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'The only essential distinction between decorative" and other' aft 
 is the being fitted for a fixed place ; and in that place, related, 
 either in subordination ot in command, to the effect of other pieces 
 of art. And all the greatest aft which the world has produced is 
 thus fitted for a place, arid subordinated to a purpose* There is 
 no existing highest-order art but is dee'ofatite. The best sculpture 
 yet produced has been the decoration of a temple front — the best 
 painting, the decoration of a room. . „ . Beautiful art can only be 
 produced by people who have beautiful things about them, and 
 leisure to look at them ; and unless you provide some elements of 
 beauty for your workmen to be surrounded by, you will find that 
 no elements of beauty can be invented by them ' — Ruskiw 
 
1 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/decorationOOedis 
 
?VoTitIftpiece. 
 
 A "Drawing • Room • Corner 
 
 R.W.EDIS.F.S.A. ARCH.T* 
 
DECORATION & FURNITURE 
 
 OF 
 
 TOWN HOUSES 
 
 A SERIES OF CANTOR LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 SOCIETY OF ARTS, 1880, AMPLIFIED AND. ENLARGED 
 
 ..^ 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT Wy'EDIS, F.S.A. F.R.I.B.A. 
 
 ARCHITECT 
 
 WITH 29 FULL- PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 AND NUMEROUS SKETCHES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 SCRIBNER AND WELFORD 
 
 1881 
 
E3 
 
P RE FACE. 
 
 When the Council of the Society of Arts did me the 
 honour of asking rne to deliver one of the series of 
 'Cantor Lectures' for 1880, and their able and inde- 
 fatigable secretary, Mr. H. Trueman Wood, suggested 
 that I should make the subject of my course, Deco- 
 ration Applied to Modern Houses, I naturally felt 
 that the subject was a wide and difficult one to treat, 
 inasmuch as, even amongst the educated professors of 
 the arts of architecture and painting, there were so 
 many opinions at once diverse, and ofttimes at utter 
 variance with each other ; but in the belief that a series 
 of plain practical Lectures on Decoration and Furni- 
 ture might be of use to the general public, I accepted 
 the invitation, with the full intention of avoiding, as 
 far as possible, the trammels of any particular school, 
 and of offering, so far as I could, some practical advice, 
 
 r 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 — founded on the experience of over twenty years of 
 hard professional work and study, — for the better 
 arrangement in Decoration and Furniture of Modern 
 Houses, believing that I should at least be given credit 
 for honesty of purpose, and for an earnest desire to set 
 forth, to the best of my ability, some practical hints 
 which might be found of service to those who were 
 anxious to get rid of the utter commonplaceness and 
 vulgarity, of the ordinary decorative treatment of the 
 homes they live in. 
 
 In specially applying my remarks to Town Houses, 
 I did so, rather from the fact that those who live in 
 towns are, to a certain extent, more dependent on the 
 art-work in their houses for any pleasure or charm of 
 eye, than those who, living in the country, are sur- 
 rounded with all the beauty of natural form and colour 
 in ever-changing and varying shape and shade, as well 
 as that in treating especially of Town Houses, my 
 remarks would to a large extent equally well apply to 
 country houses. 
 
 I am quite aware that the subject of my lectures 
 has, in the last few years, been lectured and written 
 upon almost ad nauseam, and I might well have hesi- 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 tated before entering an arena, in which there is, and 
 must always be, an immense difference of opinion as to 
 what is best and most artistic, for the decoration and 
 furnishing of the houses we live in, combined with 
 comfort, convenience, and moderation of cost. 
 
 The favourable reception of the ' Cantor Lectures ' 
 
 by my audiences and by the Press generally, encouraged 
 
 me in materially adding to them ; and in now offering 
 
 them in enlarged and illustrated form, to a larger and 
 
 perhaps more critical audience, the general public, I do 
 
 so with the full knowledge of the many and varied 
 
 opinions entertained in these days of so-called ' Art 
 
 Revival ' on all art questions, and more particularly on 
 
 those connected with the especial subjects of my lectures; 
 
 but at the same time I am sanguine enough to believe 
 
 that there is a large portion of the public who desire to 
 
 be better informed on these all-important questions, and 
 
 who will give me credit for an earnest desire to lay 
 
 before them, as simply and as plainly as possible, some 
 
 few general hints which I hope may be found of use to 
 
 those who wish to make the houses they live in not 
 
 only artistic but pleasant and comfortable, without 
 
 following out any set fashion of Decoration or Fur- 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 niture, and without involving any great excess in ex- 
 penditure, which, under the ordinary tenure of town 
 houses, they would be unwilling to incur. 
 
 The object of my course of ' Cantor Lectures ' was 
 to endeavour to lead the public to think more about 
 the artistic furnishing of their houses, to show that good 
 art could be combined with comfort and moderate 
 expense, and that the better and more artistic decora- 
 tion and furniture of modern houses could be combined 
 with fitness, comfort, and common-sense, without fol- 
 lowing the ' clap-trap ' conventionalities and senseless 
 eccentricities, which have gone out to the world under 
 the grossly mistaken, or rather misapplied, denomina- 
 tion of ' high art.' 
 
 For some years past I have given the subject of 
 art decoration and furniture my special study, have 
 lectured upon it at different times, and written numerous 
 articles which have appeared in the pages of ' The 
 Week,' ' The Queen Newspaper,' and various other 
 journals, and in the following pages I propose to 
 enlarge materially what I have already spoken and 
 written upon the subject. 
 
 In the illustrations which accompany these revised 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Lectures, I have endeavoured to select examples of 
 the various subjects treated of, from the best modern 
 types ; naturally I could only do this by selecting, from 
 various well-known manufacturers, examples of their 
 best works, and in offering them my cordial thanks for 
 the courteous manner in which they have permitted 
 me to select from their stocks ; and to illustrate such 
 examples as I thought might best exemplify the teach- 
 ing set forth in my various remarks, it must be dis- 
 tinctly understood that I have made no invidious 
 selection of firms, but have accepted the opportunity 
 offered to me, without hesitation or reserve, by those 
 whose works I illustrate, of selecting such examples 
 only which I thought might bear upon the subjects 
 specially treated of in my Lectures, and which seemed 
 to me to carry out, more or less, the spirit of real 
 excellence or general improvement in design of the 
 various accessories and necessaries, in the Decoration 
 and Furniture of modern houses. 
 
 It would manifestly have been egotistical and im- 
 proper to have offered a series of my own designs, 
 and the few illustrations which bear my name to them 
 as the designer, are offered with some amount of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 diffidence, and only as setting forth, in however slight 
 and humble a manner, the principles which I have 
 throughout the following pages endeavoured to ad- 
 
 vocate. 
 
 I would gladly have omitted them altogether, but 
 that they set forth in definite shape what can be done 
 to improve the general dreariness of an ordinary Town 
 House, by a little thought and a conscientious regard 
 for use and comfort, combined with artistic design and 
 arrangement. 
 
 In selecting the works of different manufacturers 
 for illustration, I have spared no time or trouble to 
 obtain, as far as possible, those examples which, to my 
 mind, combined general artistic excellence with appro- 
 priateness of design, form, and colouring, and moderation 
 of cost, while at the same time I have given other 
 examples which, combining as they do a great amount 
 of artistic skill, time, and labour, with much elaboration 
 of design and treatment, are necessarily more costly. 
 
 I am indebted to my friend Mr. Maurice B, Adams 
 for the exceedingly careful and conscientious manner 
 in which these illustrations have been prepared, and 
 for the hearty co-operation and able assistance he has 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 given to me in preparing the several drawings, in 
 which, whatever be their general merit as regards 
 design, I feel confident every care has been taken to 
 reproduce, as faithfully as possible, — aided in many in- 
 stances by careful photographs done by Messrs. Bedford, 
 Lemere, and Co., — the various examples of Decoration 
 and Furniture selected by me for illustration. 
 
 ROBERT W. EDIS. 
 
 14 Fitzroy Square : 
 London^ W, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. — DECORATION AND FURNITURE. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 Influence of Schools of Art on Design — Fashion in Decoration and 
 Furniture— Modern Rooms — Truth, Fitness, and Beauty in De- 
 coration — Use and Suitability in Furniture — Moral Influence — 
 Artistic Furniture not necessarily costly — Types of Ancient Fur- 
 niture i 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 FLOOR, WALL, AND CEILING DECORATION. 
 
 Mosaics : Tiles, Incised and Inlaid Stone, Coloured Cement, Par- 
 quetry — External Wall Decoration, Colour, Terra-cotta, Tiles and 
 Marble, Paint ; Internal : Tapestry and Stuff Hangings, Wood 
 Panelling, Wall-papers — Various Types of Wall and Ceiling Deco- 
 ration — Paint — Distemper — Stencil Work— Figure Decoration . 40 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 Ancient and Modern — General Constructive Furniture : Mantel- 
 pieces, Hanging Closets, Wall Cupboards, Fireplaces, Fenders, 
 Lavatories, Window Seats 88 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE ENTRANCE-HALL, STAIRCASE, DINING-ROOM, AND LIBRARY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Treatment — Division of Wall Spaces — Examples of Treat- 
 ment-— Decoration and Furnishing , 138 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE DRAWING-ROOM AND BOUDOIR, BEDROOMS, NURSERIES, 
 
 AND OFFICES. 
 
 General Treatment — Colouring and Decoration — Gilding — Lacquer- 
 work — Furniture and Hangings 192 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 GENERAL ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC USE. 
 
 Pottery — DoultonWare — Crockery — Porcelain — Glass — Plate — Gas- 
 fittings — Sconces — Bronze, Brass and Ironwork — Silver Plate — 
 Venetian Glass — Locks — Door Plates— Window Blinds . . 239 
 
 INDEX . 287 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A DrawinG^rOom CORner . , Designed bv Mr. Robert IV, Edis. Frontispiece 
 
 PLATE 
 
 I. An Angle FiRE-plAce and Mantel- ) 
 
 ttfeCE In 'Burmantofts* Faience/ Mr ' M - B ' Adams To face P- 57 
 
 II. Wall Papers . . . Messrs. "Jeffrey &> Co. . . 60 
 
 III. Wall Papers , . . , f f| . . 66 
 
 IV. TiLe Decoration For Wall o%\ ^ . ... 
 
 FIRE^PLACR ...... J DeS?gHed * Mn °- * AMiHS 6 5 
 
 V. Frieze DficoRATiON— FLamINgoes . H. S, Marks, R.A, . , 84 
 
 VI; Modern FurNituRE, after Adams, ) 
 
 <- »• ^ <- *^ «* ♦, 1 Messrs, Holland &> Sons . too 
 
 Sheraton, and Chippendale .J ' luu 
 
 VII. A DrAWING-RoOM CABINET . . Messrs. J&tfaon <5° Graham . 103 
 
 Vlll. A Dining-room Sideboard ,, ,, ,, . 115 
 
 IX. A Dining-room ChImney-piece . Designed by Mr. Robert W, Edis 122 
 
 X. A Study MaNteL-piece . „ ,, |f 126 
 
 XL Shelf-cLuster For MAnteL-piecE . ,, „ it . I2 8 
 
 XII. Domestic Iron and Brass Work . Messrs. Longden & Co. . . 132 
 
 X.IIL », ,> >,.,,,,... 135 
 
 XIV, Domestic TIles And TILE Decora- » 
 
 *,;„„ I Messrs. Mint on &> Co. . . 1C4 
 
 TION »..»».[ J ^ 
 
XVI 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PLATE 
 
 XV. 
 
 Sketch for a Hall, Modern \ Messrs. Gillow & Co 
 
 Jacobean 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Dining-room Furniture and De- 
 coration 
 
 To face p. 166 
 Designedly Mr. Robert W. Edis 1 72 
 
 A Library Mantel-piece . ,, ,, ,, 
 
 Octagon Boudoir, Adams Style Messrs. Gillow and Co. . 
 Bed-room Furniture . . . Messrs. Holland &> Sons 
 
 Iron and Brass Work 
 
 XXI. Decorative Wedgwood Ware 
 
 , Mr. Thomas Elsley 
 
 I Messrs. jfosiah Wedgwood 6° 
 } Sons 
 
 XXII. 
 XXIII. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 XXVII. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Domestic 
 
 Domestic Pottery, Lambeth \ Messrs . Doulton & Cifm 
 Ware . . . . . • ) 
 
 Modern Venetian Glass 
 
 Table Glass 
 Domestic Brass Work 
 Domestic Plate . 
 
 >> >> 
 
 190 
 216 
 
 220 
 277 
 
 246 
 245 
 
 253 
 
 254 
 
 The Venice and Murano Glass 
 and Mosaic Co. 265 
 
 t, ■ 266 
 
 Mr. Thomas Elsley . .270 
 Messrs. Widdoivson 6° Veale . 278 
 
THE 
 
 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 OF 
 
 TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 In the various suggestions I may offer, in the following 
 course of Lectures, I am desirous of putting forth no 
 dogmatic rules, of laying down no stringent laws from 
 which there shall be no departure, but rather to offer 
 some practical hints to those who are seeking to 
 depart from the general commonplaceness and vul- 
 garity of design, in the decoration and furniture of 
 our modern houses. I do not desire to enter into 
 any battle of styles, believing that true beauty and art 
 form are dependent upon no particular style — Classic, 
 Gothic, or so-called Queen Anne — and that in the 
 houses we live in, it is first of all essential that every- 
 thing shall be as fitting as possible, and that extrava- 
 
 B 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 gance of all kinds, or so-called * high art,' shall be 
 subservient to comfort, truth of construction, utility, and 
 general convenience. 
 
 In addressing an audience representing the more 
 educated portion of the public, I am most anxious to 
 impress upon you the desirability of having everything 
 about you beautiful in itself, and fitting for its special 
 purpose, and that, however commonplace the object, 
 it shall be good in form, design, and colour, and that 
 the present craving, if I may so call it, after artistic 
 work in decoration and furniture, shall not degenerate 
 into any set fashion of form or colouring, which, under 
 the clap-trap denomination of ' high art,' is utterly false 
 and unreal. 
 
 You do not, I presume, want to make show places 
 of your homes, in which the fashion of an hour shall 
 be exemplified, in the various monotonous dreariness 
 of sage greens and peacock blues in papering, or in 
 quaint eccentricities of design and form in furniture 
 and which, in a few short years, will be looked upon as 
 crude and tasteless. 
 
 In this country, where the love of home life and its 
 teachings of domestic comfort and peace especially 
 pertain, all questions of decoration and furniture must 
 necessarily be more or less influenced by these condi- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 tions, and we cannot expect in an age, in which there 
 are so many causes to influence opinion, to obtain any- 
 special unity of taste, or to have that strong harmonious 
 feeling, which brought about the great schools of 
 religious painting in the Middle Ages. 
 
 It is the fashion amongst a certain class of artists of 
 the present day to decry all modern art, and to seek 
 for ancient examples, Greek, Roman, Mediaeval, or 
 Oriental, on which to found their ideas of decorative 
 art in the present day ; but I cannot but think this 
 arises from a feeling of shame at their own incompetence, 
 and a desire to slur over their own ignorance, by feeble 
 attempts to copy the art of other countries. 
 
 The work that we have to do to-day, is ' not to be 
 content,' as Lord Aberdeen says, ' with the timid and 
 servile hand of the copyist, but with a due regard to 
 the changes of customs and manners, to the difference 
 of climate, and the conditions of modern society,' to 
 adapt the art work in our houses, so that it be beautiful, 
 fitting, and suitable. 
 
 Thanks to the great progress made in the chief arts 
 of architecture and painting in the last quarter of a 
 century, to the general advantage of technical education 
 throughout the country, by the establishment of the 
 Government School of Design at South Kensington, 
 
 B 2 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 with its numerous metropolitan and provincial branches, 
 and to the great number of loan collections at home 
 and abroad, there has been increased opportunity of 
 studying art of all kinds, and more especially of those 
 offshoots of architectural arts which are known gener- 
 ally under the name of * decorative arts.' 
 
 The various exhibitions in this country, and on the 
 Continent, in the last few years, have exercised an 
 immense influence on the taste, not only of the public, 
 but of the workmen in all the crafts of British industry, 
 more especially associated with the industrial art of the 
 country ; the innumerable beautiful examples of ancient 
 art productions of all countries, and the mass of publica- 
 tions illustrating them, have set us all to think more of 
 the things of every-day life in our homes, and by their 
 teaching, have gradually imbued all classes with a 
 desire and love for beautiful form and colour, and a 
 distaste for the crude vulgarities and hideous forms, 
 with which we have been for so long- content. 
 
 Too much praise cannot be given to the Society of 
 Arts, for the conscientious way in which they have for 
 long years steadily sought, by all the means in their 
 power, to foster and encourage the cause of art and 
 science, and from their exertions and initiative, have 
 sprung up most of the schools of practical art-teaching 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 throughout the country ; and it is but fair to remember 
 that this Society, soon after its foundation in 1754, set 
 itself to promote the more intelligent study of science 
 and art, by offering prizes in the classes, of what were 
 then called 'polite arts/ of painting, drawing, and 
 sculpture, and, even at this period, offered further 
 prizes for the arts applied to industry, in patterns for 
 weavers, calico printers, and furniture ; by which, as 
 evinced in the reports of the Society, much real good 
 was obtained, and a manifest improvement in design. 
 As the Royal Academy and other kindred societies in- 
 creased in power, the arts of painting and sculpture 
 became more under their especial management and 
 control, until in ICS43, when the late Prince Consort — 
 whose never-flagging endeavours to improve the do- 
 mestic arts of this country must always earn for him 
 a lasting gratitude — became President of the Society 
 and through his advice and influence, the society took 
 up the especial work of developing the application of the 
 Fine Arts to manufactures ; and the outcome of these 
 efforts was to produce the 1851 Exhibition, and, at the 
 same time, conjointly brought about the establishment 
 of the earlier schools of design, from which sprang the 
 present great school at South Kensington, and the 
 present system of Government art education. 
 
DECORA TION AND FURNITURE 
 
 In praising the present schools, I must take excep- 
 tion to some of their teaching. I cannot see why it is 
 necessary to make students work continually upon 
 designs of repeated geometrical forms — in which there 
 is an absence of all true artistic feeling — which are 
 called ornamental, or to strive after, what has been 
 justly called, ' a mere photographic correctness in the 
 studies, both from the flat and from the round,' in which 
 there is no beauty or life, and which tends to engender 
 a stiffness and conventionality of treatment in all after- 
 work. All this is machinery work of the hand, and 
 loses all trace of human mind or thought ; for if 
 art work is worth anything at all, it must be, not in the 
 production of slavish repetition of some set pattern, but 
 in the skilful and artistic rendering of ornament, in 
 which, while it may be necessary to keep up a certain 
 line of decorative treatment, there shall be no everlast- 
 ing sameness and repetition of drawing or colouring ; 
 the same line of scroll work may be treated with some 
 diversity of colouring and drawing, and yet be as har- 
 monious in tone and general effect, as the same work 
 continued with exact repetition of form and shade. 
 
 I do not here advocate the teaching of some of our 
 eccentric school of artists, if I may call them so, who 
 hold that no line or shade shall be repeated, or that we 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 shall make our walls ' studies ' in any particular shades 
 of colouring. 
 
 Unfortunately, it would seem that, to a great extent, 
 the present opportunities have not brought real life 
 or real pleasure with them, but have worked out a 
 fashion — a painted pretence and sham — worse even 
 than the fashion of dress ; and the decorative arts seem 
 likely to depend rather on luxury and fashion than on 
 any real love of art. Hence has arisen a race of so- 
 called decorators, who, working with little knowledge 
 and less love, are, under the name of ' art decoration,' 
 creating a fashion of design and furniture, which is 
 worse even than that of the dead days of the earlier 
 part of the present century, when people were content 
 to see around them the ugliest forms, the meanest de- 
 signs, and the dreariest of colours. We must have care 
 that so-called ' art decoration ' does not degenerate into 
 the feeble prettinesses of ignorant designers, into the 
 fashion of so-called ' art papers,' or the flimsiness of 
 furniture, imitated or copied from Japanese or Eastern 
 examples, and having no element of real culture or im- 
 aginative power of mind, associated with skilful and 
 loving work of hand and eye. Without doubt there is, 
 on the part of the educated classes, a desire to have in 
 every-day life, and in the houses they live in, furniture 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and decoration which shall have some real feeling for 
 truth of construction, beauty of form, and general har- 
 mony of colour. But if we are to have decoration, let 
 it be of the best kind ; if we must imitate, let us seek 
 for the best examples ; and, above all, if we are able to 
 afford figure decoration of any kind in our rooms, let it 
 be of the best type, well drawn, treated as flat decora- 
 tion, not as easel pictures, and not based on quaint and 
 angular models, dressed up in varied anachronism of 
 ancient dress. The houses we live in are, after all, 
 the main teaching of our lives ; and I am confident 
 that no amount of outside teaching can help forward 
 the love of beauty and truth, in form and in colour, so 
 much as the proper and decent arrangement of the 
 rooms and belongings which are continually before us. 
 While, for years past, there has been a revival in 
 all work, specially pertaining to ecclesiastical decoration 
 and furniture, the subject of house decoration, until 
 quite recently, has been signally uncared for. It is un- 
 fortunate that we cannot be content to study the art 
 work of other nations, without seeking to plagiarise 
 from it, or to adapt its form and colour in our own 
 manufactures and designs. Nothing can be more 
 beautiful in itself than the art work of India, China, 
 and Japan, whether applied to textile fabrics, carved 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 9 
 
 or painted wood work, pottery or porcelain, gold and 
 silver, or lacquer work ; but nothing can be more atro- 
 cious than the imitations with which we are nowadays 
 inundated. 
 
 Nothing can be worse than art at second-hand, 
 more especially when the associations and feelings of 
 the two sets of workers, the original and the imitators, 
 are totally different. In the study of all Oriental art 
 we can gain infinite knowledge of skill and grace of 
 design and workmanship, and power and beauty of 
 drawing and colouring, but the art-workers of this 
 country are no more able to imitate these attributes, 
 which we admire so much, than they can fly ; and when 
 we hear of rooms decorated with imitation Chinese 
 bamboo work, and tinted sealing-wax red and gold, 
 with splashes of blue and green, in imitation of Japanese 
 lacquer, we can only regret that the time and money 
 thus wasted, in fruitless endeavour to obtain what at 
 its best must be but a bad imitation, should not be ap- 
 plied to decoration and drawing more in keeping with 
 our own associations and surroundings. We may re- 
 ceive a higher and better influence in decorative taste 
 by studying the art-work of Oriental nations, but we 
 can never attain to any true artistic character of work, 
 by slavishly copying the design and colouring of artists, 
 
io DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 who worked under totally different associations and 
 traditions. 
 
 It was lamentable to notice in the Indian collection, 
 at the last Paris Exhibition, the numerous examples of 
 mongrel work, the result, as Dr. Birdwood, in his valu- 
 able handbook on the Indian section says truly, 'of 
 the influences on Indian art, of English society, mis- 
 sionary schools, schools of art, and international 
 exhibitions, and, above all, of the irresistible energy 
 of the mechanical productions of Manchester and 
 Birmingham, and Paris and Vienna.' This was 
 especially noticeable in the Prince of Wales's 
 collection, in the way in which the native chiefs and 
 princes, ' in many instances, despising their own arts, 
 had literal copies executed in solid silver ' of the latest 
 Birmingham imitations of Indian pattern tea-pots, 
 paper weights, and centre pieces. 
 
 Indian rugs and shawls have noticeably degenerated 
 through the same bad influences ; Cashmere shawls are 
 no longer the exquisite productions of the spontaneous 
 art feeling of the Indian workman, but are based upon 
 the ' improved shawl patterns ' which French importers 
 have laid before them. The design and colouring - of 
 the rugs and carpets which are now sent over have 
 been materially damaged by the Government practice 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. u 
 
 of making the prisoners in their Indian jails enter upon 
 the lucrative trade of carpet making, and thus, to a 
 great extent, extinguishing the caste weavers, with whom 
 has perished, let us hope not for ever, the local tradi- 
 tions of their art. The carpets thus made are poor in 
 quality, compared with the old examples, and the colours 
 and patterns are crude and bad. 
 
 To quote Dr. Birdwood again : — 
 
 ' Of late years the shop-windows of Regent Street 
 and Oxford Street have been filled with electrotype 
 reproductions of Burmese, Cashmere, Lucknow, Cutch, 
 and Madras silver and gold work, along with Man- 
 chester, Coventry, and Paisley imitations of Indian 
 chintzes, kincobs, and shawls. This is simply to de- 
 prave and debase English manufactures and English 
 taste. No people have a truer feeling for art than 
 English men and women of all classes, or purer ele- 
 ments of a national decorative style and methods ; and 
 the right and fruitful use of looking at superb examples 
 of Indian jewellery, tapestries, and pottery, is not to 
 make literal copies of them, but to kindle the sense of 
 wonder and imagination in us to nobler achievements 
 in our indigenous and industrial arts.' 
 
 It is impossible to slavishly copy the distinct and 
 indigenous varieties of Oriental decorative arts, with 
 
12 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 any satisfaction in the decorative work of this country ; 
 although it is quite possible to learn much from their 
 exquisite design and treatment, and to use and adapt 
 (as I shall hereafter describe) some of their work in the 
 decoration and ornamentation of our own homes. 
 
 If a man may be judged by the friends he has, 
 surely much more so may his artistic culture and love 
 of beauty be arrived at, by the nature of the things 
 with which he surrounds himself in his home. 
 
 It is unfortunately true that in many houses we 
 still find decoration and furniture in which there is no 
 element of beauty, in which costliness and vulgarity 
 seem to run together, while some of the modern 
 teachers run into eccentricity and grotesqueness of 
 design and colouring, forgetting that in art, as in every- 
 day life, eccentricities, either of design or colouring, are 
 to be avoided ; and that, as in the well-dressed woman 
 of our acquaintance, so in all art decoration, we should 
 be able to see general harmony and simplicity of effect, 
 in which there shall be no glaring patterns or colours. 
 
 The fittings, hangings, and general furniture of a 
 room should not only be fitting and suitable for their 
 various uses, but in harmony with the general decora- 
 tion of the walls, and this decoration should depend 
 not upon any- fashion or style, but on the general 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 13 
 
 appreciation and adoption of colour and beauty of 
 form, and withal ensuring a home-like feeling, made 
 more beautiful and interesting by the imaginative taste 
 and daily art education of those who live in our homes. 
 
