lets stared at us from orange undergrounds. 
 Yet, niitil of late, such have but too gener- 
 ally been the colors and the contrasts which 
 the papers in our rooms have forced upon us. 
 
 If these violent colors can destroy pleas- 
 ing and refined shapes, they are much more 
 repulsive when seen in combination with 
 bad figures. The dreariness of an English 
 bedroom, with its paper forty or fifty years 
 old, on which great, staring bunches of ill- 
 shaped flowers are daubed of every conceiv- 
 able hue, comes to us as the most dismal 
 point of any of our English experiences, 
 which usually were so pleasant. These 
 same bad papers can now be bought in nearly 
 every " variety store " in any village in the 
 United States, and they are found but too 
 often in the bed-chambers and sitting-rooms 
 of houses of the middle class, and in attics 
 everywhere. 
 
 There are two or three old saws of " let- 
 ting well enough alone," and " if you 
 can't do well, don't do anything," etc., which 
 apply especially to paper-hangings. Ever 
 since we can remember, there has been an 
 agreeable kind of paper so simple in its 
 attempts at form and color that any one was 
 sure to be pleased if he covered his walls
 
 with it. These papers consisted of narrow, 
 simple stripes, tiny clover-leaves, or it may 
 be little star-shaped figures, gray or white, 
 upon a background scarcely different from 
 itself. A cool and pretty effect was always 
 given to an apartment thus covered, and, 
 if rich oil-paintings could not bear the con- 
 trast with so chilly a color, no headache 
 was ever aggravated, no ornament was ever 
 obscured by it. A paper so neutral was at 
 any rate not positively offensive, and was 
 the best of the common papers till the re- 
 vival in taste and increased knowledge have 
 introduced a higher and a more complica- 
 ted standard. 
 
 In the present desire for designing, many 
 people little experienced in drawing or 
 painting are tempted by natural taste or by 
 fashion to try their powers in making pat- 
 terns of many kinds. In the Decorative 
 Art Society in New York letters are con- 
 stantly received from all parts of the coun- 
 try, saying that the writers would like to 
 decorate china, cloth, and many other ma- 
 terials, but that they do not know ou what 
 general principles they should start. One 
 of the most skilful artists of New York 
 said recently to some young ladies to whom 
 he was lecturing ou china-decoration, that
 
 S7 
 
 if they did not know how to combine many 
 tints, the best way was to take two aud 
 make the most of them. Before beginning 
 to paint the experimenter would be facili- 
 tated in his work by taking various pieces 
 of cloth of different hues, and having made 
 a selection, first make one combination and 
 then another of two of the shades till he 
 could decide what best suited the intended 
 design. As a general thing for wall-papers, 
 the effect of cheerfulness and repose is a 
 good aim for bedrooms ; for a dining-room 
 richness; and for a library solidity and 
 gravity of tone ; while light and airy effects 
 are most adapted to the drawing-room. 
 Glittering or sharp color should never be in- 
 dulged in upou any wall -paper except in 
 very small quantities. 
 
 Having decided upon his tints, which 
 may be suggested as reds, or reds aud pur- 
 ples for a dining-room, bronze shades with 
 slight points of yellow or gold for a library, 
 slight soft shades of blue for bedrooms, and 
 cream-colors mingled with a little gold for a 
 drawing-room the designer is next to con- 
 sider the forms best adapted to his purpose, 
 and for this he should constantly study the 
 effect upou the eye of different classes of fig- 
 ures. Long, perpendicular lines, as it is well
 
 known, lead the eye up and give an impres- 
 sion of height to an apartment that no 
 other combination can realize. Figures 
 whose predominating lines are horizontal 
 lower the stud of a room ; big, detached 
 patterns at regular distances apart tire the 
 eye and the mind with the constant ten- 
 dency to count and recombine them ; and, 
 besides, they compete so powerfully with 
 other objects on the walls, such as pict- 
 ures and bric-a-brac, and they disturb the 
 effect of background to people or furni- 
 ture so completely, that this class of forms 
 is perhaps of all classes the most to be 
 condemned. The scintillating effect of 
 small figures renders them perhaps the most 
 suitable for wall-papers. Saracenic deco- 
 ration is probably as perfect as any for cov- 
 ering large surfaces, and their arabesques 
 being small, if not repeated continually, at 
 any rate the geometrical figure which they 
 make constantly recurs. A paper which is 
 now much liked is composed ou a basis so 
 simple that nearly anybody with taste in 
 such matters could work up an analogous 
 design. The paper is nrst divided off into 
 squares about four inches each way, and in 
 one of these squares circles of different 
 dimensions are first constructed ; the inside
 
 of the second one being edged with small 
 half-circles that suggest, though vaguely, 
 the terminations of the petals of a flower. 
 The small rounds at either corner of the 
 square serve to fill in and enrich the 
 figure, and they carry out the decorative 
 principle of covering all the surface. The 
 opposite square of the paper is a compo- 
 sition from a triangle and modified cir- 
 cles, and the paper is tinted in two har- 
 monizing hues of olive with concentra- 
 tions of shadow, color, and faint edges of 
 gold, which enliven and emphasize what 
 might otherwise appear dead aud meaning- 
 less. 
 
 It is easy to perceive on a slight analysis 
 how many patterns which would produce 
 the same general impression of mellow gray 
 could be constructed on this scheme of form 
 and color. Suppose the series of big circles 
 were converted into four sets of small ones 
 and stems or points similar to the end of 
 the bell - like triangle connected them to- 
 gether, a group suggestive of conventional- 
 ized flowers would be the result, and 
 produce an effect essentially like this one ; 
 while the big triangular figure somewhat 
 resembling the profile of a flower in the 
 pattern, with pointed leaves to its calyx,
 
 00 
 
 might as easily and as successfully be com- 
 bined into a group. 
 
 Another is made from much the same mo- 
 tive, except that broken sprigs of leaves 
 closely fill in the surface, and balance by 
 their mass the tint of the somewhat lighter 
 background; while formal petals of the same 
 relative size occupy intervening squares. 
 
 A very pleasant arrangement of color for 
 a wall-paper may be suggested by copying 
 the color of some material hung in folds, 
 whose surface presents two shades, one 
 warmer than the other where the light 
 catches the prominent folds, or a deeper and 
 mellower tint appears in the shadows. Such 
 coloring as this is always in harmony, and 
 if the effect can be still further enhanced by 
 slight markings of gold corresponding to the 
 highest lights on the material, we arrive at 
 a result pleasant and unobtrusive. If the 
 colors are shades of olive, the absence of any 
 enlivening tint in the paper itself would ren- 
 der a deep border splashed with a rich and 
 dark hue, such as crimson or green, both ap- 
 propriate and effective. It would be well 
 to observe in the two patterns given how a 
 perfectly conventional form is the element 
 of one, while in the second more freedom is 
 given to the fancy by dropping over the lit-
 
 01 
 
 tie squares natural leaves or flowers, though 
 care must be taken in such a case that the 
 general effect of the whole, when seen from 
 a distance, shall be of a net-work fine enough 
 not to interfere with the large mass of the 
 squares. 
 
 A third is a pattern somewhat more com- 
 plicated than either of the preceding, and 
 it combines in its general construction an 
 octagon and a square. Many variations of 
 the dividing lines could be suggested, but 
 here the idea has been carried out of button- 
 ing the forms together at their corners, as is 
 so often seen in old grated windows, while 
 the octagons are h'lled in by conventional 
 roses, and by sprigs of rose-leaves arranged 
 in a formal way. Any one with a little ob- 
 servation or knowledge of botany can gen- 
 eralize such forms by studying the way in 
 which leaves grow on a stem ; whether they 
 spring from a common centre, or if they al- 
 ternate or stand opposite to one another. 
 Designs are often seen where this want of 
 observation of Nature is apparent, and plants 
 are put on stiff, hard stalks, wheu wavy, 
 vine-like stems are natural, and hollyhocks, 
 or pinks, or sunflowers grow from the twin- 
 ing forms of a convolvulus or a melon. In 
 the treatment of flowers, the designer should
 
 study the general aspect of an open blossom, 
 aud notice if the outline it makes is scal- 
 loped, as in the rose, or pointed, as in the 
 lily ; after this, with a few generalized ad- 
 ditions, as in the varied circles of the rose, 
 if he does not produce a real imitation of a 
 flower, he has given both in the leaves aud 
 the blossoms many of their large rudimenta- 
 ry elements. Used for such a subordinate 
 ornament to a room as a wall-paper, which, 
 as we said, should be considered merely as a 
 retiring shadow or distance, such a pattern 
 as this is in many respects more agreeable 
 aud more suitable than one covered with 
 realistic and not decorative designs. 
 
 We come now to a class of wall - papers 
 which are much in fashion, and are classed 
 under the head of " Morris " papers. 
 
 The " spider-web " pattern contains a geo- 
 metrical basis in the radiating lines of the 
 spider-web, though it is inconspicuous, 
 Over these faint little webs are spread out 
 with no apparent regularity, suggestions of 
 willow-leaves and branches of that tree in 
 many different positions. The design con- 
 tains varieties of the forms of willow- 
 growths, without being exact portraits of 
 them. The long, serrated flexible leaves, 
 with the well-developed buds at their base,
 
 are very characteristic, aud in the stems the 
 idea not only of form but of color is carried 
 out by making them resemble the real wil- 
 low, whose branches and leaves of the same 
 hue we know so well in their moist, sway- 
 ing tips aud wavy branches. The color of 
 the paper is iu two shades of olive -green 
 upon gilded spider-webs; brightness being 
 given by following the suggestion of real 
 willows, and making the buds aud portions 
 of the stems red, such as they appear iu 
 early spring. There is something very pleas- 
 ant iu the love of Nature displayed in this 
 pattern, where the memory of the peculiari- 
 ties of the tree is dwelt upon with such a 
 fresh and loving appreciation. Character 
 is given to the forms, which might otherwise 
 be vague, by adding dark, broken lines to 
 their edges. It would be well for a designer 
 to recollect that, on this point, outlining any 
 pale form with a darker tint causes it to 
 appear darker. If a color seems too cool or 
 too warm, an outline of a warmer or a cooler 
 hue will help to bring the whole mass to 
 the right key As an instance, if a sky-blue 
 ought to appear warmer, a purplish outline 
 will greatly enhance its value ; and the de- 
 signer will find that an outline of a comple- 
 mentary color will have a very beautiful
 
 effect. Looking at a small pattern like this 
 " spider-web " design, it is impossible to dis- 
 criminate whether any sets of its curves 
 may assume an unpleasant prominence seen 
 upon a large wall, but the lace-like way in 
 which the figures closely cover the surface 
 of the groundwork diminishes the danger 
 of such au impression. 
 
 The " passion-flower " pattern does not ap- 
 pear to have any geometrical basis ; but it is 
 now a favorite paper-hanging, and, if it has 
 Charles Blanc's principle of " Confusion " 
 in it, so quiet and harmonious are the gen- 
 eral forms and colors, that, with proper re- 
 liefs of large forms against it of drapery and 
 pictures, it takes its place as an agreea- 
 ble and negative background. The blank 
 places are of the same general size as the 
 flowers and leaves of the plant, and, without 
 being genuine imitations, the flowers and 
 growth have many of the leading forms of 
 the passion-flower. The nearness, however, 
 to which it approaches Nature makes it less 
 refined and attractive as a piece of decora- 
 tion than the willows in the " cobweb '' 
 pattern, which possesses the charm of mem- 
 ories of willows rather than the direct imi- 
 tation of the tree itself. 
 
 While these papers are sufficient for the
 
 or, 
 
 covering of walls having a projecting or 
 painted cornice, if the edges of the ceiling 
 and side-wall come directly together, a con- 
 necting ornament is desirable. This link to 
 bind the two is afforded by borderings. The 
 subject of borders or cornices has been very 
 variously treated, and cornices and friezes 
 may consist of all sorts of devices, from the 
 frieze with its panoramic processions of 
 men and animals to very free naturalis- 
 tic renderings of Nature, or there may be 
 a strongly emphasized conventional border. 
 On many plain-tinted walls we often see the 
 tipper edge dominated and enlivened by 
 brilliant figures of all sorts, and where flat 
 colors, reds, dark blues or greens, yellows or 
 blacks, are used simply the effect on va- 
 riously-grouped figures is often quite fine. 
 Our readers will recall the Greek and the 
 Pompeian wall-borders as adding elegance 
 and interest to a room. Placed above the 
 line where furniture or pictures break the 
 surface, the border is the proper place on a 
 wall-decoration for the designer to show his 
 skill. We recollect a lovely hand - paint- 
 ed border of a room, where large stalks 
 aud sprays of plants, freely portrayed, 
 were seen blown by wind, touched with sun- 
 light, or graceful or formal, as their leaves
 
 or flowers were projected upon the wall. 
 But such cornice-borders as these can hardly 
 be made of paper cornices, aud the three pat- 
 terns we suggest will illustrate a few varieties 
 from which designers can readily take their 
 elemeutary ideas. The simplest and most 
 conventional of them all is varied in 
 squares and oblongs, with a butterfly oc- 
 cupying the squares, and a flower, with 
 many of the characteristics of a dahlia, the 
 oblongs ; and in the latter case the treat- 
 ment of the subject is very similar to that 
 followed in the willow-twigs of the cobweb 
 pattern. 
 
 Another contains vine-leaves and bunches 
 of grapes in pale robin's -egg -green, light 
 bronze, and gilt. As we remarked before, 
 border - papers can tastefully be made 
 more positive in hue than the general shade 
 of the paper ; but, in this case, the tints are 
 so delicate as to fit it either for the heading 
 to a plain wall or the border of a very light 
 paper. There is a border of birds and 
 cherry- twigs in dark browns and gold, and 
 the strength of contrast between the dark 
 aud light compensates for the lack of deep 
 color; aud it should be remembered that a 
 striking effect can almost as readily be ob- 
 taiued from this method of dealiug with
 
 light and dark as from a dependence ou 
 strong tints ; though for our own part the 
 massing and contrast of harmonious and 
 rich hues is more satisfying than any treat- 
 ment of dark and light that can be devised ; 
 and this preference holds, we believe, with 
 most persons who love color for its own sake. 
 
 These borders are somewhat limited in 
 variety by the constant recurrence of the 
 same design ; and we would say, for 
 those having a fertile imagination in design- 
 ing, that the greater the number and variety 
 of figures in a border the more it satisfies 
 the aesthetic feeling. This variety can of 
 course most easily be carried out in a hand- 
 painted border, like the one we described, 
 where every figure was unique; but this, of 
 course, is nearly impossible for a printed 
 pattern. We recall an imitated Japanese 
 design, in two shades of tea-colors so sim- 
 ilar as almost to correspond to the two 
 tones of a moving surface, like water seeu 
 in light and shadow. 
 
 The sprigs of leaves and buds are slightly 
 but characteristically indicated, and cover 
 the paper with tolerable equality. There is 
 less conventionality in this pattern, and, so 
 far as tint goes, the effect must be suitable 
 for a background to paintings or ornaments.
 
 It has been said that anything to which 
 fashion accustoms us soon becomes agreea- 
 ble. A few years ago most people liked the 
 degenerated rococo furniture in curved and 
 twisted chairs and tables with their orna- 
 ments of scroll-work, which was corrupted 
 audcheapenedfrom the French cabinet-wares 
 of the last century, and which was turned out 
 in wholesale quantities by our machinery. 
 
 People thought they had taste at that 
 time, and in truth they had as much as most 
 people possess nowadays. Americans of late 
 have travelled more than formerly, and be- 
 sides have seen more good Art at home, which 
 has enlarged the vision of their likes and dis- 
 likes. From this increased knowledge has 
 arisen a great deal of talk about Art, but the 
 present passionate desire for decoration is 
 really as partial and nearly as baseless of 
 truth as the fashions which preceded it. 
 Genuineness of thought, honesty of purpose, 
 and individuality of character, are scarcely 
 more shown now in our rooms filled with 
 Gothic and Eastlake furniture than they 
 were when people bought tapestry carpets 
 covered with gigantic roses and vines, or at 
 the time when women filled up canvas with 
 cats, dogs, and people in little square stitches 
 in worsted- work.
 
 00 
 
 Fashion has undoubtedly gone a step for- 
 ward in the way of true principles, but as 
 long as the basis of our house-decoration is 
 only fashion, and does not proceed from rea- 
 son and individual needs, Eastlake furniture 
 and South Kensington embroidery are nearly 
 as liable to end without result as is the ob- 
 solete rococo. But experience is a good 
 teacher ; and perhaps slender purses and 
 greater general cultivation may help to 
 evolve ideas that shall form a genuine basis 
 of household Art. Fashion and variety have 
 always ruled the world more or less, but the 
 fixed national costumes of the peasantry of 
 many countries of Europe, the permanent 
 ornaments of savage nations which are the 
 same to-day that they were five hundred 
 years ago, and in the Oriental nations the 
 same materials which make the same gar- 
 ments, such as shawls and carpets and pot- 
 tery, hint to us that, either instinctively or 
 rationally, people when they have satisfied 
 the needs of their circumstances are some- 
 times content to retain their old habits and 
 fashions. 
 