 Depend upon it, the decoration of our houses is 
 not a mere thing of fashion, but a constant recurring 
 pleasure, and beyond all this, to a great extent, the 
 absolute art education of all, who dwell within or visit 
 us in our homes. 
 
 Since the latter days of the Renaissance, when 
 the decadence and fall of all real art practically set in, 
 there have been sundry fashions in architecture, paint- 
 ing, and decoration, which have had a short and fitful 
 life, giving way, like all fashions, which are grounded 
 on no love or real feeling, to the caprice and taste of 
 the last new comer. From the end of the sixteenth 
 century we have gone through many phases — from 
 Classic to Gothic, and from Gothic to Oueen Anne. 
 We had for a long period an affectation of a classic 
 taste, when the decoration of Pompeii was imitated ad 
 nauseam, but without understanding or knowledge of 
 the principles of the art ; the walls were overladen with 
 heavy colouring and gilding ; and in furniture, comfort 
 and utility were sacrificed to classic forms. To quote 
 a late writer on art in the ' Quarterly Review ' : 
 
14 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 ' Furniture, fire-irons, teapots, and the various objects 
 of daily domestic use, made after the manner of the 
 ancients, could scarcely be turned to their legitimate 
 purposes, however well adapted they may have been 
 to the sacrifices and ceremonies of a Greek or Roman 
 temple. Chairs and sofas strictly made upon the model 
 of the sella curulis and the bronze bisellium, might 
 have been comfortable in the Forum, but were exe- 
 crable in the drawing-room. We were at last fairly 
 driven out of the Classic mood. We could neither eat, 
 drink, nor sit in comfort.' 
 
 Then came the Gothic revival, and in furniture we 
 exchanged the curule chair for the 'narrow seat and 
 the knobby back,' not more comfortable or pleasant to 
 our persons than the ancient ' sedilia ' ; nor can much 
 be said for the carved cabinets, ponderous sideboards, 
 and imitation mediaeval furniture, constructed, of course, 
 ' on unexceptionable authority after the true fashion of 
 our ancestors.' And now has set in a fashion, dedicated 
 to her most sacred Majesty, Queen Anne, a fashion 
 which has developed much of really good art character, 
 and which, after all, properly applied, is really bringing 
 us back to old English work. Amongst the more 
 educated professors of the style, we find at present 
 many pretty conceits, which are not worthy of the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 15 
 
 name of art ; but we also find good construction and 
 carefulness of design, which we may hail as forerun- 
 ners of better times, and more artistic work. It is but 
 fair to say that to Messrs. Street, R.A., Norman 
 Shaw, R.A., Waterhouse, A.R.A., E. W. Godwin, 
 W. Burges, P. Webb, and other architects, and 
 to Messrs. Morris and Co., Messrs. Crace, Messrs. 
 Gillow, Messrs. Jackson and Graham, Messrs. Jeffrey, 
 and other well-known firms, much praise is due for 
 their efforts in the cause of artistic design in decorative 
 hangings and furniture. 
 
 I do not intend to treat my subject from any point 
 of view, in which money is no object, but to endeavour 
 to show that good artistic work may be done as reason- 
 ably as bad work, and that beauty of form, colour, and 
 design, may be as economically applied to house decora- 
 tion, and furniture, and with infinitely more satisfaction, 
 than the vulgar hangings and commonplace furniture 
 to which we have for so many years been accustomed. 
 
 In these days of luxury and artistic proclivities, 
 large sums of money are spent upon internal decoration 
 and furniture, without much idea of taste or common 
 sense ; money is frittered away in pretentious extrava- 
 gance, in the shape of gaudy decoration, or elaborately 
 carved and inlaid furniture, and hangings, of most 
 
1 6 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 expensive character, which have little or no real claim 
 to be called artistic or beautiful ; a profusion of elaborate 
 ornament is recklessly thrown upon the walls and ceil- 
 ings, without knowledge and without taste. In olden 
 days, good art did not mean prodigality of colouring, 
 and endless covering of wall or ceiling space, with 
 pattern work in various colours, but was made, as a 
 rule, consistent with the requirements and associations 
 of the period, whether in domestic or religious life. 
 
 Nowadays we are too apt to be content to accept 
 the dogmas of a particular school as correct and infal- 
 lible, and to forget that the true art decoration of 
 houses is not to be made up of fashionable wall papers, 
 or furniture, made after a particular pattern, but is 
 dependent upon the smaller surroundings and articles 
 of daily use. Nor is extravagance of cost necessary 
 for the fitting up of our houses ; for I hold that furniture 
 of thoroughly good art design, comfortable in shape, 
 and good in workmanship, may be made without any 
 extravagant outlay, and that plain polished or painted 
 deal furniture, of really good design, is better than all 
 the elaboration of Chippendale fretwork or Queen 
 Anne ornamentation. The pretentious imitation of 
 old work in furniture is in every way to be condemned ; 
 and I canno.t but quote here the words of the late 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES, 17 
 
 M. Viollet le Due, who, in his ' Mobilier Francaise,' 
 says, speaking of modern work generally : — 
 
 ' Amongst all these cheap splendours of false taste 
 and false luxury, we are delighted when we find a seat 
 really well made, a good oak table thoroughly strong 
 on its legs, woollen curtains which really look like 
 wool, a comfortable and solid chair, a cupboard which 
 opens and shuts well, showing us inside and out the 
 wood it is really made of, and the object for which it 
 is intended ; let us hope for a return to those healthy 
 ideas, and that in the making of furniture, as in every- 
 thing else, we may come to understand that true taste 
 consists in appearing that which one is, and not that 
 which one would wish to be.' 
 
 I can conceive nothing more terrible than to be 
 doomed to spend one's life in a house furnished, after 
 the fashion of twenty years ago. Dull monotonous 
 walls, on which garish flock papers, of the vulgarest 
 possible design, stare one blankly in the face, with 
 patches here and there of accumulated dirt and dust, or 
 the even worse monstrosities of imitation moirte silk, 
 with bunches of gilt flowers tied up in gilt ribbons, 
 and running in symmetrical lines, all carefully sized, 
 like soldiers on parade. Of course, if the flock paper 
 be red, we had red curtains hung on to a gigantic pole, 
 
 c 
 
1 8 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 like the mast of a ship, blossoming out at the ends 
 into bunches of flowers, or turned finials, like enor- 
 mous hyacinthe bulbs in water. Of course the curtains 
 trailed some feet on the floor, and, when not taken pos- 
 session of by the pet dog or cat, became the receptacle 
 for dust and dirt, or the hiding place of the remains of 
 some pet's dinner. The chairs were covered with red 
 stuff of some kind ; the table had a red cloth, printed 
 all over with elegant designs of flowers in black, in 
 impossible positions ; the carpet also was probably of 
 some gaudy colour and pattern, covering the whole 
 room with a sprawling pattern of gigantic flowers ; the 
 furniture, of the stiffest possible kind, rows of chairs, 
 seemingly propped up against the wall in straight lines 
 not to task over much the bandy-curved legs which 
 bore them, the so-called ' shaped ' backs cut cross-grain 
 of the wood so as to snap sharp off with any extra 
 weight ; an enormous glass over the miserably ugly 
 mantelpiece, in a still more enormous gold frame, with 
 bits of cast plaster ornament, also gilt, stuck on like 
 bats and rats on a barn door, and, like them, showing 
 signs of decay and decomposition ; a so-called side- 
 board, with a drawer in the middle, a cupboard on each 
 side, and another enormous glass overhead. In the 
 drawing-room, we had the same kind of monotony, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 19 
 
 only, perhaps, in a different colour ; a green carpet, 
 with peaceful lilies intertwining" with each other ; a 
 hearthrug, with a Bengal tiger ill at ease, with his back 
 to the fire, and his face to the lilies ,* and a footstool, 
 covered with Berlin wool, representing the pet dog of 
 the period, very much astonished at his proximity to 
 the aforesaid tiger ; green curtains,, with a Greek fret 
 or honeysuckle border in yellow or gold ; a gigantic 
 valance, with deep fringe worked into knots over 
 turned wood beads ; furniture, covered with work of 
 crude colours, marriage offerings to our fathers and 
 mothers ; chairs so lightly constructed that you could 
 never be safe upon them ; couches that you could not 
 lie comfortably upon ; tables with legs twisted and 
 turned into impossible shapes ; occasional chairs, which 
 were well named, that they would never stand for the 
 purposes they were intended, except very occasionally 
 indeed ; and the whole arrangements of the room stiff, 
 formal, and uninviting ; the worsted work and the silk 
 or rep covering, tied up, as a rule, in dingy linen covers, 
 and a general air of discomfort and unsociability ; who 
 can wonder that people lived but little in their drawing- 
 rooms ! If there was a bit of colour on the walls, nine 
 times out of ten it was of the tea-tray character, a 
 
 brilliant illumination of Vesuvius, as it would probably 
 
 c 2 
 
2o DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 appear at a pantomine, and not in reality ; a few family 
 portraits, whose particular merits were spoilt by the 
 painting, and everything miserable and unartistic ; so 
 that when you got up the staircase, with its walls made 
 cold and dingy by blocks of imitation marble, if one 
 had any taste at all, the very appearance and tone of 
 the room almost cowed one into silence, or froze one 
 into mere commonplaceness. This is no exaggera- 
 tion ; there are still hundreds of rooms, in which this 
 utter want of taste prevails ; but, thanks to the 
 increased demand for artistic design of late years in 
 almost everything, there is evinced on the part of the 
 better class of manufacturers of the various articles of 
 domestic use, a desire to provide a class of goods of 
 fair artistic design and of fairly good taste in form 
 and colour. 
 
 - Vexatio dat intellectum,' and it is not to be sup- 
 posed that any true knowledge of decoration, and real 
 feeling for things artistic, can be obtained all at once : 
 it is only by a constant study of nature, and of the really 
 beautiful things of art, that the eye becomes educated 
 to understand and appreciate beauty of form, outline, 
 and colour. Foremost in the very rudiments of real 
 art, it must be borne in mind that absolute truth must 
 be the foundation of all good work, that all ornament 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 21 
 
 should consist of the enrichment of the real construc- 
 tion of the building, that this should in itself be beauti- 
 ful, and that decoration itself should not be constructed 
 for mere purposes of show and effect, and should pos- 
 sess in itself fitness, proportion, and harmony of design 
 and colouring. 
 
 Speaking of our houses, the late Mr. Owen Jones, 
 in his ' Grammar of Ornament,' truly says : ' Archi- 
 tecture is the material expansion of the wants, the 
 faculties, and the sentiments of the age in which it is 
 created,' and ' the decorative arts should possess fitness, 
 proportion, and harmony,' so as to bring about that 
 proper and necessary ' repose which the mind feels 
 when the eye, the intellect, and the affections are 
 satisfied.' 
 
 If we examine any of the best work of past ages, 
 either in textile fabrics, furniture, or decoration, we 
 shall see that truth and fitness in design and construc- 
 tion, and harmony in colour and arrangement, are care- 
 fully carried out ; that there is no sham or imitation, 
 but, so far as practicable, the work is essentially real 
 and true. To carry into our houses the shadow of 
 unreality, by graining or marbling in imitation of the 
 real materials, by giving to cast iron the semblance of 
 wrought, by putting up papers painted to represent 
 
22 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 various woods, tiles, or marble, is simply teaching a lie, 
 and asserting in the worst possible taste the semblance 
 of a truth which does not exist ; and when the best 
 graining or marbling in the world is done, it is but a 
 miserable satire on the real material. All striving after 
 imitation and unreality is utterly at variance with good 
 taste in decoration, as in life. I do not wish to enter 
 into the moral aspect of the matter, but the words from 
 the chapter on * Moral Influences of the Dwelling,' in 
 the ' Recreations of a Country Parson/ seem here sin- 
 gularly appropriate. Speaking of our homes, the author 
 of this charming little book says : — 
 
 ' I think it is now coming to be acknowledged by 
 most rational beings that houses ought to be pretty as 
 well as healthy ; and that houses, even of the humblest 
 class, may be pretty as well as healthy. By the 
 Creator's wise arrangement, beauty and art go to- 
 gether ; the prettiest house will be the healthiest, most 
 convenient, and most comfortable. And I am per- 
 suaded that great moral results follow from people's 
 houses being pretty as well as healthy. ... It makes 
 an educated man domestic ; it makes him a lover of 
 neatness and accuracy ; it makes him gentle and ami- 
 able (I mean in all but very extreme cases), to give 
 him a pretty hbme. . . . Taste costs nothing. If you 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 23 
 
 have a given quantity of building materials to arrange 
 in order, it is just as easy, and just as cheap, to arrange 
 them in a tasteful and graceful order of collocation, as 
 in a tasteless, irritating, offensive, and disgusting one. 
 . . . And in this aesthetic age, when there is a general 
 demand for greater beauty in all physical appliances ; 
 when we are getting rid of the vile old willow pattern ; 
 when bedroom crockery must be of graceful form and 
 embellishment ; when grates and fenders, chairs and 
 couches, window curtains and carpets, oilcloth for lobby 
 floors and paper for covering walls, must all be designed 
 in conformity with the dictates of an elevated taste, it 
 is not too much to hope that the day will come when 
 every human dwelling that shall be built shall be so 
 built and so placed that it shall form a picture pleasant 
 to all men to look at' 
 
 I am quite sure that all things that show what they 
 really are, and do not pretend to be something else, are 
 in the end best and cheapest. It may be said that 
 within the last few years, the public have had little or no 
 chance of getting rid of vulgar designs in wall hangings, 
 curtains, carpets, and furniture, and that, if they wanted 
 to obtain better work, the cost of purchasing real Indian 
 or Persian rugs, or of having furniture designed, was 
 utterly beyond their means ; and with every desire to 
 
24 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 see better work in their houses, the knowledge and 
 taste of the manufacturers of the various objects were so 
 limited that they were content to keep to the old pat- 
 terns, or to put forth others which were equally vulgar 
 and commonplace. For long years we have been con- 
 tent to have the furniture and fittings of our houses un- 
 artistic and commonplace, and, as Mr. Eastlake says in 
 his very useful and well-written book on ' Household 
 Taste,' this commonplaceness 'pervaded and vitiated 
 the judgment by which we were accustomed to select 
 and approve the objects of every-day use in our houses. 
 It crossed our path in the Brussels carpet of our draw- 
 ing-rooms ; it was about our beds in the shape of gaudy 
 chintz ; it compelled us to rest on chairs and sit at 
 tables which were designed in accordance with the 
 worst principles of construction, and invested them 
 with shapes confessedly unpicturesque. It sent us 
 metal work from Birmingham which was as vulgar in 
 form as it was flimsy in execution. It decorated the 
 finest modern porcelain with the most objectionable 
 character of ornament. It lined our walls with silly 
 representations of vegetable life, or with a mass of un- 
 interesting diaper. It bade us, in short, furnish our 
 houses after the same fashion as we dress ourselves, 
 and that is with no more sense of beauty than if art 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 25 
 
 were a dead letter.' This utter want of taste and 
 general love of meretricious and vulgar show ramified 
 through everything, from the art of architecture to the 
 meanest object of every-day use. What wonder, then, 
 that there was little appreciation of art or taste, or any 
 refinement of culture or feeling, and that, while in other 
 countries, art-manufactures of all kinds were infinitely 
 superior, our own productions were utterly thrown into 
 the shade, and art in domestic life was almost a thing 
 unknown ! 
 
 In decoration and furniture the great aim of the 
 designer should be simplicity and appropriateness of 
 form and design, with harmony of colour ; and to show 
 that the cheapest and commonest things need not be 
 ugly, and that truth in art and design need not of neces- 
 sity involve costliness and lavish expenditure. Fitness 
 and absolute truth are essential to all real art, for be it 
 remembered that ' design is not the offspring of idle 
 fancy ; it is the studied result of accumulative observa- 
 tions and delightful habit ; ' and by a careful regard to 
 this we may make our homes and habitations, if not 
 absolutely shrines of beauty and good taste, at least 
 pleasant places where the educated eye may look 
 around, without being shocked and offended by some 
 Vulgarity and gaudy commonplaceness. 
 
26 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 It fell to my lot to have to review very many of 
 the exhibits in the last Paris Exhibition of trades 
 specially cognate to art, and" I consequently had to 
 examine more closely than I otherwise should have 
 done into the various articles of every-day use, as to 
 their design, workmanship, and cost ; and I am bound 
 to say that, although there was much that showed 
 enormous progress in art design and skilled workman- 
 ship, I found little or nothing which, to my mind, in 
 any way solved the all-important problem of providing 
 really good and artistic furniture at a moderate cost, so 
 that it might be within the reach of all classes of the 
 community. There is no real reason why painted 
 and varnished deal or other soft wood furniture 
 should not be made at a cost within the means of all. 
 Pitch pine or even simple yellow deal, varnished or 
 polished or painted, is capable of being worked into 
 buffets, cabinets, wardrobes, and innumerable other 
 articles of furniture, if properly and simply treated, 
 without carving, or elaborate fretwork cutting, or 
 moulding. 
 
 The difficulty nowadays seems to be in designing 
 furniture for ordinary use in simple and appropriate 
 form, strong and serviceable, good in outline and make, 
 but free from unnecessary and incongruous elaboration 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 27 
 
 and multiplicity of ornamentation, which is as useless 
 as it is expensive. 
 
 Of what use or beauty are bookcases plastered over 
 with miniature Gothic buttresses, or finished with 
 elaborately pierced cornices and moulded finials ? or 
 wardrobes with panels filled in with expensive carving 
 or fretwork patterns, which are not only utterly out of 
 place, but, under all conditions and circumstances, 
 objectionable as resting-places for dirt and dust ? 
 All such articles of furniture should be designed for 
 use, not show : the bookcases as strong simple frame- 
 work for the storage of bocks ; wardrobes well made 
 and fitted with carefully arranged nests of shelves 
 and drawers, close fitting and dust proof; cabinets 
 strongly made and designed to show off, to the best 
 advantage, the things they are intended to contain, 
 not massive with bad ornament and carving, or 
 practically useless with minute niches, circular-shaped 
 ends, or senseless rows of tiny balustrading. 
 
 It is no exaggeration to say that in many cases a 
 few pounds will provide strong and serviceable accommo- 
 dation of much more real use and higher artistic cha- 
 racter than is now provided for at six or seven times 
 the amount. 
 
 Messrs. Morris and Co. have designed an excellent 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 arm-chair in stained wood, comfortable, and artistic, 
 although, perhaps, somewhat rough in make, for gs. gd. ; 
 and I have seen buffets and bookcases made in 
 deal at the cost of a few pounds which look well, and 
 answer all the purposes for which they are required. 
 
 I have given a slight sketch of this chair to show 
 its general character and form. Whatever may be 
 
 thought of its artistic merit, it is certainly comfortable 
 for use, pleasant to look at, and cheap in price ; it is 
 strongly made of birch wood stained black, with rush 
 bottom and strong arms, and is to my mind fitted for 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 29 
 
 almost any room : it can be made more comfortable 
 perhaps with a stuffed loose seat at a cost of a few 
 shillings a chair. 
 
 This and the simple bedroom chair without arms 
 are both cheap and serviceable. 
 
 There are innumerable examples of cotton and 
 
 chintz of excellent colouring and pattern which can be 
 bought for a few shillings a yard, and well designed 
 and drawn papers at a mere nominal cost, compared 
 with the expensive French imitation silk and gold 
 examples of a few years back, and plain painted 
 furniture of good form and appropriate design and 
 
30 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 arrangement, which can be obtained from almost any 
 really good upholsterer, in place of the more elaborate 
 polished mahogany erections with which we have so 
 long been familiar. 
 
 Good Oriental rugs can be purchased for small 
 sums, and, in combination with painted or stained floors 
 or India matting bordering, can be made to cover the 
 floor spaces of our rooms quite as inexpensively as a 
 Brussels or Wilton carpet laid all over the room. 
 
 For more than a hundred years, the fashion of 
 furniture, like that of the master art of architecture, has 
 been continually changing, and from time to time we 
 have had works which have either been adapted or 
 imitated from ancient Greek or Roman examples, or 
 in later years have based their form and shape on 
 mediaeval specimens, degenerating, as a rule, into 
 vulgar and meretricious commonplaceness, in which 
 seeming quaintness, stiff angularities, and eccentric and 
 uncomfortable cuttings and projections, did duty for the 
 more elaborate, although equally uncomfortable, finish- 
 ing of the real work. The age of Batty Langley 
 produced furniture as false and meretricious in taste as 
 the rooms it was designed to fill. The later rococo 
 period of pseudo-Italian work, in which compo was 
 made to do duty for real stone, and whole rows of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 31 
 
 houses were erected in the most approved forms of 
 vulgar commonplaceness, brought back the vulgarity 
 and senseless imitation of the worst period of French 
 upholstery. In still later days arose the fashion of so- 
 called mediaeval furniture made to fall in with the 
 revival of Gothic architecture, but based on no real 
 knowledge of the actual specimens of the furniture of 
 the Middle Ages, which, with all its elaborateness and 
 richness of design and materials, and all its gorgeous- 
 ness of colouring, would be no more suited to the 
 domestic life and habits of the nineteenth century than 
 the cramped and ill-arranged smaller houses of the 
 Middle Ages, as shown by the examples still remaining 
 to us, would be suited to the wants and requirements 
 of present times. If not an age of luxury, the nine- 
 teenth century is essentially one of comfort ; and the 
 tile-pavements, with sweet-scented straw or heath 
 strewn upon them, the divans and wall benches, the 
 ingeniously carved, but withal uncomfortable, chairs 
 and tables, the walls hung with rich carpets or tapestry, 
 are totally unsuited to modern wants and ways of 
 living. 
 
 In the eighteenth century the work of the uphol- 
 sterers in England was much influenced by the designs 
 of Chippendale, Sheraton, Adams, and Pergolesi ; and 
 
32 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 in these we find, as a rule, general utility and comfort, 
 combined with skill and delicacy in design and excel- 
 lency of workmanship. 
 
 So far, the present fashion of architecture has 
 caused us to hark back to the work of these designers ; 
 and in much of the furniture of the present day their 
 influence is clearly shown. 
 
 In furniture, as in almost everything else in the 
 last two centuries, there have been frequent changes of 
 fashion, depending rather upon the caprices than the 
 absolute necessities of society. In early days, when our 
 ancestors were compelled to hold their own by force of 
 arms, to shut themselves up in strongly built and 
 fortified castles, and were of necessity compelled to 
 be ready to flee from the successful raids of hostile 
 forces, the principal furniture consisted of chests ; and 
 many a massive iron-bound box which, although made 
 to defy all attempts to open, must yet, in the days when 
 carriages were of the clumsiest character, have been 
 somewhat hard to move. After these days, to quote 
 M. Jacquemart : — 
 
 'By degrees, as public security increased, and society, 
 growing more condensed, found support in its legal 
 organisation, ease began to develop itself, and with it 
 luxury — that innate want of intelligent races, who require 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 the satisfaction of the eye in proportion to the enlight- 
 enment of the mind. Strictly speaking, therefore, it was 
 not until after the strifes of the Middle A^es that 
 furniture, such as we understand it in our day, could 
 have existed ; that is, an assemblage of objects placed 
 in the principal divisions of habitation, to satisfy the 
 different requirements, and present at the same time 
 an agreeable, elegant, and even splendid appearance.' 
 
 It is curious to notice how much furniture, like 
 architecture, speaks in plain language the history of a 
 country ; and as nations increased in wealth and civili- 
 sation, the luxury and gorgeousness of their furniture 
 increased : while the design and form of manv of the 
 pieces, to a great extent, marked the customs and forms 
 of the particular people. The ' triclinium ' of three 
 seats of the Romans marked the late Oriental fashion 
 of reclining at meals. The ancient Greeks and Romans, 
 moreover, divided their household furniture into various 
 heads : first, the articles devoted to domestic relio-ious 
 sacrifices ; secondly, the ornaments worn on solemn 
 festivals by the women, who in those days were placed 
 immediately after the gods ; and then, in rotation, the 
 sacred robes and military armour of the men, the looms 
 and spinning wheels, cooking utensils, and the various 
 services of plate or porcelain, which were, even as now, 
 
 D 
 
34 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 divided into those for general use, and those for grand 
 occasions. The chairs used by the Greeks were elegant 
 in form and graceful in design, and of materials varying 
 in costliness according to the means of the owner ; in 
 the examples shown on ancient gems and bassi-relievi, 
 we see the straight-backed chairs or thrones of their 
 gods, all more or less like the high-backed chairs of the 
 Elizabethan period. 
 
 I must be forgiven if, as an architect, I regret that 
 in these days the designing of furniture is, as a rule, 
 handed over to the upholsterer, and that the houses 
 we build are ofttimes filled with articles incongruous 
 in design, bad in taste, and often utterly commonplace 
 and uncomfortable. This criticism does not apply to 
 some of our principal manufacturers, who have striven 
 to lead the public into more artistic thoughts, and have 
 provided for them work which is at once good in design 
 and treatment, graceful and pleasant in form, and 
 finished in the highest possible way, both as regards 
 artistic character and skill of handicraft. But these 
 gentlemen, like other artists, have a cloud of imitators, 
 whose works are set forth as of ' old English,' ' Queen 
 Anne,' or some other special and equally applicable 
 period or fashion, and which, while aiming to be cheap, 
 are equally commonplace and nasty, and are filled with 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 35 
 
 carvings of the most execrable character, or with some 
 miserable painted daub, bad in drawing and in colour, 
 which is made to do duty as a panel, and is set forth 
 as high art ; and from its gaudiness — or, if you like it 
 better, eccentricity of design — commends itself to those 
 whose taste is not of the highest kind, but whose 
 ambition to possess gaudy finery and something to 
 show off, is great and insatiable. 
 
 We, architects, are ofttimes most unfairly blamed 
 for work in which we have had no hand, and are held 
 unjustly liable for the scamping work and, to my mind, 
 criminal faults of bad work and still worse materials, of 
 the ordinary speculative builder, which no existing laws 
 or Building Acts seem capable of preventing. We may- 
 be guilty of many sins of omission and commission, 
 but we are not to be blamed, as a rule, for the general 
 tasteless fitting up of the houses Ave build, or for the 
 glaring anachronisms of taste in the decoration and 
 furniture of the rooms we design. 
 