 We have assimilated the changing habits 
 of the French, and because we had little 
 time to think on such matters, and almost 
 anything would answer the- rude needs of a
 
 new country, we have been content hitherto 
 to alter our furniture and our garments year 
 by year without regard to their real desira- 
 bleness, and with an entire freedom that is 
 almost without precedent in other countries, 
 even where- they habitually change their 
 fashions. 
 
 But, now that we have new and in many 
 ways more intelligent fashions, \ve must still 
 remember that, until we have given them a 
 real and positive basis in ourselves, they are 
 only fashions, after all. 
 
 Most departments of our surroundings 
 have received attention, and furniture, cloth- 
 ing, architecture, of the outsides, at any rate, 
 of our buildings, have a certain style more 
 or less handsome ; and jewelry, table-furni- 
 ture, and equipages are as fine in America, 
 probably, as in any of the European coun- 
 tries. So, too, now our floors are as well 
 carpeted, and our side - walls, if not as ele- 
 gant as in the best European dwellings, at 
 any rate are quite tasteful; but the ceilings 
 of houses until recently have been left as 
 the mason finished them, or they have been 
 frescoed in many tasteless and tawdry styles 
 l>y second-class German decorators. 
 
 From the nature of ceilings, the manner 
 of finishing them is susceptible of a wider
 
 101 
 
 range than the side -wall affords, however 
 ornamental the latter may be. The rea- 
 son of this is apparent when wo consider 
 that the ceiling is the only portion of an 
 apartment which is not covered up or ob- 
 scured by furniture and ornaments, and that 
 on it the eye can rest undisturbed by sur- 
 rounding objects. The repose which comes 
 from a repetition of small figures and the 
 brilliancy of effect of large pictures balanced 
 by suitable surroundings, such as we see in 
 one case in the small tesselated figures of 
 the ceilings in Germany, and at the other ex- 
 treme of decoration in the gorgeous and im- 
 posing ceilings of the Doge's Palace at Venice, 
 or the top of the Sistiuo Chapel, are in vari- 
 ous circumstances proper to ceilings, and 
 the imagination can make an almost endless 
 combination of effects in composing proper 
 ceiling-decoration from the simplest to the 
 most elaborate varieties. This opportunity 
 gives a motive to the architect or the artist 
 for the display of skill which would bo par- 
 tially or wholly wasted, were large sections 
 of the wall broken up and neutralized by 
 objects between it and the spectator. Be- 
 fore considering what sorts of decoration are 
 best suited to our dwelling-houses it may 
 be interesting to our readers to observe the
 
 102 
 
 treatment of ceilings by some of the artists 
 and architects of the past, from whom we 
 gather many useful hints. 
 
 Taking the later Greek ceilings as we 
 find them in what remains in the disinterred 
 Pompeiau houses, we discover that their 
 main rooms were lighted by a large square 
 opening in the top for the houses were sel- 
 dom more than one story high and these 
 openings afforded the light which is gained 
 in modern buildings through side-windows. 
 The brilliant skies of Italy flooded the large 
 atrium or main room of these houses with 
 a varying brightness, which was broken 
 by colonnades in this main apartment, or 
 dimmed in the recessed chambers which 
 opened out from it. No system of lighting 
 could be more effective in its chiaro-oscuro 
 than this one ; for, while the " dim religious 
 light" of Gothic architecture is only soft 
 and mysterious, that of these Greco-Rouiau 
 houses varied all the way from the gorgeous 
 sunshine that glittered on the impluviums or 
 fountains on the floor below the top opening 
 of the rooms to the shadowed chambers 
 whose dusky frescos enriched but did not 
 enliven the side - walls. We all know the 
 Poinpeian decorations on whose black or 
 dull -red backgrounds Centaurs and Mino-
 
 103 
 
 taurs, Cupids aud Loves, are poised in the 
 air iu every position of grace. 
 
 But, on the sides of this skylight opening, 
 the remains which yet exist enable us to re- 
 construct the ceiling, and we discover that 
 the later Greeks were not content to adorn 
 their walls and floors only with devices rich 
 and varied, but that their ceilings also were 
 equally elaborate. In the Pompeian dwell- 
 ings we find them checkered aud traversed 
 in all directions by beams and lattice-work 
 in many-colored variations from the natural 
 tints of the wood which composed them. 
 The sunken spaces between the beams were 
 filled by painted and gilded rosettes, scroll- 
 work, aud other ornaments, which carried 
 out to completeness the general decoration, 
 aud which occupied every space on side-wall 
 and pavement. 
 
 But besides these regular figures adorn- 
 ing the wooden roofing of such apartments, 
 if stucco or plaster constituted the finish of 
 the little rooms surrounding the main hall, 
 irregular patterns are discovered upon the 
 stucco, iu the midst of whose tender and 
 light colors birds, butterflies, and small ten- 
 drils aud vines give an effect of space and 
 airiness to these rooms so mean iu point of 
 actual size.
 
 104 
 
 This general character of the wall-deco- 
 ration of the Greeks was very similar to that 
 of Rome, where in the old exhumed ruins 
 and on the ceilings of some of the Catacombs 
 wo find the same class of decoration. At a 
 later date Raphael adopted this style in his 
 scroll-work and arabesques on the walls of 
 the Vatican, which he composed of vines 
 and leaves, hirds and winged insects, besides 
 other forms of every curve and degree of 
 grace. 
 
 In the Middle Ages this method of color- 
 ing ceilings was succeeded by the solid and 
 more severe wainscot in wood left its nat- 
 ural color. The north of Europe more than 
 anywhere else affords examples of a finish 
 where common panels of polished oak and 
 beams, either plain or carved, form the roofs 
 of halls, churches, and houses. The smoky 
 rafters, the blackened vaulting, and the dim 
 recesses of many an old church come vividly 
 to the imagination ; and one's memory re- 
 calls too the mellow tints of the wood-work 
 in the large and low rooms of German cas- 
 tles and English colleges built four or five 
 hundred years since. But in more recent 
 times intercourse with Italy and the East, 
 and the influence of the vivid coloring of 
 stained glass and the brilliancy of Saracenic
 
 105 
 
 decoration made themselves felt, and to the 
 dark, natural hues of the wood succeeded 
 paint, rich and varied in tone. Here were 
 ceilings painted with most vivid brilliancy, 
 mingling their hues with gold, while ara- 
 besques and figured panels adorned the 
 walls. 
 
 In all these designs the regular alterna- 
 tion or repetition of the figures produces, 
 though from a different cause, the repose 
 which is especially desirable in limited sur- 
 faces, and which many people suppose erro- 
 neously that plain color alone can give. The 
 repose of repeated or alternated figures dif- 
 fers from that of a uniform surface or color, 
 through being uniformity combined and en- 
 riched by variety, but in which the uniform- 
 ity is still the predominant principle. 
 
 In Italy, in the sixteenth century, the 
 beams of such buildings as the Ducal Palace 
 at Venice were modified and made elaborate 
 by scroll-work and gilding, to form magnifi- 
 cent frameworks to the pictures of the great- 
 est of the old masters. Paintings by Titian, 
 Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese look down at 
 us from these ceilings, in which we see Ven- 
 ice represented as a preternatural being and 
 enthroned as a conqueror; or her princes, 
 priests, and doges filling high places in
 
 church ceremonies, or taking part iu the 
 general councils of Italy. 
 
 But a great and substantial objection ex- 
 ists against such a style of pictorial decora- 
 tion as this, unless it is done by the finest 
 artists and used in empty halls, since its 
 heaviness would otherwise be disagreeable, 
 especially if the painting were not very 
 good. The gold frames and strong colors 
 of the pictures are oppressive in apartments 
 where there are many other objects, and, 
 even when the paintings are not very large, 
 make moderate - sized rooms appear over- 
 loaded. 
 
 Between the Renaissance decoration and 
 the decayed taste of the time of Louis XIV., 
 little interesting work has been preserved. 
 But in the eighteenth century we come to a 
 style in which gilt and stucco and white 
 paint held supreme sway in France. Fresco- 
 painting also mingled with this gilt and 
 white, and was vastly more popular than 
 now, when stencilling and wall-papers are 
 taking their place. Artists of the time of 
 Louis XIV. were devoted to delicate tinting 
 and fancy scenes, and to such as admire 
 Watteau and his followers their work was 
 beautiful. 
 
 But this class of decoration has now gone
 
 by, and only its feeble echo remains, as we 
 said in the beginning of this article, and we 
 come to the present very recent development 
 of artistic taste. As from the earliest peri- 
 ods wooden wainscot, with its polished 
 boards and beams and rafters, has been the 
 most natural and common sort of roof to 
 apartments whether in Pompeian dwellings 
 or English or German halls and castles, so 
 the same idea of structural finish still main- 
 tains its hold; and ceilings divided off into 
 squares or oblongs, and with the projecting 
 forms of the wood-work gilded or colored in 
 polychromatic tints red, blue, yellow, and 
 green and with small scrolls and rosettes 
 between them in the sunken spaces, again 
 are popular. 
 
 Until lately good taste had been so little 
 developed that it was agreed for dwelling- 
 houses in general that a plain white-colored 
 ceiling was the best. But at length wo are 
 beginning to learn that the blank white wall 
 may be relieved from its cold chilliness by a 
 slight mixture of buff, or greenish, or some 
 other hue, which gives a warmer and more 
 agreeable tint to a room than simple white- 
 wash. Papers, we find, are apt to be disa- 
 greeable for ceilings, since their glazed sur- 
 face disturbs the eye by preventing the
 
 103 
 
 vision from resting on, or rather seeming to 
 penetrate, the surface of the color. But not- 
 withstanding the genera] impression among 
 inexperienced persons that white is to he 
 preferred for the cleanness of the tint, and 
 that its purity gives a sense of space, artists 
 know well that in reality light blue is the 
 most ethereal color, and may become exceed- 
 ingly so by mixing with it a little gray, not 
 too dark. Should we desire to make an at- 
 mospheric distance in our ceilings, this color 
 would therefore be preferable to pure white. 
 But these are the simplest considerations in 
 treatment, and any color may be used pro- 
 vided its masses are small and the shade so 
 light as to give the impression of a flicker- 
 ing depth above our heads. 
 
 But though these pale-tinted walls are un- 
 objectionable and pleasant in their way, and, 
 besides, are quite different in their effect in 
 a room from ceilings frescoed in aerial per- 
 spective, we believe that it is a false taste 
 which insists that a ceiling should appear to 
 recede so as to lose its solidity. The idea 
 that it ought to produce a feeling akin to 
 the firmament, to which no bounds are set, 
 and that it should have a sense of unlimited 
 space, seems to us both dreary and without 
 true basis. We are persuaded, from long
 
 109 
 
 thought ami observation, that the top of a 
 room ought to produce the impression of a 
 real roof over our heads, to shield us from 
 sun and rain; and that, unless the wall is so 
 low as to intrude uncomfortably ou our con- 
 sciousness, designs, larger or smaller, darker 
 or lighter, according to the character of the 
 apartment, are more pleasant than a cold 
 and empty space over our heads, from the 
 contemplation of which the eye and the 
 mind alike shrink disconcerted. 
 
 To-day enlightened architects, well read 
 in the ideas and needs which constituted the 
 basis of the old decoration, are applying the 
 same general principles which were used 
 then, to meet the present decorative needs, 
 of which that of ceilings forms a feature. 
 The first thought of a decorator is to study 
 the style of his room, and, whatever be its 
 form, to adapt the colors and the general 
 character of the ornament to its structural 
 requirements. 
 
 The Roman, Italian, and Greek architect- 
 ure, as we have seen, had their own differ- 
 ences, and the Gothic, Renaissance, and 
 Queen Anne styles theirs also, which was 
 each suitable for its own kind of rooms. 
 Our buildings have other aims, and the 
 tasteful architect, though he always plans
 
 110 
 
 his decoration to follow broadly the type of 
 the architecture iii which the room is mod- 
 elled, at the same time remembers the vari- 
 ous conditions of climate and social arrange- 
 ment which should modify all ornament. 
 The exact designs of former periods ought 
 scarcely ever to be reproduced ; and our 
 architects, while mastering the characteris- 
 tics of the old styles, and adopting modifica- 
 tions of what is suitable in them, are often 
 introducing novel elements both in England 
 and this country, which give their decora- 
 tion both dignity and beauty. 
 
 In finishing a modern apartment, the first 
 improvement in the old and tasteless meth- 
 ods would be to omit the stucco centre-piece 
 from the ceiling. These centre-pieces are 
 generally in bad taste, and rarely does a 
 room look so well with as without them. For 
 a simple finish, a pain ted or stencilled pattern 
 repeating itself in every direction is excellent. 
 
 There is no reason, however, why a ceil- 
 ing may not be more elaborate as long as it 
 preserves a character of balance and light- 
 ness in its tracery. A large frescoed centre, 
 with corners to correspond, is in many ways 
 more agreeable, and indicates a more culti- 
 vated judgment than one with very simple 
 and often repeated designs.
 
 Ill 
 
 The colors of a ceiling preferred by deco- 
 rators of the best taste consist of flat tints, 
 in which no shading would give the sugges- 
 tion of elevations or hollows in any part. 
 Should the top -wall have real joints or 
 beams cutting its surface, the decoration 
 can be of a very individual character. The 
 bottoms of the beams might be covered with 
 a running pattern, such as the Greek key, 
 and the sides of the beams could have either 
 another running pattern or one with an up- 
 ward turn, while between the joints a diaper 
 or a star, or small squares, could be formed, 
 to hold in the latter case ornamental figures 
 of various kinds. 
 
 Simple conventional patterns in blue and 
 cream color, or blue and white, are sure to 
 look well. These may be painted with a 
 black outline, though the outline makes the 
 pattern look somewhat heavy; but, should 
 it be desirable to hang large chandeliers 
 from the middle of the room, this increase 
 in the apparent strength of the wall is an 
 advantage. Designs of this sort may be 
 made in wall-paper, if cheapness is necessa- 
 ry, rather than to have hand - painting or 
 stencilling, but we have given the rea- 
 sons before why papers are unsatisfactory. 
 Gold ornaments on a blue ground, and
 
 with black outlines, are also rich and band- 
 some. 
 
 A very pretty ceiling may be made by 
 those desiring the idea of a vaulted roof by 
 placing pale cream-colored stars on a deep 
 blue ground, or pale blue ones ou a cream- 
 colored wall. In an ordinary-sized room 
 these stars should vary in size from about 
 one inch in diameter to three inches ; the 
 large stars having six points, and the smaller 
 ones three. If the stars of different sizes 
 are intermixed, but are at the same time 
 disposed at equal distances, the impression 
 is agreeable, and this arrangement is much 
 in favor with the Japanese. The stars 
 should be smaller if placed on a dark ground 
 than on a light one, since a strong contrast 
 renders objects more conspicuous, and thus 
 disturbs the relative size of the background 
 and the ornament. If each star have an 
 outline somewhat darker than itself, a yet 
 more brilliant effect will be the result ; 
 though, as the tone of our suggestions indi- 
 cates, conspicuous effect on ceilings is scarce- 
 ly desirable, unless the designer is entirely 
 sure that his designs are in thoroughly good 
 taste. 
 
 The ceiling ought to be beautiful and also 
 positively noticeable, but, if the decorator is
 
 113 
 
 ill doubt as to tho trustworthiness of his 
 own tasto, a delicate and rather negative 
 set of colors can be more safely used. 
 
 Arabesques are generally weak and un- 
 satisfactory ; and so are hanging festoons 
 of flowers, and feeble ornament with ficti- 
 tious light and shade ; but one of the worst 
 forms of painting the tops of rooms seems to 
 us the imitation panelling, with some parts 
 projecting and others hollowed out. Buskin' 
 dwells constantly on seeking truth in Art 
 for truth's sake, and this is undoubtedly the 
 right standard of excellence ; but "honesty' 
 also "is the best policy" for Art applied in 
 the way of giving deceptive effects in rooms. 
 The eye is instinctively caught by painted 
 shadows, which must necessarily fall wrong 
 during some portions of tho twenty-four 
 hours, when gas takes the place of the day- 
 light; and from this result the confusion 
 of mind and puzzled curiosity than which 
 nothing is more foreign to the quiet and bal- 
 ance of a true esthetic condition. 
 
 In all ages when the arts have nourished, 
 every part of a room has been adorned with 
 ornament. Tho Egyptians decorated their 
 walls, and so did the Greeks and Romans, 
 as we have seeu ; and besides them, tho By- 
 zantines, Moors, and the Europeans from tho 
 
 8
 
 time of the Middle Ages; and plain walls 
 seem never to have been held in good repute 
 by any cultivated people of the past. Judg- 
 ing from such antecedents it would seem 
 strange that decoration in the United States, 
 in this advanced age of the world, has till 
 lately been so little valued. But it must be 
 remembered that all the plastic and pictorial 
 arts have for many years had a peculiar life- 
 lessness everywhere, and artists have been 
 floundering amid empirical experiments. 
 Besides this reason, which has hindered 
 even the most cultivated of Americans, and 
 even Europeans, from daring to attempt 
 much in the way of decoration, our archi- 
 tecture and ornament have felt the lack of 
 stimulus which is afforded in nearly every 
 city in Europe by the sight of the good Art 
 of the past. But this lack of decoration is 
 now giving place to more or less intelligent 
 workmanship, and it remains for us to try 
 and extract the true and permanent princi- 
 ples of ornament from the feverish fashions 
 which envelop it. Hitherto our hotel din- 
 ing-rooms, theatres, some churches, and a 
 very few houses of the rich, have been the 
 only buildings whose walls were ornament- 
 ed ; but a more general taste for the arts is 
 at length bearing its fruits, and the people
 
 in nearly all our cities are studying out some 
 good mode of treatment for the adorning of 
 their dwellings, which shall bo agreeable 
 and effective, but not very costly ; and we 
 are beginning often to see pretty diaper pat- 
 terns and light conventionalized figures of 
 a pleasant color taking the place of plain 
 stuccoed ceilings. 
 