 The various discoveries of the paintings on the walls 
 
 of buildings at Thebes and neighbouring districts, and 
 
 at Pompeii and Herculaneum, give us a very fair idea 
 
 of the furniture of ancient Egypt and Italy. The 
 
 Egyptians undoubtedly had handsome inlaid seats of 
 
 various kinds, made of ebony and other rare woods, and 
 
 d 2 
 
36 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 often covered with rich stuffs, sometimes with leather, 
 fancifully decorated. The legs were carved into the 
 semblance of those of animals, and sometimes would 
 seem to be solid and painted with figures of captives, 
 indicating a degrading position. The pillows would 
 seem to have been of wood hollowed for the head ; 
 the tables were of all forms, generally circular, as being 
 more social and comfortable ; and, so far as we can as- 
 certain, the furniture of ancient Egypt was more or less 
 like that of the present day, while modern Egypt is 
 content to have an Oriental form of arrangement, in 
 which low divans and mats form the principal items. 
 
 In the sixteenth century, furniture practically be- 
 came more solid and less moveable, and from this 
 period dates the designing and making of elaborate 
 inlaid and carved furniture of every description, until, 
 in the time of Louis XIV., was inaugurated, so to 
 speak, an age of pomp and luxurious magnificence in 
 all articles of furniture and decoration, gradually lead- 
 ing, as all such work, as a rule, leads, to the whimsical 
 extravagance and ugliness of form, and to the costliness 
 of metal chasing and elaborately gilt bronze decora- 
 tion, known generally under the name of its inventor, 
 ' Buhl,' in which, while we cannot but admire the ex- 
 quisite workmanship and, in many instances, beautiful 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 37 
 
 and spirited conception and design, there is little of 
 real use or homelike character. In later days, we see 
 a return to the purer work of the Renaissance age, 
 simplicity and delicacy in design and ornament ; and, 
 in the seventeenth century, panels of porcelain of 
 Oriental design and make were largely employed, until, 
 under Louis XVI., the beautiful porcelain plaques of 
 Sevres were substituted for Oriental panels, and the 
 delicate colouring and graceful painting of these, in- 
 termingled with exquisite veneerings of various coloured 
 woods, and the finely wrought bronze work, beauteously 
 chased and gilt, worked out with great beauty of design 
 and general harmony of treatment, all tended to create 
 a purer and better taste in the design and character 
 of furniture. About this time too were made many 
 of the marquetry cabinets, in which various woods 
 were skilfully inlaid in endless designs and shapes. 
 All this kind of furniture had in its particular style 
 great beauty and charm, but it was eminently costly ; 
 and, as a rule, all modern imitations lose, from 
 want of skill of handicraft, and power of decorative 
 design and treatment, all character, and are, like the 
 mediaeval examples of Wardour Street, things to be 
 avoided rather than encouraged or sought after. 
 
 I have thus briefly sketched out the history of 
 
38 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 furniture, with no idea of suggesting its influence upon 
 our modern work, in which different necessities and 
 different habits require different treatment ; and, in my 
 future lectures, I propose to offer suggestions for the 
 economical treatment of decoration and furniture, and 
 the adaptation of both to modern necessities, rather 
 than to discuss with what elaborateness and gorgeous- 
 ness decoration can be carried out, where money is no 
 object. 
 
 I shall be satisfied if in the course of the following 
 lectures I may set any of you thinking more about the 
 art decoration and furnishing of your homes than you 
 have done hitherto, and if I can show you that good 
 art is not necessarily costly, nor a mere fashionable 
 plaything, but something which, rightly carried out in 
 every-day life, leads to higher, nobler, and better 
 thoughts. 
 
 It has been well written that — 
 
 ' The law of development under which nature per- 
 fects her types should also be the law of art, and the 
 error into which revivalists fall is that of going back- 
 wards in the order of creation instead of forwards. 
 The one broad line of distinction between Classicists 
 and Gothicists would seem to be that the former seek 
 abstract beauty, an ideal and perfected type, while the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 39 
 
 latter seize upon accident, character, and eccentricity. 
 The remedy lies in the more intelligent study of 
 nature.' 
 
 The present revival in good hands is working back 
 to truth of construction, boldness of composition and 
 treatment, and strength and grace of drawing. Thus 
 may we hope that styles small and puerile will give 
 place to manners great and manly, and that our English 
 art in decoration and furniture may eventually return 
 to those days in which truth and study of nature, com- 
 bined with knowledge of use and suitability, were the 
 chief attributes of all good and pure design. And now 
 that the Government is dealing in a measure with the 
 art educotion of the people, and the knowledge of good 
 and evil in drawing, design, and colouring is being 
 largely disseminated, let us hope that the fine arts, as 
 applied to the internal decoration of our homes, as well 
 as to architecture, sculpture, and painting, may be felt 
 as the higher intellectual agents in fostering and pro- 
 moting the well-being of man. 
 
4Q 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 FLOOR, WALL, AND CEILING DECORATION. 
 
 In this second lecture, I purpose to treat generally of 
 floor, wall, and ceiling decoration, and to offer various 
 suggestions for the treatment of the floor and wall 
 surfaces. As, however, I am more especially adapting 
 my remarks to town houses, it will be necessary to re- 
 member that, as a rule, the light in the rooms of ordinary 
 town houses is only practically obtained from one end 
 of the room, and as this in the back rooms is generally 
 more or less obstructed by surrounding buildings, that 
 it is therefore desirable that the general tone of colour- 
 ing and decoration should be bright and cheerful, so 
 as to neutralise, as much as possible, the prevailing 
 gloom. In new houses, there will be little or no 
 difficulty in arranging for any kind of floor, wall, or 
 ceiling decoration that you may wish to use, or think 
 most suitable to the character of the house. In exist- 
 ing houses there are, of course, many difficulties to 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 41 
 
 contend with, if you in any way wish materially to alter 
 the design and character of your flooring, by the use 
 of marble, mosaic, or tile paving, or to alter in any way 
 the existing ceilings of the various rooms, except by 
 mere flat decorative treatment of the original plaster 
 work. 
 
 The cutting away of the generally bad plaster en- 
 richments, so as to render the whole ceiling space fit- 
 ting for the superimposing of more suitable decoration 
 in the way of designed canvas plaster ornamentation, 
 or plaster or wood panelling, must necessarily be 
 somewhat costly. Much may, however, be done, 
 by careful and slight tinting in paint or distemper, 
 and by the general arrangement of stencil decoration, 
 to make the existing ceilings more artistic and in 
 character with the decoration of the walls. 
 
 In most town houses the floors of the halls and 
 inner hall are of stone, and any cutting away of this, 
 for the purpose of laying over it any kind of marble 
 or tile pavement, must necessarily be troublesome and 
 costly. The stonework itself, if kept clean and white, 
 will form a very good border for simple Persian or 
 Indian rugs. Although I am no advocate for painting 
 stonework as a rule, I think it will be found desirable 
 to paint all stone margins of halls and staircases in 
 
42 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 some warm colour to save the continual labour of 
 cleaning and whitening them ; for if thus plainly- 
 treated they will necessarily show dirt and damp, 
 much more readily than painted work. Oilcloth and 
 linoleum are generally unsatisfactory ; the painted 
 pattern of the one soon becomes unsightly, while 
 the general tone of the latter used in plain colours is 
 unpleasant, the pattern work being liable to wear out 
 in a few years, and, as in oilcloth, to present an untidy 
 and unsatisfactory appearance. It will be found, there- 
 fore, much better to paint the stone margins with a 
 soft tone of warm brown or other good wearing colour, 
 and to cover the centre spaces with thick felt drug- 
 get or good Indian or Persian rugs, all of which 
 can be obtained at a very moderate cost, may be 
 cheerful in colour and pleasant to the feet, are readily 
 taken up and shaken, and tend to make the usual 
 dismal entrance of a town house look warm and 
 comfortable. 
 
 An inexpensive way of adding to the artistic effect 
 of the old stone paving, is to incise in it one or two 
 lines as a border, the lines being of an unequal thick- 
 ness, and then filled in with coloured cements, or 
 narrow tile slips. The process adopted by Baron 
 Triqueti, in the work executed by him at Windsor, for 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 43 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen, and called ' Tarsia de Marbre,' 
 consisted of cutting or hatching numerous lines into 
 the marble slab, and filling them in with coloured 
 cements, somewhat after the manner of the well-known 
 pavement in the Cathedral at Sienna ; but the process 
 is not one to be commended, and the result is, from 
 an artistic point of view, when applied to figure 
 decoration for wall surfaces, anything but satisfactory. 
 I see no reason, however, why the inlaying of stone 
 with coloured cements or marble or tile slips, should 
 not be more generally adopted for the pavements of 
 halls and conservatories. Another simple and inex- 
 pensive way of treating the old stone paving is to 
 form a large square or diagonal diaper pattern all over 
 it, by means of slightly incised lines, and inserting at 
 the junction of the lines small red or black tiles, so as 
 to form a distinct pattern. All this kind of work can 
 be done very inexpensively, and, to my mind, com- 
 mends itself to those who are anxious to avoid the 
 everlasting monotony of linoleum or oilcloth, which 
 soon lose their brilliancy, and want renewing in a 
 few years. 
 
 Stone pavement thus treated must not, however, 
 be painted, but cleaned and hearth-stoned or pipe- 
 clayed daily, the marble or tile centres being washed 
 
44 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 with plain soap and water. Take, for instance, the 
 ordinary outer hall floor of a town house, which may 
 be, say, 12 feet long by 6 feet broad : I would suggest 
 that, instead of covering this with linoleum or oilcloth, 
 you should sink a mat space next the front door of 
 sufficient size to admit of a good-sized serviceable mat, 
 and form the rest of the floor into a pattern by incising 
 it round the outside with a plain simple bordering — 
 the pattern may be elaborated according to the means 
 of the owner — with narrow lines from \ to \\ inch wide, 
 and filling these in with coloured cements or plain red 
 and buff tile slips, which can readily be procured at 
 any of the well-known tile manufacturers, and cover- 
 ing the centre space with a good rug or mat ; or the 
 whole may be cut into a geometrical pattern. 
 
 A more expensive way of improving the old stone 
 paving is by cutting a space, say 1 2 inches wide, as a 
 border all round, and filling it in with grey, red, and 
 black marble slips, or with a pattern border of marble 
 mosaic, or tile-work. All this kind of work can, of 
 course, be amplified to any extent ; but in any simple 
 way, such as I have suggested, the existing stone floors 
 can be made infinitely more pleasant and artistic, at no 
 greater cost than covering them with oilcloth or lino- 
 leum, when it is remembered that the latter want con- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 45 
 
 stantly renewing and that the former treatment will 
 last for even 
 
 Marble mosaic, and plain or encaustic tile paving, 
 have of late years come largely into use, and it is not 
 necessary to enlarge upon the excellence of either of 
 these special ways of paving ; but remember always 
 that with tiles, simple designs, and masses of plain 
 colours, red, grey, or buff, are to be preferred 
 to any elaborate patterns, which, as a rule, are any- 
 thing but artistic, and too often utterly unsatisfactory. 
 In tile pavements it is desirable, especially in the 
 ordinary narrow hall of a town house, to have as broad 
 a treatment of the spaces as possible, and to avoid 
 altogether the all-over patterns, which are published in 
 most of the pattern books laid before the public ; not 
 only are these elaborate geometrical patterns unsatis- 
 factory when laid, by destroying the breadth of surface 
 and seemingly diminishing the already too narrow space, 
 but they are infinitely more expensive than plain red 
 4 or 6 inch tiles laid over the whole space, with a 
 simple border of black or buff. A plain red tile pave- 
 ment of this kind is infinitely pleasanter, warmer, and 
 more suitable for a town hall, than any of the ela- 
 borate patterns which are offered for the public choice, 
 and repeated ad nauseam, in oilcloth and linoleum. 
 
46 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 In late years there has been a very considerable 
 revival in the work of marble mosaic for pavements. 
 Messrs. Burke and Co., and other manufacturers, have 
 endeavoured to bring this eminently beautiful and 
 artistic work into more general use, by economising, 
 as far as possible, the cost of its production and laying. 
 This kind of pavement is necessarily costly in small 
 spaces, varying from 505. to 70^. a yard, but when laid 
 the result is most satisfactory. Messrs. Minton and Co., 
 and other manufacturers, make tesserae of burnt earth, 
 with which a somewhat cheaper pavement can be 
 made. 
 
 In all this kind of work, it must be remembered 
 that a considerable extra thickness is superimposed 
 upon the existing stone base, and that this must be 
 provided for, either by cutting away the stonework, or 
 in splaying down the new coating to the floors of the 
 rooms. The first procedure is expensive and unsatis- 
 factory, as weakening the constructive flooring ; but 
 the splaying off in the door openings can be done so 
 as to in nowise be inconvenient or objectionable, and 
 the expense of cutting away the stonework is thus 
 avoided. Of course, if the floors are of wood, all this 
 expense is avoided by taking up the old flooring and 
 filling in between the joists with concrete or pugging, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 47 
 
 and so providing a solid level surface for the new 
 flooring. It is not necessary to enter into the question of 
 the use of mosaic for general decoration, for naturally 
 it hardly suggests itself as suitable for the covering 
 of the internal walls of our houses, and the action of 
 frost and moisture practically prevents its adoption, 
 except when carefully protected, for external work ; 
 moreover, for all absolutely decorative purposes it 
 must necessarily be costly, and its effect at short 
 distances is generally unsatisfactory. Applied to the 
 decoration of large monumental structures, mosaic has 
 been used from the earliest civilised times, and the 
 wondrous beauty of the ancient examples which still 
 remain to us, in mural decoration and pavements, 
 speak better than all words to its interest and dur- 
 ability. 
 
 Another and a cheaper way of paving is by the 
 use of what are called marble mosaic tiles ; these tiles 
 are made by pressing a number of various coloured 
 marble chips into a specially prepared cement, either 
 without pattern, as < misciata,' or in a pattern ; the tiles 
 when dry being polished, the effect is good and pleasing. 
 The cost varies from js. 6d. per square yard, and if 
 the tiles are used in single colours of red, grey, and 
 black, an effective pavement can be obtained at a small 
 
48 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 cost. This material may also be made in large slabs 
 for lining walls, and when polished forms an excellent 
 finish for hall or staircase dados at moderate cost. 
 The mosaic tiles, made by the Mosaic Tile Company, 
 seem specially good in design and moderate in cost. 
 Inlaid cement work for floors ought to be much more 
 encouraged, as a cheap and durable method of simple 
 but effective treatment of plain surfaces. 
 
 I need hardly refer to the ordinary covering of a 
 London hall by means of linoleum and oilcloth. I 
 consider both objectionable, and to be avoided as far 
 as possible. Painted oilcloth soon becomes shabby by 
 its pattern being worn through, and, as a rule, this 
 pattern is only an imitation of tile or parquet work, 
 bad in treatment, colouring, and design. 
 
 Until quite recently, it has been the fashion to 
 cover the whole of the floors of our reception and bed- 
 rooms with drugget or carpet, which, as a rule, was 
 never removed, except at the usual periods of spring 
 and autumn cleaning ; and it is hardly necessary, there- 
 fore, to object to the system as utterly opposed to all 
 laws of health and cleanliness. Floors thus covered, 
 as a matter of course become the receptacles of dirt 
 and dust, which no amount of brushing can get rid of; 
 and this daily brushing serves only to raise a cloud of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 49 
 
 dirt and dust, which settles in part upon every object 
 in the rooms, and in part returns to its original resting- 
 place. It is a matter of astonishment to me, to find 
 that there are still a large number of people who are 
 content to keep this exceedingly bad arrangement of 
 floor covering, and who object altogether to having a 
 certain amount of plain floor space all round the sides 
 of the room. In the first place, this covering of the 
 whole surface is unhealthy ; in the second place, it is 
 dirty ; and, in the third place, the cost of the carpet is 
 infinitely more than the cost of painting or staining the 
 edges of the rooms. 
 
 There are many ways of treating the floor surfaces 
 of a room, either in part, or entirely, so as to avoid the 
 necessity of carpeting the whole surface. The cheapest 
 way is to paint, say, a margin of two or three feet 
 wide, all round the room, in four or five coats of dark 
 colour, care being taken that the groundwork through- 
 out is dark, so that scratches shall not show any light 
 colour under, and that sufficient time is allowed for 
 each succeeding coat to harden and dry. Take care 
 also that the floors are painted before being sized, for 
 if size is used before paint or stain, the surface will 
 easily chip and soon become shabby. A square carpet 
 or rug can then be pinned down over the centre space, 
 
 E 
 
50 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and this can be easily taken up once a week and shaken, 
 and the borders can be washed or cleaned every day. 
 New floors can either be treated in this way, or stained, 
 sized, and varnished, or wax polished. 
 
 Many of the floors abroad are formed entirely in 
 tiles, laid upon concrete filling-in between the wood 
 joists ; but, although clean and healthy, this kind of 
 floor is somewhat cold and dismal, and, unless extremely 
 well laid, the joints are too apt to form receptacles for 
 dirt and dust. 
 
 A more expensive way of forming borders is by 
 the use of what is called ' Parquet' This parquet 
 consists of the fitting together of narrow strips of 
 various hard woods, carefully grooved and tongued, 
 into a pattern ; this work is, however, expensive, vary- 
 ing from 2s. 6d. to 3^. 6d. per foot superficial, laid, and 
 involves considerable labour and expense in cutting 
 and altering the old floor, unless, of course, the whole 
 surface is covered with parquet, by which means an 
 additional thickness is laid over the original floor 
 surface. 
 
 The general effect of this inlaid wood-work is more 
 showy, but I am not prepared to say more artistic, 
 than plain painting, staining and varnishing, or simple 
 oak bordering. Messrs. Arrowsmith, and other well- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 51 
 
 known upholsterers, have for many years provided good 
 examples of this kind of work in solid parquet, which 
 must not be confounded with the thin veneering glued 
 down to a common deal backing, which, although practi- 
 cally cheaper, is, to my mind, inferior in quality. Messrs. 
 Howard, of Berners Street, have patented what they 
 call ' carpet parquet.' This is made by machinery, of 
 very thin strips of wood, which are first desiccated, then 
 cut to the required form, and arranged into a pattern, 
 and secured by a canvas backing. The advantage of 
 this is, that it can either be laid as a border or over 
 the entire room, without interfering with the old floor ; 
 and if laid as a border, any ordinary carpet practically 
 fills up the thickness, and the cost, ranging from 6d. to 
 is. 6d. per foot superficial, is much in its favour. All 
 parquet work is practically impervious to dust, and there- 
 fore naturally conduces to the healthiness of the room, 
 as there are no open joints to collect dust, or what 
 doctors call ' germ seeds ' of disease. The simple 
 staining, sizing, and varnishing of floor margins costs 
 about is. 6d. per square yard, but this can only be 
 done effectively on new floors. 
 
 In the external decoration of the ordinary brick 
 and cement facades of town houses, I cannot see why 
 a much larger use should not be made of coloured 
 
 E 2 
 
52 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 decoration, or why we cannot apply the teaching of the 
 old northern Italian artists, who covered with distemper 
 decoration the exteriors of their houses. With the 
 many impurities that arise in most towns, from gas 
 and smoke, and sewer exhalations, all of which ought 
 to be preventible, it would be impossible to use dis- 
 temper or fresco decoration .; but we might surely take 
 from ancient work some few hints for the decorative 
 treatment in paint of plain plaster walls, and so improve 
 the unutterably inartistic and miserable appearance of 
 so many of our modern streets and squares. 
 
 We cannot in England expect to have Italian 
 climate or Italian brilliancy of sky or sunlight; but 
 surely this is all the more reason why we should endea- 
 vour" to give some colour to the dingy streets, made 
 more dingy by the smoke and other impurities, engen- 
 dered by the present use, or rather abuse, of coal and 
 gas in most of our towns and cities. Even the stucco 
 palaces of Belgravia and Tyburnia might be made fairly 
 pleasant objects to look at, if relieved with coloured 
 decoration, in some such way as the houses in the 
 Piazza delle Erbe, at Verona, from their dreary mono- 
 tony of imitation stone colouring, and sickly common- 
 placeness of Portland cement 
 
 We may almost be grateful to those who first broke 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 53 
 
 away from the ordinary colour, and painted the ex- 
 teriors of their houses red or blue, and for the attempt 
 made by Messrs. Jackson and Graham to introduce 
 external coloured decoration in the new Continental 
 Hotel in Waterloo Place. But even plain painting is 
 better than the vulgar and ignorant arrangement of 
 colours, which is occasionally to be seen in our modern 
 streets, wherein flaming contrasts of colouring are put 
 forth without any harmony or design ; we might with 
 advantage study the drawings of the very simple, but 
 withal beautiful and harmonious, colouring of some of 
 the simple ' secco ' decoration of the Egyptian tombs or 
 the ' fresco ' paintings on the walls of Pompeii : what- 
 ever we may think of the art work in these buildings, 
 we may accept the simple and harmonious rendering of 
 plain colours on flat wall surfaces, as nearly always 
 good and satisfactory ; a few simple colours judiciously 
 treated in the flat surfaces and cornices of the usual 
 cement-fronted houses, would render them, if not highly 
 artistic, at all events infinitely more pleasant to look upon' 
 and break the dreary outlook which is presented by 
 the everlasting rows of grey-tinted fronts ; good stencil 
 decoration in paint might well be introduced on some 
 of the flat surfaces, and even figure decoration in panels 
 could be done at a moderate cost, if treated simply in 
 
54 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 outline. An ordinary cement-fronted house could 
 be made fairly attractive if painted in simple tones of 
 light red, black, and white, with here and there lines 
 or stencil patterns of cobalt, yellow ochre, or green, 
 properly arranged. 
 
 I do not see why we should have all our houses 
 dingy, as well as bad in architectural design. The spe- 
 culative builder has provided us with all that is filthy 
 and objectionable in the way of building and design ; 
 we, if we like, can do something, without any great 
 outlay of money, to neutralise this, by judicious use of 
 colour in some of the monotonous lines of cornices and 
 wall faces, instead of always adhering to the dreariness 
 and dismal commonplaceness of grey and stone colour. 
 It is lamentable that, in these days of so-called high 
 art, there cannot be formed some School of Decorative 
 Artists, to whom those who desire something more 
 artistic in design and colouring can go, and by whom 
 the advising as to the simple decoration of the external 
 face of an ordinary house need not be a thing to be 
 lightly treated. 
 
 The palaces of Venice and the cinque-cento 
 churches throughout Italy, show how marvellously the 
 use of marble, even in small panels, brightens up and 
 relieves the -surface of a flat dull wall. Marble has 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 55 
 
 been largely employed in many well-known ancient 
 buildings for surface decoration, and a few plaques 
 of bright-coloured marble unpolished, inserted as 
 panels in our street fronts, would do something to 
 lighten up and break the present dulness, at a com- 
 paratively small outlay. 
 
 Architects get the credit of being the authors of 
 innumerable bad works ; but we are not responsible for 
 the vulgar, tasteless erections of the last twenty years, 
 which make up the streets and squares of the greater 
 part of fashionable, modern London. No wonder that 
 London is the dingiest, the dreariest, and the ugliest 
 city in the world ; no wonder that all artistic feeling is 
 crushed, when we see the endless rows of cement- 
 covered houses, of hideous outline and commonplace 
 design, left grey, in all the shabbiness of Portland 
 cement, or blossoming out in triennial springtides of 
 fresh paint, which whitewash for a while the tasteless 
 vulgarity of our street facades. 
 
 It would seem that the architect and the painter are 
 not in accord ; that there is a want of that proper 
 sympathy and art brotherhood, which, in olden days, 
 made men think nothing too insignificant to work upon, 
 the painting of a great decorative picture, the figure 
 decoration of a noble hall, the painting of arabesque on 
 
56 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 walls, or the tinting of outside plaster work. Why 
 should this want of sympathy exist ? 
 
 I am quite certain that amongst all good architects 
 there is a strong desire to bring into their work the 
 work of the painter, and to associate with their build- 
 ing, in goodly and pleasant fellowship, the work of 
 the sculptor and the painter. 
 
 I see no reason why the skill and thought of the 
 architect and decorator should not be employed in 
 making the general run of commonplace street archi- 
 tecture pleasanter to look at by means of coloured 
 decoration, lightly, simply, and economically treated, 
 or by the use of glazed terra-cotta in a variety of 
 colours. 
 
 A new kind of architectural faience, ' Burmantofts,' 
 has lately been brought prominently before the public 
 by Messrs. Wilcock and Co., of Leeds, and seems well 
 adapted for the use of external and internal wall deco- 
 ration ; it is made out of a very fine quality of fire-clay, 
 composed of almost pure silica and alumina, will resist 
 intense heat, and is therefore well adapted for fire- 
 places and stoves, and the manufacturers seem to be 
 aiming to produce work of good artistic merit, by em- 
 ploying skilled artists in the design and modelling, and 
 thus avoiding the generally hard and unartistic effect of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 57 
 
 purely machine-made work. The clay, when modelled 
 to its required form, is subjected to great heat and 
 afterwards finished with a coloured and glazed surface 
 in the usual manner. The various glazes and colours 
 used are all metallic oxides, which, being completely 
 saturated into the skin or surface of the clay, by being 
 fused at great heat, unite thoroughly with the silica 
 in the clay, and thus secure a surface that will resist 
 all atmospheric effects, so that the material may well 
 be adopted for any external decoration. In Plate I. 
 I give an illustration of a small angle fire-place and 
 dado, designed by Mr. Maurice B. Adams, as sugges- 
 tive of the purposes for which the material may be 
 adapted in internal decoration : the cost of a dado 
 such as that shown in the drawing would be about 35^. 
 a square yard, or about the price of an ornamental 
 panelled and carved dado in American walnut or 
 wainscot. For the lining of halls, bath-rooms, or stair- 
 cases, or for external work, the material seems well 
 adapted, while the various tones of colouring with 
 which it may be treated, and its strongly glazed sur- 
 face, render it not only an artistic but a cleanly 
 material for all such purposes. 
 
 Why cannot we learn a lesson from the treatment 
 of some of the external facades in the street of 
 
58 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 nations in the late Paris Exhibition, and adapt majolica 
 ware and faience to the external decoration of our 
 houses ? 
 
 The money spent on a piece of bric-a-brac or an 
 ordinary water-colour painting, if judiciously laid out, 
 would provide for the decoration, in good glazed terra- 
 cotta or tile-work, of the entrance door of a house ; and, 
 with a little thought and a moderate outlay, the miser- 
 able skeletons of London street houses might be vivi- 
 fied and brought into, at least, some semblance of 
 pleasant life and colour. 
 