 We will finish this subject of the papers 
 and paintings of walls and ceilings by the 
 consideration of the lower part of the side- 
 wall, to which a dado or wainscoting prop- 
 erly belongs. Early iu this article we de- 
 scribed the ceilings of the Pompeiau houses, 
 and in these Greco-Roman dwellings, which 
 are the best remaining specimens of the 
 artistic dwellings of antiquity, we find that 
 the dado was a very important object of 
 consideration. The color of the frieze, the 
 middle section of the wall, and the dado, 
 were generally different iu their ground- 
 color; but occasionally the three presented 
 the same hue, varied in effect by the greater 
 richness of the middle section of the wall. 
 As we find in these walls that base, middle 
 portion, and frieze are divided from each 
 other by separating colors, they also show 
 us that the tints increase in brightness from 
 below upward ; the dado being often black,
 
 116 
 
 the middle space red, and the frieze having 
 a white ground-color. 
 
 But exceptions to this idea in decoration 
 are freqnent, and we find the base yellow, 
 the central space red, and the frieze black. 
 There is no stringent aesthetic law in the 
 case, but it is well known that an increase 
 of brilliancy of color makes any space seem 
 lighter and more airy. Onr modern unedu- 
 cated ideas lead us to expect an equal bright- 
 ness everywhere, though this was not the 
 view taken by the antique decorator, more 
 true in his artistic instinct and ideas than 
 we Anglo-Saxons of to-day. He thought so 
 little about brightness and gloom that he 
 not infrequently made his whole ground- 
 color black, enlivening it by brilliantly-tint- 
 ed ornament ; and he aimed at relieving 
 well the people and the furniture and orna- 
 ments of the apartment, giving the whole a 
 rich and harmonious eifect, and to do this 
 he avoided the neutral hues which so many 
 delight in at present, such as pale blue, rose- 
 color, or grayish-white. The men and wom- 
 en furnished these colors themselves in their 
 dresses, and it was the strong backgrounds 
 that relieved them. 
 
 The houses of the Middle Ages had dados 
 for the most part of wood, cither painted or
 
 117 
 
 richly carved, above which Spanish-leather 
 haugiugs, velvet with patteriia of gold or 
 silver, or tapestries, formed the central sec- 
 tion of the wall. 
 
 With the development of general taste 
 for house - decoration the arrangement of 
 dados has also its share. By painting the 
 three or four lower feet of the room of a 
 different color from the general wall, a very 
 decorative look is given to a room. A rich 
 Indian-red or chocolate-colored dado, sepa- 
 rated from the space above it by a line of 
 black, produces apparent stability in the 
 wall, and much improves the furniture 
 and ornaments. A dado may be plain or 
 brightened by some simple pattern of regular 
 shape, in either of which cases it should be 
 enriched by a border or piece of ornament 
 of a separate design. 
 
 If the dado is ornamented, the rest of the 
 wall can be plain, if the colors of both are 
 soft ; or the wall above the dado would 
 have a fuller and handsomer effect by being 
 powdered with another tint, or with gold. 
 
 One of the most beautiful dados is formed 
 by a diaper pattern which rises four or five 
 feet high to form the background for all 
 pieces of furniture except the tallest articles. 
 Sideboards, bookcases, high chairs, pianos,
 
 118 
 
 and indeed nearly all the furniture of a par- 
 lor or library, look well so placed ; above 
 this simple dado on the middle wall, but so 
 high that it is clearly in sight, the architect 
 and decorator have then a delightful oppor- 
 tunity to fill the space to the ceiling or cor- 
 nice either with painted panels, pictures of 
 suitable size well placed, or with wall-hang- 
 ings of cloth or fresco-paintings. In a large 
 room no effect is better than this one, and 
 the color of the dado may be of any rich and 
 warm neutral shade of red, brown, green, or 
 autumn-leaf hue. The pattern of the dado 
 can be of any of the geometrical shapes we 
 have mentioned as suitable for wall-papers, 
 and it will be found that these patterns are 
 satisfactory beyond any that flowers, vines, 
 or curved figures produce. The various 
 straight lines of geometrical figures afford a 
 seeming support to the room and add to its 
 impression of strength and solidity. 
 
 A dado of polished wood is very beautiful, 
 either carved or with nicely-matched join- 
 ings, to form the base of a side-wall. If its 
 height be sufficient, many ornaments may 
 be fitly hung against it, such as steel armor 
 in a hall, bunches of fans, or little hanging 
 shelves with cut or colored glass in a parlor, 
 or brass ornaments and odds and ends of
 
 119 
 
 bric-&-brac, jars, old plaques, and, iu short, 
 any objects which possess either color or iu- 
 teresting forms. These may occupy vacant 
 spaces between bookcases, or they can hang 
 over low tables or be placed upon small 
 stands. In conjunction with their back- 
 grounds of polished oak or walnut, with the 
 varied shades of the nicely-grained wood 
 with its sunk or projecting joinings and 
 cross-pieces, a bit of Kioto-ware, half in light 
 and half in dark shadow, iu some dim cor- 
 ner of a room, or a sky-blue Japanese screen 
 glinting in the firelight against the dark 
 wooden panel, makes a bit of a still-life pict- 
 ure as beautiful as anything which is paint- 
 ed on canvas, so far as color and chiaro-oscuro 
 are concerned. 
 
 The dividing space between the side- 
 wall paper and the dado should never be 
 very wide, and it ought also to receive care- 
 ful attention. Anything more than a band 
 of color for a dividing line breaks up the 
 simplicity and dignity of a wall, aud a wide 
 and elaborate strip here between the side- 
 wall paper and the dado gives the impression 
 of three or four different kinds of ornamen- 
 tation competing for prominence. If the 
 dado be in a plain color, three or four inches 
 will be quite sufficient.
 
 A very pleasant room could thus be made 
 by Laviug the ceiliug iu dark blue ami 
 cream-color, as we have described, and the 
 cornice colored with a dominant tint of blue, 
 with the side-wall cream-color down to the 
 dado, the border of the dado some black geo- 
 metrical pattern on dull-orange ground, and 
 the dado of chocolate-color with small black 
 figures finished at the floor by a varnished 
 black line. Dados may be varnished or left 
 in dead color, but the side-wall and ceiling 
 are invariably better if of dead color. If a 
 citrine side-wall be used, a dark-blue, dado 
 of a grayish shade or a rich maroon dado 
 looks well ; and if the deep-blue dado be 
 made, the skirting line should be indigo 
 varnished. 
 
 The suggestions we have made in regard 
 to the proper manner of ornamenting rooms 
 contain a few well-admitted principles so 
 simple that any person of taste can easily 
 trace them, and with a little experience 
 carry them out to their various conclusions. 
 It seems almost commonplace to urge the 
 fact that a suitable dado gives a richness 
 and elegance beyond what can be obtained 
 with a side-wall paper going to the floor. 
 A mellow-hued, inconspicuous wall-paper, 
 any one can imagine, must afford a fine re-
 
 121 
 
 lief to persons or objects iu the room ; while 
 a delicate ceiling well covered with small 
 patterns encloses an apartment with a sense 
 of completeness never produced by a plain 
 and cold top-wall. 
 
 Let the decorator then proceed iu his 
 work, thinking of harmony of color and 
 suitableness of design, and he may be sure 
 that his work will be pleasing if he use very 
 few colors and small patterns wheu he is 
 not certain about a greater variety of tints, 
 or more complicated combinations of form. 
 He will discover that a small room looks 
 best with the lesser form and lesser color of 
 desigus which a large hall or parlor would 
 redeem by its size from a too positive aud 
 glaring couspicuousiiess.
 
 THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN DEC- 
 ORATIVE ART. 
 
 BY MARY GAY HUMPHREYS. 
 
 NOTHING would gratify me more than to 
 declare that the decorative impetus in 
 America was due to no outside influence, 
 but was essentially national. But there is, 
 unfortunately, no escaping the fact that it 
 was to English influence, and more particu- 
 larly as it was felt at the Centennial Exposi- 
 tion in 1876, that the movement owes its 
 origin ; or perhaps it would be more correct 
 to say that the public thereby gained a gen- 
 eral idea of what is meant by decorative art, 
 and of its importance as a factor in national 
 wealth. Before this time there were artists 
 in the Uui ted States who had given much time 
 to the study of decoration, and especially to 
 Japanese works. But this was felt, even 
 by those best fitted to appreciate it, to be 
 a pardonable eccentricity, in nowise affect- 
 ing anything to be accomplished; and, in
 
 fact, the result of these studies took no sub- 
 stantial form. 
 
 Before the Exposition of 1876, however, 
 two wood-carvers, father aud son, William 
 and Henry Fry, Englishmen the father 
 having studied his art in England, and 
 having been connected with some of the 
 most important work done there up to the 
 time of his emigration had awakened 
 some interest in their craft in Cincinnati. 
 Through Mr. Beuu Pitman, the photogra- 
 pher, also an Englishman, and a pupil of 
 the Frys, wood-carving became popularized ; 
 students took it up as a profession, and it 
 had a lai'ge dilettanti following. This work 
 was confined to Cincinnati, and it only be- 
 came known generally at the Centennial 
 Exposition, and chiefly through surface 
 decoration, the work of the women of leis- 
 ure of the State Ohio. 
 
 Decorative Art in the United States could 
 not, however, be long sustained on the in- 
 fluence of English Art thus received, since 
 our country does not furnish the materials 
 on which it depends. We have no great 
 museums, no private collections, no noble 
 houses, the depositories of accumulated 
 treasures of Art ; no fine interiors of famous 
 houses, no architecture, all of which have
 
 124 
 
 contributed so greatly to the revival of Dec- 
 orative Art iu Euglaud. Nor were these 
 otherwise easily accessible. Our foraging- 
 ground is across many thousand miles of 
 water, and the materials gathered in hasty 
 foreign tours are soon exhausted. One of 
 two things became plain : Either American 
 artists must be contented to reproduce for- 
 eign work, in spirit if not in detail, or they 
 must make new paths for themselves. 
 
 There has been time enough to arrive at 
 their decision, and to form some estimate of 
 its value. One circumstance has tended to 
 aid them materially in whatever they did : 
 this is the vast accumulation of wealth in 
 individual hands, which has enabled Ameri- 
 can decorators to carry out their ideas on 
 something, if not the same scale, of magnifi- 
 cence that artists enjoyed iu the past, when 
 Church and guild stood patrons. In one 
 sense it is the privilege of rich men to af- 
 ford such opportunities; in another sense, 
 and in view of the prominence of commer- 
 cial interests over other interests in the 
 United States, and the still hazy relations 
 of Art to tangible values, it'is entirely cred- 
 itable to these men, who could have easily 
 contented themselves with the prestige of 
 having obtained foreign works, and having
 
 125 
 
 the assurance that they would be accepted 
 unquestioning]}', that they should have 
 risked works of such magnitude to Ameri- 
 can decorators, whose spurs as decorators 
 were yet to be won. 
 
 Decorative artists being thrown, so to 
 speak, on their own resources, there have 
 resulted two things : The first and most im- 
 portant has been a certain cachet which dis- 
 tinguishes peculiarly American work, but 
 which it. is too soon to say marks an Ameri- 
 can school, although that is what it certain- 
 ly will result in if the influences which now 
 guide decorative work in this country con- 
 tinue. These distinctions amount to what 
 may almost be considered as the outcome of a 
 peculiar theory of decoration. This includes 
 both certain structural uses of design seen 
 in the adaptation of natural forms, and in 
 the development of certain color schemes. 
 
 The second result includes new processes, 
 original methods of arriving at certain 
 effects, a wider range of materials used, and 
 what might be termed the dynamic forces of 
 decoration, since it has brought about new 
 industries dependent on the prospects and 
 progress of decoration. Under this head 
 are included the manufactures of art stuffs, 
 improvements in glass-making and mcth-
 
 126 
 
 ods of using glass, new combinations of met- 
 als for artistic purposes. Inventions of all 
 kinds have followed upon one another, pro- 
 tected alike by the seal of the United States, 
 some valueless, others important. These 
 give rise to commercial interests, and the 
 effect of the decorative movement here must 
 be considered in this light as well as on its 
 artistic side. 
 
 To refer again to the artistic distinctions 
 which may be said to characterize deco- 
 rative art here when left to itself: the first 
 arises from the necessity of finding motives 
 to hand. Decorative artists have been 
 driven to nature nine times out of ten, 
 when, if the conditions had been reversed, 
 the proportions would have been as certain- 
 ly reversed. Going to nature is always fol- 
 lowed by an allegiance to nature that the 
 most determined theorist on the subject of 
 conventional decoration cannot shake off 
 when he finds himself badly supported on 
 the side of his theories. The consequence 
 is, that in purely American work the boun- 
 daries between realism and conventionality 
 are far less rigidly defined than elsewhere. 
 This tendency towards greater realism in 
 decoration is a tendency which it is easy to 
 recognize might easily run into excess.
 
 Happily it exists in the hands of men whoso 
 training in Art is not only of long date, but 
 after severe methods. The men who lead in 
 decorative work in New York, and with 
 whose labors this article deals, are artists 
 who made their reputations in the Fine 
 Arts, men versed in the literature of Art, 
 and whose artistic judgment is likely to 
 hold them in check. Among these men may 
 be mentioned John La Farge, a man whose 
 artistic instincts are well balanced and well 
 trained ; who has explored with keen intel- 
 ligence the various fields of Art, and has 
 studied its expression among different na- 
 tions and in different ages. Only less may 
 be said of Samuel Colman, Louis Tiffany, 
 Augustus St. Gandens, and others. Men 
 who have such equipment are not likely to 
 lose their restraint when they follow a new 
 bent. On the contrary, the delicate balance 
 which the work shows, the nice artistic 
 judgment which has carried suggestiveness 
 so far forward, yet restrains the hand be- 
 fore it encroaches upon the boundaries of 
 the picturesque, are its distinguishing pe- 
 culiarities, and warrant the hopes that may 
 be built upon it. 
 
 The most important outcome of the inter- 
 est in Decorative Art here has been the
 
 128 
 
 work in glass. Several years ago Mr. John 
 La Farge, having been obliged to give up 
 painting through ill- health, turned his at- 
 tention to experiments in the making of 
 glass. From this beginning, which was in 
 a feeble way, several valuable patents have 
 been secured, and the artistic use of glass 
 has undergone important changes. Mr. La 
 Farge's first patent was for opalescent glass. 
 The peculiar jewel - like qualities of this 
 glass render it as valuable by night as by 
 day. When thus used it is in the form of 
 jewels, or nuggets of glass whose angles 
 throw off the light. This quality of the 
 glass is now no longer confined to the opal- 
 escent glass, but is possible in all the hues 
 of the prism, and this property alone has 
 made glass available in a number of ways 
 before unused. 
 
 Mr. La Farge has introduced still moro 
 improvements in the working of glass. One 
 is the fusion of the pieces, rendering leads 
 unnecessary ; the other is the modelling of 
 forms in gLiss, which in many cases produce 
 effects not otherwise attainable except by 
 paint or plating ; both of these have arisen 
 out of Mr. La Farge's peculiar feeling in 
 decoration. A sensitive artist must control 
 his materials. Art in its best sense does not
 
 129 
 
 admit of compromises until all means are ex- 
 hausted. Of all media glass is the most in- 
 tractable, and particularly is it difficult in 
 the sort of effects Mr. La Furge attempts. 
 This may be best illustrated by the win- 
 dows he has just completed for Mr. Freder- 
 ick Ames of Boston. One of these repre- 
 sents some stocks of hollyhocks in bloom 
 in front of a sloping bank, a bit of brown 
 meadow ami blue sky beyond. The stalks 
 and flowers are as perfectly represented in 
 the glass, in all their shifting bits of color, 
 as might be done in a painting, and the 
 effect is that of the work of the brush. It 
 can readily be imagined how impossible 
 this would be in ordinary glass without the 
 use of paint ; and in any case how the usual 
 leading would interfere with the unity of 
 the design when the effect is at all realistic 
 and picturesque. This has been met by 
 fusing the pieces ; .and this is so perfectly 
 accomplished that no trace of the process is 
 seen. The other windows are Japanese 
 panels, different compositions introducing 
 peacocks and red and white peonies. These 
 peonies in modelling and shading vie with 
 the most exquisite flower-painting, and in 
 this case the effect is reached by running 
 the molten glass in forms that leave the
 
 flower in intaglio, and the transmission of 
 the light gives the changes of tint which 
 imitate the subtle blending of nature. 
 These windows may be taken as the best 
 exponents of Mr. La Farge's color. That of 
 the Japanese windows is full and rich even 
 to gorgeousuess. The prevailing tone is 
 blue, a deep, glowing blue, which is the 
 background for the peacocks with their 
 gleaming dyes, the heavy - petaled peonies, 
 the brown rocks and silvery moonlight 
 stream flowing beneath. These are but 
 suggestions, the treatment, as has been in- 
 timated, being Japanese. The composition 
 is sufficiently intelligible, but is not insisted 
 on. The peacocks are fully identified, but 
 they exist in the light that never was on 
 sea or land. But the charm of the windows 
 above all else lies in the poetry and mystery 
 of the color color which, as does all that is 
 best in Art, stimulates and feeds the imagi- 
 nation. That of the third window is frank 
 and joyous. The hollyhocks are as blithe 
 as a summer's day ; the landscape is by no 
 means brought out with the same truth of 
 detail as are the flowers, but it is so power- 
 ful as a suggestion that it is necessary to 
 pause and consider before being aware that 
 this is the case.
 
 1S1 
 
 The deduction from these windows is that 
 Mr. La Farge as a colorist is poetic and ideal, 
 but that, mysterious or frank, his coloring is 
 always healthy. He is less afraid of color 
 than any of our decorators. He uses it bold- 
 ly, but if powerful it is never crude, if deli- 
 cate it is never aifected, if mysterious it is 
 not morbid. 
 
 Mr. Tiffany, on the contrary, confines his 
 glass to conventional decoration. His large 
 window in the Union League Club-house, so 
 unfortunately placed, is much less interest- 
 ing iu color than in design. This is ingen- 
 iously made not to appear at once, but in 
 time is revealed. A vein of ingenuity runs 
 through the greater part of his decoration, 
 and excites attention distinct from that of 
 its decorative intent. This is particularly 
 true of his use of materials, as he disdains 
 nothing that can contribute to the effect. 
 To return to the glass, there is a smaller 
 window in the Union League Club-house 
 which contains some beautiful color, but not 
 as part of a general color-scheme. His last 
 most important work has been a large screen 
 across the corridor of the White House at 
 Washington. In this the national emblems, 
 which we admit neither in color nor form 
 are well adapted for decorative purposes,
 
 have been made to take a prominent part, 
 and their inherent difficulties to skilfully 
 harmonize with his scheme. The color of 
 Mr. Tiffany's glass is restrained in tone, and 
 seems to he used rather in accordance with 
 some decorative theories he holds than 
 prompted by a spontaneous artistic impulse. 
 Almost the most important work of the 
 year has been that done in wood. I refer 
 to the dining-room ceiling of Mr. Cornelius 
 Vanderbilt's house done by Mr. LaFarge and 
 Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens, the sculptor. In 
 magnificence, if not in extent, this parallels 
 fifteenth -century work of its kind. The 
 room, which measures forty-five by twenty- 
 three feet, is intended as well for a picture- 
 gallery. The only horizontal light is through 
 a conservatory at one end. The chief light 
 comes through glass panes in the ceiling in 
 a simple design, and composed chiefly of 
 opalescent glass set with colored gems and 
 jewels. The ceiling is divided into twenty 
 panels, of which the glass fills six. The re- 
 maining panels are of mahogany set in oak, 
 and between oak beams ornamented with a 
 double Greek fret pattern in mother-of-pearl. 
 So variously are these panels treated that, 
 with the exception of four, each requires 
 separate description. These four panels are
 
 133 
 
 in the corners of the room. The chief orna- 
 ment is a head of Apollo as the sun-god, 
 modelled in low relief and cast in a bronze 
 composition giving dull golden tones. Sur- 
 rounding the head is a wreath of laurel in 
 relief, whose leaves are of green serpentine. 
 On either side are doves with out-spread 
 wings, holding ribbous, and these are all in- 
 laid with mother-of-pearl. Defining the 
 limits of the panel is a wreath of goldeu 
 bronze with iridescent tones, and this is 
 framed in an egg-aud-tougue moulding of 
 old oak; 
 
 Following the dimensions of the room on 
 one side are two panels, with allegorical de- 
 signs of the Sun and Moon, divided into 
 three sections, in mediaeval style, with small 
 figures, reproduced in metals and pearls. 
 These are copied from an old ivory carving, 
 now covering the Office de Lion at Sens, 
 France, and have been enlarged from plaster 
 casts by Mr. St. Gaudeus. These flank a cen- 
 tral panel in front of the chimney-piece, in 
 which the date of erection, in high projecting 
 ivory Roman numerals, is placed above an 
 ornament inlaid in pearl, while at each end is 
 a wreath in green serpentine with berries of 
 coral a5d ivory. On the other side the corre- 
 sponding panel has clasped hands with olive-
 
 brauches surrounded by vine-leaves, carved 
 heads, and great flowers in relief, and their 
 cups inlaid with pearl. Flanking this are 
 two panels, one bearing in ivory letters the 
 word Hoapitalitas, the other Amicitla, each 
 enclosed between wreaths with ivory and 
 coral berries. The four principal panels, 
 placed in pairs at the ends, are the figures 
 of Bacchus, Ceres, Pomona, and Actseon. 
 These figures were modelled by Mr. St. Gau- 
 deus. In reproducing these in the panels, 
 something of the exquisite feeling and vi- 
 tality of the flesh which marks Mr. St. Gau- 
 deus's work is lost. But the poetic concep- 
 tion of at least three of the figures, and the 
 graceful composition, make them, as iso- 
 lated pieces of sculpture, among the most 
 delightful works produced even by Mr. St. 
 Gandens, who has done so much that is en- 
 joyable. The least interesting of the panels 
 is the Ceres, who is fully draped, holding a 
 basket of fruit. 
 
 The Bacchus is a charming type. The 
 figure is carved in low relief in the mahog- 
 any, and overlaid with creamy Vienna mar- 
 ble, which renders the flesh. In this some- 
 thing is lost of the delicate modelling 
 through the process, which is difficult. The 
 mantle is left in the mahogany, which tones
 
 135 
 
 iu beautifully with the marble. The leafy 
 crowu and foliage is a dull greenish bronze 
 composition, and the cop inlaid with mother- 
 of-pearl. All these various materials, boldly 
 put in juxtaposition, form part of a general 
 color-scheme, and their tints are chosen with 
 greatest care : this has involved a number 
 of methods and of experiments new to deco- 
 ration here. Metal enters largely into all 
 these panels, and each composition is the 
 result of a special alloy, which will produce 
 the necessary harmonizing tint. The numer- 
 ous tones thus secured, and the memoranda 
 in this way obtaiued, at the cost of much 
 time, labor, and expense, will doubtless have 
 its own value iu the future. At present it 
 chiefly indicates under what difficulty au 
 artist labors, given a certain quantity of 
 work to be done in a certain time, since the 
 American householder has yet to learn that 
 Art is not produced by mechanical methods, 
 and with the swiftness and nntiringuess of 
 a machine. 
 
 The obvious difficulty in work of this 
 kind, uniting so many tints and such differ- 
 ent textures, is the prevision necessary to 
 make them not details but a whole. Even 
 those who most greatly admired the work 
 when seen iu parts felt uncertain of tho
 
 136 
 
 effect when these were brought together. It 
 was even felt that some treatment of the 
 woods might be necessary to harmonize the 
 panels. But the ceiling is now finished, and 
 it is gratifying to add that all that will be 
 necessary to perfect its unity may be safely 
 left to the gentle ministration of time. 
 
 Remarkable as has been the develop- 
 ment in other branches of Decorative Art, 
 the same advance is not so visible in that 
 which comes under the designation of the 
 decoration of interiors. We are a receptive 
 people; any new idea or fashion quickly 
 gains lodgment. That of decoration has 
 spread as rapidly as one of our own forest 
 fires. The demand for decorators has, there- 
 fore, quickly outstripped the supply of men 
 competent to decorate. 
 
 We are as impatient a people as we are 
 receptive ; and the result is we shall need, 
 some time to realize and to endure much 
 that has been hastily done. The first at- 
 tempts naturally have been to reproduce 
 well-known foreign styles. To a certain 
 point this taste is easily gratified. Every 
 architect's library, however scantily equip- 
 ped, supplies him with sufficient definitions 
 of forms to construct an epoch if necessary, 
 and one that cannot be disproven. Greek,
 
 137 
 
 Koman, arid Gothic, Lonis Quiiize, Louis 
 Quatorze, Henri Deux, aud Queen Anne are 
 household names. 
 
 In looking over a book of these modern 
 interiors, breathlessly produced, as it were, 
 two things leave their strongest impression 
 their luxury, and their want of repose. 
 Money, at least, has not failed. The best 
 things have been done under the influence 
 of our own Colonial styles, the best in the 
 sense of greatest simplicity, and in that 
 spirit of intelligence which surroundiugs 
 may be made to express. Nothiug can be 
 truer than that the mere repetition of forms 
 assigned to this or that period is meaning- 
 less and unsatisfying. It is a curious fact 
 that of all our interiors, reproducing the 
 decoration of different periods or peoples, 
 the most successful have been the Moorish 
 and Japanese. This is not probably because 
 they are more vital or truthful, but because 
 they are so foreign to us that the mind 
 makes no attempt to adjust them to our 
 surroundings. We live in them as in strange 
 lands, delighted with their beauty and 
 novelty, and unconscious of self. 
 
 Such are the Japanese rooms of Mr. W. H. 
 Vanderbilt, of New York, and of Dr. E. T. 
 Williams, of Philadelphia. The walls of
 
 13S 
 
 Mr. Vauderbilt's room are framed in bamboo, 
 and made the home of curious bronzes, hand- 
 somely carved teak-wood, and celestial por- 
 celain. Dr. Williams has a Japanese poem 
 on Spring and Fusiyama's calm beauty, 
 above Japanese flower-panels that make a 
 panorama of loveliness on his walls. In- 
 teresting and pleasing as these are, they 
 correspond to nothing in our domestic life, 
 nor do we demand that they should. 
 
 The return of Mr. Lockwood de Forest 
 from India with exquisite wood carvings 
 copied from the perforated stone tracery of 
 the temples of Northern India built under 
 the Mohammedan conquest, swinging seats, 
 and curiously-wrought chairs and lanterns, 
 gave great impetus to Moorish interiors, 
 since much was ready to hand, and Japanese 
 work was no longer in its first novelty. 
 
 All rooms of this kind make the strongest 
 impression at first, and the strength and 
 weakness of its gradations are a matter of 
 individual temperament. This is not so 
 with the work done under the influence of 
 these styles, or rather when they have fur- 
 nished the suggestion, and the decoration 
 has worked itself out, trusting to a certain 
 feeling rather than to the unequivocal utter- 
 ance of forms. In the house of Mr. George
 
 139 
 
 H. Kemp, one of the most interesting houses 
 in New York City, a painting by Pasiui is 
 the salient point in the walls from which 
 the decoration proceeds, Arabian and Per- 
 sian in character, but one which excites no 
 anxiety as to consistency, and in which 
 varied objects claim attention, while, the 
 general impression is not so much dependent 
 on sight as on feeling a much easier way 
 of getting in sympathy with one's sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 In Mr. Louis Tiffany's library, the details 
 freely suggest the influence of Japanese and 
 Moorish art, without insisting on adherence 
 to the conventional signs of either. The 
 walls are panelled in tea-chest wrapping. 
 This is painted in yellows and browns, the 
 design being leaves and flowers drawn with 
 the freedom and naturalness which mark 
 Japanese work. Occasionally, in place of a 
 panel of the tea-chest wrapping, a picture 
 painted as a panel and in harmony with the 
 surroundings has been inserted. The wide 
 doorway between the library and dining- 
 room has a band of carved wood above it. 
 The carving is perforated and the design 
 left, the leaves and flowers of which appear 
 to carry out the design on the matting that 
 takes the place of a frieze. The effect is
 
 novel aud delightful, aud the details in 
 themselves interesting. 
 
 A corner of the diuing-roora on the other 
 side of the door discloses the same freedom 
 of treatment. The walls are panelled to the 
 height of the mantel, and mouldings mark a 
 division which holds rare china and cups. 
 Above this is suspended from small hooks 
 an embroidered blue baud, and a band of 
 the same description makes the frieze. The 
 walls are covered with a Japanese paper the 
 grouud of which is yellow, and the ceiling 
 continues the wall tints in a yellow paper 
 sprinkled with blue and glistening with 
 mica. The prominent feature of this room 
 is the decoration over the mantel. The 
 turkey-cock among the pumpkins and corn 
 is thoroughly American ; and the decorative 
 features, the striking forms and rich color 
 of material so exclusively our own, Mr. 
 Tiffany was the first to appreciate. What 
 should be especially mentioned in connec- 
 tion with these rooms is that the materials 
 in every case are inexpensive, and the panels 
 are of the matting of tea-chests, the em- 
 broidered band and frieze of the dining- 
 room of a blue material called " denim " in 
 thia country, aud used chiefly in the manu- 
 facture of workmen's " overalls." The value
 
 HI 
 
 of the decoration lies in its harmony of 
 color, its composition, so to speak, and in 
 the spontaneity of its ornamental forms. 
 This is noteworthy, since it is not char- 
 acteristic of the artistic homes which are 
 springing up on every side. 
 
 The frieze in the dining-room of Mr. 
 George Kemp makes lavish use of American 
 products. The foundation is gilded hurlap. 
 Boughs of ripe apples, peaches, and pears, 
 tangled vines with clusters of purple grapes, 
 make a gorgeous scheme of color on the 
 walls, and yellow pumpkins and corn are 
 given a place on the panel ahove the huffet. 
 
 The library of Mr. Clarence H. Clark, of 
 Philadelphia, has a notable frieze in a series 
 of panels of stained glass in Japanese de- 
 signs that also serve to light the room. Mr. 
 Beun Pitman, of Cincinnati, has lighted his 
 dining-room in the same way, there being 
 no side windows. This dining-room is a 
 model of ingenuity, and contains some sig- 
 nificant artistic features. It is an interior 
 room, and too small to allow for the ordinary 
 furniture of a dining-room. Accordingly the 
 buffets are supplied by two sets of hanging 
 shelves, one for silver and one for china. 
 These are enriched by the most exquisite 
 carving, and when filled with their wares
 
 perform the same service as might a picture 
 or other ornament to the walls. 
 
 As yet but little has been done as regards 
 mural decoration iu a large way. We at 
 one time had a season of Italian frescos, 
 but these we are glad to forget. Kecently 
 Mr. W. H. Vauderbilt has introduced in his 
 new home a ceiling by Gallaud, and Mr. W. 
 K. Vauderbilt a ceiling by Baudry. Of 
 equal importance with these is the ceiling 
 by Mr. John La Farge for Mr. Cornelius 
 Vauderbilt. The room itself is worth some 
 description. It, in fact, is a corridor lead- 
 ing from the diuiug-room to the Moorish 
 smoking-room to which allusion has beeu 
 made. The architecture is Italian, taken 
 from Vignola, and consists of a central 
 vault and two arcades. 
 
 In the large central vault is a long panel 
 of staiued glass, which is quite light, siuce 
 its object is the display of the drawings. 
 Where the two arches of the end meet the 
 walls are two large semicircles filled with 
 paintings. In one is represented Venus in 
 a boat drawn through the sedgy water by 
 Loves, steering and pulling with mimic 
 strength. On the other is an allegorical 
 representation of Dawn, drawn in her 
 chariot by two prancing horses, with Loves
 
 143 
 
 running at her side. The architectural di- 
 visions of the central vault are four T-pau- 
 els, and four F-pauels where they meet the 
 end walls. These panels contain paintings 
 illustrating the Seasons and four of the 
 Senses. This series of lovely types is as 
 unhackneyed as it is charming, and the 
 most beautiful of all is " Smell." In action 
 the figure is not unlike the " Pomona " of 
 the dining-room ceiling, which has been de- 
 scribed before. The girl has the same at- 
 titude, but instead of the knife and the 
 fruity boughs, she draws towards herself a 
 blossoming vine, which, sweeping across the 
 body, makes its only drapery. The names 
 given to these figures, it will be seen, afford 
 simply the most conventional handles. The 
 most of the work was done under Mr. La 
 Farge, but this nude figure is the work of 
 the master himself, and in subtle modelling, 
 in the rendering of flesh with sensuousness, 
 yet with delicacy and mystery, and in color, 
 he has done nothing finer. 
 
 Work of this sort belongs to the highest 
 class of decorative art. In a country com- 
 paratively new as ours it requires not only 
 men of wealth, but those who have the 
 public spirit, to use one of our current 
 phrases, to develop the resources of the
 
 144 
 
 country. Artists of their own motion can- 
 not attempt works of such magnitude, and 
 thus far there has not been an irresistible 
 pressure urging them to forsake their ac- 
 customed modest canvases. 
 
 Still something has been done. Mr. Ed- 
 win H. Blashfield is now painting a centre 
 and two large side panels for the new house 
 of Mr. Twombly. The design is pleasing in 
 composition and agreeable in color. The 
 " Dawn," which is the subject of the centre, 
 is a female figure borne through the sky by 
 a clustering group of figures. In one of the 
 side panels is a floating figure emptying 
 from her draperies flowers as the emblem of 
 good gifts. That of the other is a spirited 
 female figure with helmet and shield, chas- 
 ing away brownies, as we may call the 
 sombre - bued imps which symbolize bad 
 dreams. Neither the conception nor the 
 composition belong in any way to this 
 country, except as the work is done here 
 and by an American artist. Mr. Blash- 
 field's work is always worthy of attention, 
 but he has done other things which are 
 much more individual, and consequently 
 more interesting. 
 