 Fresco decoration in distemper is out of the ques- 
 tion ; but painted pottery, glazed terra-cotta, mosaic, 
 and even enamelled iron may, rightly treated, be well 
 fitted to give colour and even beauty to our London 
 streets ; and such work would not suffer by smoke or 
 atmospheric influences, and would be freshened arid 
 cleaned by each shower of rain, and made brighter by 
 each breath of wind. 
 
 Internally, there are naturally very many ways for 
 the decorative treatment of the wall spaces ; but, as I 
 purpose in my future , lectures to offer suggestions for 
 the special treatment of the walls of various rooms, I 
 shall at present confine my remarks generally to the 
 materials which may be used. Chief, perhaps, amongst 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 59 
 
 the various ways of covering the walls of rooms in the 
 Elizabethan age, was by hangings of tapestry or arras. 
 These, as a rule, were simply hung upon the walls, and 
 where, as very frequently in earlier days, these were of 
 brick or stone, not plastered, the heavy tapestry, hung 
 to tenter hooks, at once hid the rough work under, and 
 gave warmth and comfort to the cold and cheerless 
 walls, and were easily taken down and stowed away. 
 Another way of covering the walls was with painted 
 cloth, or canvas, painted with various subjects, de- 
 vices, and mottoes. The elaboration of this kind of 
 hanging was taken up by the French, and more recently 
 introduced into this country, in the way of straining 
 damask, satin, silk, or other material over the wall 
 surfaces, either entirely covering the wall or arranged 
 in panels by mouldings. All this kind of work, how- 
 ever charming in itself, is to my mind essentially out 
 of place in ordinary town rooms. Tapestry is gloomy 
 and holds dust, and silk and satin are too delicate to 
 stand the smoke and dirt of town atmospheres. Any- 
 thing that holds dust is essentially out of place on the 
 walls of our rooms, and, no matter how picturesque 
 the general effect of good tapestry, it would be utterly 
 out of place in the permanent decoration of the wall 
 surfaces of our houses ; but I see no reason why good 
 
60 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 pieces of old tapestry should not be strained and hung 
 on the walls of the halls or staircases as pictures, or any 
 other objects of art, so long as they are moveable and 
 easily shifted for cleaning purposes. 
 
 I confess my own views are, that anything that, by 
 its surface, collects and holds dust, is to be carefully 
 avoided in all wall decoration in town houses, and for 
 these reasons all flock-papers, as well as those stamped 
 in relief, are, as a rule, to be avoided except for ceiling 
 or frieze decoration. Some of the better class of 
 double flock-papers— for instance, such a one as the 
 exquisite sunflower pattern designed by Mr. Talbert, 
 and made by Messrs. Jeffrey — are admirably adapted 
 for a dining-room, when a high wood panelled dado is 
 used, and the paper surface is limited ; this paper is 
 sufficiently decorative by itself, but is also admirably 
 adapted, by its tone of colouring, for pictures or en- 
 gravings. 
 
 The illustration (Plate II.) shows an arrangement 
 of this sunflower paper for the general wall surface, 
 with a dado of paper stamped in imitation of leather. 
 Both these papers are not only exceedingly beautiful 
 in design and general tone of colouring, but are also 
 of the highest order of workmanship and manufacture ; 
 the flock-paper is raised in different thicknesses and 
 
Plate N° 2 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 61 
 
 finished in different tones, so as to present perfect 
 harmony of colouring, the general effect being of a 
 golden olive tone : the ground work of light olive 
 green, with greenish-yellow sunflowers and darker green 
 leaves, is all carefully blended and exceedingly well 
 grouped. Such a paper as this, involving great skill 
 and labour in its manufacture, is necessarily costly, and 
 its woolly raised or flock surface naturally forms a 
 ground for collecting dust, and is not therefore to be 
 recommended for town houses ; but the same pattern 
 in plain distemper colours, although not so artistic or 
 good in its general effect, is much more moderate in 
 cost, and well adapted for the walls of a dining-room 
 or library. The stamped dado paper is an adaptation 
 of an old Venetian leather design, in part remodelled 
 to suit the requirements of a paper hanging, and being 
 finished to a soft golden bronze tone of colouring, 
 forms an exceedingly effective and handsome base 
 for a dining-room wall decoration : the thick paper 
 of which it is made is specially prepared, so as not 
 to crack or break with stamping, and is lacquered, 
 painted, and gilded, in all other respects after the 
 manner of old Venetian leather, except that Dutch 
 metal is largely used in place of silver, the metal being 
 varnished over with lacquer, so that the surface may 
 
62 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 not in any way be effected by atmospheric changes 
 or impurities of gas or smoke. 
 
 The present French system of panelling the rooms 
 with elaborate framework of intricate mouldings and 
 carvings, and filling in the panels with silk or paper, is 
 certainly not adapted for town rooms ; the carvings 
 and mouldings hold dirt, require constantly cleaning, 
 and are extravagant and costly, nor do I think the 
 effect in any way satisfactory, except in very large 
 reception rooms. 
 
 Any system of panelling the general surfaces of 
 walls of an ordinary town room, will be found incon- 
 venient and unsuitable for hanging pictures, and other- 
 wise decorating the walls, as it necessarily requires 
 everything to be equally arranged and fixed in the 
 centres of the panels, or in the dividing spaces, and it 
 seems absurd to hang a picture on a small scale in a 
 panel of great size. In the great houses and halls, 
 where large full-length ancestral portraits filled up 
 nearly the whole space, the arrangement had fewer 
 objections, more especially as it formed part of the 
 general construction of the rooms, the great mantel 
 being designed with it, the whole finished with skilfully 
 designed cornices, and ceilings with flat mouldings, 
 worked into elaborate or simple panelling. 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 63 
 
 Of course this kind of work in large rooms is 
 expensive, and, unless the general furnishing be on 
 an equal scale, incongruous and absurd. 
 
 Embossed leather was largely used in the Eliza- 
 bethan age for wall hangings, but this is exceedingly 
 difficult and costly to obtain ; where used, it may be 
 formed into a high dado, with a plain deal moulding 
 over, or divided into small dado panels, where the 
 ornament or pattern will admit of it. The papers 
 stamped after the manner of leather, by Messrs. 
 Jeffrey, similar to the one shown in Plate II., are 
 exceedingly good in design, and fairly inexpensive. 
 
 Mr. Walton, of Sunbury, has invented a new kind 
 of material for wall decoration, which he calls ' Muralis.' 
 This is said to have the merit of being; strong: and 
 moderately inexpensive. It is practically linoleum 
 lined with canvas, that it may be fitted up against the 
 wall and ceiling, and is a mixture of linseed oil and 
 fibre rolled on to a fabric, and afterwards stamped by 
 machinery with ornamentation in relief. The speci- 
 mens I have seen are artistic in their design, the 
 stamping being clear and sharp, the effect being more 
 like very delicate low relief carving or plaster stamp- 
 ing. The especial merits claimed for it are its warm 
 and comfortable appearance ; that it does not absorb 
 
64 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 moisture, and offers an impermeable resistance to wet 
 from within or without ; it can either be put up for 
 dados, or may be used as a decorative frieze, and 
 painted to any colour to suit the general tone of the 
 room, especially as it can be put along the whole length 
 of a wall without being jointed ; it can be used in the 
 panels of doors or ceilings, and the cost is moderate, 
 some of the best patterns for dado work about 2 feet 
 high being sold for about 3.?. a yard. There are 
 many other materials which can be adopted for wall 
 decoration, more especially in the lower portion of the 
 walls, where the room is unequally divided by a high 
 or low dado. 
 
 Good tiles can be used in panels in the walls of 
 halls, with painted figures, or other decorative subjects ; 
 but pray do not encourage the use of rough, unevenly 
 burnt tiles, by which the subject painting is generally 
 utterly ruined or seriously damaged. To suppose that 
 this roughness and irregularity give an air of age, is 
 simply ridiculous ; and if it did, it would be setting 
 forth a lie, and be as bad in taste as it is in appearance. 
 I take it, that had our forefathers been able to make 
 tiles as well as we make them now, they would have 
 done so ; and it seems to me gross affectation to copy 
 imperfections of any kind. 
 
Plate N? 4. 
 
 TILE DECORATION forVALL qrFIREPLACE 
 
 DESIGNED BY=GFMALIN5- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 6$ 
 
 In Plate IV. I give two panels of tile decoration 
 designed by Mr. G. F. Malins, which are good and 
 artistic in treatment. The designs are drawn in plain 
 outline of strong brownish tone on lightly tinted tiles, 
 and the ornament slightly stained or coloured ; the 
 general effect is good, and the cost, about 305-. a panel, 
 exceedingly moderate. Panels such as these may be 
 used to advantage in internal wall decoration, or for 
 the lining of the sides of fire-places. 
 
 Messrs. Howard have a cheap way of forming 
 wood dados, by gluing on to the wall what they 
 call wood tapestry, which is really only a kind of ven- 
 eering. This kind of work may be fairly adapted 
 where there is no chance of damp j but I should pre- 
 fer to see a simple deal painted dado, rather than 
 this wood veneering, which, to my mind, partakes 
 too much of the character of sham to be altogether 
 satisfactory. 
 
 In small drawing-rooms, where expense is an 
 object, India or Manilla matting may very well be 
 used as a dado ; it is clean, and, thus arranged, 
 fairly lasting. But the use of all these various 
 materials must necessarily depend upon the means at 
 the artist's disposal, and I shall more especially allude 
 to them in the examples which I propose to give in my 
 
 F 
 
66 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 fourth and fifth lectures, for the decoration of special 
 rooms. After all, most of us will have to be content 
 with the more recent invention of paper-hangings for 
 the decoration of our rooms ; and, thanks to Messrs. 
 Jeffrey, Messrs Crace, Messrs Morris, and other manu- 
 facturers, there is now no difficulty in obtaining good 
 artistic paper-hangings of good quality, and at mode- 
 rate cost. The designs of these firms are of the 
 highest possible excellence as regards drawing and 
 design, and the colouring and workmanship are as 
 good as they can be. 
 
 Naturally, papers vary very much in their cost, 
 according to the character, but the pattern-books of any 
 good firm of paper-makers will show that the cheapest 
 papers may be as equally good in artistic design as 
 the more elaborate specimens. In the cheapest form of 
 hangings the paper is printed by machinery — that is to 
 say, all the colours are printed at one time either on 
 self-toned paper, as it comes from the manufacturer, or 
 which receives a general coloured ground ; — the prices 
 of these vary from is. to 3 s - P er piece, according to 
 the thickness of the paper used. 
 
 Plate III. shows an illustration of a good and 
 effective design by Mr. Walter Crane, made by 
 Messrs. Jeffrey & Co., for a paper suited for the 
 
Plate N° 3 
 
 FircIur-0-rvd 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 67 
 
 general wall decoration of an inner hall or staircase, 
 the surface being clearly defined in drawing, and at 
 the same time well covered with simple artistic orna- 
 ment. The general tone is a warm creamy yellow, with 
 wall-flower pattern diaper of golden brown, in harmony 
 with the yellow ground ; the whole brightened up by 
 the powdering over of the pale pinkish-toned petals or 
 leaves, falling, as it were, from the sprays of almond 
 flowers in the frieze. This frieze with its delicate blue 
 ground and well-coloured sprays, with swallows flitting 
 in and out, forms an exceedingly good contrast with 
 the lower paper, when divided by a simple painted 
 deal moulding or picture rail, painted golden brown 
 and varnished, as suggested in the illustration. The 
 lower paper must of course be hung square, and not 
 raking with the lines of the staircase ; but there is 
 no reason why the picture rail should not follow the 
 slope of the staircase, and the top space be filled 
 in with the frieze paper, as shown. 
 
 The block-printed papers necessarily are more 
 expensive, as they demand much greater skill and 
 knowledge on the part of the workmen, each colour 
 being printed separately. In all of these papers, gold, 
 so called, can be introduced, the cheaper quality beino- 
 done in powdered metal or gold size; in the more 
 
 F 2 
 
-68 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 expensive papers gold-leaf is used, by which a much 
 greater brilliancy is obtained ; but, even at its best, gold 
 on paper-hangings in rooms exposed to the usual filthy 
 gas of most English towns, and to the humid atmosphere 
 of our climate, is never satisfactory, it loses its brilliancy 
 in a few years ; and in newly built houses, and on walls 
 where there is any draught or damp, it will not stand 
 for any length of time. Some of the raised flock- 
 papers and plain raised patterns of Messrs. Jeffrey are 
 exceedingly good in artistic treatment and colouring, 
 and are eminently adapted for ceiling decoration, 
 either as an entire covering or in panels, with slight 
 wood enframing mouldings, and for simple decorative 
 friezes. A very good effect may be obtained with the 
 pattern flock-papers on gilding, lacquered over like the 
 old Venetian work ; this produces a much richer 
 metallic effect, and the gold is, to a certain extent, 
 protected from tarnishing. White flock-papers, on a 
 light ground, look well for ceiling decoration, without 
 painting, and can afterwards, when dirty, be painted to 
 any tone of colour. Amongst the numerous examples 
 of flock-papers made by the firm I have mentioned, 
 there is one in Adams's style of decoration, in white, 
 red, or celadon green ground, which is especially success- 
 ful in treatment The one advantage of flock-paper in 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 69 
 
 decoration is that the flock, being all wool, can be dyed 
 or stained in any colour, and has much greater softness 
 of tone and colouring than other papers. With the 
 great and varied selections of high artistic paper- 
 hangings, such as those made by many of our best 
 manufacturers, and which may be obtained at any 
 good decorators from is. to Jos. a piece, there should 
 be no difficulty in selecting some good design. It is 
 gratifying to find that high-class manufacturers like 
 these, in association with good artist designers, are 
 seeking to prove to the public that paper-hangings 
 of high artistic merit, both in design and colouring, 
 may be made to beautify our houses, without going 
 to France for designs, and without slavishly copying 
 ancient patterns and ancient examples. Amongst 
 the patterns now made, there are many which may 
 fairly be accepted as decoration complete, while others 
 are more adapted to form the background for pictures 
 and engravings. 
 
 I can only regret that it should be necessary, even 
 with good manufacturers, to issue new patterns each 
 year ; as artists, their aim should be to combat the 
 shifty nature of a public who will always demand 
 change if they can get it, and will seek for a new 
 fashion in paper as they do in dress ; but if this 
 
7o DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 constant change and desire of novelty is to be gratified, 
 it behoves the manufacturer to take heed that his 
 novelties should mean progress— not mere change — 
 and that each new design shall, if possible, be better 
 in arrangement, better in colouring, and more beautiful 
 in decorative treatment, so that the public who crave 
 after change shall be educated, by each new novelty in 
 paper-hanging, to a higher standard of excellence and 
 beauty ; and thus imperceptibly the art education of the 
 people will be increased and elevated. 
 
 Remember always, as Mr. Owen Jones, speaking 
 of paper-hangings, in his lecture on the ' True and 
 the False in Art,' justly says, that ' One of the first 
 principles to be attended to in adorning the walls of 
 an apartment, is that nothing should disturb their 
 flatness,' and that ' all direct representations of natural 
 objects should be avoided ; first, because it places these 
 objects in unseemly positions ; secondly, because it 
 is customary in almost every apartment to suspend 
 on the walls pictures, engravings, or other ornamental 
 works, and that, therefore, the paper should serve as a 
 background, and nothing on it should be offensive or 
 advancing to the eyes. . . . When varieties of colours 
 are used, the Oriental rule of interweaving the form 
 and colour, so that they may present a neutralised 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 71 
 
 bloom when viewed at a distance, should never be 
 departed from.' 
 
 It is a somewhat difficult matter in most town houses, 
 where the ceilings are generally plain, and bordered 
 by cornices of inferior design, to treat them with any 
 amount of colour. In houses of the date of Adams, 
 the ceilings have generally some very delicate enrich- 
 ments all over them, either flowing or arranged in 
 patterns very slightly raised. Whenever these occur, 
 it is well to treat them almost like Wedgwood ware, 
 with, say, light tones of pink, green, grey, or buff, in very 
 delicate tinting ; but where the ceiling is quite flat, it is 
 desirable to tint it a light tone of grey or cream colour, 
 to get rid of the extreme glare of pure white. Next, 
 the cornice, a simple distemper pattern, of a darker 
 shade of the same colour, will often be found effective 
 and useful, or one or two simple lines with stencilled 
 corners. The tinting of the cornices must materially 
 depend upon their design and contour ; if plain 
 moulded cornices, they may be tinted in one or two 
 shades, the lighter tones being always at the top or 
 next the ceiling, and gradually darkening off to the 
 wall decoration. As a general rule, one or two of the 
 tints of the general groundwork of the paper may be 
 used with effect ; if, however, the cornices contain the 
 
72 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 usual ill-designed and modelled plaster enrichments, 
 care should be taken to keep them in the background, 
 and to pick them out as little as possible, so as to 
 avoid making their general badness of form and exe- 
 cution too prominent. It is well to remember a few 
 general rules in decoration of ceilings and cornices, on 
 which to rely when choosing colours or tints. For 
 instance, in using what are called primary colours 
 on moulded surfaces, it is well to understand that 
 yellow increases, while blue diminishes in strength ; the 
 former should, therefore, be used on convex, and the 
 latter on concave, mouldings. All strong colours should 
 be definitely separated from each other by light lines, 
 fillets, or small mouldings ; colours on light grounds 
 appear darker by contrast, while those on dark grounds 
 appear, as a rule, lighter. If the cornice presents any 
 broad, flat surfaces, a simple conventional flower or 
 geometrical pattern can often be used to great advan- 
 tage, care being taken not to make it too prominent ; 
 the great aim being to keep the general work subser- 
 vient, and in no way to form a dark moulded frame 
 for the mass of light ceiling. The ordinary system of 
 stencil decoration can be carried out at a very small 
 expense, and, with a few good patterns, very good 
 effect can be obtained in ceilings, where, generally, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. y 3 
 
 little or nothing is done ; nor is it a very costly matter 
 to lay on to the flat ceiling small deal mouldings 
 formed into panels, and painted, with the panels filled 
 in with some very light diaper or pattern flock -paper, 
 or stencil enrichment. 
 
 Michael Angelo, Domenichino, Vasari, and other 
 artists, covered their ceilings with painting and fresco, 
 beautiful in themselves, but tiring to those who have 
 to look long at them. Michael Angelo, much against 
 his will, it is said, painted in elaborate decoration the 
 ceiling of the Sistine Chapel ; but Giotto, who knew 
 thoroughly well how to decorate, declined generally 
 to waste his work where it was, at its best, but difficult 
 to see ; and in the ceiling of the Arena Chapel we find 
 only a plain light tint of pale blue, contrasting well 
 with his fresco decoration on the walls. 
 
 In French ceilings we find many graceful enrich- 
 ments, especially those designed by Le Potre, from 
 whom Inigo Jones probably took many of his ideas 
 and thoughts ; afterwards Vanbrugh and Gibbs fol- 
 lowed with work of similar character, until the per- 
 fection of this kind of cast enrichment was attained 
 by Athenian Stewart and the brothers Adam, whose 
 delicate detail and fanciful and flowing treatment of 
 design may yet be seen in some of the old houses of 
 
74 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 London, and are all worthy of study in all plaster 
 decoration. 
 
 Carton pierre and canvas plaster are both of French 
 origin, but have recently been largely introduced into 
 this country by Messrs. Jackson and Son, of Rathbone 
 Place, and are well adapted for general ceiling decora- 
 tion, as both can be laid on the existing plaster work. 
 Good decoration can be obtained, at moderate cost, by 
 the use of canvas-plaster work in low relief patterns, 
 either made to cover the whole ceiling, or in panels, 
 with low flat mouldings, similar to those in many of 
 the old houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies ; and the material is specially fitted for boldly 
 relieved work in decorative friezes, a good effect being 
 obtained by treating the background in delicate tones 
 of grey, or green, or golden yellow, and leaving the 
 enrichment white. 
 
 Just eighteen centuries ago, within the ancient 
 streets of Pompeii might have been seen the luxury 
 and splendour of art form and colour as applied to 
 house decoration. And if we cannot always accept 
 the art work as the best of its kind, it must be remem- 
 bered that Pompeii was but a second-class town, and so 
 could not probably, in. its school of art workmen, com- 
 mand the highest excellence in design or painting ; yet 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 75 
 
 we may learn from the illustrations of the general 
 decorative treatment of its houses, both externally and 
 internally, much that might well be applied to modern 
 houses in our own day. The excavations which have 
 from time to time been carried on during the last 
 half-century, have brought to light marvellous speci- 
 mens of mosaic and fresco decorations, all showing 
 great skill and knowledge of grouping and composition, 
 and admirable arrangement of light and shade. The 
 examples of friezes, of terra-cotta, and elaborate plaster 
 bas-relief, and fresco decoration, of great beauty and 
 richness, might surely teach us something of decorative 
 art, and from these examples of brilliant colouring and 
 graceful ornamentation, we might do well, to a certain 
 extent, to accept some hints for their future adaptation 
 or imitation, externally and internally, in our ordinary 
 street houses. Let me not be mistaken in the word 
 ' imitation ' ; I do not mean that we are to copy in our 
 house decoration and ornamentation, examples of work 
 which express only designs from heathen mythology 
 or stories of life peculiar to an age of luxury, not 
 always moral or in accordance with present taste ; but 
 in the graceful drawing of ornamental borders, in the 
 careful rendering of bright and delicate colouring, and 
 in the general treatment of decorative design in plaster 
 
76 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 work, we may learn many valuable lessons which may 
 help us in our own day and generation. 
 
 But here the lesson ceases ; we do not want nowa- 
 days stories of heathen mythology, or representations 
 of Greek or Roman legends, with which we have little 
 or no sympathy ; we may well be sick of processional 
 pictures, representing the scenes of bygone ages, and 
 of endless arrays of nymphs and heathen gods and 
 goddesses, whose lives suggest subjects and scenes not 
 always delicate or pure. 
 
 I see no reason why, in the houses of the present, 
 we should not have art decoration setting forth some 
 well-known events in the history of the country — stories 
 telling us of the nobility and greatness of those who 
 have helped to make our country the great country 
 that it is. 
 
 Why should not painters teach us peace, and good 
 will, and charity, instead of the everlasting nonsense 
 of the ' Judgment of Paris,' or the ' Rape of the Sa- 
 bines,' and, in simple decorative work, in good draw- 
 ing and well-arranged colouring, help to make our walls 
 beautiful to look at, and examples of art decoration, 
 which shall hold its own with any decoration of past 
 ages. 
 
 In the examples still left to us of Pompeiian work, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. jj 
 
 we cannot but notice the great elegance of outline and 
 colouring treated with a master hand, without violent 
 or exaggerated contrasts of light and shade. 
 
 Allegory may sometimes be charming, and teach us 
 some real truth, but surely this kind of subterfuge is 
 out of place in the decoration of houses in this nine- 
 teenth century, where, at least, common sense overrides 
 romance, and truth, and beauty of subject and form, 
 should take the place of sickly sentimentalism in design 
 and treatment. 
 
 Hogarth and Cruikshank have given us caricatures, 
 some of which, at their best, are neither pleasant in 
 their treatment nor altogether honest in their render- 
 ing, and which, even if true, set forth scenes which are 
 wanting in refinement and delicacy, and show us the 
 worst and most brutal side of human nature. Both 
 men were artists of the highest kind, but both, to my 
 mind, failed in their caricatures generally from the over- 
 coarseness and exaggeration of their designs. If art is 
 worth having at all, it should be beautiful, and portray 
 grace and beauty of thought and colouring, with sub- 
 jects emphasising the better life that is in us, and 
 not, like the mawkish novels of the day, pandering 
 to the tastes of those whose thoughts would seem to 
 be in licence and indelicacy, or which nauseate us with 
 
78 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 all the gross exaggeration and detail of vulgar show 
 or gross profanity. 
 
 The President of the Royal Academy, Sir Fred- 
 erick Leighton, Mr. Marks, R.A., Mr. Poynter, R.A., 
 Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Albert Moore, and other well- 
 known painters, have shown us what can be done in 
 decorative work ; and although much of the work done 
 by these painters has been in the ornamentation of 
 monumental work, rather than in the interiors of ordinary 
 rooms, they have shown us that there are painters in 
 the present day who can do work of the highest 
 character of design and decoration. In Mr. Marks' 
 work we have quaint and humorous examples of good 
 decorative treatment adapted for humble requirements 
 and humble means. 
 
 For us, it is perhaps unfortunate that the greater 
 inducement of painting easel pictures should prevent 
 such men as these giving more time to decorative 
 work ; we can only hope that with the increased de- 
 mand for and delight in real art work in our houses, 
 ere long a school may be founded of young artists 
 who will, at fairly moderate cost, be willing and glad 
 to do purely decorative work. 
 
 I see no reason why the question which was asked 
 in an article in a late number of the ' Nineteenth 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 79 
 
 Century,' 'Is a great School of Art possible in the 
 present day ? ' should not be answered in the affirma- 
 tive, and I believe that to a great extent the conditions 
 and view of present life are ' such ' (to use Mr. Watts' 
 own words) 'as might fairly encourage and create a 
 school — a group of painters, sculptors, and architects, 
 whose work collectively should have a force marking 
 the age in which they live, becoming part of the history 
 of the country to which they belong, and existing in the 
 future as a lasting monument of the best feelings and 
 thoughts of the present time.' 
 
 There is, I fear, at present, among artists a want 
 of that true sympathy in each other's work, and of 
 that appreciation of and respect for each other's talent, 
 which alone can lead to true association of labour and 
 fraternity of toil. 
 
 Art decoration is, as a rule, treated as easel picture 
 work, with figures modelled and rounded, and with 
 landscapes and perspective drawing and modelling, 
 utterly at variance with true decorative work. I do 
 not suppose that any painter of eminence could afford 
 to paint decoration, if the work is to be entirely of his 
 own hand ; but I see no reason why the master hand 
 should not, with pleasure and profit to himself and 
 those associated with him, and in conjunction with the 
 
8o DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 architect, design and complete good and artistic decora- 
 tion at a fairly moderate cost. 
 
 The master's work should consist, in conjunction 
 with the architect, in designing the general scheme, in 
 adding such touches and drawing as may be neces- 
 sary to the work when drawn at large on the wall or 
 canvas, and in generally superintending its proper 
 filling in, colouring, and finishing, always remembering 
 that true decoration for walls and ceilings consists in 
 good general arrangement and grouping of figures 
 and foliage, and in broad fiat treatment, so that the 
 general effect of the work, when finished, may depend 
 upon good drawing, graceful arrangement, and simple 
 harmonious colouring, rather than on laboured minute- 
 ness of detail or elaboration of finish. 
 