 Mr. Blashfield's management of color is 
 peculiar to himself, and expresses sentiment
 
 as color in the bauds of but few artists is 
 made to do. At least, if tbe range of ex- 
 pression is not greater, he plays upon many 
 more keys. One of bis most successful 
 works is a decorative panel, " Autumn." A 
 dark-haired woman, past her youth, sits in 
 the niche of a stone slab, watching the 
 birds flit by. There is none of the melan- 
 choly of meditation in her attitude; but 
 that is the sentiment of the work, as well as 
 of richness and maturity which her draper- 
 ies convey in dun yellows and reds, carry- 
 ing out the tints of the leaves at her feet. 
 I know of nothing better managed than 
 these draperies, in which the edges, in a 
 manner that eludes analysis, convey the 
 feeling of the leaf that has felt the touch of 
 early frost. In this work there is distinctly 
 a new feeling, and one which carries with it 
 the element of promise. 
 
 Mr. Francis H. Lathrop has done a good 
 deal of decorative work, which is always to 
 be recognized by certain low-toned yellows 
 and reddish -browns. Mr. Lathrop is the 
 author of the decoration over the prosce- 
 nium arch of the new Metropolitan Opera- 
 house, " Apollo crowned by tbe Muses." 
 
 Apart from the inevitable tendency of 
 decorative work in this country towards 
 10
 
 originality arising out of enforced condi- 
 tions, there have been several definite at- 
 tempts towards that end from theoretical 
 conviction that this was in itself desirable. 
 At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadel- 
 phia in 1876, in the exhibit of the Woman's 
 Pavilion, there was a display of carved wood 
 from Cireucester which attracted much at- 
 tention, not only because it was the work 
 of women, and of women of wealth and leis- 
 ure, but from its intrinsic excellence both 
 in workmanship and design. As mention- 
 ed in au earlier paragraph, the interest in 
 wood-carving in Cincinnati is first due to 
 William and Henry Fry, father and sou, Eng- 
 lishmen, both of whom, before emigration, 
 worked on the House of Commons. Through 
 Mr. Benu Pitman, the stenographer, also an 
 Englishman, who studied with the Frys, 
 wood-carving became very popular. At this 
 time the large Music Hall of Cincinnati was 
 building, and it was a matter of pride among 
 the women of that city to assist in the carv- 
 ing of the great organ, which is, in fact, one 
 of the finest results of wood-carving in this 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Pitman, a man of keen artistic tem- 
 perament, and one capable of kindling his 
 enthusiasms in others, was placed at the
 
 H7 
 
 head of the Cincinnati School of Design, and 
 wood-carving became speedily its great feat- 
 ure. At the outset a sort of creed was 
 adopted, one of the principal articles of 
 which was "a reverent and faithful inter- 
 pretation of nature's forms, and their adap- 
 tation to the needs and necessities of to- 
 day." There is a religious as well as poetic 
 element in Mr. Pitman's Art theories. The 
 ethics of his work and teaching rest on 
 beauty and sincerity. The grotesque forms 
 of the Renaissance he does not admit, and 
 for reasons which to many people might 
 seem transcendental, he restricts his pupils 
 to floral ornament. Any one at all familiar 
 with the flora of the Ohio Valley will recog- 
 nize how literally Mr. Pitman has drawn 
 upon it in his search for new forms, and 
 how fruitful it has been. 
 
 The tendency towards realism in Ameri- 
 can work has been alluded to before, and it 
 is especially remarkable in wood - carving. 
 In a cherry-wood base-board the ornament 
 is taken from the flower and leaf of a weed 
 familiarly known here as the Jimson. It 
 has a prickly leaf and a long tube-shaped 
 flower of a bluish - white color. It has so 
 execrable an odor that no one attached to it 
 possibilities of any description until Mr. Pit-
 
 148 
 
 man, whose eye is alert to discover hidden 
 beauties, made use of it. The decoration is 
 effective, because as an ornament, the posi- 
 tion of which forbids relief, it has still the 
 merit of being clearly distinguished. 
 
 The white oleander and the swamp-rose 
 have also both been utilized in rosettes. On 
 a certain sitting-room door the swamp-rose 
 and Maximilian daisy which ornament the 
 casings also furnish motives for the rosettes 
 iu the diagonals of the lower panels. The 
 treatment of this door corresponds to the 
 base, shaft, and capitals of a pillar. The 
 lower panels are incised work where injury 
 might result from contact with other things. 
 The upper panels are ornamented at least 
 two inches in relief with the buckeye. No 
 description can suggest the value of the 
 buckeye as an ornament. Its luxuriance in 
 that part of the country gives to Ohio the 
 name of the Buckeye State. It is not only 
 good in form, but its texture, and its highly- 
 polished nut, half enclosed iu its rough shell, 
 offer rare opportunities to the wood-carver, 
 and there is no reason why it should not 
 form as fruitful a source of ornament as the 
 oak or laurel. 
 
 There is a bedstead, the decoration of 
 which is conceived in a spirit of poetic sym-
 
 149 
 
 bolism that I will not attempt to set down. 
 Geranium leaves form the lower borders. 
 The upper panels are crowded with daisies, 
 and these are again found in the double 
 rosettes. On the side panels are the white 
 azalea and the balloon-vine. Underneath the 
 flight of swallows and the effect of sky is a 
 luxurious branch of snowballs, carved with 
 great feeling and delicacy, while below are 
 the spiky rays of the paliueris. I give the 
 common and accepted names of the flowers 
 in this country, which, if called by different 
 names in England, will be as readily recog- 
 nized by their forms. The sides of a certain 
 dining-room door exhibit the flowering stock 
 of day lilies and the graceful hemp. The 
 capitals give a single leaf of the wild-par- 
 snip. A better example, however, of the 
 capabilities of the wild-parsnip is seen on 
 the frames of the panels. The wild-parsnip 
 has been one of the most successful of Mr. 
 Pitman's new forms, and with this may bo 
 mentioned the succory plant and the bur- 
 dock, both of which have been successfully 
 utilized. On a mahogany bookcase, the me- 
 chanical construction of which for the many 
 services of a library would be interesting, 
 the different varieties of fern are rendered. 
 There is something more than carving and
 
 150 
 
 designing in all this work. To achieve the 
 end desired, it must be rendered with feeliug 
 aud sentiment. There is a distinctive value 
 set on individual work, so far as it is the 
 outcome of personal feeling guided by intel- 
 ligence and sound artistic training. 
 
 Something should be said of the work in 
 pottery in Cincinnati, which corresponds to 
 that in wood, inasmuch as it was an inde- 
 pendent effort, and prosecuted at first by 
 women of leisure. Miss Louise MacLough- 
 liu's experiments in barbotine attracted at- 
 tention in the Paris Exposition of 1876, but 
 the outcome has been innch more important 
 than this tentative work in Limoges ware. 
 For it led to experiments in Ohio clays with 
 admirable results. The Eookwood Pottery, 
 established by Mrs. George Ward Nichols 
 (the daughter of Mr. Joseph Longworth, re- 
 cently dead, a man whose encouragement of 
 the Arts has been of the most substantial 
 kind), has done good service in the produc- 
 tion of a cream-bodied ware known as the 
 Kookwood ware. In this an attempt has 
 been successfully made to give to ordinary 
 household utensils better forms. 
 
 At the recent loan exhibition for the Bar- 
 tholdi Pedestal Fund, there was the best 
 exhibition of Ohio pottery yet shown. This
 
 151 
 
 is true in respect not only to the quality of 
 the ware, but to color .and ornament. Most 
 of the woi'k shown by us has been either ail 
 attempt to imitate some special ware, or to 
 assert originality iu some bizarre, undigested 
 fashion. This ware not only was special iu 
 texture and body, but independent and orig- 
 inal iu decoration. It is a translucent cream- 
 bodied ware, in which the ground had the 
 effect of hammered silver, except, of course, 
 in color. The decoration iu every case was 
 extremely delicate, gold being lavishly used. 
 One of the most striking pieces was a large 
 jar, crossed by ornamental diagonals of gold, 
 with a decoration in which trees and deer 
 were introduced, but the general effect of 
 which can be best compared to sunlight 
 seen through mist or fine snow. Another 
 smaller bowl-shaped vase had a single spray 
 of wild rose, drawn evidently from nature, 
 for selection only is necessary in going to 
 the fountain-head for suitable forms. The 
 relation between the foliage and the tint of 
 the flower and the thin cream body of the 
 ware showed the happiest feeling for deli- 
 cate color. 
 
 Very significant of the growth of true Art 
 feeling has been the interest taken by man- 
 ufacturers and the stimulus given by them,
 
 152 
 
 Warren, Fuller & Co., prominent wall-paper 
 manufacturers, instituted a competition two 
 years ago which has indirectly brought out 
 some noteworthy results. Out of at least 
 fifty designs submitted by both American 
 and foreign professional designers of wall- 
 paper, the three prizes were taken by women 
 whose artistic studies had been in an en- 
 tirely different direction. Although tech- 
 nically the work was crude, it was distin- 
 guished by two things : originality in design, 
 and new color schemes. In the design which 
 took the first prize of 1000, that of Miss 
 Constance Wheeler, one is reminded of Jap- 
 anese work, but not in its composition nor 
 its coloring, nor in the theory of decoration 
 it implies. The resemblance lies in the free- 
 dom and boldness of its drawing, the perfect 
 familiarity it shows with natural forms. The 
 design is a silver honeycomb over a faint 
 yellow-pink ground, dashed here and there 
 with gold. The surface is broken by clover 
 wreaths, which form disks, the centre being 
 filled in with slightly varying tints, and by 
 bees. These two motives are repeated in 
 the dado and frieze, the disks in the dado 
 suggesting straw hives. No attempt has 
 been made to keep the decoration flat. The 
 bees are drawn in perspective, and the clover
 
 153 
 
 shows all the waywardness of the natural 
 growth ; and yet the decoration is so well 
 balanced that the feeling of the freshness 
 and nearness has a charm that no one would 
 associate with picturesqneness, and certainly 
 proves not incompatible with decoration. 
 In reproducing this paper, which has been 
 done in various tints, it has undergone some 
 changes, which naturally result when artis- 
 tic treatment must succumb to commercial 
 necessities. This has also been the case in 
 the second prize design by Miss Ida F. Clark. 
 The field consisted of waving silver water 
 lines over a pale greenish ground. Under- 
 neath were the dim forms offish with gleam- 
 ing scales of silver and gold. Sea - weed 
 formed the dado, and shells were ingeniously 
 disposed in the frieze. In describing the 
 designs of both these papers, they seem to 
 insist too much to serve the proper uses of a 
 wall-paper. But this was happily obviated 
 in the color schemes which carefully avoided 
 contrasts, making use only of small intervals 
 of color. 
 
 Mr. Louis Tiffany has given some atten- 
 tion to wall-papers. A very exquisite de- 
 sign is that taken from the filmy wild cle- 
 matis and the cobweb. The cobweb is in 
 silver over a creamy yellow ground, and the
 
 151 
 
 clematis iu gold. Insects iu metallic tints, 
 and here and there dashes of metallic colors, 
 give further variety of tint. Another strik- 
 ing paper by Mr. Tiffany has the ground 
 covered with a vine -like pattern, and ap- 
 parently caught in it are sprays of fruit 
 blossoms and puny willows drawn directly 
 from nature. Such work as this ventures 
 on dangerous ground, and can only be con- 
 trolled by wise artistic restraint. When 
 successful, as this paper is, it has great fresh- 
 ness and is charmingly na'ive. In a way, it 
 suggests Japanese effects, and yet it cannot 
 recall anything similar in Japanese work. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Colman has designed several 
 papers, in which the maple and the hortey- 
 suckle serve as motives for all-over patterns. 
 
 Ou the part of manufacturers nothing lias 
 been spared for the encouragement of wall- 
 paper designing, each of the above designs 
 having been reproduced with all the skill 
 and mechanical perfection at their command. 
 
 Out of this there has arisen some discus- 
 sion concerning the value of artistic training 
 preparatory to the technical requirements of 
 wall-paper and carpet designing. This is 
 directly opposed to the methods followed in 
 the designing-rooms, by which the color-boy 
 is advanced, if he chooses to follow his trade.
 
 155 
 
 until he arrives at the position of designer. 
 His artistic intelligence follows the lend of 
 his handiwork, and his progress, unless he 
 is exceptional, is along the beaten track. I 
 can only speak of American designing-rooms. 
 Here, at least, this is the usual system, and 
 manufacturers unable to procure creditable 
 designs at home, continue to draw upon for- 
 eign resources for the greater part of their 
 work. 
 
 In accordance with the first theory a 
 special Art education towards the specific 
 ends of wall-paper and carpet designing 
 several schools have been established, and 
 are filled with Art students, chiefly women. 
 The course, extending over two years, begins 
 with the elements of drawing, and proceeds 
 through the copying of natural forms, their 
 analysis, the conventionalizing of leaves and 
 flowers ill detail, problems in design, com- 
 bining geometrical and natural forms, and 
 exercises of such nature. These are accom- 
 panied by the study of the literature of dec- 
 orative art, the study of styles, the copying 
 of historic ornament, and the curriculum 
 concludes with the adaptation of designs to 
 the limitation of the block and loom. 
 
 The most practical of these schools is pre- 
 sided over by Mrs. Florence E. Cory, who, in
 
 her efforts to master the details of carpet de- 
 signing, eiilisted the co-operation of several 
 manufacturers, and against the unwritten 
 laws of the designing-room, which rigorous- 
 ly exclude women, she was permitted to en- 
 ter them, and was thus enabled to study de- 
 sign with reference to the limitations of the 
 machinery. For some time she has furnished 
 designs to manufacturers, and in her school 
 a Jacquard loom is one of the principal ob- 
 jects, and the practical submission of designs 
 to its requirements is the final work of her 
 students. 
 
 Generous interest has been taken in the 
 project by manufacturers, who, at stated 
 times, have invited the school to visit their 
 factories, and have encouraged it by the pur- 
 chase of designs. It is too soon to deter- 
 mine the result of the experiment, at least 
 so far as it can be depended on for original 
 ideas and justifying its intention to keep out 
 of beaten paths. 
 
 Mr. Charles G. Leland, who is not unknown 
 in England, has created a great deal of in- 
 terest in industrial Art in Philadelphia, and 
 in a series of manuals containing technical 
 instruction as well as explaining his own 
 theories of design, has done good service 
 throughout the country.
 
 157 
 
 The place of color in American work is 
 as distinct as that of design. Again we are 
 thrown on ourselves, since the causes that 
 have produced that range of colors which 
 we identify with the revival of decoration 
 in England, under the somewhat paradox- 
 ical term antique tints, do not exist here. 
 The influence of English color has been 
 great in this country in decorative work, 
 and it has been especially imitated by man- 
 ufacturers. It is not, however, to be ob- 
 served in distinctively American decorative 
 work. In the first place we can only have 
 it by copying it from English decorative 
 art, since we have not the sources from 
 which to feel its beauty and get its inspira- 
 tion ; and color filtered at second hand, it 
 must be conceded, is apt to lose its charm. 
 A striking example of this was seen in the 
 two companies giving "Patience" here at 
 the same time in New York. The Gilbert 
 and Sullivan Company was costumed in 
 tints sent out from London, selected for 
 the purpose by William Morris. These the 
 American company attempted to copy ; but 
 in doing it, the precision of tint being 
 missed all through, the stage effect lost half 
 its beauty. American color has its own 
 sign-manual because it cannot escape from
 
 158 
 
 it. The American artist is the tempera- 
 mental product of a new and comparatively 
 isolated country. From the result of those 
 conditions which create in the American in 
 general certain distinctive features that 
 other peoples recognize, the artist escapes 
 no more than another man. There are nerv- 
 ous qualities in our atmosphere of which 
 no one is more quickly conscious than the 
 foreigner who comes here. It is said that 
 there are more bright days in New York 
 City iu a year than in any other city within 
 the temperate zone. It is no more improb- 
 able that these two influences, for example, 
 make themselves felt in the colors of an art- 
 ist's palette, than that they are manifested in 
 any other way. That they are accountable 
 for the crudity which is painfully felt in 
 much native color is equally probable; and 
 that there is much of this that is raw and 
 jarring may be readily admitted. But 
 against those artists whose work is power- 
 ful enough to constitute the formative in- 
 fluences at pre^ut chiefly felt, the charge of 
 crudity cannot be brought. 
 
 This color rests, as does form, on the di- 
 rect suggestions of Nature. I have been in- 
 terested iu studying the development of col- 
 or-schemes in a number of different works.
 
 159 
 
 It is not probable that these are the result 
 of analysis of definite purpose on the part 
 of the artists. Those who create clo not an- 
 alyze ; feeling leads them in certain direc- 
 tions, and the generalization from these is 
 the work of others. If it could be put in 
 concise terms, American color might be said 
 to be the expression of the value of the 
 small interval. To better illustrate this a 
 portiere by Mrs. Candace Wheeler may be 
 taken as an instance. The design is a mass 
 of roses with foliage embroidered on a light 
 yellow gronnd. The deep red of the roses, 
 the olives and browns of the foliage rising 
 out of the vase form the starting point. 
 The color then lightens, yellow mingles with 
 the red, the roses have taken in more of the 
 sunlight, the foliage casts aside its olives 
 and browns for redder and yellower tones. 
 In this way, by imperceptible gradations, 
 the mass rises through yellow-pinks into 
 yellows and yellow-greens, and finally sinks 
 in pale yellow buds and tender leaves into 
 the tint of the background. Now through 
 all these undulations each detail shows some 
 one of the varied phases of nature, some new 
 combination of tints which has its actual 
 existence. Yet the most striking feature of 
 the whole is the changing splendor of tho
 
 color. A word should be said iu connection 
 with the composition which repeats in the 
 same way the inexhaustible variety of the 
 natural growth of the sense of depth in the 
 mass and the feeling of the forms behind. 
 
 Probably the most superb piece of color 
 and most magnificent embroidery yet pro- 
 duced is a curtain made by Mr. La Farge 
 and Miss Tillinghast for Mr. Cornelius Van- 
 derbilt. This repeats the story of ^Eneas's 
 adventures at Carthage, after Raphael's car- 
 toons, as arranged by Marc Antonio in the 
 Vatican. These are iu solid embroidery, in 
 silk and gold, on linen framed iu gold, with 
 the legends in raised gold letters, and set 
 about an oblong centre-panel of cloth and 
 gold. There is no occasion here to speak 
 of the exquisite needle-work, the reproduc- 
 tion of the drawing, and the dramatic action 
 of the groups. 
 
 The color is subdued, but full and glow- 
 ing ; its most remarkable feature, however, 
 results from the way in which the dazzling 
 sheen of the cloth-of-gold is brought into 
 relation with embroidery. This is done by 
 toning down the gold with short broken lines 
 of color, repeating the tints of embroidery, 
 and mingling them through the use of small 
 intervals rising and descending. Words can-
 
 161 
 
 not convey an idea of the resplendence of 
 tbis mass of tiuts, through which the gold of 
 the ground gleams, and iu which the color 
 does riot appear to exist, but rather to pal- 
 pitate and float above it. 
 
 I must refer iu this connection to the use 
 of perspective, which is unhesitatingly made 
 use of by prominent decorators, as seen in a 
 curtain after a design by Mr. John La Farge, 
 and executed under Miss Tillinghast for 
 Mrs. John Zerega of New York. This at- 
 tempts, in applique and embroidery of the 
 richest stuffs, to define the features of a 
 landscape. The aerial perspective, the sense 
 of distance, the feeling of motion, the accu- 
 racy of the forms in the foreground and 
 their relation to the landscape are all care- 
 fully considered. And seen as it is, hung 
 in one of the most charming drawing-rooms 
 in New York, its decorative aspect is most 
 impressive. 
 
 One of the first difficulties that the As- 
 sociated Artists met in their work was the 
 inability to procure proper stuffs. Before 
 beginning their work, Mr. Tiffany made a col- 
 lection of artistic fabrics in Europe and the 
 East, but these were soon exhausted, and 
 space and time both intervened before they 
 could be replaced, since iu Art-work the 
 ll
 
 162 
 
 right thing must be had. Finding American 
 silk manufacturers willing to experiment, 
 the Associated Artists undertook the produc- 
 tion of their own stuffs with gratifying re- 
 sults. No richer fabrics are uow produced 
 in any country, and none of more exquisite 
 texture. The most notable outcome of 
 these experiments experiments no longer, 
 since the association not only supplies its 
 own needs, but has created a market for its 
 stuffs is the production of different tones 
 through new ways of using the shuttle. One 
 of the most magnificent of these new stuffs 
 has been christened Gazonga, or Five Aces, 
 since nothing could be better ; and if this be 
 regarded as peculiarly American nomencla- 
 ture, to the initiated it is certainly very ex- 
 pressive. In this stuff one color is undershot 
 in a single thread, the upper being in fila- 
 ments, now whole, now subdivided, making 
 an irregular twill. The effect of this is not 
 the mere shifting of tints such as one sees 
 in changeable silk, but also the union of 
 tints in different proportions as they are 
 blended by the play of light. The silk 
 momie cloths, which give somewhat the same 
 effects, are especially delightful in texture, 
 being soft as an Eastern web. 
 
 Another interesting fabric, entirely new,
 
 163 
 
 is tlie tapestry stuff, adapted for the 
 tapestry stitch. The peculiarity of tlie tap- 
 estry stitch is that it passes through the 
 meshes of the warp, and the decoration thus 
 becomes part of the web. The stitch in 
 this way allows for the blending of colors 
 in the same way that they can be obtained 
 by the brush. 
 
 Some important hangings have thus been 
 made for Mr. Cornelius Vauderbilt by Mrs. 
 Candaco Wheeler, after designs by Miss Dora 
 Wheeler. There are eleven panels executed 
 in tapestry stuff showing salmon-pink tones 
 which serve for the flesh tints. The first of 
 these is the Full Moon, personated by a 
 beautiful woman, her head iu a disk which 
 her wings assist to describe, the atmospheric 
 effect about her making another disk, and 
 her feet touching a lily pod just opening in 
 the pond beneath, while behind her are the 
 suggestions of a distant landscape. The 
 companion to this is the Crescent Moon, a 
 lovely figure with the face in profile and 
 streaming hair, whoso folded wings make 
 the crescent in which she sits among the 
 clouds, the atmospheric effect again suggest- 
 ing two overlapping disks. The Air Spirit 
 and Water Spirit are the motives for two 
 companion panels. That of the Air Spirit
 
 1C4 
 
 is probably the loveliest of all the beautiful, 
 sensitive types which Miss Wheeler has 
 given. With upturned face, again iu pro- 
 file, she is represented seated on clouds 
 and sending forth a flight of larks. The 
 Water Spirit sits under the crest of a wave 
 holding a shell to catch the falling pearls, 
 while a fish leaps up to catch a pearl the 
 shell has lost. To continue, seriatim, the 
 designs on the panels: Psyche and the Spirit 
 of the Flowers make the next pendants. 
 These are two floating figures in which the 
 beauty of line, the soft, undulating, and 
 varied curves of the two figures are even 
 more attractive thau their treatment. Iu 
 the Psyche the figure seems to spring from 
 the growing stalks of the milkweed, whose 
 bursting filaments, becoming more and more 
 attenuated, make the light drapery of the 
 figure. In the Flower Spirit the form in 
 the same way seems to proceed from a leafy 
 vine. The delicacy with which such effects 
 are managed in the drawing, as in the color 
 when put in the tapestry, shows the nicest 
 artistic feeling, and the buoyancy and light- 
 ness of the figures in these panels, as in all 
 of the aerial figures, are worthy of all praise. 
 This is especially to be remarked in a larger 
 group the Graces, three girls dancing with
 
 165 
 
 entwined arms, their resplendent robes of 
 gold and blue and pink hemmed with jew- 
 els, concealing from view, but not restrain- 
 ing the feeling of the lithe forms beneath. 
 Cherubs swinging and cherubs pelting one 
 another with roses add two more panels; 
 and two larger groups represent cherubs 
 playing a large viol among roses, a little 
 floating figure wielding the bow, and others 
 singing and playing a large golden harp. 
 In the rendering of these figures the tint of 
 the stuffs, as has been said, prevails in the 
 flesh tints, the high lights and shadows 
 being given by the needle. Particular men- 
 tion should be made of the rendering of the 
 textures, as seen, for example, in the wood 
 of the viol so carefully imitated. 
 
 The manufactures of the association not 
 only include fabrics, but printed stuffs. 
 Special designs for these are furnished, the 
 association agreeing that they shall not be 
 repeated. Some delightful specimens of 
 this sort have been produced, showing that 
 delicate balance between the conventional 
 and real which, as has been said, resembles 
 more nearly Japanese work than any Euro- 
 peau influence, and yet could not be mis- 
 taken for Japanese work. 
 
 Work in marble has been recently coil-
 
 spicuous iu interior decoration, and I am 
 glad to refer to one of the caryatides "Peace" 
 and "Love," modelled by Mr. St. Gaudeus 
 for the large chimney-piece iu the main 
 hall of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt's house. 
 
 To originality in furniture, with all the 
 limitations about the word, we can make no 
 claim. Among the best men eclecticism has 
 been wise and fruitful, and that which may 
 arise out of this will be fruitful rather than 
 the result of a deliberate intention to cre- 
 ate. One is reminded of this in the work of 
 a young architect, Mr. William B. Bigdon, 
 which bears a personal impress, that of del- 
 icacy and refinement. The forms are pure, 
 and the pleasure is in these and not in the 
 ornament, which is always chaste aud unpre- 
 tentious. I have seen some drawing-room 
 cabinets by him iu which a brass moulding 
 defines a parallelogram with perfect frauk- 
 iiess. The brilliancy of the pieces lies in 
 the combination of mahogany, glass (in 
 small subdivisions), and brass inlay, all of 
 which render them at once light, sparkling, 
 and brilliant. This metal inlay is always 
 difficult iu this country, owing to the ex- 
 tremes of our climate extremes which ren- 
 der the importation of foreign work of this 
 kind impracticable.
 
 1GT 
 
 The Associated Artists give a distinctive 
 mark to the furniture which they desigu,inas- 
 inuch as its decorative feature is color. In 
 a number of pieces, for example, intended 
 for a library, the lines suggest strength and 
 service rather than grace. These are plain- 
 ly covered with brown silk plush, the play 
 of light and shade giving it a charm which 
 the intricacies of upholstery cannot rival. 
 The ornament, if one chooses to discrimi- 
 nate in that way, is in the studding of the 
 frame with large and small copper nails. 
 To these is given but little apparent sym- 
 metry in arrangement, and conveying the 
 idea of necessity in fixing down the stuft' 
 rather than of carrying out any design. The 
 color of the copper in relation to the tint of 
 the plush is much more important, and it is 
 this which gives the furniture its decorative 
 value. 
 
 The color value of copper Mr. Tiffany 
 fully appreciates, and makes frequent use 
 of it. Another effective combination is cop- 
 per worked with leather. I have seen a 
 screen by him of which the centre gives the 
 legend of St. George in minute glass mo- 
 saics,- and the leading of the border spells 
 out the text in Old English lettering. The 
 screen is mounted in leather of the natural
 
 168 
 
 tint, and is not only ornamented with cop- 
 per nails, but has bandies and legs of ham- 
 mered copper. In chandelier and such 
 pieces color is the important thing, and 
 here the opalescent and chameleon-lined 
 glass, of which we make much nse in this 
 country, is introduced with effect. 
 
 Lockwood do Forest has done much tow- 
 ards the beauty of furniture in supplying 
 the makers of furniture with Indian orna- 
 ment through his contracts with the native 
 workmen of Upper India. These serve as 
 panels, and, reproduced in metal, are used 
 in registers and window-screens.
 
 THE LIMITS OF DECORATION. 
 
 BY LUCIA. GILBERT RUNKLE. 
 
 " A GOOD book," said Milton, " is the pre- 
 cious life-blood of a master-spirit embalmed 
 and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond 
 life." But book-lovers have a right to com- 
 plain when the mere shell and casket of 
 their riches is made so splendid or so frail 
 that intimacy with the soul thereof is for- 
 bidden them. Not to speak in parables, 
 your true reader turns sullen when a new 
 book comes to him in a binding too fine for 
 its uses. He loves beautiful covers, no doubt, 
 if he be a genuine bibliophile, and buys the 
 best he can afford, always setting the soul 
 of a volume above its body. But beautiful 
 covers need not be useless, as they are so 
 often made. 
 
 Indeed, book-bindings should offer one of 
 the fullest means of expression to that love 
 for decorative art which is so real an out- 
 growth of the day. What we cavil at is not
 
 170 
 
 maguificeuce of color or design, or even ex- 
 pense, which we think much to be depre- 
 cated, but uusuitability. A book is to be 
 held in the hand, or to lie about the room, 
 on table or bookcase, in a neighborly \vsiy, 
 until the edge of its welcome is a little dull- 
 ed, and we offer it the more studied cere- 
 mony of the shelves, with their crowded 
 ranks of good company. A strong muslin 
 binding of soft unobtrusive tint, harmonious 
 with whatever background it may chance to 
 encounter, and not rudely sensitive to spot 
 or stain, is, one would say, the obvious 
 choice for your even Christian. 
 
 But there is a growing tendency to use 
 very light colors, and very delicate adorn- 
 ments, even for every -day books. These cov- 
 ers, whose raison d'etre is to protect the pages, 
 must themselves be protected a precaution 
 which is a confession of their unfitness. 
 Without this paper shield, even the warmth 
 of the fingers often leaves a perceptible 
 smirch, while coal-dust and the breath of 
 the gas are certain disngiu-emeut. Yet nov- 
 els blossom into their gypsy existence in jon- 
 quil yellow, and the pale, perishable line of 
 the smilax flower. And more than one vol- 
 ume of dainty verse, born to be loved, and 
 often handled with a touch like a caress,
 
 171 
 
 passes its days in lonely state behind glass 
 doors, because its splendor of white and gold 
 transforms the sweet companion into the 
 formal guest. Aside from the misappropri- 
 ateness of these fantastic covers, they are 
 in themselves objectionable. A pale object, 
 with rigid outlines, lying upon the table, 
 or even standing on the shelves, becomes a 
 spot or a line which insists on being looked 
 at, and which throws everything else out of 
 key. 
 
 It is not germane to the matter to say 
 that the early bindings were delicate, fan- 
 tastic, and enriched, and that we do but go 
 back to a correct and established example 
 when we imitate or even copy them; for 
 the early bindings were the possession of the 
 rich alone, and were held to be testimonies 
 of wealth and objects of display as legiti- 
 mate as jewels or silver. Had they been 
 popular possessions, we may be sure that 
 the same fine taste which made them sump- 
 tuous for the few would have made them 
 serviceable for the many, however beautiful 
 in color or admirable in design. 
 
 This fashion of over-decorativeness in 
 decoration is a Saturn devouring its own 
 children. The value of the thing is lost. 
 Thus we sec "tidies" made by deft lingers
 
 172 
 
 ostensibly to protect lounges and chairs 
 from the ravages of warm palms, or the 
 mark of hyaciuthine locks. But these webs 
 are so dainty, with mysterious "drawn- 
 work," and painfully wrought hand lace, 
 and fairy embroideries, that if time and eye- 
 sight be worth anything, they are far cost- 
 lier than the most prodigal upholstery, while 
 the very thought of the wash-tub is profa- 
 nation. 
 
 The first law of good taste is fitness, lack- 
 ing which no decorative object is really 
 admirable. Judged by this standard, the 
 elaborate and costly table naperies so gen- 
 erally adopted by fashionable hostesses dur- 
 ing the last few years are worthy only of 
 that decree of banishment which is certain 
 to overtake them. The laying of costly 
 satin, or cloth of gold, or folds of shimmer- 
 ing silk down the centre of a board where 
 meats, sauces, wines, and fruits threaten to 
 defile them is a stupidity worthy of the Eng- 
 lish, from whom we borrowed it, and who 
 are the most tasteless of all decorative blun- 
 derers. But it cannot be said that the lace 
 insertions, borders, and ornaments, that are 
 as prodigal in cost as they are beautiful in 
 effect, are much better. For they, too, when 
 soiled, must go through the expensive hands
 
 173 
 
 of the cleaner, whereas everything about 
 the table should imply not only cleanliness, 
 but ease and simplicity of cleanliness. 
 
 Lamp -mats fall under a like condem- 
 nation, being often of material so expensive 
 and so richly ornamented that they are fit 
 only for wall -hangings. Yet the obvious 
 purpose of a lamp -mat is to protect the 
 table-cover from oil spots or the end of a 
 burning match. And in the same way the 
 table-cover itself is often too fine for use, 
 which is, supposably, to save the finely- 
 polished surface of oak or mahogany from 
 scratches, stains, or blisters. If the orna- 
 mentation of the fabric makes it too delicate 
 or too costly to use, without protection, then 
 the limits of decoration have been passed. 
 
 Sofa -cushions of white or light -colored 
 satin, or of thin crepe, embroidered or paint- 
 ed with bunches of pale violets, wild roses, 
 or sweet peas, oppose themselves to every 
 law of decorative art, yet they find delight- 
 ed purchasers. Lamp-shades whose fluffy 
 lace or piuched-up paper flounces iuvite a 
 nightly conflagration ; picture-frames so em- 
 blematic in design, or so over-ornamented 
 that they distract attention from the pict- 
 ures; vases whose elaboration of decoration 
 makes them utterly unsuitable to display
 
 the flowers which they were made to hold 
 these are the commonplaces of our homes. 
 We have safely passed through that 
 phase of decorati ve evolution where it was 
 said that no man's boot-jack and no wom- 
 an's irouiug-board was safe from the preda- 
 tory paint-brush of the artistic daughters 
 of the house. But we have not yet compre- 
 hended what the general admiration for 
 things Japanese should have taught us 
 " the simple grace of not too much." Yet 
 we Americans are a clever race, with quick 
 artistic sensibilities; wo ought not to find it 
 hard to keep to the law and the prophets in 
 these matters. We have only to remem- 
 ber that decorative art is not fine art, pure 
 and simple, because it must subordinate it- 
 self to utility by the very limitations of its 
 existence; and that when it ceases to do 
 so, however successfully it may catch the 
 popular fancy, it has yet become false in 
 idea, and foolish in form.
 