 It too often happens that when a painter works 
 at decorative work, he draws and completes it in his 
 studio, seeing nothing of the surroundings and propor- 
 tion of the room for which the work is intended, and 
 to him it becomes more or less an easel picture, to be 
 looked at always on the eye line, and is laboured and 
 finished in strength of colour and detail, utterly un- 
 necessary, and when placed on the wall the effect is 
 unsatisfactory, and either the work itself, or the general 
 decoration of the room, has to be toned down in order 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 81 
 
 to secure that harmony of colouring and treatment so 
 necessary for all good artistic decoration. 
 
 I am sanguine enough to believe that art decoration 
 can be done well, and at a cost within all our means, 
 and, at the same time, to the pleasure and profit of 
 every one connected. I see no reason why our best 
 painters should not help us in the revival of decorative 
 work in the real artistic painting of the rooms we live 
 in, and the houses we dwell in, even as Fra Angelico, 
 Giotto, Corregio, Michael Angelo, and many other 
 great masters did in days gone by. Why should not 
 our rooms contain life stories of noble deeds, of good 
 works, of home scenes, such as would appeal to the 
 better life that is in all of us, and remind us of some 
 good work, some noble truth ? Why should we not 
 set forth on our walls some of the scenes from Chau- 
 cer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Tennyson, or other poets ? 
 Surely they would furnish us with ample variety of 
 subject grave or gay, and the lessons and home truths 
 would be made more intelligible and more beautiful by 
 pictorial representation. 
 
 ' You will say that this is all very well for family- 
 houses which are handed down from father to son, 
 and in which the art so produced is a part of the in- 
 heritance ; but even in the every-day houses of town 
 
 G 
 
82 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 in which we rest to-day and are gone to-morrow, some 
 such work can be done on panel or canvas, and remain 
 as much our own property as the pictures or drawings 
 that we hang on the walls. One such decorative sub- 
 ject, done under the supervision of a good painter, is 
 worth all the prettiness of decorative work in gold and 
 colour, or all the bad ornament of conventional form 
 which money can buy, or mere decorators can design 
 for you ; and one such work of pure decorative art will 
 give more pleasure than all the stamped leather or 
 bric-a-brac with which so many of us delight to load 
 our walls. It is better to have a room decorated by 
 the hand of a master, than all the industrious pattern 
 work which hands can make ; for if ' life without in- 
 dustry is guilt,' • industry without art is brutality.' 
 
 I believe there are many amongst our younger 
 painters who would gladly help us in our work, and it 
 is well to remember that the fame and the honour of 
 many of the great masters of olden days rest more 
 upon the purely decorative work they left behind them, 
 than on any amount of easel pictures ; that the fres- 
 coes they painted are, after long centuries, still left to 
 us to study and admire, when the mere moveable can- 
 vases are lost or destroyed. 
 
 It would perhaps be impertinent for me to suggest 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 83 
 
 that the Royal Academy might do something towards 
 providing for and fostering a school of decorative 
 painting, but I venture to think that they, with all 
 their great wealth and power, could do more than any 
 private individual towards providing for a real and 
 national school of decorative painting ; their students 
 would be continually adding new blood, and from a 
 mere business point of view the younger painters 
 would find, that not only money, but fame and reputa- 
 tion, would be equally well attained by decorative work, 
 as by painting easel pictures, or illustrating books or 
 newspapers, and thus eventually we should be able to 
 obtain, at moderate cost,, a higher character of artistic 
 decoration throughout the country, and to bring art 
 work within the reach of thousands, where at present 
 it is only to be obtained by those with whom price is 
 no object. 
 
 It is all nonsense saying that this kind of work is 
 for the tradesman decorator, and not for the artist 
 himself. I take it the selling of a picture is as much a 
 matter of business, as much a matter of profit and loss, 
 as any other work of human brain and hand. The 
 artist is, or should be, as much a man of business as 
 any other good member of society, and it is a mis- 
 fortune to himself and his clients when he is not ; and 
 
 g 2 
 
84 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 as a mere matter of business, he may, if he will, find it 
 worth his while to dedicate, in part, the thoughts of his 
 fertile brain and the work of his facile hand and brush 
 to decorative design for every-day homes, instead of 
 confining himself to the narrow arena of his own par- 
 ticular studio, and seeing no further than the subject 
 of one particular canvas, confined within the limits of 
 the frame that surrounds it. 
 
 I am indebted to my friend, Mr Marks, R.A., who, 
 some ten years ago 7 was good enough to paint the 
 decorative figure friezes in my own house, for taking 
 up this subject in a business-like and tangible manner, 
 and to show his approval of what I have for years 
 been advocating, by doing what he called two or 
 three ' show cards ' to illustrate this portion of my lecture. 
 The sketch of one of these forms the subject of the 
 illustration Plate V., and I submit is an admirable 
 example of what simple decorative work in the hands 
 of a master may be. It consists of treatment of birds 
 and foliage in oil or tempora, worked out in a natural- 
 istic form in a purely decorative manner of treatment. 
 The general scheme of colouring is intended to be blue, 
 delicate pink, grey and green, as rendered by the sky, 
 the birds — flamingoes — the stonework, and the plants. 
 The blue would be repeated in a deeper tone in the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 85 
 
 pots, and of course the colouring might be varied or 
 altered to suit the tone of the general decoration of the 
 room. This is of course only suggestive, and may be 
 amplified or simplified to any extent, either in combi- 
 nation with figure work, which adds to the cost, or 
 without it. The panel was designed by the master 
 hand, but generally enlarged and carried out from the 
 sketch by young students under the supervision of the 
 master ; and in this spirit of true association of master 
 and student a highly satisfactory result, to my mind, 
 has been obtained, namely, good art combined with 
 moderation of cost. 
 
 There are innumerable other birds which form 
 excellent subjects for frieze decoration, and which can 
 be treated naturally, in combination with simple foliage 
 and artistic arrangement of pots and flowers, so as to 
 form an exceedingly beautiful decoration for the upper 
 part of the walls of a dining- or drawing-room, or lady's 
 boudoir ; and are, if well drawn and coloured, emi- 
 nently adapted for all decorative work. Amongst 
 others I may mention some of those which formed 
 the subjects of an admirable series of decorative 
 panels, lately completed by Mr. Marks for the Duke of 
 Westminster ; namely, the scarlet ibis, various kinds 
 of cranes, gulls and herons, cockatoos and other 
 
86 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 tropical and bright-plumaged bjrds, with swallows and 
 various other small birds common to our own streets 
 arid hedgerows. All these, carefully drawn, gracefully 
 arranged by the hand of an artist, and treated in flat 
 tones of colour in outline, can in combination with 
 figures, flowers, and foliage, or without, be used in any 
 decorative friezes or in panels, with excellent effect. 
 
 If the narrowness of worldly circumstances prevents 
 us from having figure decoration in our rooms, we may 
 still have, in distemper or other media, panels of 
 coloured decoration of birds, or other natural objects, 
 treated simply and inexpensively so as to come within 
 the means of us all. 
 
 In my future lectures, I shall deal more definitely 
 with panel and wall decoration applied to special rooms 
 and situations. 
 
 In concluding this, my second address, I suggest 
 for your consideration whether it is not desirable, from 
 mere economical motives, to decorate your rooms a 
 little more artistically ; if the walls be of the usual bare 
 type of one pattern paper or paint, you must do some- 
 thing to hide their bald and cold appearance by hang- 
 ing on them engravings, pictures, or other artistic 
 objects. How much better, then, would it be to spend 
 the same money in having some really good art deco- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 87 
 
 ration, which should be a source of continual pleasure 
 and delight ! 
 
 In our dreary London rooms there might be 
 internal light and colour, that should help to make us 
 almost unmindful of the dinginess and smoke without, 
 and add much to the comfort and home-like feeling 
 which good colour, good design, and good taste cannot 
 fail to give. 
 
88 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 The subject of my third lecture is ' Furniture ; and 
 although, to a certain extent, I propose to treat it 
 generally, reserving more special description for my 
 next two lectures, I yet hope to make it of sufficient 
 interest to warrant me in keeping you for the time in 
 which I shall address you. 
 
 It is probable that you all have your own individual 
 opinions as to the best ways of furnishing the houses 
 you live in, and, if not, you may possibly say, that in 
 these days of ' Queen Anne ' architecture, and fine art 
 manufacture of all kinds, there will be no difficulty in 
 obtaining anything that is wanted of fairly good taste, 
 and which shall combine beauty and appropriateness of 
 form and design, with usefulness and comfort. 
 
 If, in my remarks, I fall foul of the mere ordinary 
 manufacturer of so-called art work, it must be distinctly 
 understood that I fully recognise the important progress 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 89 
 
 made by such firms as Messrs. Jackson and Graham, 
 Messrs. Gillow, Messrs. Trollope and Sons, and other 
 well-known manufacturers, who have practically spared 
 no pains to produce the best possible work, and have 
 brought into association with themselves a number of 
 artists, of high repute and knowledge, to aid them in 
 their endeavours to give to the public furniture of 
 thoroughly good art design, comfortable in shape, and 
 sound and good in workmanship. 
 
 My quarrel is with the crowd of imitators who, 
 appealing to the ignorance of the public rather than 
 to their taste, endeavour to foist upon them goods 
 which are said to be of the newest fashion of some 
 particular style, which, like all other fashions, will soon 
 be as obsolete as the imitations of the ' sella curulis ' 
 and the bronze ' bisellium ' — to which we were so 
 freely treated at the end of the last century — are 
 at the present day. 
 
 As I said of decoration, so do I now say of furni- 
 ture, that the higher art cultivation of individuals, and, 
 as a sequence, of the whole community, is not to be 
 arrived at by setting up any particular style or fashion 
 of design, or by the narrow dogmas of interested 
 persons, who, regardless of expense, insist upon the 
 necessity of this kind of wall hanging, or that shape of 
 
90 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 chair or buffet, and who, skilled in the use of fine- 
 sounding phrases, and with a knowledge of the baser 
 elements of human character — which delight in slavish 
 imitation and so-called fashionable conceits of a passing 
 style — seek to advertise their wares as ' Queen Anne,' 
 ' Old English,' or ' Chippendale,' ' Adams,' or mediaeval, 
 and appeal more to the ignorance than to the real art 
 knowledge and taste of society. 
 
 The word furniture in its ordinary acceptation and 
 interpretation ' represents anything that is moveable, 
 transportable, and easy to place in security.' 
 
 In this lecture, I propose to include all the general 
 fittings of a house, which, to a certain extent, would 
 nowadays be called ' fixtures,' such as mantels and 
 stoves, hanging closets in bedrooms, shelving, built-up 
 buffets, and other special joiners' work, all of which, I 
 hope to show, may well and economically take the 
 place of the more moveable and expensive articles ol 
 furniture. Let me say here that there is no absolute 
 necessity that any of these closets or shelf-clusters 
 should be made absolute fixtures, so that of necessity 
 they become the property of the landlord at the end of 
 a given term of years ; they can all be made separate 
 and distinct to fix in their various places, screwed into 
 blocks or hanging pieces fixed to the walls, and can, if 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 91 
 
 not bought up by the incoming tenants, be, as a rule, 
 removed and adapted for the new habitation. 
 
 Under the present unsatisfactory terms of lease- 
 hold tenure, tenants cannot be too careful in the 
 arrangement of fitted furniture, that it shall not come 
 under the designation of ' fixtures,' and thus become 
 the property of the landlord. The ordinary class of land- 
 lords offer no inducements to tenants to improve their 
 dwellings ; under the usual clauses of dilapidations and 
 general maintenance, they compel the tenant, at the 
 end of a seven years' lease, to entirely repaint and 
 paper their property, and claim all fittings that may 
 be fixed to the walls as their own. They offer no 
 encouragement to a careful or improving tenant, and 
 as a rule will allow nothing for improvements, while 
 too often the unfortunate tenant finds, when it is too 
 late, that he has taken a house in which he has to lay 
 out large sums of money, before it can be made fairly 
 habitable, with no chance of getting back an)- portion 
 of his outlay : the drains are found utterly wrong, the 
 miserable deal joiners' work is glossed over with 
 imitation graining of other woods, the still worse plaster 
 work is made to look fair and pleasant to the eye by a 
 coat or two of distemper, and the wretched scamping 
 nature of the work only becomes apparent after the 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 tenant has been in possession a few months and has 
 bound himself by covenants, which will not only materi- 
 ally increase his annual rent, but be found a source of 
 continual expense and annoyance to him during his 
 tenure. I can only advise any one proposing to take 
 on lease one of the ordinary speculative builders' houses, 
 to take care, before signing any deed, that the house 
 shall be properly surveyed and reported upon by some 
 competent surveyor, or, if this expense be thought un- 
 necessary, by some honest and qualified builder. 
 
 I wish particularly to advocate the greater use of 
 plain fitted and designed furniture for recesses in 
 various rooms, as they can be made at much less cost 
 than the usual moveable furniture, can be adapted to the 
 general character of the rooms, and if made as I shall 
 hereafter describe will save much labour in dusting 
 and cleaning, and will not form resting-places for the 
 dirt and filth that accumulate, in most houses, on the 
 tops of wardrobes and other pieces of furniture, the 
 height of which prevents their being constantly dusted 
 and kept clean. 
 
 In the furniture made by our best manufacturers, 
 there is evinced a careful regard for grace and harmony 
 of design, combined with use and suitability ; and this 
 must be attributed to the fact that the designers are 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 93 
 
 not mere designers of chairs, tables, and curtain hang- 
 ings, but men who, like the artists of the Middle Ages, 
 believe that every creation of design should be as 
 honestly and thoroughly thought out, whether it be the 
 smallest fitting of a house, the commonest colouring of 
 a wall, or the decoration of the smallest panel of a buffet 
 or cabinet, as the most gorgeous edifice, the most ex- 
 quisite painting, or the most noble piece of sculpture. 
 Quite certain it is that no good work can be produced 
 by the cramped efforts of designers, who see nothing 
 beyond the mere buffet, chair, or table they may be 
 working upon, and who cannot realise or conceive the 
 proportion and place each piece is to take in the general 
 arrangement of the room or building it is designed for. 
 
 It will be well for all English art, when architects, 
 sculptors, and painters, like the artists of the Renais- 
 sance age, consider nothing too small or insignificant 
 to engage their thoughts and artistic skill : when, like 
 them, they shall in no wise consider it derogatory to 
 their rank to think out and design the lowliest piece of 
 furniture, or the pattern or colouring of the smallest 
 article, whether of wall-hanging, floor-covering, or 
 general fittings of a room. 
 
 As in decoration, so also in furniture, the art 
 student and workman, as well as the general public, 
 
94 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 are largely indebted to the various exhibitions and loan 
 collections which have from time to time been formed 
 in this country and abroad, during the last thirty years, 
 for a more general knowledge of the furniture of past 
 ages, and for the opportunity thus given for careful 
 study and comparison of the work of various epochs. 
 The vast number of good examples brought together 
 at South Kensington offer not only an opportunity to 
 the sightseer to improve his knowledge of ancient work, 
 but give the art workman and designer a chance of 
 studying the characteristics of design and construction 
 in the numerous beautiful objects thus brought together, 
 and have, without doubt, imperceptibly imbued them 
 with a higher feeling for beauty and truthfulness of 
 design, and led to greater skill of handicraft, in the 
 work of the various trades, especially cognate to the 
 chief art of architecture. 
 
 Furniture has, in all ages, to a great extent, 
 followed the fashion or style of the architecture of the 
 period ; both, in early times, were made to conform to 
 the customs and requirements of the people of the 
 particular age. 
 
 It is true that, after the golden age of the early 
 Renaissance, when all the great arts of architecture, 
 sculpture, and painting were combined in one great 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 95 
 
 and harmonious effort, the sister arts of painting and 
 sculpture became more or less severed, and began to 
 start into independent life and existence. 
 
 After the sixteenth century, in furniture, as in archi- 
 tecture, there was a manifest decline in its artistic 
 character, proportion, and beauty, in favour of a de- 
 generate taste in design, and great exaggeration and 
 capricious eccentricity of form and treatment, until in 
 the eighteenth century there was, for a brief period, a 
 return to greater simplicity and soberness of design 
 and form. 
 
 The reaction from the voluptuousness and exuber- 
 ance of the past century, brought back, for a while, 
 greater and better taste in all design, and a seemino- 
 desire to return to the grace and beauty of delicate 
 classic character and feeling. 
 
 Still later, the designs of furniture, as well as of 
 decoration, were, to a great extent, principally copied 
 from the wall paintings of Pompeii ; this fashion, how- 
 ever, had but a short and fitful life, degenerating in a 
 few years into feeble prettinesses, false construction 
 and taste, and great extravagance of cost ; each indi- 
 vidual followed his or her own caprice, and furnished 
 in the style and period each thought best ; the result 
 was a lamentable jumble of works, exemplifying no 
 
96 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 particular conditions of life, and leaving no particular 
 record of their own, or of the feelings of the age to 
 which they belong, except, perhaps, a bad record of 
 absolute copyism, based on no real knowledge of, or 
 regard for, the style of any particular age, but sub- 
 ject only to the changes of individual caprice and 
 fashion. 
 
 While we cannot but admire the great beauty of 
 design and workmanship of the larger and more im- 
 portant pieces of furniture of past ages, and may be 
 glad to become possessors of them as works of art, 
 even as we may delight to gather around us examples 
 of beautiful sculpture, painting, and other art work of 
 bygone ages, we can hardly, in these days, desire to 
 imitate their luxury or costliness of make or design, 
 and although we may welcome them as charming 
 additions to our art collections, we should, I take it, 
 hardly desire to see them imitated for the changed 
 conditions and requirements of our own day. 
 
 Altered social conditions of the day have changed 
 the habits, customs, and requirements of modern society. 
 Nowadays our cabinets have to contain beautiful spe- 
 cimens of porcelain and pottery, of gold and silver, 
 and other metal work, tissues, and other objects of art, 
 which we desire to be seen by our friends, and not to 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 97 
 
 be hid away behind panelled doors or elaborate inlaid 
 fronts. 
 
 It was not until the end of the sixteenth century 
 that furniture applied to every-day use became general. 
 It would be outside the intention of the present course 
 of lectures to enter more at large into any description 
 of the elaborate carved ' armoires,' ' dressoirs,' or side- 
 boards — whence our term ' dresser ' — or high chairs, or 
 'faldistoirs,' with their monumental backs, the revolving 
 desks, or ' wheels,' used for the purpose of keeping 
 books and manuscripts within reach, the 'lecterns,' and 
 other similar pieces of furniture of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries ; suffice it to say, that although 
 highly elaborate in their design and workmanship, they 
 were made, as a rule, conformable to the requirements 
 and luxurious tastes of the day, and were, with all their 
 elaboration, thoroughly and entirely adapted for the 
 purposes for which they were designed. 
 
 M. Jacquemart, in his most interesting and ex- 
 haustive history of furniture, enters at large into the 
 description of the furniture of past ages, and the various 
 alterations in ways of living, which practically brought 
 about the changes in furniture design and arrangement. 
 
 Before leaving this part of my lecture, it is well to 
 notice how gradually the simple pieces of furniture of 
 
 H 
 
98 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 the earliest times became amplified and enlarged to 
 meet the more luxurious requirements of more modern 
 times. To quote M. Jacquemart : — 
 
 ' The " credence," a simple table for writing or 
 tasting provisions, as its name indicates, becomes an 
 elegant cupboard breast high, often with flaps, and a 
 small under-shelf ; then it is completed by a back-piece, 
 and even by a shelf, passing on thus to the form of the 
 buffet. " This latter name was originally " given to the 
 room destined to contain the most valuable plate ; later 
 on it was applied to a piece of furniture serving the 
 same purpose, and, by analogy, to the articles which 
 decorated it. . . . The "dressoir" or "etagere" differed 
 little from the buffet, large pieces of gold plate and 
 other sumptuous articles were exposed there, the 
 number of the shelves was fixed by etiquette, ac- 
 cording to the rank of the persons.' 
 
 Then there were chairs or ' chaieres ' plain and 
 folding, revolving chairs {chaises a pivots), and the gos- 
 siping-chair [chaise caquetoire), somewhat analogous to 
 the ' causeuses ' of modern times ; then there were the 
 double-bodied presses or ' armoires,' or cabinets turned 
 into cupboards with folding doors, tables, beds, and 
 seats of all description. 
 
 Later on, China and Japan contributed to the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 99 
 
 furniture of the houses of the wealthy, various small 
 pieces of furniture ' de luxe,' of red, gold, and black 
 lacquer ; India and Persia, a variety of pieces in 
 sculptured and sandal wood, and elaborate 'pique' or 
 inlaid work; Italy, its gorgeous specimens of carved, 
 incrusted, and inlaid ivory, mosaic, and marquetry 
 work, until in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
 we descend to the extravagance of design and orna- 
 mentation in bulbous-shaped forms, overlaid with tor- 
 toiseshell, and gilt and chased metal work of all descrip- 
 tions, with all the gingerbread and show of twisted and 
 curled mouldings, and elaborate mirrors ; all these 
 articles were made more for show than real use : in 
 them (to quote M. Jacquemart) — 
 
 ' Form usurps unheard-of licence, every object 
 swells itself to assume fantastic curves ; nothing is 
 straight or regular ; angles are rounded and hollowed ; 
 unlooked-for sinuosities furrow the surfaces ; bulged, 
 twisted, caricatured forms are alone admitted, and 
 above sprouts bronze vegetation with unnatural endive 
 foliage ; brass gilded with ormolu, rolls along in 
 fantastic borders, or gathers suddenly in unforeseen 
 clusters, and thus an eccentric whole is completed, 
 which, while always clever, is sometimes elegant not- 
 withstanding its singularity. . . . Caprice is carried to 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 such an extent that the fundamental law of art — pro- 
 priety — is totally forgotten.' 
 
 The period of Louis XVI. brought back uphol- 
 sterers to sobriety and simplicity, and the characteristics 
 of the delicate artistic designs and workmanship of 
 this time are influencing the revival of art furniture 
 to a large extent in England, combined with the works 
 of the English designers — Sheraton, Chippendale, and 
 Adams, whose designs are being now largely produced 
 to suit the present fashion of architecture, yclept 
 ' Queen Anne.' 
 
 In Plate VI. I give an illustration of a group 
 of furniture made by Messrs. Holland, after old 
 examples by Sheraton, Adams, and Chippendale. The 
 sideboard of Spanish mahogany, 7 ft. 6 in. long, with 
 straight front and slightly elliptic ends, and shaped 
 and panelled back, is an exceedingly good specimen of 
 modern work after Sheraton, and is of the highest skill 
 in workmanship and general design, being richly inlaid 
 with satin and various coloured woods. The chair 
 and writing-table are both good examples of the adap- 
 tation of the eighteenth-century designs to modern 
 furniture, and have been selected to show that good 
 modern upholsterers are endeavouring to imitate the 
 grace and elegance of design of the work of this parti- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 101 
 
 cular date, and to combine with it exceeding excellence 
 of workmanship. In thus reverting back to a period 
 of general artistic merit in form and decoration, we may 
 expect that they will ere long be able and willing to 
 provide furniture of equally good form and design, 
 but less elaborate in ornament and decoration, out of 
 simpler and less expensive woods at a moderate price ; 
 for I venture to hope that, when once the love of and 
 taste for furniture of graceful form and ornamenta- 
 tion are more largely disseminated, all good manufac- 
 turers will find it worth their while to provide inex- 
 pensive furniture for the million, and will eventually 
 oust from their show-rooms the inartistic and generally 
 commonplace examples, which are now made up to suit 
 the demands of the depraved taste of the uneducated 
 public. 
 
 In the work of Chippendale, we see great careful- 
 ness of construction, general comfort, and suitability 
 of form and arrangement, although in many of his 
 designs there is a manifest imitation of French or 
 Chinese ornament and form, which is anything but 
 satisfactory, and the elaborate and delicate fretwork 
 and carving naturally tend to make any imitation 
 of his designs expensive. 
 
 As a type of old work suitable to houses of the 
 
io2 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 present day, there is much in the modern imitation of 
 Chippendale work which commends itself to the pre- 
 sent style of house-building. It is to be regretted, 
 however, that the craze for all this kind of work 
 should practically not only give the dealers the chance 
 of charging exorbitant prices for old examples, but, to 
 a certain extent, encourage a somewhat extravagant 
 idea of the worth of modern imitations. 
 
 Heppelwhite was another manufacturer of this 
 period who endeavoured to combine general elegance 
 of design with comfort and suitability of form, and 
 whose work is now much valued by connoisseurs for 
 its general goodness of make and design. In the 
 work of both these makers, solidity, comfort, and 
 sound construction are especially noticeable, while 
 there is an absence, as a rule, of expensive ornamen- 
 tation, and unnecessary turning and cutting. 
 
 Sheraton was another maker who, in the beginning 
 of this century, brought the art of furniture making 
 into high repute, and whose work may generally 
 be said to be based on that of Heppelwhite and 
 Chippendale, with the addition of painted decoration 
 inserted in friezes and pilasters. 
 
 I am quite aware that first-class workmanship is 
 well worthy of first-class prices, but 1 cannot but 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 103 
 
 think good modern upholsterers might give us furniture 
 made after the manner and form of the makers I have 
 named, at a somewhat less extravagant price than 
 that generally charged. A good deal of the unneces- 
 sary carving in the chair backs might be omitted, 
 and while the general excellence of the designs, as 
 regards form and comfort, might be adhered to, they 
 could in a great measure be simplified, so as to bring 
 the price within the reach of all of us. 
 
 A good dining-room chair, artistic in design, com- 
 fortable in shape, and of good mahogany or oak, 
 covered with leather, or other good wearing stuff, 
 ought to be made for 3/. or 3/. icxr. 
 
 I was indebted to Messrs. Jackson and Graham, 
 and Messrs. Gillow, for the loan of some exceedingly 
 good examples of modern, so-called Chippendale, 
 Adams, and Sheraton work, which form the subjects 
 of some of my illustrations, in which general simplicity 
 of form, and honesty of construction and design, are 
 set forth. I want to see such firms as these give 
 us this kind of work at a more moderate price, and 
 I see no reason why this cannot be done. 
 