 ABOUT FURNISHINGS. 
 
 BY FLORENCE MORSE. 
 
 Is any subject worn more threadbare than 
 that of artistic honae- tarnishing f Yet is 
 
 any subject less ready to be dismissed into 
 au honorable retirement ? While there are 
 women there will be homes. While there are 
 homes the heart feminine will burn to 
 make them as attractive as possible. And 
 while there remains a great multitude of 
 people who, happily, cannot afford to go to 
 a decorator and furnisher and order in a 
 Lome, the house-mistress will read all the 
 articles on decoration and furnishing that 
 journal, magazine, or trade-paper supply. 
 
 As a rule, her first requirement of the 
 anonymous mentor is that she shall be 
 taught how to make a little money go a 
 long way. And though she will be loth to 
 believe it, the true solution of her problem 
 is to buy very few tilings. Those of us who 
 remember the wonderful Japanese Exhibit
 
 176 
 
 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadel- 
 phia, or who have read Professor Morse's 
 delightful book, Japanese Homes, * must 
 have been struck by the elegance, refine- 
 ment, and. serenity of mind expressed in 
 their quiet, airy, open rooms. The beauty 
 of these apartments is found always in the 
 softness and harmony of coloring, and the 
 exquisite workmanship of walls and ceiling, 
 as well as of the scanty furnishings and or- 
 naments, and not in a profusion of costly 
 and incongruous things. To a high-bred 
 Japanese the notion of a display of posses- 
 sions for the purpose of indicating his own 
 social place or wealth would be inconceiv- 
 able. He loves artistic objects for the pleas- 
 ure they afford to himself and his friends, 
 but he uses them sparingly, never destroy- 
 ing their decorative value by crowding or 
 confusion. 
 
 Our habits of life, our climate, and our 
 social conditions make it impossible that in 
 our own abodes we should copy closely a 
 Japanese model. Indeed, we ought to copy 
 closely no model at all, but compose a home 
 interior from our own tastes and necessities. 
 Yet we should profit greatly by an adoption 
 
 * Japanese Homes and their Surroundings, by Ed- 
 ward P. Morse. HABPKR & BEOTHBHS.
 
 177 
 
 of the Japanese spirit, -which has no false 
 standards of display, which does not sacri- 
 fice to convention, which encourages indi- 
 vidual taste and skill, which denies that the 
 old is undesirable because it is old, or the 
 new worthy because it is new, which lav- 
 ishes expense only on objects intrinsically 
 beautiful and lasting, and which insists oil 
 freedom, cleanliness, simplicity, and grace 
 as the essentials of household art. 
 
 There was a time, a few years ago, when 
 the influence of Eastlake, Morris, and the 
 other English reformers of household taste 
 seemed to have emancipated us from the tra- 
 ditionary errors of our ways. At that time 
 we went iu for the " sincere " in furniture 
 and decoration, and possibly came out with 
 the ugly. We sometimes mistook the pon- 
 derous for the stable, and the dingy for the 
 harmonious. But the whole movement was 
 iu the right direction, and we left forever 
 behind us the worship of certain baleful 
 false gods. Yet it is to be lamented that 
 this reform was, for the greater part, im- 
 posed upon us from without, and was not 
 the fruit of the artistic soul's own conscious- 
 ness of sin. So that the fallings from grace, 
 the right-hand stumblings and left-hand de- 
 fections, are already numerous enough to bo 
 
 12
 
 ITS 
 
 discouraging. For example, we were told 
 by Eastlake, the prophet, that modern win- 
 dow-hangings were worse than a crime; 
 they were a blunder. A window, said this 
 reformer, is an opening made in a wall, at 
 a considerable expense, for the admission of 
 light and air. The modern upholsterer cun- 
 ningly drapes this aperture so as to exclude 
 every possible ray of light or breath of air, 
 and to increase his bills in proportion to 
 his decrease of the family comfort. First 
 there comes a Holland shade of an objection- 
 able cold hue, which may be pardoned except 
 as to its color, owing to the necessity of mod- 
 ifying the sunlight; then there is added a 
 pair of costly lace curtains, ugly and inap- 
 propriate in design, perishable in material, 
 and of no value as a screen, were a screen 
 needed. Fashion demands that these should 
 sweep the floor, and meet across the window, 
 making it difficult to open or shut the sashes 
 without tearing the lace. Superimposed on 
 these draperies is another set of satin, bro- 
 cade, velvet, rep, or other heavy material, 
 fastened immovably to the casing at the top, 
 behind a sham brass cornice, sweeping the 
 carpet at the bottom to the depth of a foot 
 or more, and drawn back on each side, at an 
 ugly angle, with ornamental cord heavy
 
 179 
 
 enough for a cable. As if bad taste still lacked 
 a monument, a couple of yards of this costly 
 stuff must be draped in foolish and insignifi- 
 cant folds at the top, and called a lambre- 
 quin. This arrangement prevails in hun- 
 dreds of thousands of well-to-do homes, 
 where ordinary intelligence is assumed. 
 
 Now, said this voice crying in the wilder- 
 ness of the commonplace, ponder these things 
 in your hearts. When the window was a 
 mere opening in the wall of a castle or 
 manor, and at a later time, when the glazier 
 imperfectly set the poor glass casements, 
 thick curtains were hung before these aper- 
 tures, which might be drawn at night to 
 keep out the draught from the already cold 
 and draughty hall. The curtains were sus- 
 pended on poles, set above the window-cas- 
 ing, that the wind might not blow in over 
 them, and the top of the fabric was turned 
 over, partly for ornament, and partly for 
 utility. These innocent and appropriate 
 ends, fringed out for good looks, are the 
 source of our hideous and senseless lambre- 
 quins, which offer harborage to dust and 
 moth. With well-set modern windows, the 
 only excuse for curtains is the beauty of 
 color and line which they substitute for the 
 rigid framework. But they must be made
 
 of materials whose design and coloring are 
 not aggressive, which will fall into beauti- 
 ful folds, which will slideeasily on appropri- 
 ate rods to uncover the entire glass, and 
 which will never be allowed to swathe the 
 window, to whose importance all embellish- 
 ment remains secondary. 
 
 Conscience-smitten women, reading these 
 denunciations, took down theiv expensive, 
 deplorable upholstery, gave away their 
 sham brass cornices, and started on their 
 career of penitence with Liberty silks, art 
 muslins, Madras cottons, and real brass rods. 
 The multitude followed, unreasoning but 
 happy. We had a few years of " art " wall- 
 papers, "art" furniture, "art" draperies, 
 wherein much that was good enjoyed favor 
 impartially with much that was bad. Onr 
 houses were weeded out, however, and we 
 learned that beauty is not dependent on ex- 
 pense. 
 
 But that our virtue is superficial, and 
 that we are not throned above temptation, 
 is proved by the fact that the meretricious 
 French fashions, against which Eastlake and 
 Morris inveighed, have had, are having, an- 
 other reign of prosperity. Floral wall-pa- 
 pers, floral carpets, in natural forms and 
 colors; furniture with illogical and weak-
 
 181 
 
 en ing curves; upholstery in light patterns 
 of realistic flowers, fruits, shepherdesses, or 
 landscapes; meaningless bric-a-brac, all 
 these are " in " once more. Still, no fash- 
 ion, either of clothes or furnishings, is uni- 
 versal, as once it was. The Japanese-East- 
 lake-Morris-Cook influence has made women 
 think for themselves, and moved the more 
 cultivated and self-reliant among them to 
 act upon the principle that their home is as 
 individual a possession as their wardrobe, 
 and may as honestly express their personal 
 taste and convictions. Moreover, they aro 
 far more willing, both in deed and in word, to 
 admit the need of economy when it exists. 
 Now, if to this great gain could be added a 
 sense of the beauty of economy that is, of 
 the artistic value of sparseness, almost of 
 bareness, in furnishing lovely homes might 
 be almost as common among us as among 
 the enviable Japanese. It is hardly too 
 much to say that the very best conditions 
 for securing an artistic interior are the com- 
 bination of cultivated taste, good judgment, 
 that intuitive adaptation of means to ends 
 which we call Yankee ingenuity, and a shal- 
 low purse. These things prevail against 
 odds. For example, so many people now 
 make their homes in. the country for the
 
 greater part of the year that they take 
 apartments in the city for the winter 
 months alone. Agents are unwilling to 
 decorate a flat or house for so short a time, 
 but the artistic tenant may make her stay 
 happier if the walls be covered temporarily 
 with material of her own selection ; some- 
 thing that may be taken down at the end of 
 the season, cleaned, rolled up and packed 
 away for some other house another year. 
 
 The most expensive materials are no 
 better in effect than many of the cheapest. 
 Morris designs are repeated on five-cent 
 cheese-cloths, and Japanese cottons. Bur- 
 lap is another valuable material, while the 
 denims are of untold value to the woman of 
 small means. Instead of painting, papering, 
 and refurnishing a house or flat taken only 
 for a season, it is possible to make wall 
 decorations, furniture and floor coverings 
 that may do duty many times in many 
 places. 
 
 Burlap as a wall covering is restful and 
 harmonious, and is valuable as a background. 
 The seams may be lightly sewed and the 
 stuff loosely stretched and nailed; in the 
 course of time the artist of the family may 
 succeed in painting upon it some large effec- 
 tive design, conventional in character. The
 
 183 
 
 wall covering must be sepai'ated botb from 
 the floor and ceiling by some direct line or 
 border. For this purpose several yards of 
 matting may be used as a dado or frieze 
 the dado being most effective. Matting of 
 the plain, unfigured Japanese sort, makes 
 au admirable dado, and ordinary tea-chest 
 matting, if cut in panels and framed with 
 narrow moulding, will be satisfactory. 
 
 Any amateur artist will be able to paint 
 fruit on such a dado for a dining-room. If 
 there is an objection to draped walls, plain 
 cartridge-paper may be bought for twenty 
 cents a roll, and a room may be pleasantly 
 transformed by it at small expense. Ordi- 
 nary flock-paper may be used for a dado 
 and painted a rich, dark terra-cotta, for in- 
 stance, while the walls above may be hung 
 with a lighter cartridge-paper. There are 
 Japanese papers which may be lightly 
 tacked to the wall and easily removed, and 
 which make a low-toned surface. It is not 
 difficult to paper and paint a room one's self, 
 and here is still another opportunity for 
 saving money. A clever woman should be 
 able to copy a frieze in stencil, or she may 
 have the moulding "dropped " ten or twelve 
 inches, if the cartridge-paper is used. 
 
 To a woman of taste who has not much
 
 money, and who wishes to have everything 
 about her as pretty and refined as possible, 
 there is nothing so satisfactory as denims. 
 There is a beautiful dull bine that is the 
 best color of all. With a bold embroidery 
 of white floss thread on the borders, the 
 windows may be curtained and doorways 
 draped at less cost and with far more beauty 
 than if their owner were to use any of the 
 materials upon which she may first have set 
 her heart. A broad, long divan, home-made, 
 perhaps, may also have a white-embroidered 
 cover of denim ; a dozen cushions of all sizes 
 and shapes have place on such a couch, and 
 are also to be covered with denim. The 
 material may be used on either side, the 
 tones being quite different ; and the price 
 of this useful cloth is but twelve and one- 
 half cents a yard. 
 
 A floor covering, like the walls of a room, 
 should be quiet and unobtrusive in tone, 
 since it is to serve as background for objects 
 placed upon it. Straw mattings are invalu- 
 able, and the plain greenish-white weaves 
 wear longer and better than the colored 
 ones. Those who object to a painted border 
 around a room may use the "fillings" that 
 make an admirable foundation for rugs. 
 Wood-color and old blue are the best wear-
 
 185 
 
 ing colors, the reds and some of the blues 
 fading quickly. The fasjiiou of making rug- 
 shaped carpets has much to commend it, 
 aud these may be made from low-priced 
 remnants that will last a lifetime, if not 
 subjected to too hard usage. The large 
 Japanese cotton rugs are a boon to the house- 
 wife of moderate means. Some of the color- 
 ings and designs are exquisite ; they wear 
 well and are moth-proof. 
 
 " Corners " have great capabilities. Chairs 
 are to be placed in groups and no longer to 
 stand uuiuvitiugly with backs against the 
 wall. Harmony of color helps to make a 
 distinct atmosphere in a room. The bright 
 reds, blues and " old golds " of the second- 
 rate shops have no place in the artistic 
 home. Plain wooden chairs with cushions, 
 or comfortable chairs without cushions, help 
 towards ideal furnishing. The mautel is 
 not to be draped, nor is the patient piano to 
 be loaded with bric-a-brac. Scarfs are not 
 to hang over chairs, nor bows and ribbons 
 perched where they do not belong. " Effect " 
 must be sought in other ways. For color, 
 large bowls and vases of yellow and red 
 pottery filled with growing plants suffice. 
 Sofas and divans should stand at angles, 
 near open fire or comfortable book-table.
 
 186 
 
 The "centre-table," wheeled from the mid- 
 dle of the room, may become the heart of 
 a " corner." 
 
 Low tables about the room have other 
 uses than for the five o'clock teas. The 
 chess-player likes such a table, and so do 
 the children. The real Turkish coffee-table 
 is a pretty piece of furniture now manu- 
 factured in America. It is sold as a table 
 or as a stool, and is the prettiest of all low 
 tables. Instead of buying at the art stores 
 the stiif-looking wooden benches, so much 
 like the old-fashioned wash - benches, one 
 may find straight-back settees, to be painted 
 black using the glossy carriage paint for 
 this purpose; this has a fine enamel and 
 makes an excellent finish. A cushion for 
 the seat, with pillows, is then to be added. 
 
 Screeiw are of the greatest decorative 
 value; they are cheap, considering their en- 
 durance when properly treated, and they are 
 useful. They must be chosen with scrupu- 
 lous care, as they may become the back- 
 ground for a graceful woman or a tall palm, 
 and add much value to the scheme of deco- 
 ration. 
 
 Such a room as this will not seem crowd- 
 ed, and each object in it, being simple and 
 genuine, will enhance the effect of every
 
 187 
 
 other. Books, of course, must have their 
 place, and that place ought uever to be a 
 locked or even a glazed bookcase. They 
 should live within easy reach of friendly 
 hands. Pictures and bric-a-brac, one is 
 tempted to say, should be conspicuous by 
 their absence. In the average homo these 
 are reckoned as furnishings, and profusion is 
 mistaken for elegance. Pictures are crowd- 
 ed on the walls, without regard to subject 
 or to light, as if the room wero a gallery, 
 where every inch of space must be made the 
 most of. Bronzes, porcelain, glass, lamps, 
 candles, sconces, flower-pots, vases, clocks, 
 photograph - frames, silver, statuary, curios, 
 plaques, are huddled together on mantel, 
 cabinet, bookcase, bracket, table, and shelf, 
 regardless of shape, size, utility, color, or 
 quality. When Christmas brings another 
 invoice of similar possessions, room is made 
 for them by banishing a few of their prede- 
 cessors to the bedrooms, but the ranks are 
 seldom thinned. 
 
 In a Japanese drawing-room one picture 
 would be hung at a time on a wall-space 
 carefully planned to secure the most favor- 
 able light. One priceless cabinet, perhaps, 
 would sustain one specimen of cloisonne, 
 or porcelain, or marvellous sword-guard of
 
 hammered gold and iron. One noble bronze 
 jar, standing firmly on the floor, would hold 
 one spreading bough of cherry-blossoms, 
 and the decoration of that room would be 
 complete. From time to time these would 
 be changed for other beautiful possessions, 
 but no more objects of art would be seen at 
 once. How dignified, how reposeful, does 
 not such artistic restraint appear to our im- 
 aginations! How "cluttered," untidy, and 
 common would not our indiscriminate riff- 
 raff of bric-a-brac seem to the cultivated 
 Japanese ! American lavishness will never 
 be pruned to this Oriental simplicity But 
 it may learn that a few good pictures in a 
 good light, a few decorative articles, good in 
 themselves and harmonious one with an- 
 other, make a more beautiful and enduring 
 whole than a multitude of frivolous and 
 unrelated objects. 
 
 These suggestions are meant for the make- 
 shift habitations to which so many poor but 
 cultivated families who migrate twice a 
 year are usually doomed. They are meant 
 to help the home-maker who must save 
 money. But they are fouuded on sound 
 principles. It is impossible to over-estimate 
 the importance of beautiful and tasteful sur- 
 roundings in daily life. If, as Goethe said,
 
 189 
 
 no mau leaves a room the same person that 
 be entered it, then the room should attune 
 his spirit to harmony, dignity, and truthful- 
 ness. Fussiuess must not surround him, nor 
 incongruity, nor pretence. It sometimes 
 seems as if we went exactly the wrong way 
 to work to furnish our houses. We are iu- 
 clined to adapt our way of life to our sur- 
 roundings, rather than our surroundings to 
 our way of life. We fill a room to the brim 
 with goods and chattels, and then try to feel 
 that they are the expression of our inward 
 needs, if, indeed, we have any concern be- 
 yond that of securing a prettier environment 
 than our neighbors. 
 