 The small cabinet, shown in Plate VI L, by 
 Messrs. Jackson and Graham seems to me to combine 
 general artistic merit of design with simplicity and 
 
104 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 practical common sense in form and arrangement ; it 
 adapts itself equally well for books and china, with well- 
 arranged cupboard space for books and ladies' work ; 
 the fronts of these cupboards are formed with Chinese 
 paintings on panel, exquisitely drawn and tinted, which 
 harmonise well with the delicate satin-wood of which 
 the cabinet is made. The supports are simply turned, 
 and the whole design is free from all the unnecessary 
 ornament and carving which form so large and so ex- 
 pensive an item in most modern furniture. Such a 
 cabinet as this made in American walnut or mahogany 
 would cost about 16/. The little occasional table, 
 shown in the illustration, is strong on its legs and 
 serviceable in shape, and can be made for about 30^. 
 The plain armchair, with its delicately turned legs and 
 framing, and with split willow-plaited seat stained in 
 different colours, cannot be called expensive at 30^. ; 
 and is, while pleasant to look at, exceedingly comfort- 
 able in shape. 
 
 While it is of course possible for those whose 
 means are unlimited to obtain good artistic work, the 
 largely increased use of machinery should enable us to 
 obtain this at moderate cost ; for although we must 
 necessarily be dependent upon skill of pure handicraft 
 for many articles of furniture and decoration, there is 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 105 
 
 no real reason why machinery, properly applied, should 
 not produce good work for the million. 
 
 After all, the manufacturer must not be entirely 
 blamed for extravagance and high prices ; common 
 sense in house decoration and furnishing has not yet 
 been arrived at by the majority of the public. They 
 are content to accept advice in most important matters, 
 but imagine that they can, without help, furnish and 
 decorate their homes, and in matters of taste believe 
 that they have as much a right to have an opinion 
 as the skilled professional artist. 
 
 This want of plain common sense often leads them 
 to avoid asking the opinion of those whom they may 
 think will seek to over-ride their real ' want of taste,' 
 and, as physicians of art, to lead their judgment from 
 their commonplace, vulgar, and ofttimes, probably, 
 grossly extravagant ideas, to those more simple and 
 inexpensive. Hence, they hand themselves over, body 
 and soul, to some inferior decorator, whom they think 
 they can lead ; who begins by bowing down to their 
 own expressed whims and fancies, flatters their vanity 
 and conceit, and ends by perpetrating the grossest of 
 anachronisms, and supplying the vulgarest of designs, in 
 decoration and furniture, at a large and ofttimes exces- 
 sive outlay of money. If an artist offers advice, as an 
 
106 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 amicus curice, unless it should happen that it be in 
 accord with the wishes of the individual, he will 
 probably be politely snubbed, and told that it is 'a 
 question of taste,' and that he or she knows best what 
 he or she likes. Of course it is a question of taste, 
 but of educated taste, not of mere whim or fancy. I 
 could quote innumerable examples of this utter want of 
 common sense. I quote one example only. I heard 
 of a lady selecting a carpet, and when told that the 
 particular pattern was ugly in design, quietly remark- 
 ing, ' Ah ! well, you know, all the ugly patterns are 
 the fashion now.' Nonsense such as this only shows 
 the gross ignorance and conceit of a large proportion 
 of the public, and the influence of the so-called schools 
 of ignorant decorators, whose dogmas lead to the end- 
 less vulgarity and ignorance of much modern decora- 
 tion and furniture. As a late writer on art (I believe 
 it was Mr. Beavington Atkinson), in a very careful and 
 critical paper on ' Decorative Art applied to Domestic 
 Uses,' in 'Blackwood's Magazine' (March 1869), truly 
 said, ' Few persons have the resolution to make their 
 houses plain, if they possess the means of loading every 
 wall and crowding every floor with ponderous and pom- 
 pous decoration. When purchasers abound in money, 
 and manufacturers have no higher ends than trade, it 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 107 
 
 is to be feared that the virtue of simplicity will in vain 
 make her voice heard in our dwellings.' 
 
 Why cannot people understand that good taste and 
 simplicity go hand in hand with common sense, while 
 eccentricities and extravagances of all kinds are not 
 only vulgar, but senseless, leading to all kinds of ex- 
 cesses, and utterly at variance with the better instincts 
 of human nature. 
 
 ' I know what I like ' is a common phrase, but with 
 all due respect I unhesitatingly assert that very few 
 people do know what they like in matters of household 
 taste, and are led into constant changes and expenses 
 by the want of that common sense which, in other 
 matters of life, they may possibly possess. 
 
 In furniture for every- day houses we want, first of 
 all, that everything shall be fitted for its purpose, shall 
 not be extravagant in design, shall be absolutely useful, 
 and, if it be a chair or couch, absolutely comfortable. 
 Cabinets are made to hold collections of china, and 
 other artistic objects ; what need, therefore, that the 
 case which contains these be elaborately carved and 
 gilt, and finished with endless rows of tiny turned 
 balusters, utterly useless, but terribly costly. 
 
 Simple framework is all that is required, with glass 
 enclosing doors to protect the objects from dust ; but 
 
108 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 let the framework be as unpretentious as possible ; and 
 not heavy and extravagant in elaboration, moulding, 
 or carving, utterly out of place and character with its 
 purpose. 
 
 Tables should be strong and well made, of good 
 seasoned wood, the legs plainly and inexpensively 
 turned, and not curved into absurdly contorted forms. 
 All elaboration of carving and moulding is utterly 
 thrown away in the legs of a chair or table, which are, 
 as a rule, hidden from view. Care should be taken 
 that the table-legs should be set well back, so as not to 
 interfere with the comfort of those whose places may be 
 opposite to them. As a rule, the present telescopic 
 arrangement of the dining-room table is most suitable 
 for modern requirements. It will fold up to a mode- 
 rate table for four people, or will expand for twenty, or 
 even more. I cannot accept the theories of those who 
 ask us to adopt the old-fashioned long-framed table, 
 which may yet be seen in many an old hall in England. 
 We cannot have them made in sets of various sizes to 
 suit different requirements, and a table that would 
 hold even twelve would be absurd, as a general rule, 
 in any m oderate-sized dining-room. It is this kind 
 of crazing after old-fashioned things, without discrimi- 
 nating as to what to take and what to avoid, which 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 109 
 
 sets so many sensible people against all ancient forms 
 and examples. 
 
 Chairs should be, first of all, comfortable, made to 
 the shape of the back, strong and sound in construction, 
 with no projecting carving or bossed-out ornament to 
 torture the back, and no lines of jagged brass-headed 
 pins to catch and tear ladies' dresses. Chairs and 
 couches should be comfortably stuffed, and luxurious 
 in breadth of surface for rest and ease, not cramped 
 and stiff, after the manner of the designs of some of 
 our so-called advanced schools of furniture designers. 
 Easy chairs should mean easy chairs, and not the 
 miserable shams in which you cannot sit or rest with 
 comfort. All these kind of couches may be made at 
 moderate cost, providing you do not ask for elaborate 
 turned wood framing, which not only adds materially 
 to the cost, but detracts from the comfort and con- 
 venience of the piece of furniture. We do not want 
 sideboards made in imitation of a classic shrine, with 
 wine coolers made after the manner of Grecian sarco- 
 phagi. 
 
 If the public will only be content to make their 
 houses simple and plain, instead of overloading them 
 with heavy and costly furniture — generally not only 
 uncomfortable and expensive, but utterly stiff and at 
 
no DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 variance with any home-like feelings of comfort and 
 ease — we might hope that true art would find a place 
 in all our homes, and, as the same writer in the article 
 I have before quoted aptly wrote : — 
 
 ' If a man, in the adorning and ordering of his 
 house, would bring a few grains of the common sense 
 which serves him so well in the counting-house, then, 
 at all events, might we hope to see banished from the 
 hall, the dining-room, and the drawing-room, those 
 vulgarities, absurdities, monstrosities, which so often 
 outrage well-balanced judgment and sin against sober 
 taste.' 
 
 The dining-rooms of many town houses are arranged 
 with recesses in one end or side, in which obviously it 
 is suggested that the sideboard shall be placed ; until 
 quite recently these so-called 'sideboards,' or 'buffets,' 
 consisted of two flanking cupboards, with an open 
 central space for a wine cooler, a heavy dresser top 
 with two or three drawers, often made with bulbous 
 and flowing fronts, and the whole surmounted by 
 an enormous glass, enclosed within a heavy frame, 
 twisted and curled and carved into many curious 
 forms. 
 
 The art was bad, the construction worse, the 
 expense enormous, and the arrangement or fitting-up, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. in 
 
 for practical purposes, anything but satisfactory ; the 
 usual cellaret in one cupboard was so divided that the 
 bottles and decanters wobbled about in them, to their 
 own imminent risk of breakage, and certain shaking-up 
 of their contents ; the shelves were so divided that too 
 much space was left for some, and not nearly enough 
 for other articles usually stowed away in such places ; 
 the drawer space was utterly wasted, and little or no 
 thought was taken that the sideboard should be fitted 
 up for its particular purpose and use, in accordance 
 with the requirements of an ordinary household. 
 
 This sketch of an ordinary dining-room sideboard 
 is no exaggeration. Such pieces of furniture still exist 
 in many modern houses ; nor can I see that any great 
 amount of improvement has been made in late years in 
 this essentially necessary part of the furniture of a 
 dining-room. It is true that there has been much 
 greater elaboration in the designs of sideboards or 
 buffets ; carving, turning, and ' balustrading ' — I use 
 the term to represent the little balconies of tiny- 
 columns with which so many of the new designs are 
 embellished — have been amplified ; panels have been 
 gorgeously inlaid ; and the cost has increased in pro- 
 portion, so that a buffet of moderate size will cost 
 from 50/. to 100/. at least. 
 
112 
 
 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 Instead, therefore, of all this piling up of costly 
 ornamentation and construction, I submit that as a 
 buffet or ' dressoir ' is practically for use, and not for 
 show, except for that of plate, or valuable china and 
 
 wV 
 
 glass, the general design might be very much simplified, 
 and that a good useful piece of furniture, combining 
 the requisite cupboards, cellarets, and drawers, properly 
 arranged for their several purposes, with a moderate 
 sized Venetian glass in the centre of the back, flanked 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 113 
 
 by carefully arranged shelves, and glass-enclosed cup- 
 boards, for holding china and Venetian glass, for show 
 or for use, might be made of mahogany, wainscot, or 
 deal painted, free from elaborate mouldings, turning, 
 or carving, but good in form and general design, for a 
 considerably less sum than that charged for any moder- 
 ate-sized sideboard by any really good manufacturer. 
 
 The small buffet shown in sketch, by Messrs. 
 Morris and Co., designed by Mr. Webb, is well suited 
 for a small room, being 5 ft. long by about 16 in. pro- 
 jection, is conveniently fitted up with useful drawers 
 and cupboards, and with sufficient shelf accommodation 
 for glass and china, as well as for dinner use. Such a 
 piece as this could be well made at moderate cost in 
 deal or pitch pine, and be either stained and varnished 
 or lacquer-painted. 
 
 How many professional men are there in towns 
 who use their dining-rooms for professional purposes 
 during the day, and who would gladly have some piece 
 of furniture that should answer for the double purpose 
 of putting away books, drawings, engravings, photo- 
 graphs, or papers, and for the general dining-room 
 use ? How much better, therefore, would it be for 
 any one, to whom a piece of furniture having this double 
 use would be invaluable, to state his special require- 
 
 1 
 
114 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 ments, and have a piece of furniture designed ' for the 
 purpose, rather than to hastily purchase that which, in 
 too many instances, answers neither purpose quite 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 A buffet containing drawers for engravings or 
 photographs, cellaret for wine, cupboards with con- 
 venient fittings, and dresser accommodation, for all the 
 necessary dining-room paraphernalia, with shelves or 
 cupboards over, for good china and glass, might be 
 made quite as artistic, and much more inexpensively, 
 than the elaborate productions which we see nowa- 
 days in so many modern dining-rooms. 
 
 Serving hatches from the small back rooms, or 
 light lifts from the basement, might be equally well in- 
 corporated in the buffet, and thus we should obtain an 
 eminently useful piece of furniture, adapted for the 
 work of the day, as well as that of the evening. 
 
 Where practicable, a good useful buffet might be 
 made to fill up the dining-room recess, of painted or 
 stained deal or pitch-pine, at a comparatively moderate 
 cost, in which might well be provided all necessary 
 accommodation for dining-room purposes, with shelves 
 for the display of plate and bric-a-brac, cupboards 
 with glazed doors for good glass or other objects for 
 show or use, drawers for papers or drawings, or other 
 
OF TO WN HO USES. 1 1 5 
 
 working belonging's of a professional man, the whole 
 artistic in design and suitable and commodious in 
 arrangement, without any of the useless ornamentation 
 with which modern upholsterers think it necessary to 
 overload the general run of sideboards they offer for sale. 
 In Plate VIII. I submit a sketch of a buffet such 
 as I have described, which, although to my mind 
 somewhat over-elaborated with unnecessary carving 
 and ornament, combines all the requisites of a side- 
 board for general dining-room use, with shelves for 
 china and glass, ample space for dinner or breakfast 
 service, cellaret for wine, drawers for table linen as 
 well as for drawings or instruments, and cupboards for 
 papers ; the glass is of sufficient size to lighten up the 
 room without being ugly or vulgar in shape. Such a 
 buffet as this, made simpler in design by the omission 
 of some of the unnecessary carving and notchings, 
 which are not only expensive but collect dirt and dust, 
 would answer all the purposes I have described, and 
 ought to be made well for about 30/. or 35/. The 
 same illustration shows an arrangement of a simple 
 matting dado, with paper centre space for pictures, and 
 a plain-coloured distemper frieze over divided by a 
 small moulding or picture-rail. 
 
 Window openings are not half utilised, as a rule, in 
 
 1 2 
 
n6 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 sitting-rooms; the space is very often filled up by a 
 chair, or small table, altogether in the way ; in these 
 window recesses might be made comfortable seats, or 
 divans, amply and fully stuffed for ease and comfort, 
 covered with leather or stuff, to harmonise with the 
 other work in the rooms ; and the seat inside might be 
 fitted up for newspapers or magazines, or, in the bed- 
 rooms, for clothes, bonnets, or any other special 
 purpose for which they might be desired. 
 
 Plain deal-framed seats and risers are all that are 
 required, properly stuffed and covered ; any good 
 joiner or upholsterer would make these at a very 
 moderate cost, and provide you with not only com- 
 fortable seats but useful spaces for stowing away and 
 preserving all sorts of things, for which it is often so 
 difficult to find room in a town house of ordinary 
 dimensions. 
 
 In the recesses of the bedrooms might be arranged 
 hanging closets for dresses, with shelves for linen, 
 boxes for boots and bonnets, and the numerous articles 
 of dress which necessarily accumulate in an English 
 household, where we have to provide for all sorts of 
 seasons, and can hardly ever be sure of whether we 
 want spring, summer, or winter clothing. A simple 
 deal panelled cupboard front is all that is required. 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 117 
 
 The centre panel might be filled in with looking-glass 
 down to the ground, like an ordinary wardrobe, the 
 doors divided, so as not to be cumbrous or heavy, the 
 whole height of the cupboard being from 7 to 8 
 feet, including the bonnet or boot box at the bottom 
 and the shelf at the top. Between the top of this and 
 the ceiling the space should be filled up with a smaller 
 cupboard, with shelves for stowing away surplus clothes 
 and linen, but I need hardly suggest a use for any cup- 
 boards or shelves ; the ladies of the house will, I am 
 sure, not think my suggestions useless. My object in 
 suggesting the filling up the top space is that there 
 shall be no broad surfaces, such as those left at the top 
 of ordinary wardrobes — which are seldom or ever 
 really dusted — for the accumulation of unhealthy dust 
 and dirt. It is only necessary to ask any of my 
 readers to examine the tops of any of their ward- 
 robes or bookcases in their sitting or bedrooms, and 
 if they are not somewhat astonished with what they 
 will find, I will confess my error in thus strongly 
 objecting to what I call traps for dirt and disease. 
 
 I might suggest innumerable other ways of adapting 
 what I call constructive furniture for the various rooms 
 in a town house, which could be carried out at compara- 
 tively small cost. The cupboard fronts I have here sug- 
 
n8 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 gested could be made in deal, painted, for a few pounds ; 
 the cost of the inside fittings, of course, would vary 
 according to what was required, but with a little thought 
 and a little care all this kind of constructive furniture 
 may be made artistic in character, easily removeable, 
 eminently useful, and withal inexpensive. 
 
 The additional labour entailed in most houses upon 
 the servants, of carrying water from the basement to 
 the upper floors, or even from one floor to another, 
 may be greatly avoided by the more general use of 
 fitted lavatories in the bed and dressing-rooms. With 
 these a constant supply of water can be obtained at any 
 moment, and the evils of broken crockery, and water 
 tepid from long standing, will be avoided. This 
 arrangement must not, for a moment, be thought of, 
 unless the waste-pipes can be carried right away, so as 
 to empty free into the open air, and be quite discon- 
 nected with any drains. 
 
 The first expense is a trifle greater than that of good 
 washstands and expensive services of crockery, but the 
 comfort, not to say the luxury, of cold and hot water in 
 constant supply in ample basins, is worth all the extra 
 cost, to say nothing of the saving of labour in the 
 house, and the constant expense of making good 
 broken crockery. These basins can be fitted with 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 119 
 
 plain marble-tops, sunk for brushes and the other 
 necessaries of the toilet, and fitted under with small 
 enclosing cupboards, which can be provided with racks 
 or shelves for boots and shoes, articles of dress usually 
 difficult to place away in ordinary dressing-rooms. 
 
 The mantel-pieces of most of the modern London 
 houses are generally of the most commonplace character, 
 abominable in design and construction, perhaps black 
 marble, with enormous trusses, in the dining-room, bad 
 in form, in outline, and construction ; in the drawing- 
 room of similar character, but of white or veined marble. 
 To leave these as they are would utterly destroy all 
 decorative effect in a room ; when everything else 
 looked well, they would remain as plague spots, on 
 which the eye would continually rest. If I advocate 
 their removal, I shall be told that I am going away 
 from my first principles of economy, but at the risk of 
 this, I would say, get rid of them at once. Take them 
 down carefully, and take out the grates and stow them 
 all away in some cellar, where they can be brought 
 to light and refixed when your lease is up, and any new 
 mantel-piece that you may put up can be fixed as a 
 piece of furniture, so as to be taken down and removed 
 without damage to the walls. 
 
 In many of the houses of the date of the early 
 
120 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 part of the eighteenth, and even in some of those 
 built in the early part of this century, there remain 
 mantel-pieces and grates of good design and proportion, 
 in which the adaptation of good Greek forms and detail, 
 with delicate inlays of rare marbles, or gracefully sculp- 
 tured panels and enrichments, are well and carefully 
 carried out ; these, of course, are invaluable. 
 
 The simpler mantel-pieces of the periods I have 
 named in plain painted deal, with well-proportioned 
 mouldings and delicately modelled enrichments and 
 figure panels, after Flaxman, are very good in their 
 way, and in nowise come under the category of the 
 modern abominations of what are called 'boxed- 
 marble,' in which form, detail, moulding, and carving 
 are all execrable. 
 
 In olden days, the mantel-pieces were, as a rule, 
 the most important features in a room, carved with 
 many a quaint device, blazoned with heraldic decora- 
 tion, or filled with subject panels, exquisitely wrought 
 and moulded, or with painting and carving, in which 
 the highest skill of the sculptor and painter were 
 brought into association with the designer's skill. They 
 thus became grand and imposing features in the ban- 
 queting-hall or lady's chamber, objects of art and 
 beauty, setting forth the cultured taste and refinement 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 121 
 
 of the artists of past generations, and teaching us 
 lessons of skill and grace in design and detail, which 
 we may well and wisely take to heart. 
 
 I need but refer you to the many exquisite examples 
 of old mediaeval work, built up with the walls, which still 
 remain to us in many old houses in England and 
 abroad, with their deeply recessed chimney corners, 
 pleasant places for after-dinner rest, or to the examples 
 of later days in some of the old mansions of England, 
 all exquisitely designed with various marbles inlaid and 
 sculptured, or to the more elaborate but equally 
 beautiful structures of carved and panelled wainscot 
 with quaint panelling, curiously wrought columns, and 
 cunningly devised recesses and shelves, with portraits 
 or other good work of the painter's art enframed in 
 well-wrought mouldings in the central spaces, like some 
 of those in Hatfield-house, Audley End, Hampton- 
 court Palace, and numerous other old English mansions 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 In these old buildings the mantel-pieces were 
 works of art in the rooms, the centres to which all 
 other panelling and decoration led up. The grates of 
 the more important rooms were massive, with wrought 
 or cast dog-irons of good design, backs cast with some 
 figure subjects in bold relief, all grateful and pleasant 
 
122 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 to look at through the cheery blaze and sparkle of 
 burning logs. 
 
 What a painful contrast do the machine-made 
 modern ones of to-day offer to us, in which there is 
 utter want of taste and design. 
 
 The mantel-piece, then, should be an important 
 feature in any room. In the dining-room it may be of 
 unpolished wainscot, mahogany, American walnut, or 
 painted deal, with a lining of black or golden. Sienna 
 marble ; the lower panels may be filled in with good 
 painted subject tiles, or delicate carving of fruit or 
 flowers, the main shelf sufficiently broad to take, if 
 necessary, the various ornaments, useful or otherwise, 
 which are wanted, with perhaps a centre panel for a 
 good portrait or subject picture, enframed in boldly 
 carved moulding ; round it, on either side, might be 
 plain panelling, carried up to the ceiling line, with 
 recesses for sculpture or bronzes, or tiers of shelves 
 for those whose tastes lie in china or other bric-a-brac, 
 the top perhaps finished with a bold curved cove, 
 filled in with stamped leather or decorative enrich- 
 ment. 
 
 I give an example of a mantel-piece (Plate IX.) 
 which has been lately fitted up in the dining-room of 
 an ordinary London house from my own designs. The 
 
Plate N° 3. 
 
 A-Dining- Room Chimney- Piece- 
 
 ROBERT W.EDIS.F.S.A. ARCS- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 123 
 
 old grate was removed and the space lined with orna- 
 mental tiles, and the fire-place itself enframed with 
 golden Sienna marble slightly moulded on the inner 
 edge. The mantel-piece itself was of unpolished 
 American walnut, to accord with the moulded dado 
 round the room, the lower panels filled in with good 
 figure tiles, and the upper portion arranged with re- 
 cesses and shelves for china and other ornaments, with 
 good splayed Venetian glasses in the panels to lighten 
 up the room and reflect the ornaments, the recesses 
 being lined with stamped and gilded leather ; the top 
 moulding was made to carry round with the picture- 
 rail ; the whole being designed to suit the character of 
 the room and to form an important part of its artistic 
 decoration. 
 
 For the drawing-room and library I would suggest 
 designed mantels of similar character, but carried out 
 to meet the special requirements of the two rooms ; 
 in the one might be subdued delicate embroidery, 
 painted tiles, or Japanese lacquer panels, with recessed 
 shelves, lined with velvet, to set off the china or glass, 
 the sides formed into groups of useful shelves or 
 brackets, and the centre filled with a splayed Venetian 
 glass, of not too great a height from the ground to 
 be rendered useless, and of sufficient size to reflect the 
 
124 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 works of art in the room, and thus add to its cheerful- 
 ness and charm. 
 
 In the library, I would arrange small flanking 
 cupboards for cigars or tobacco for those who smoke, 
 with shelves for china or books, to carry on the 
 general furniture of the room, so that the mantel-piece 
 should not appear as the one break in the line. But, 
 above all, please to understand that these mantel- 
 pieces should be designed so as to be not mere objects 
 of ornament, but absolutely useful as pieces of furniture. 
 Why should not flanking cupboards be provided, such 
 as I have shown in one of my illustrations (Plate X.), 
 for guns, swords, and fishing-rods, and the various 
 paraphernalia of a sportsman or a soldier. If the 
 cupboards be made air and dust-tight, all these belong- 
 ings, which, to their detriment, are too often stowed 
 away in cases, may be kept more carefully, and will 
 add materially to the general appearance of the room, 
 giving it at once an air of use, as well as of comfort. 
 
 Many of you do not hesitate to spend 20/. to a 
 100/. on a picture or piece of china, which, while of 
 course beautiful in itself, cannot give you half the 
 pleasure, or half the variety, as the same sum of money 
 spent on a really good mantel-piece. For from 20/. 
 to a 100/. you may have a mantel-piece which shall 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 125 
 
 not only be beautiful but useful, and which shall 
 accord with the general artistic furniture in your 
 room, and in which works of art in the shape of well- 
 drawn figure tiles, delicately modelled pieces of terra- 
 cotta work, or panels of wood carving, and small but 
 useful Venetian mirrors, or other similar work, may 
 be enframed. 
 
 For 50/. or 60/. you may get a really good mantel- 
 piece, the fire-place lined with tiles of good design, 
 and a dog-grate that shall burn coals or wood in the 
 winter, or be fitted to hold flowers in the summer time ; 
 and for almost the price of an ordinary marble mantel 
 you may in your bedrooms get one of painted deal, 
 with art tiles that will not offend the eye whenever 
 you look upon them. In illustration of this portion 
 of my remarks are shown various designs for mantel- 
 pieces, — setting forth some few suggestions for the 
 more useful and advantageous treatment of this part 
 of the furniture of an ordinary house, — which may 
 be applied to almost any room. All of these have 
 been executed at a cost varying from 5/. to 60/., 
 inclusive of glasses, grates, and tiles, the more elabo- 
 rate examples having been executed in wainscot 
 mahogany and American walnut ; but by using plain 
 deal or pine, painted and varnished, a considerable 
 
126 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 saving of expense might be made. I do not offer them 
 as designs to be accepted by yon, but simply as examples 
 of my views of the general treatment of ordinary 
 mantel-pieces. 
 
 The illustration (Plate X.) shows an arrange- 
 ment of cupboards and shelves which I have designed 
 for guns, fishing-rods, swords and china, cigars, tobacco, 
 and pipes in my own library. This work was done in 
 deal, painted, at a moderate cost, the tiles and figure 
 plaques after Teniers, being from an old German 
 stove, and utterly unseen until placed as I have shown. 
 The whole work was executed for me by an ordinary 
 builder, and fitted over the existing mantel-piece, 
 which, fortunately, happens to be of simple and fairly 
 good design, the house having been originally de- 
 signed by an architect, and not by a speculative 
 builder. 
 
 In the smaller bedrooms or dressing-rooms, whers 
 space is not over ample, I see no reason why the 
 mantel-piece should not, to a certain extent, be formed 
 into a sort of dressing-table. Above the shelf, which 
 adapts itself easily for all dressing paraphernalia, on 
 either side, might be formed small cupboards, useful 
 for many purposes, the centre space between being 
 filled up by a sufficiently large looking-glass, flanked 
 
Plate N° 10 
 
 A-Study -Mantel-Piece • 
 
 ROBERT W.EDIS F.S.A.ARF T ". 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 127 
 
 with light moveable brackets for gas or candles, the 
 whole made of deal stained and polished, or painted 
 and varnished, or of some other inexpensive wood. 
 
 An arrangement of this kind would naturally not 
 be suitable for the more important work of a lady's 
 toilet ; but in small bachelor or dressing-rooms, it 
 would, I venture to think, be found sufficient for all 
 purposes, and infinitely better than the moveable table, 
 which generally occupies the whole window space, the 
 white dressing-table cover of which, however charming 
 it may be when first put on, too soon gets smeared and 
 spotted with the blacks and dust which blow in when- 
 ever the window is opened, or find their way mysteri- 
 ously, but surely, through cracks and crevices, one 
 knows not how, to the certain ruin as regards cleanli- 
 ness of anything within their reach. 
 
 In ordinary bedrooms, a plain deal painted and 
 varnished mantel can be put up for a very small expense. 
 I saw recently an exceedingly good example of a 
 cheap and simple bedroom chimney-piece made by 
 Messrs. Longden and Co., of Sheffield, from the de- 
 signs of a well-known architect, in deal, red-lacquer 
 painted, with grate, fire-lumps, and tiles, the total cost 
 of which was 4/. 1 js. inclusive, the mantel-piece itself, 
 with tiles, costing 3/. 2s., and the grate 1/. 153-. In 
 
128 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 the hall, this kind of simple design, with cupboards 
 over, fitted up for gloves and brashes, and with a lining 
 of tiles, which can be obtained of good design and 
 colour for is. each at Messrs. Minton or other manu- 
 facturers, would be a pleasant and cheerful feature in 
 the generally dreary entrance of a town house. 
 
 If you do not wish, for various reasons, to remove 
 the existing grates and mantels of your house, you can 
 adapt some design for fitting up over the old mantels, 
 with some useful piece of furniture, at a small cost, and 
 thus improve the general effect of your rooms without 
 interference with existing arrangements, and without 
 adopting the commonplace, tasteless, and eminently 
 dirty alternative of a wooden mantelboard, covered 
 with velvet or cloth with senseless and useless fringe. 
 
 In my own dining-room I have fitted up the space 
 over the existing mantel-piece (see Plate XI.) with 
 a cluster of shelves specially made to take blue and 
 white china, which, to my mind, has a much more deco- 
 rative effect, arranged as I have shown, than when hung 
 up or placed in single and isolated pieces. The shelves 
 are moulded on the edge and made narrower as they 
 rise in height, and the whole cluster is fastened to the 
 wall with strong wrought-iron brackets, the painted wall 
 surface forming an excellent background for the china. 
 
Plate N c 11 
 
 ADinin&RoomJtrepLcwe ■ showing-how-an-onaiTiqry-Grote-&-Manlel-Rece-'mqy-l)e-treal:ed % 
 
 ROBERT W.EDIS.F.5 A. ARC7 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 129 
 
 The whole was put up at the cost of a few pounds. 
 Under the lower shelf I have arranged a light rod on 
 which are hung russet-brown Utrecht velvet curtains 
 to hide the modern mantel-piece, and to shut in the 
 whole space when a fire is not required. 
 
 In the increased use of painted tiles in the decora- 
 tion and furniture of our houses, we are practically 
 doing good to a large number of ladies anxious and 
 willing to find some means of livelihood ; the painting of 
 tiles is eminently a work for their light hands, and the 
 good taste which most educated ladies possess will 
 suggest many ways of adapting the simplest flowers of 
 the field, in proper decorative treatment and ornamen- 
 tation of tiles. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of fire-places, let me say 
 a few words about grates and fenders ; as a rule nothing 
 can be worse in taste and design than these — the grates 
 are not only hideous in shape, but in the better rooms 
 of the house are often of burnished steel with laid-on 
 ormolu mouldings, all necessitating a large amount of 
 time and labour in keeping bright and clean. As a 
 rule, these grates are as extravagant as they are ugly, 
 consuming a maximum quantity of coal, and giving out 
 a minimum amount of heat ; as a consequence, all 
 kinds of attempts are made to diminish the consumption 
 
 K 
 
130 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and increase the heat, by inserting fire-lump sides or 
 balls, and putting in iron false bottoms ; all these make- 
 shifts are unsatisfactory. There is no reason why you 
 should not have good artistic grates, combined with a 
 maximum amount of heat from the coal consumed, and 
 — if the room be large, and access can be got to the 
 external air — by means of many of the now well-known 
 ventilating grates, pure warm fresh air can be supplied 
 at will, to add to the warmth and comfort of the rooms, 
 at a comparatively small expense. 
 
 The slow combustion grates are now well known, 
 and need no words of mine to recommend their adop- 
 tion. Those made by Messrs. Barnard, at Norwich, 
 and designed by Mr. Jekyll, the architect, are not 
 only exceedingly good in their artistic treatment, but 
 good in their construction and scientific arrangement 
 for throwing out the greatest amount of heat at the 
 smallest expenditure of coal. They consist of a plain 
 cast ornamental front, with fire-lump back, sides, and 
 bottom, by which the heat of the fire is retained and 
 cast out into the room, instead of, as a rule, going up 
 the chimney. The fire space is made as small as 
 possible, consistent with the requirements of the grate, 
 and by the use of tiles, the whole effect of these grates, 
 and of others of similar character and design, made by 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 13 < 
 
 other equally good manufacturers, is eminently pleasant 
 and artistic, and the cost is exceedingly moderate ; 
 good grates of artistic design being obtainable at prices 
 varying from 2^s. to 50^. each, according to the size 
 of the room and the space required to be heated ; the 
 tiles and fixing, including taking out the old stove, 
 would cost probably an equal amount of money, so that 
 from 50^. to 5/. a good useful and artistic grate may be 
 obtained for any room in the house ; and I venture to 
 say that the saving in labour of cleaning, and consump- 
 tion of coal, would amply repay the cost of the new grate 
 in the length of an ordinary lease of seven years ; so 
 that, even if you treat the new work as a fixture to be 
 given to your landlord, you will have recouped yourself 
 the original cost, in addition to the pleasure and charm 
 of not only having an artistic grate in appearance, but 
 one which will add extra warmth and comfort to }^our 
 rooms. These grates are now made by a number of the 
 best manufacturers, and, if the simple iron fronts are 
 too plain for you, they can be obtained in bronze or 
 brass at, of course, an increased cost ; and good pattern 
 tiles can be got, for filling up the sides, from is. to $s. 
 each. 
 
 I have before mentioned the simple grate lent me 
 by Messrs. Longden as good in design and cheap in 
 
 K 2 
 
1 32 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 price; the illustrations (Plates XII. and XIII.) show 
 examples of two or three basket-grates by the same 
 firm, of good artistic design and moderate cost, suitable 
 for dining or drawing-rooms. These grates are adapted 
 from old examples of dog-grates by Mr. Longden, and 
 are especially good in design, the workmanship of 
 wrought-iron and brass is as good as it can be, and no 
 pains have been spared to produce really good artistic 
 grates, suitable for modern requirements, at a moderate 
 cost. They are fitted to burn wood or coal, and can 
 be removed, if desired, in the summer-time, or fitted 
 up with baskets of ferns or flowers. The fender shown 
 on Plate XIII., designed by Mr. Bodley the architect, 
 and the repousse brass or copper sconce designed by 
 Mr. Somers Clarke, are both charming in design and 
 effective in treatment. 
 
 Dog-grates as now made cost no more than the 
 usual elaborate bright steel and ormolu drawing-room 
 grates, and are eminently adapted for the dining or 
 drawing-room, burning either wood or coal, and being 
 in all respects more artistic and more comfortable, not 
 only from the general character of their design, but from 
 the extra warmth they throw out, than the old- 
 fashioned grates I have referred to. The openings 
 of the existing fire-places can be easily altered to 
 
'late N? 12. 
 
 Domestic-Iron-^- Brass -Work 
 
 Meiers Lon^deti arCoJ- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 133 
 
 suit any of these kind of grates, and if lined all round 
 with plain red, or other tiles, the effect in the room 
 will be pleasant and artistic, and the tiles, by reflect- 
 ing the heat, will add much to the warmth and comfort 
 of the room, while in the summer time the grate might 
 be removed and the space filled up with ferns and 
 flowers. In my own house I have adopted this kind 
 of fire-place and grate for my drawing-rooms, and am 
 quite satisfied with the result from an artistic, useful, 
 and economical point of view. I do not hesitate, 
 therefore, to advise the substitution of the grates I 
 have referred to, for the general bad and extravagant 
 examples to be found in most town houses, without 
 fear of being told that I am departing from my first 
 principles of usefulness, simplicity, and moderation of 
 cost. The examples of old Sussex cast-iron backs 
 still left to us can be easily fitted with plain iron 
 baskets ; these backs, as a rule, being admirable 
 examples of low relief cast ornament, generally good 
 in artistic design and treatment. 
 
 Amongst the general articles of furniture associated 
 with modern fire-places, nothing can be worse than the 
 hideous and commonplace fenders of cast-iron or 
 burnished steel, with ormolu enrichments laid on, 
 which are either constantly coming unscrewed, or 
 
154 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 offering traps for the destruction of ladies' dresses by 
 their projecting points and so-called ornaments ; beyond 
 all this, they are a constant source of annoyance, by 
 collecting dust and dirt in their scroll-pattern angles, 
 and under the raised iron or steel bottoms. They are, 
 if of steel, elaborately burnished and chased, eminently 
 costly, and involve a large expenditure of time and 
 trouble, — equally with the grate of similar character, — to 
 keep clean. My advice to you is to get rid of them at 
 once, sell them for what they will fetch, and in lieu of 
 what at its best is a clumsy and inartistic protection 
 from the falling cinders and hot ashes, substitute plain 
 polished marble or hard stone fenders. These can be 
 made at prices varying from 5 ay. to 5/. or 61., are for 
 all practical purposes better than the miserable bur- 
 nished steel or iron fenders, are not likely to get in the 
 way of dresses, with ordinary fair treatment are not 
 likely to get chipped or broken, and are much more 
 pleasant and artistic to look at. Only take care that 
 they are not made of the usual section, that is to say, 
 with a face at right angles to the hearth, rendering it 
 difficult to properly brush out the dust and dirt from 
 the angles. Let the section be curved or splayed 
 down gradually to the hearth surface, so as to, 
 in fact, form only a moulded frame, without offering 
 
Plate N? 13. 
 
 
 X IA k.?isL-^^ 
 
 :i -V--J-! 
 
 
 Iron • and • Brass -Work 
 
 MESSRS LONCDEN &C?Y • 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 135 
 
 any corners or right angles for the collection of 
 dirt. 
 
 Fire-irons should be as plain as possible, their pur- 
 pose being eminently for use, not show, and these can 
 be supported either on the marble fender or on plain 
 simple moveable stands, and are better than all the 
 twisted forms and all the pierced pattern abominations 
 which make up the general Birmingham patterns of 
 these necessary articles of furniture. 
 
 If you object to marble or stone fenders, I suggest 
 that instead of all the bad cast-iron and ormolu orna- 
 mentation, you should have a simply designed high 
 fender, such as that shown in Plate XIII., say 2 feet 
 high, made of plain wrought-iron bars, and filled in 
 with pierced brass work, by which means you will 
 obtain not only additional protection, but in part a 
 useful screen from the fire. 
 
 If only an additional protection be required, I sug- 
 gest a moveable screen about 2 feet high, made with 
 a plain polished wrought-iron or steel frame, with good 
 ornamental terminals, and filled in with brass or steel 
 wire netting, to stand inside the marble fender. In 
 this way protection is obtained from the fire surface in 
 the grate without materially interfering with the heat 
 thrown into the room. 
 
136 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 In this my third lecture I have endeavoured to 
 throw out some suggestions for obtaining art furniture 
 suitable for modern uses, modern requirements, and 
 moderate purses, and to insist that the aim of all true 
 artists should be to produce furniture at a moderate 
 cost, beautiful in design, detail, and form, for every-day 
 use. It is not necessary for you to enter into the 
 theories and speculations of all the various art teachers 
 of the day, or to follow in the footsteps of those who, 
 in the shortness of a life, change from Classic to Gothic, 
 from Gothic to Queen Anne. You will be bewildered 
 by the various enunciated opinions of a host of rival 
 artistic authorities, all advocating the infallibility of 
 their own particular theories on art and its accessories. 
 It is, perhaps, unfortunate that the professors of the 
 master arts of architecture and painting should have, 
 in the last half-century, by constant change of fashion, 
 and so-called revival of different schools, set an ex- 
 ample of uncertainty and dogmatism, which naturally 
 bewilder the onlooker. As a writer in a recent number 
 of the ' Times ' very truly said : — 
 
 1 Incredulity naturally supervenes when our guides 
 only serve to show us how to abandon one standard of 
 beauty and take up with another, for the mind of the 
 ordinary man is not nimble enough to live in a few 
 years through as many centuries/ 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 137 
 
 Now, therefore, that the best of our cabinet-makers 
 have, for the most part, shown a desire to substitute 
 general simplicity of form and detail for extravagance 
 and eccentricity of design and construction, let us hope 
 that in their conscientious endeavours to produce things 
 artistic, they will, in the general articles of domestic 
 use, seek to combine comfort and utility with soundness 
 of construction, simplicity of design, and moderation of 
 cost. May I say to you, who have so patiently listened 
 to my address, that everything in your houses should 
 first of all be ' fitted for a place, and subordinated to a 
 purpose,' all forming part of a great and harmonious 
 whole, in companionship and accord, not in opposition 
 and discord, with the beautiful things with which so 
 many of you delight to fill your houses, and that in 
 thus making them beautiful and attractive you are 
 imperceptibly exercising an influence for good, upon all 
 who see them, stronger than any words, and that the 
 teaching of the art-work in your homes will speak in 
 language at once powerful and intelligible to your 
 fellow-workers in the world, who will remember and 
 delight in the work which your loving thought and 
 care have placed around them, for long years after you 
 perhaps have sunk into oblivion and death of the past 
 
138 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE ENTRANCE-HALL, STAIRCASE, DINING-ROOM, 
 
 AND LIBRARY. 
 
 In the present lecture I propose offering some practical 
 sug-o-estions for the decoration and furniture of the 
 entrance-hall, staircase, dining-room, and library, and 
 to point out how they may be artistically arranged and 
 decorated with the materials at hand, and at little, if 
 any, greater cost than when done in the usual tasteless 
 manner. 
 
 The planning arrangements and heights of the 
 various rooms must first of all be considered, before 
 any opinion can be given as to the proper propor- 
 tionate division of the wall spaces ; various require- 
 ments need various treatments, and what may be 
 fitted for one room may be utterly out of place in 
 another. 
 
 As a rule, however, in the larger rooms of a house, 
 I think it will be found desirable to break the 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 139 
 
 surface of the walls, by means of divisional lines, into 
 dados and friezes, either for useful or decorative 
 purposes, or both. 
 
 In speaking of a dado, I mean, of course, the lower 
 space, which in olden days was represented by wood 
 panelling, the frieze being the upper portion of the wall 
 space next the ceiling, and what I call the general wall 
 surface, the central space between the dado and the 
 frieze. 
 
 In making these divisions, the general proportion 
 and height of the particular room must, of course, be 
 borne in mind, as well as the practical requirements ; 
 for instance, while, in my opinion, a good dado mould- 
 ing or chair rail is desirable in a dining-room to protect 
 the painted or papered surface from being damaged by 
 the chair backs, which are generally placed along the 
 wall when not required for use, in a drawing-room, 
 where the furnishing is quite of a different character, 
 and where the lower portion of the walls is often cut 
 up by cabinets, bookcases, and couches, a low dado 
 would, as a rule, be cut of place, as materially interfer- 
 ing with the lines of furniture. 
 
 A frieze, as a rule, will be found useful in every 
 room of the house ; in the reception-rooms for general 
 decorative treatment, and in the bedrooms for plain 
 
140 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 i . . ■ . — — . . . ^. 
 
 surfaces of distemper colouring- for health's sake and 
 economy of treatment. 
 
 The dado can be formed by means of a simple 
 moulded deal rail about 3 to 4 inches wide, project- 
 ing sufficiently to act as a stop to the chair backs, 
 and fixed to the wall about 2 feet 9 inches from the 
 floor : the frieze should be divided again from the 
 general wall surface or central space, by another flat 
 deal rail, which need not be moulded at all, its purpose 
 being not only to divide the frieze from the central 
 wall space, but to act as a picture rail or rod, from 
 which the pictures should be suspended, instead of, as 
 usually done, from a rod under the cornice, thus break- 
 ing the whole of the upper portion of the wall with 
 lines of cord or wire, which are always ugly, in the way, 
 and utterly unnecessary. Either of these rails can be 
 put up at the cost of a few pence per foot run, and 
 both will be found essentially useful as well as orna- 
 mental, the one for a protection to the walls, the other 
 for hanging pictures and other works of art. 
 
 I have purposely given to these Lectures the distinc- 
 tive title of ' Town Houses,' because, although many 
 of my remarks will naturally apply to houses in the 
 country, the planning of town houses must of necessity 
 be totally different. 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 141 
 
 The general arrangement consists, as a rule, of a 
 narrow entrance-hall, widened out to make room for 
 the staircase, which stares you in the face as you 
 enter, two or more rooms on a floor, lighted from 
 back or front. The external architecture is, prob- 
 ably, of very commonplace character, generally 
 dressed up in miserable cement imitation of stone, 
 with stuck-on ornaments of the worst possible cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Internally, the rooms are without bays or recesses, 
 with flat ceilings, cornices of the usual stereotyped 
 form, mantels and grates of no particular design, the 
 one heavy with gigantic trusses, the other resplendent 
 with burnished steel and ormolu. 
 
 The doors are four panel, with weedy-looking 
 mouldings ; the windows filled with plate-glass, and 
 the general lines and details of the rooms suggestive 
 of anything but harmonious decoration. The clauses 
 of the every-day lease, which necessitate the painting, 
 papering, and whitewashing once within a certain 
 period, will enable you, if you will, to substitute 
 artistic for commonplace decoration ; to paper vour 
 walls, and paint your doors and other woodwork, at 
 little or no greater cost than that of the flock or 
 imitation moire silk papers, and imitation graining, so 
 
142 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 much affected in later years ; while the change in 
 carpets, hangings, and furniture, rendered necessary 
 by wear and tear, will enable you to replace the bad 
 and ugly with what shall be in good taste and pleasant 
 to look upon, or at least inoffensive. Depend upon 
 it, the first really beautiful thing you buy — whether 
 it be an inlaid cabinet, a picture, or a piece of painted 
 china — with a real appreciation and love for it as a 
 work of art, and that to you, 'as a thing of beauty 
 is a joy for ever,' will be the commencement of an art 
 teaching which will eventually lead you to discard 
 the things which you formerly looked upon as fitting ; 
 and, the eye once educated, will make you surround 
 yourselves with only those things which shall have 
 some beauty of form or colour. I cannot understand 
 how any one who truly appreciates a beautiful painting, 
 piece of sculpture, or drawing, can conscientiously, or 
 with any pleasure, permit in the same room other ele- 
 ments which are absolutely not only incongruous, but 
 ugly ; not only unartistic, but vulgar and common- 
 place. I can, of course, understand, although I cannot 
 appreciate, the pride which desires simply to express 
 power of wealth in valuable paintings ; but I cannot 
 believe there can be any real love for the art ex- 
 pressed in them, or just appreciation of their distinc- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 143 
 
 tive merits, if all the surroundings are commonplace 
 and inharmonious. 
 
 Before discussing the special arrangement of in- 
 dividual rooms, let me say something about the cost of 
 the various modes of decoration I propose to recom- 
 mend, and of their special application. 
 
 A few general hints as to paint, paper, and dis- 
 temper work will assist you in arriving at something 
 like the cost of the work you propose to do, and in 
 your dealings with the workman you may employ, A 
 little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing, but I 
 fancy that if you can show that you know something 
 about the proper cost of papering, painting, and dis- 
 tempering, you will be in a better position to decide 
 as to what shall be done, and how far the means at 
 your disposal will admit of any higher class of decora- 
 tion in any of your rooms. 
 
 English papers differ from French by bein^ 
 made 21 inches instead of 18 inches in width. French 
 papers contain only 9 yards in the piece, as against 
 1 2 yards of English, so that, allowing 1 yard in 
 each piece for waste, a piece of English paper of 12 
 yards in length will cover about 6 square yards of 
 wall surface, as against 4 to 4 \ square yards of 
 French. The cost of hanging ordinary papers, 
 
144 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 exclusive of the papers themselves, varies from is. to 
 is. 6d. per piece, increasing to 2S. and 2s. 6d. per 
 piece for better class papers, in which there is much 
 gold — a greater amount of care and time being re- 
 quired for these — to 4s. and 5^. per piece for flock- 
 papers, all of which have to be trimmed with a knife, a 
 much longer proceeding than the usual one of trimming 
 the edges or cutting off the waste pieces with a pair 
 of scissors. 
 
 Lining papers, for walls and ceilings, cost from 
 2s. to 2s. 6d. a piece, hung complete. These, as a 
 rule, are only necessary where the general surface of 
 the walls is very rough and uneven, and where it is 
 intended to paint or distemper the whole surface, and 
 in ceilings, where the plaster work is bad or defective 
 or much cracked ; the cost of what is technically called 
 ' washing and stopping,' which means cleaning off the 
 old distemper, and cutting out, filling in, and rubbing 
 down all cracks in old ceilings, must depend entirely 
 upon how much of this making good has to be done, 
 but with ordinary walls or ceilings the cost of this, 
 including plain sizing and distempering, varies from 
 3d. to 6d. per square yard, all stencil decoration and 
 picking in of cornices with colours involving, of 
 course, extra expense. Plain cornices can be tinted in 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 145 
 
 two or three different colours from 2d. to yl. a yard 
 run, picking out the enrichments being - a matter of 
 time, for which a good decorator or painter would be 
 paid at the rate of about 10s. per day. 
 
 The cost of plain painting to walls, and bringing 
 them up to a good surface in three or four coats, 
 varies from is. gd. to 2s. 3d. a yard, with an extra is. a 
 yard for varnishing. As a rule, few old walls will 
 stand being varnished, the finishing of the plasterwork 
 not being sufficiently smooth or level, for it must be 
 remembered that varnish brings out all imperfections 
 in a most decisive manner. 
 
 The cost of stopping and plain painting in three 
 or four coats, for the margins or general surfaces of 
 floors, varies from is. 6d. to 2s. a yard, finished com- 
 plete, with an extra cost of from 3d. to 6d. per yard 
 for varnishing ; good floors may be finished with a 
 mixture of beeswax and turpentine, which forms a 
 good polished surface, for about is. 6d. per yard 
 superficial ; this requires simply to be kept clean with 
 a duster or rubbed up as ordinary furniture. 
 
 The cost of the cheapest ordinary Brussels carpet, 
 j of a yard wide only, is at least 5s. 6d. per yard run, 
 or practically nearly Js. a square yard, exclusive of 
 laying ; you will see, therefore, that, in strongly advo- 
 
 L 
 
146 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 eating painted or stained and varnished borders as more 
 healthy and artistic, I am advocating a treatment of 
 floor surfaces infinitely less expensive than covering 
 them with carpets. 
 
 Japanning or lacquer painting is a term applied to 
 painting in which varnish, to a large extent, forms the 
 vehicle or medium with which the colour is mixed. 
 This, when properly done, produces an appearance of 
 lacquered or polished surface, and can be applied to all 
 kinds of furniture of cheap woods with good effect, at 
 about one-half extra cost over that of plain painting. 
 
 In this kind of varnishing the room must be kept 
 at a high temperature, so as to admit of the varnish 
 drying rapidly and becoming hard, as in ordinary 
 japanning or furniture painting. 
 
 In enamelling woodwork, this kind of varnish 
 paint is used, but the work is carefully rubbed down 
 after each coat, and much labour is required to bring 
 the ultimate result to the enamel-like effect of good 
 coach painting ; this kind of work is necessarily ex- 
 pensive, and the result not always satisfactory. 
 
 It is well to remember that different materials need 
 different treatments, and much depends on the nature 
 and appearance of the work to be painted ; delicate 
 tints require colourless oil for their vehicle, surfaces 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 147 
 
 required to be finished in flat must have no oil at all, 
 as the use of it necessarily imparts a gloss and shining- 
 surface which, in flatted work, is to be avoided ; paint 
 mixed with turpentine is not nearly as lasting as that 
 mixed with oil, but a little turpentine is necessary in 
 all work exposed to the sun, either inside or out, to 
 prevent the paint from blistering, and, as a rule, where 
 you find shutter fronts and other painting in the 
 window openings blistered, you may be sure that the 
 work has been improperly done. It is possible, 
 however, that this may not always be due to im- 
 proper work ; for, if the aspect of the room be east or 
 west, and the new work is exposed to the glare of a hot 
 sun, any ordinary painting or varnishing on deal or 
 pitch-pine is almost sure to blister, and should always 
 be protected, until quite hard and dry, by blinds or 
 other covering ; bad knots should always be cut out 
 in all shutter fronts or other work where much exposed 
 to the sun. The silicate paints now made, which for 
 their bases have pure calcined silica, are said to stand 
 any fair amount of heat without blistering, and, weight 
 for weight, to cover at least a third more wall space 
 than ordinary oil paints, both valuable recommenda- 
 tions for their more extensive adoption for every-day 
 use. 
 
148 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 I have thus briefly given some few practical 
 hints, which those who are about to paint or decorate 
 will, I think, find useful. As I proceed with my 
 lecture, I shall endeavour, as far as possible, to give 
 some idea of the cost of the decorations I suggest 
 in the various rooms, namely, the hall, staircase, 
 dining-room, and library. 
 