 If, now, we could put every stick we pos- 
 sess in some commodious store-closet, and 
 begin with one chair, in an empty room, 
 adding, piece by piece, what the need of the 
 hour suggested, and putting chair, table, 
 shelf, or lamp where the need of the hour 
 suggested, we should end by producing a 
 delightfully habitable, sensible, attractive 
 interior. And this is only another way of 
 repeating that utility must precede and un- 
 derlie beauty. 
 
 One of the happiest social changes which 
 revised standards of living have induced in 
 America is the increasing love of the country.
 
 190 
 
 This instinct does not demaud the satisfac- 
 tions of Lenox, Newport, or Tuxedo. It is 
 content with cheap and homely family hab- 
 itations but on the family habitation it in- 
 sists. The "summer boarder" gives place 
 more and more every season to the cottager. 
 And this habit of country cottage life, on the 
 sea -shore or in the mountains, demands 
 cheap, tasteful, and serviceable furnishings. 
 The sea-shore will long remain " fashion- 
 able," simply because bathing-places are 
 comparatively few, and will always be 
 crowded. And with the crowd come the Sar- 
 atoga trunk and the city standards of hos- 
 pitality and behavior. But mountain places 
 give elbow-room, and incite to the aban- 
 donment of conventionalities and all elabo- 
 ration of living. Thither the hard-worked 
 American may flee for rest and quiet. The 
 mountain cottage, therefore, should free 
 both mistress and servant from all needless 
 toils, and only as it does this can it be real- 
 ly furnished in good taste. This home may 
 become a far more real expression of its oc- 
 cupants than any city-honse can be. With 
 tireless energy may the mistress sew, paint, 
 upholster, or hammer. She may mount on 
 ladders to stencil, or grovel on floors to 
 stain, And so greatly will she enjoy her
 
 191 
 
 labors as to bo iu constant danger of do- 
 ing too much, and spoiling that quaint sim- 
 plicity which is the soul of sylvan beauty. 
 Let the down - stairs floors be stained or 
 painted only, aiid the chamber floors covered, 
 for quietness, with clean and dainty matting. 
 If there are any rugs, let them be cheap, 
 and light in weight, and low iu tone. There 
 is color enough in woods and sky and grass 
 and flowers. Let factory wares bear them- 
 selves with modesty. Matched -boards of 
 clear pine make a warm and cleanly wall 
 and ceiling surface, which grows warmer 
 and darker with time. On such walls pict- 
 ures should be hung with a sparing hand, 
 and perhaps the best taste would banish 
 them entirely. No picture can be so beauti- 
 ful as that living one of swaying boughs 
 and bending grass and stately mountain 
 which every window frames. And for that 
 reason, as for others, curtains should be the 
 simplest undraped lengths of muslin or 
 Bilkoline or chintz, that may be drawn at 
 night, but need not impede the light by 
 day. Wooden settles, covered with denim 
 or chintz, cushioned with fibre, and plenti- 
 fully bestrewn with various shapes and 
 sizes of comfortable pillows; kitchen tables 
 made presentable by denim or chintz table-
 
 192 
 
 cloths, roomy and comfortable for books, 
 work, or games; small rustic tables made 
 by the neighboring carpenter ; a rustic 
 desk from the same craftsman ' rocking- 
 chairs, wide -armed shaker -chairs, a shelf 
 running all round the room, five feet from 
 the floor, for books, vases, the clock, accu- 
 mulating odds and ends ; an old - fashioned 
 wide-throated chimney, with a fire on the 
 old - fashioned plain andirons whenever the 
 temperature will permit ; plenty of lamps, 
 homely and serviceable ; great brown pot- 
 tery jars, of the coarse texture of drain-pipe, 
 but delightful in color, for tree-boughs and 
 blackberry vines, and golden-rod, and ferns, 
 and the "keeping-room" will have become 
 a joy of color and a triumph of suitability, 
 and therefore of good taste, at an expense 
 of perhaps fifty dollars for furnishings. One 
 end of the keepiug-rooin should serve as 
 acknowledged dining-room, with the din- 
 ner-set displayed on an open dresser, stained 
 a neutral shade and fitted with curtains, let 
 us say. Except a table and the necessary 
 chairs, this dining-room end will require 
 no more furnishing Bedrooms should be 
 treated with equal simplicity, good coloring 
 being soon found to atone for any lack of 
 furniture- Excellent dressing-tables, wash-
 
 stands, and paper-closets may bo made of 
 pack ing -boxes, \\yth cotton hangings; and 
 the entire furnishing of an eight-roomed 
 cottage of this simple description may be 
 accomplished has been accomplished for 
 less than two hundred dollars. Yet the se- 
 lection is as tasteful, the composition as 
 harmonious, the color as beautiful as the 
 most fastidious critic could desire. The se- 
 cret of success is the absence of all second- 
 rate ornamentation, the fewness of decorative 
 objects, the genuine utility and simplicity 
 of every article, and the unbroken color har- 
 monies. Effects are not frittered away, and. 
 (lie feeling of restfulness dominates the 
 house. 
 
 In this matter of furnishing we ought to 
 bear in mind that upon utility must all 
 ideas of decoration and ornament finally 
 rest, and that an over-dressed house is, were 
 that possible, in worse taste than an over- 
 dressed woman. 
 
 13
 
 DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART. 
 
 BY CANDACE WHEELER. 
 
 IN defining the two expressions of human 
 ability which we call " Decorative ami Ap- 
 plied Art," it is necessary first to show, not 
 only the compass and meaning, but the 
 limits of both, to explain where the one 
 ends and the other begins, and to bound 
 the legitimate field of each. 
 
 Decorative Art, in a simple and broad 
 sense, covers all art which enriches and 
 beautifies architecture, whether of public 
 monuments, buildings devoted to national 
 or governmental use, to religious worship, 
 or the more or less elaborate structures de- 
 voted to the varying requirements of do- 
 mestic shelter. It is the function of decora- 
 tive art to assist in making all these dif- 
 ferent evidences of man's power and ability 
 beautiful. It includes sculpture and paint- 
 ing wherever these arts are accessory to the 
 perfection or beauty of architectural con-
 
 strncfion. It includes all forms of enrich- 
 ment by art, whether in carving, color, iu- 
 cised work, or inlaying It may use clay, 
 stone, glass, wood, metal, or pigment, in. 
 any order or manner which is harmonious 
 with the structure to which it belongs. It 
 may add carvings in all materials, and cast- 
 ings in all metals; but in the use of' all 
 these different ways and means of art, it 
 must never fail to acknowledge its depend- 
 ence It includes mural painting, however 
 wide its scope or dignified its character. 
 The greatest efforts of the greatest painters 
 may cover the lengthened perspective of a, 
 Loggia, or soar upward in the aerial spaces 
 of the grandest dome, They may marshal 
 the long procession of the richest frieze, or 
 crowd the grand divisions of a ceiling with 
 visions of beauty All these are still but 
 accessory to the art that leads the grand 
 procession the art that may and can reach 
 and compass the highest qualities of sublime 
 and compelling beauty, the art which is 
 inevitably based upon mechanical and math- 
 ematical knowledge and founded upon the 
 immutable laws of nature and science. But 
 where architecture leads, decorative art fol- 
 lows. Its first principle then is nub<>rdina- 
 tion. To be itself it must acknowledge its
 
 dependence, and be not only content but 
 proud to be secondary. It must be as scru- 
 pulous in its allegiance as were the greatest 
 masters who left to succeeding generations 
 the frescos of the Sistine Chapel, the airy 
 decorations of the courts of the Vatican, 
 and the sculptures and mosaics of the great 
 cathedrals and churches of the Early and 
 Middle Ages. It may hold in the sight of 
 all men this record of its nobility, and pro- 
 ceed on its way through the closing years of 
 this joyous nineteenth century looking for- 
 ward to a future as useful, as honored, and 
 as proudly capable, as any period which has 
 preceded it. The present prosperity of the 
 world, the probable and increasing devotion 
 of the riches of the world to the wants 
 and tastes instead of the warfare of man- 
 kind, promise a revival of architecture in 
 its largest and highest possibilities; and the 
 revival of architecture means a revival, a 
 growth, a progress in the arts. The mar- 
 shalling of beauty which characterizes the 
 Columbian Fair will be followed by an al- 
 most universal recognition of the value of 
 the purely decorative arts in conjunction 
 with architecture, and it is wise to insist 
 upon the principle upon which all good, 
 lasting, and successful (locorattve art must
 
 forever rest, the principle of subordination 
 the fact that it has not a first and most 
 prominent, but an entirely secondary func- 
 tion. The moment it claims to be moro 
 than accessory, that it strives to create u 
 dominant impression upon the mind, or be- 
 come an independent impersonation of 
 thought, it ceases to be true to its function, 
 and creates a dissonance, or want of har- 
 mony. Therehave been, and are, instances 
 where the thought and performance of the 
 decorator is greater than that of the builder, 
 where the work or creation of the architect 
 is greatly dignified and ennobled by the 
 superior talent of the painter or decorator; 
 but if he is true to the principle which un- 
 derlies his art, that of subordination, the 
 work of the architect will not be absorbed, 
 the building will not become merely a thea- 
 tre for the display of his talent; the pri- 
 mary motive will remain, no matter how 
 much it may be ennobled by the sympathy 
 and power of the decorator, or the superior 
 greatness of his gifts. He may people the 
 structure with immortal statues, or make it 
 precious wit.li immortal pictures, but Ihry 
 will relate to its original purpose, and be 
 governed by the stylo or period in which 
 the architect chose to express himself. It
 
 198 
 
 is perhaps pardonable to insist upon the 
 rank of this principle of subordination, even, 
 although it is a universally recognized one, 
 because out of it grow all the principles, all 
 the philosophy of decorative and applied 
 art, even to its widest and most remote ap- 
 plication. We cannot fail to recognize its 
 truth, eveu beyond where construction in 
 the sense of architecture ceases, and decora- 
 tion becomes applied art, or art applied to 
 objects and manufactures. The primary 
 principle underlies both, and it can easily 
 be seen how all qualities, virtues, and ex- 
 cellencies grow out of these first and under- 
 lying principles. Subordination includes 
 appropriateness, appropriateness includes 
 suggestiveness, suggest! veness means all 
 the poetry of thought called out by perfect 
 treatment of a noble theme, the treatment 
 expressed by composition. Beauty of color 
 and grace of line are qualities which are in- 
 dividual gifts, and serve to make the work 
 of one artist more precious and attractive 
 than that of another; but even these gifts 
 must conform to laws, if we are to se- 
 cure that conjunction which completes and 
 perfects the most comprehensive beauty 
 achieved by man the beauty which be- 
 comes a permanent heritage of pleasurable
 
 sensation to the human race, and an abso- 
 lute influence in its progress towards higher 
 living. 
 
 This influence may seem a great deal to 
 claim for art, but since the moral training 
 of humanity is by means of its pleasures 
 and its pains, no better teacher can be found 
 than that which confers happiness by the 
 gratification of the- inherent and natural 
 love of art ; and hardly a greater good can 
 be worked for mankind than the creation of 
 universal and surrounding beauty. Deco- 
 rative and applied art are of the utmost im- 
 portance to mankind, since the one con- 
 tributes to those monuments which excite 
 the loftiest and most supreme satisfaction, 
 and the other surrounds, or may surround, 
 the individual with endless sources of pleas- 
 ure and content. Applied art is to decora- 
 tive iirt what the child is to the man. It is 
 in short a consequence of the greater work, 
 but it holds within itself the same obliga- 
 tion to the same laws. It is the applica- 
 tion of knowledge and love of art to the 
 implements and manufactures of the me- 
 chanic and the manufacturer. It applies to 
 things we may wear or use or handle, the 
 small conveniences which are a part of our 
 daily lives. It moulds the shape of the
 
 200 
 
 rude and common implement into grace, 
 and invests it with interest and beauty. It 
 puts art and thought into the things which 
 surround us. It elevates our habits, and in- 
 vests our customs with dignity, and is our 
 unconscious teacher iu beauty, grace, and 
 truth. It fuses thought, sentiment, and 
 feeling into the insensate matter of which 
 these surroundings are composed, and per- 
 forms the miracle of exciting in us an an- 
 swering thought. It makes these things 
 speak to us with a human voice, and ex- 
 press human thought as truly as a book 
 may convey the thought of another mind to 
 us; and in proportion as the thought is true, 
 and the expression beautiful, are we bene- 
 fit ted or deteriorated by its proximity. 
 
 It is this domestic influence, if we may 
 call it so, of applied art which makes its 
 practice of true principles of importance to 
 us. It is almost more necessary to the 
 growth and culture of the every-day world 
 that every-day art, the finish, proportion, 
 and excellence of the things among which 
 we live, and by which we live, should be 
 perfect, and perfectly true to principles, 
 than that we should have more or less fre- 
 quent opportunities of studying the highest 
 examples of human achievement. It is ul-
 
 201 
 
 ways a long step between us and them, even 
 in comprehension; but the other lives with 
 us, and is a part of our lives ; it enters into 
 our unconscious thoughts, and makes our 
 judgment just and our knowledge enlight- 
 ened. Applied art could do none of these 
 things unless, in its best and purest practice, 
 it followed the laws which goveru decora- 
 tive art, even to its utmost derivative. It 
 must always and forever be mindful of its 
 dependence and its meaning. It may be as 
 beautiful as nature, and as harmonious as 
 the truest chord upon the most perfect in- 
 strument, but its kind of beauty must be 
 based upon the use of the thing to which it 
 is applied, and its harmony be in accord 
 with the purpose or necessity to which it is 
 added. In short the same great principles 
 of subordination and appropriateness upon 
 which decorative art is founded are as 
 strenuously binding in the varied and end- 
 less directions of applied art. It is easy to 
 illustrate this by reference to any one of the 
 manufactures to which art is, or may be, ap- 
 plied. Take, for instance, that of the silver- 
 smith. A silver spoon may be as truly an 
 object of art as a picture, but it must begin 
 by being perfectly adapted to its use. It 
 must have the form which is best and most
 
 convenient for its original purpose. It 
 must cot lose its proper balance in length 
 for convenient holding, or its proper depth 
 of bowl for carrying liquids. It must not 
 be so ornamented in stem as to inconven- 
 ience the hand which holds it, or so en- 
 crusted with relief in the bowl as to inter- 
 fere with its proper service as a receptacle. 
 A pair of tongs must perform its function 
 of holding and lifting burning brands, or the 
 ornament which makes it inefficacious is 
 wrongly applied and inappropriate. 
 
 In the broad field of art applied to textiles 
 and wall coverings there is room for pro- 
 found study of the rules and philosophy of 
 applied art, and the necessity of such study 
 is apparent in the interior of almost every 
 house, and in the materials shown in every 
 shop window. It is a great mistake to sup- 
 pose that in small things the rules of art, the 
 philosophy of art, may be neglected. Small 
 things cease to be unimportant if largely 
 treated. The same kind of value may attach 
 to a yard of muslin covered with beautiful 
 and appropriate design, and treated with ex- 
 haustive knowledge and appreciation of 
 color, as would belong to a picture by the 
 same artist. It is a very common error to 
 suppose that incomplete and inferior kuowl-
 
 203 
 
 edge will suffice for the designer. Good de- 
 sign requires not only perfect observance of ' 
 the fundamental law of appropriateness, but 
 personal gifts of grace and composition, and 
 au education which is not only technical, but 
 special aud literary. The designer should 
 know the art of all nations and ages in de- 
 sign, not for* imitation, but for cultivation. 
 His compositions may aud should be entirely 
 uninfluenced by them in feeling, but he will 
 have learned from them what is true or false 
 in art, and to judge wisely of his own work. 
 It is not to be supposed that the manufact- 
 urer should know what is absolutely best 
 among the designs which he reproduces. He 
 knows clearly the qualities which will ap- 
 peal to the public, aud except when a design 
 is backed by a name which has influence 
 with the buying public, and has gained its 
 confidence, ho will rarely accept a design 
 which does not appeal to the popular taste 
 by its color and sentiment. The enjoyment 
 of fresh and positive coloring seems to be 
 universal. There is also a universal liking 
 for exact reproductions of familiar flowers, 
 and as these two likings are inherent aud 
 spontaneous, the thoughtful designer will 
 do well to add to his list of necessary require- 
 ments for a design, fresh and good color, aud
 
 204 
 
 absolute truth iu following natural forms. 
 This is where Japanese design has obtained, 
 and well deserves to obtain, world-wide pop- 
 ularity. Every flower or leaf or plant which 
 appears in. Japanese design is absolutely an 
 individual specimen, true to its individual- 
 ism as well as its species, and while there is 
 little composition in the seuseaof large and 
 regularly recurring groups or masses in Jap- 
 anese design, the absolute truth and grace 
 of drawing, and the unerring taste in plac- 
 ing ornament, has given Japanese art a fore- 
 most place in influence and favor in the 
 world. 
 
 This truth to nature in representation 
 does not by any means detract from compo- 
 sition iu design, for there is abundant subject 
 for composition in nature as well as for in- 
 dividual ornament. The important thing is 
 to gather into design or into applied art all 
 truth, all beauty, and all that will influence 
 or elevate humanity ; to be forever mind- 
 ful of the dignity and value of art as a 
 means of education and of happiness ; and 
 to be content with nothing less than the 
 best, either as artist or possessor.
 
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