 Let us suppose that the street-door — which should 
 be painted in some warm, serviceable colour, either 
 chocolate or brown, and varnished for protection 
 against the weather and to render it easily cleaned — is 
 opened, and we are in the hall, the antechamber of the 
 house. Here the walls should be painted with some 
 good colour — not too light to show finger marks — - 
 to two-thirds of their height, with some simple 
 pattern stencilled over the surface, but, if possible, 
 varied — that is to say, light upon dark and dark upon 
 light — and the whole carefully varnished, not only to 
 protect the paint, but to render the walls easily cleaned 
 without damage. The stencil work may be done in a 
 darker or lighter shade of the general tint ; and here 
 and there a panel might be formed, in which a figure 
 might be painted in outline, or stencilled on. It is well* 
 however, to remember that figurework must be done 
 by an artist who knows from long study how to draw 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 149 
 
 the human form, for any feeble prettiness of figure- 
 drawing, such as we see so often in the panels of 
 modern furniture and on tiles, is worse than nothing ; 
 and it is better to have a good conventional flower, 
 well drawn, than any pretence of figurework, which, 
 after a time, when you have learnt to appreciate and 
 know what good drawing is, will disgust you. The 
 upper portion of the walls should be divided by a plain 
 wood moulding, which, if desired, can be formed into a 
 narrow shelf, on which to place light pieces of majolica 
 or gres de Flandres, or other ware. Drawings, or 
 anything hung on the walls, as a rule, are generally in 
 the way, and are liable to blow about and damage the 
 paint and decoration. The space under the cornice so 
 divided might be distempered ; for where gas is used 
 this portion of the wall is likely to get dirty or dis- 
 coloured in a year, and the distemper can be washed 
 off or re-done at a small cost. 
 
 In the frieze might be panels containing birds and 
 figures, which could be done in distemper with good 
 effect, the general drawing being done in plain red 
 outline, contrasting well with a cream-coloured general 
 tone of ground. Panels of figure tiles, or such as those 
 shown in Plate IV., which last for ever, or a plain 
 running stencil pattern of foliage, shields, and birds, 
 
150 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 as an enriched border just below the cornice, might 
 be judiciously introduced, or a good light-toned and 
 simple pattern, or stamped paper, such as those 
 I described in my second lecture, may be hung 
 over the whole space instead of distemper. This 
 stencil decoration may be done very inexpensively, 
 for when once the patterns are cut out — and these may 
 be as many or as few as you like — the mere skill and 
 labour required is of very ordinary kind for simple 
 work of this description. Decorative wreaths of one or 
 two colours, and pots of flowers or foliage sufficiently 
 large to form a good decorative frieze in distemper 
 colouring, may be done from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a yard run, 
 and the patterns may be kept, so that the work may be 
 renewed, if necessary, each year, or changed with new 
 patterns, which can be cut out at a very small expen- 
 diture of time and money. The ceiling should be 
 lightly tinted in a vellum, pink, or grey tone, with some 
 slight stencil decoration to relieve it, and the cornice 
 treated in very light shades in distemper. 
 
 Remember these ceilings are certain in a little 
 space to get dingy from ordinary town atmosphere, 
 and the wretched impurities of gas. It is unfortunate 
 that in this nineteenth century we are still obliged to 
 burn gas which is generally impure and a disgrace to 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 151 
 
 modern science and civilisation. Consumers are made 
 to pay a large price for this kind of light, and ought 
 fairly to expect to be supplied with it free from all 
 those impurities, which tend to destroy, not only the 
 painting and decoration on our walls, but all pictures, 
 gilding, and other works of the kind which are left un- 
 protected by glass. At a little extra cost, plain deal or 
 canvas plaster ribs might be laid over the existing 
 plaster work, and the panels thus formed could be 
 filled in with good flock paper to relieve the general 
 flatness of the surface, and could be painted whenever 
 required, or the whole surface may be covered with 
 canvas plaster in a delicate all-over pattern of natural- 
 istic or conventional leaf ornament cast in low relief, 
 the ground work being tinted golden-yellow colour. 
 
 Another treatment of the walls of the outer hall 
 would be by panelling them 6 or 7 feet high in plain 
 deal, painted in red or dark blue lacquer colour, and 
 with a good flock-paper frieze, painted light-golden 
 yellow, flecked with reddish or brighter golden touches, 
 to relieve it from the general sameness which one 
 tint presents when not brightened up by decoration. 
 Flock or stamped papers in small friezes of this kind, 
 especially if painted, can be used with good effect, and 
 sometimes the pattern will permit of some particular 
 
152 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 portion of it being picked out in a different tone of 
 colour ; but in any treatment of this kind great care 
 must be taken to prevent a spotty appearance. 
 
 Marble mosaic tiles or slabs may also be used with 
 good effect on the walls of the outer hall, at a cost vary- 
 ing from 5 j. to 20^. per square yard. The effect of 
 these are generally satisfactory, and, the surface being 
 polished, is easily cleaned, and is not affected by changes 
 of weather or atmosphere. The woodwork should 
 be painted throughout in two plain colours, with 
 the mouldings strengthened in darker tone, and the 
 whole varnished ; if the mullions and framing of the 
 door be done in a dark shade, let us say of chocolate or 
 brown, the panels might be lighter in tone, with stencil 
 decoration of flowers, birds, or fruit in a darker shade. 
 Here let me say that all woodwork, such as doors, 
 windows, and shutters, which are subject to the wear 
 of not always clean hands, should be varnished through- 
 out ; the extra cost of this will be saved by the 
 increased time which the paint and decoration will 
 stand, and plain washing with a damp cloth or sponge 
 will at all times clean off any and all marks. In my own 
 house this kind of work has stood for nearly ten years, 
 and is to-day as fresh as when it was done. Do not 
 be led away by the theory that varnish will destroy the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 153 
 
 delicacy of colour ; of course, care must be taken in 
 the tints you wish to arrive at, by increasing- or toning 
 the colours to meet the glaze which varnish gives. 
 Where an inner screen is really used, that is, kept shut 
 to keep the inner hall more private, it should be glazed 
 with leaded or jewelled glass, instead of the ordinary 
 embossed plate or enamelled sheet glass ; simple designs 
 in colour can be introduced at small cost, say from 2s. 
 to 6s. per square foot, according to the design or 
 pattern of the work, and will add much to the cheerful- 
 ness of the hall, with the play of sunlight through the 
 various tinted glass. 
 
 It is not necessary to say that the fashion of small 
 or leaded panes of glass has been much abused, but in 
 such places as hall screens, where additional privacy is 
 desired, they may legitimately be used. To ignore 
 the advantages of modern plate glass in ordinary 
 windows, where light and outlook are desired, is simply 
 ridiculous ; but I see no reason why the upper portions 
 of the windows of town houses may not have figure or 
 flower designs of leaded glass panelled or framed into 
 smaller white-leaded panes, as in most of our larger 
 commercial towns the sky is too often of a gloomy 
 aspect, and when the sun does pay its visits to our streets 
 and squares, it will not be the less appreciated because 
 
154 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 it comes through painted glass, and adds to its charms 
 the beauties of many glinted colours. The mantel- 
 piece of an ordinary hall is generally so common, and 
 the hall so narrow, that a shelf is almost useless. Why 
 not, therefore, discard it altogether, and frame the grate 
 by a border of tiles, kept in by a slight wood moulding ? 
 Messrs. Minton and Co., and other manufacturers, 
 have numerous examples of good art tiles suitable for 
 this purpose, from is. to $s. each. 
 
 In Plate XIV. I give examples of various tiles 
 made by this firm, which are eminently adapted for the 
 lining of fire-places or as borders for mantel-pieces ; 
 the small 6-inch tiles can be obtained in plain blue and 
 white or buff tone colouring for is. each, the larger 
 plaques, which are painted in outline on pale buff 
 ground with delicate tones of darker yellow and pink, 
 about 3 feet 4 inches high by 18 inches wide in single 
 slabs, costing about 5/. each. 
 
 If you wish for places for china, have plain painted 
 deal shelves, made in groups, gradually diminishing 
 from the lower to the upper shelf, and fixed above the 
 mantel-piece. Do not, as is so often done, cover the 
 mantel-shelf with a wooden top, covered with cloth or 
 velvet, nailed on with a fringe and brass nails ; this 
 will be an endless source of annoyance, from the fact 
 
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OF TOWN HOUSES. 155 
 
 that it never can be kept free from dirt and dust, not to 
 say anything of its spotty and unartistic effect. There 
 are, of course, endless other ways of decorating a hall, 
 by panelling the lower portion with tiles or wood, and 
 filling up above with a good pattern paper of light tone, 
 or painted decoration. Simple distemper work, if well 
 done, may be used instead of paint, and is of course 
 much less expensive. A good bright reddish-brown 
 tone on the lower portion of the walls, with yellowish 
 cream ground above, with enriched panels and cornice, 
 can all be done in distemper, and if brushed down 
 occasionally with a light brush will remain good and 
 effective for some years. As a rule, the floors of the 
 halls of most town houses are of stone, and these, if 
 kept clean and whitened, form very good borders 
 for bright Persian or Indian rugs, which can now 
 be obtained at a very moderate cost, or the stone 
 floor may have a border of plain marble or mosaic 
 work, such as I have described in my lecture on 
 floor decoration. A good ' Kurd ' mat or rug, about 
 6 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide, may be 
 obtained for 10s. or 15s., and its bright colour 
 gives a cheerful warm look to the hall as you enter. 
 The door-mat should be sunk flush with the floor, 
 and of large size, so that little or no dirt may be 
 
156 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 carried on to the rug. ' Mischiata,' or marble mosaic, 
 forms an excellent pavement, and, although more ex- 
 pensive, is preferable to the everlasting tile floors, 
 which have been imitated ad nauseam in oilcloth. If 
 tiles are used, they should be in one good colour ; say- 
 red, grey, or chocolate, with a very simple border ; 
 or white and black tiles, in 2 inch squares, laid 
 to a bold pattern and divided into squares, and 
 bordered by thin black lines, look wen, and are easily 
 cleaned. 
 
 In the ordinary hall of a town house there is not 
 much room for furniture of any kind, but there is still 
 space for one or two high-backed chairs of plain oak, 
 or a long deal settle with plain rail back and elbows, 
 and for a small stand for wet umbrellas ; this latter 
 need not be one of the usual cast-iron abominations, 
 but can be incorporated with the seat with a zinc tray 
 at the bottom and a carved brass rail at top. Messrs. 
 Morris have designed a plain rush-bottomed settle, 
 shown in the accompanying sketch, 4 feet 6 inches long, 
 which is quite good enough for any ordinary hall, and 
 costs only 35s. complete. 
 
 If possible, in the inner hall there should be a simple 
 cupboard with sliding, not folding, doors, with shelves 
 arranged for coats, and a sliding rack for hats, a few 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 157 
 
 hooks or pegs above for sticks and umbrellas, and the 
 top may be made of unpolished oak or other hard 
 wood, or marble, to act as a serving table. 
 
 ' Portieres ' in London halls are generally objection- 
 able as offering traps for dirt and dust. On the land- 
 ings I would have a comfortable divan or stuffed seat 
 of the plainest description — throw a piece of coloured 
 
 :;u,; ^^L/j.;:,i. : ^ 
 
 
 stuff or silk over it for colour — which will be found 
 convenient and useful on occasions when you receive 
 guests ; at each end might be arranged receptacles for 
 plants and flowers, which are always grateful and 
 pleasant to look at. 
 
 The staircase of a town house is generally a cold 
 and dreary approach to the real withdrawing or living 
 rooms of the house — the rooms where we receive our 
 
158 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 guests and spend our pleasantest hours — often a long- 
 vault, walled in with blocks of imitation marble, a cold 
 stone staircase, with cast-iron balustrading of the worst 
 possible design — generally imitative of wrought-iron 
 construction — thin, poor, and often unsafe, with a thin 
 moulded handrail, with what are technically called 
 ramps, wreaths, and curtails of the usual speculative 
 builder's character. Of course all these must remain. 
 We cannot exchange them for the wide oak staircase, 
 with its boldly carved newels, handrails that look like 
 support, and handsomely turned balusters of Eliza- 
 bethan date ; such, indeed, as are still left in numerous 
 old English mansions, and in some few of the older 
 London houses ; but we can make them more cheerful, 
 and less cold and dull. A painted and varnished 
 dado, with a wooden moulding raking with the hand- 
 rail, or plain deal painted panelling, will be at once 
 a help and improvement. The wretched ironwork 
 painted in a plain bright colour — not picked out in 
 gold, to show its peculiar eccentricities and faults of 
 design — and the thin moulding which serves as a 
 handrail, ebonised as a contrast, will all help the pecu- 
 liarly unfortunate lines on which you have to work. 
 Above the dado, either distemper or paper in some 
 warm and cheerful colour. If you paper, let the paper 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 159 
 
 be of one general tone, otherwise the great space to be 
 covered will be spotty and disagreeable. 
 
 As an example of paper decoration for inner halls 
 and staircases, I have shown in the illustration Plate III. 
 one made by Messrs. Jeffrey, and designed by Mr. 
 Walter Crane, which is certainly quaint and clever in 
 its treatment, and suitable for the purpose, although 
 somewhat expensive. The general ground is of a soft 
 yellow tone, with deeper toned decoration in lines and 
 patterns, and diapered over with dark wall flowers. 
 The upper portion or frieze has a ground of delicate 
 blue, and is covered with pale pink almond flowers. 
 The whole treatment is exceedingly decorative and 
 well executed ; the lower portion might be varnished, 
 so as to be easily washed. 
 
 A warm golden-brown or yellow forms a good 
 general tone for a hall and staircase, with a Pompeian- 
 red dado painted, with black skirting and rail, and a 
 frieze of light pattern paper or cream-coloured dis- 
 temper ground, with line enrichment in dark golden 
 brown or red. The general woodwork should be 
 painted black, where there is not too much of it, or in 
 two shades of good red or brown, or the general tone 
 might be peacock or light blue, with soft vellum grey 
 and blue pattern papers or distemper. A deep frieze 
 
160 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 of boldly designed painted or stencil ornament will 
 assist much in breaking the usual bad proportion of 
 the staircase wall, while panels may be formed in 
 bold lines of paint or distemper, wherein may be framed 
 pictures or other art work. A good neutral tint or 
 warm grey ground, with ornament in green and ver- 
 milion, has a good effect if the colours be carefully 
 treated ; or a wide diaper, with patterns interchanged, 
 and charged with shields and legends here and there. 
 Any good photographs, sketches, or studies are useful 
 to hang on the rake of the staircase, on the eye line, 
 to take off the general coldness. Many varieties of 
 tints will suggest themselves, which will help to give a 
 bright and cheerful character to the passage-way of the 
 whole house, in place of the cold and dreary, rightly 
 called, well, to which we are so accustomed. As a rule, 
 the lower flights of the staircase are fairly well lighted, 
 and the walls can, therefore, be hung with drawings. 
 If possible, put here and there a piece of china, or a 
 good figure on brackets, in the angles, to break the 
 ugly appearance of the narrow half-landing. A care- 
 fully designed lantern light, filled with leaded and 
 jewelled glass, hung from the ceiling, such an one 
 as I have shown in illustration XX. will cost no more 
 than the miserably painted iron or bronzed brackets 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 i6r 
 
 which are generally affected, and will light the stairs 
 more evenly, or a simple wrought-iron or brass 
 
 HANGING-LA rlP 
 OIL AND 
 
 FOR. MINERAL 
 CANDLES 
 
 lY^R>.a...dd h «fra 
 
 LONCDE.N ANO CO. 
 
 hanging lamp, similar to the sketch given of one made 
 by Messrs. Longden and Co., with opalesque glass 
 
 M 
 
1 62 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 receiver for oil, and brackets for candles, will certainly 
 form a pleasant and artistic feature for lighting an 
 inner hall or landing.- A bright drugget, nearly cover- 
 ing the whole of the treadway, with the stone margins 
 treated in good warm colour to harmonise with it, is 
 surely better than the narrow three-quarter width 
 carpet, with its edges of cold painted stone; while here 
 and there, on the landings and half-spaces, small 
 Persian or Indian rugs or prayer carpets — which can be 
 bought for almost the price of the carpet usually used 
 — will give colour and brightness, and add to the feeling 
 of warmth and comfort ; and these, always remember, 
 can be taken up easily, and shaken, if requisite, every 
 day, and are certainly more cleanly than the closely 
 fastened down carpet, under which the dust accumu- 
 lates and stays for many months. If the landing or 
 half-space be large, put a comfortably low couch, with 
 some bright covering, and a stand for flowers or china; 
 for any bit of colour, either of nature or art, will add 
 much to the cheerfulness of this part of the house. 
 
 Nowadays, the art of China and Japan is well 
 known to all of us, and, although I do not for a moment 
 advocate any mere copyism of oriental work in the 
 decoration of English houses, yet there is much in good 
 Chinese and Japanese art which we may study with 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 163 
 
 advantage. In painting on china ^.nA faience, in every 
 kind of decorative art, the Japanese show a keen love 
 for, and an intimate knowledge of, all that is beautiful in 
 Nature, and are always at their best in depicting her 
 ever- varied form, whether in flowers, tree, or animal life. 
 With a few exquisite touches the loveliest forms are 
 placed before us, with great truth and freedom of draw- 
 ing, and in their art there is a desire to set forth beau- 
 tiful designs, and to express lovely combinations of 
 colour in ever-varying fancy. They always seem to 
 remember that all true decoration is based on construc- 
 tion, that the life and flower, so to speak, of decorative 
 work must spring from the root and framework of con- 
 struction ; just as a good painter will draw his figure 
 first, before clothing it, and the trunk and branches of 
 a tree before covering it with foliage. What can be 
 more exquisite than some of the drawing and colouring 
 of the innumerable paper and silk blinds and fans that 
 have been imported to such a large extent in the last 
 few years ? Many of these can be bought for a few 
 shillings, and are admirable pieces of colour decoration 
 to hang on the walls of hall or staircase, or framed in 
 small panels round the frieze. The colouring is gener- 
 ally quiet and refined in treatment, and eminently 
 decorative, and at the same time perfectly true to 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 nature. Where an ordinary workman would conven- 
 tionalise a flower or bird, and produce whole rows of 
 them, without variation of any kind, in a stiff and 
 unnatural manner, these Japanese artists give us end- 
 less variety and colouring, always graceful and effec- 
 tive, and never crude or coarse. By a few touches 
 they produce Nature in life and movement — a tree 
 bent and shaken by the wind, a blade of grass bent or 
 broken by some passing footstep, a spray of flowers 
 waving with the summer breeze ; birds in endless 
 movement, flying or asleep, and all true to the charac- 
 teristics of their life and form. In the lily, the carna- 
 tion, convolvulus, fruit, or May blossoms, we see numer- 
 ous examples of our own English flowers, depicted in 
 a way which few decorative artists in England can 
 equal or excel. All such bits of decorative art can be 
 made much of in the dull monotony of a town house, 
 and nowadays can be purchased at a very trifling cost. 
 If you will only trace, or get traced, some of the out- 
 line sketches of wild fowl, cocks and hens, pheasants, 
 or storks, you will And they can be used with good 
 effect as stencil decoration for the upper portion of the 
 staircase walls, or in smaller scale for panels of doors, 
 shutters, and other woodwork, which, as a rule, are 
 left untouched. For instance, suppose you have the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 165 
 
 usual four-panel doors common to most of our houses, 
 with mouldings run round of no particular design, I 
 would suggest that you 
 
 should paint them in two 
 shades of colour to har- 
 monise or contrast with 
 the paper on the walls, 
 the panels being the 
 lighter shade, and on 
 these stencil some of the 
 designs I have alluded to 
 in the darker shade, and 
 then varnish the whole. 
 As an example of simple 
 stencil decoration for door 
 panels I give two sketches 
 of patterns which I have 
 used on my own doors : 
 these patterns are sten- 
 cilled on to the light 
 reddish brown ground in 
 dark chocolate and then 
 varnished over, and have 
 lasted for ten or twelve years without requiring to be 
 re-done. By these means you will obtain, at the cost 
 
 6rK.V(.!i.iii:iAip..\'no.Na«na'iiu.'wt:LS HoacRTWEDisrs*ABa< 
 
1 66 
 
 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 Stencil dkomtion m .aioRiA\a& 
 
 RCBLflT Vt ED'S f iAA'-Uff 
 
 of a few shillings, a really good piece of decoration, 
 which will always be pleasant to look at, instead of 
 
 the dull monotony of imi- 
 tation graining of oak, 
 maple, or satin wood, to 
 which we are so much 
 accustomed. In deco- 
 rative art, we have much 
 to learn from the artists 
 of Japan, who for many 
 hundreds of years seem in 
 their humblest articles of 
 daily use to have carried 
 out some impress of their love and knowledge of 
 Nature in her most beautiful forms. 
 
 In Plate XV. I give a suggestive sketch for the 
 treatment of a large hall, in what I may call modern 
 Jacobean style, showing a picturesque arrangement for 
 any large inner hall, of a modern town mansion where 
 such a room could be made more or less a living room. 
 Some of its features might be adopted in an ordinary 
 hall, but I submit the sketch as a fair example of the 
 kind of internal work suitable for the new style of 
 architecture, yclept, for want of a better name, ' Queen 
 Anne.' The mantel-piece and general features of the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 167 
 
 sketch were designed by Messrs. Gillow, and fitted up 
 by them in the Prince of Wales' Pavilion in the Street 
 of Nations at the last Paris Exhibition. The walls are 
 shown as hung with modern Windsor tapestry and old 
 Spanish leather, with furniture coverings and hangings 
 of tapestry and embossed sage green velvet. 
 
 I cannot pretend to lay down any set rule for the 
 decoration of the principal rooms of a house, nor 
 would I if I could. The great mistake that is made 
 nowadays by some professional decorators is fixing 
 all design and furnishing in a room to one set rule, so 
 that you feel on entering it that everything is stiff and 
 formal, and intended for show, not use. 
 
 I heard recently of one of these gentlemen in- 
 forming a lady of excellent taste, and who had brought 
 into her room various bits of eclectic but useful fur- 
 niture, that ' had he known she was going thus to 
 interfere with his general set scheme of decoration, he 
 would have declined to have had anything to do with 
 the work ; ' a remark at once impertinent, and charac- 
 teristic of the general conceit of such false teachers. 
 
 If such a room could speak, it would cry out aloud, 
 ' Look at me ; am I not an art room ? But please 
 do not bring any pretty things — any books, or any 
 china here, or you will disturb my propriety. I am not 
 
168 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 intended to be home-like, but artistic' In the mansions 
 of Hatfield, Audley End, Haddon, and Knowle, and 
 many other old halls of England, the walls of the 
 great rooms, as well as the entrances, and often the 
 bedrooms, were panelled with oak, in small panels, to 
 half or two-thirds of their height, and the remaining 
 space covered with tapestry or stamped leather, and 
 the effect of the rich brown oak walls with delicately 
 carved friezes, bold and well-wrought mouldings, and 
 panelling enriched with graceful arabesque or linen- 
 fold design, is always charming, and contrasts well 
 with the white ceilings panelled in fretwork, or 
 geometrical patterns with mouldings in low relief, as 
 in the old houses lately pulled down in Lime Street ; 
 but all this kind of work is not suitable to the general 
 rooms of a town house, where the dust and blacks of 
 the too filthy town atmosphere find resting-places in 
 every moulding and every bit of carving. In later 
 days, these many panels were changed into what is 
 called a 'dado' about 3 feet high, panelled length- 
 ways. Above were larger panels running the whole 
 length of the room, or finished with narrow carved 
 or panelled friezes, the mouldings generally* being in 
 relief. After a time, this arrangement was found in- 
 convenient, and the panels of the upper portion of the 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 169 
 
 walls were removed, the capping of the dado being 
 allowed to remain as a chair-rail, and this arrangement 
 is still to be found in many London houses. 
 
 A -bropos of the dust and smoke of towns. We 
 pride ourselves on being a scientific nation, a practical 
 and common-sense people, and withal patient and 
 long-suffering in putting up with abuses, such as have 
 no more right to exist than any other ills which are 
 opposed to all laws — moral, hygienistic, and otherwise. 
 I often wonder how long we shall be content to accept 
 gas, Avhich, from its marvellous impurity and want of 
 lighting power, is a disgrace to any civilised country in 
 the world ; how long we shall be content to pollute 
 the common air with smoke, and by the want of some 
 simple scientific arrangement in our fire-places, to sow 
 broadcast the evils which work the destruction of 
 everything within our homes, and cover the delicate 
 leaves of the trees in our squares, and the flowers 
 of the earth, with black, filthy corruption, when, I take 
 it, it is quite possible to burn all this smoke and im- 
 purity with infinite saving of cost in fuel, and manifest 
 gain in health, comfort, and cleanliness to ourselves ; 
 how long shall we be content to allow the water supply 
 of our towns to be the monopoly of a few companies, 
 who limit our supply and increase the charges almost 
 
170 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 as they please, and, as a rule, leave us, when all is 
 said, with water the purity of which is uncertain — life- 
 destroying rather than life-giving ? Or how long 
 shall we permit gas and water companies so to arrange 
 their mains that any repairs or alteration involve 
 the taking up and destruction of our street paving, 
 instead of their being so arranged as to be got at 
 quickly and easily without damage to our roads and 
 paths ? Or how long shall we be content to allow 
 vestries and other local bodies to shut up main 
 thoroughfares and alter street paving in important 
 highways and streets, to the public loss and incon- 
 venience, in the most busy periods of the year ? Or 
 how long shall we rest content to be behind, all other 
 civilised countries, in the arrangements for watering 
 and cleansing our streets ? These are matters which, 
 however unartistic they may be in themselves, exercise 
 a very great influence on the comfort and cleanliness 
 of our homes and surroundings. 
 
 The French rarely or ever furnish their settles a 
 manger or dining-rooms to any great extent. In 
 England we use these rooms much more largely, and 
 should make, them as pleasant to look at as possible, 
 care being taken not to hang the walls with tapestry, 
 silk, or other stuffs, which retain the smell of food. A 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 171 
 
 painted dado of a good dark tone, with a bold chair 
 rail to prevent the chairs damaging the walls, is gener- 
 # ally desirable, or plain deal painted panelling to a 
 height of 3 or 4 feet, above which the walls may 
 be papered or painted to within 2 or 3 feet of 
 the ceiling ; the room, so divided, will give ample 
 space for the hanging of pictures or prints ; and 
 instead of the ordinary picture rods under the cornice, 
 with their long pendant lines of dusty cord or wire, 
 cutting up the walls into endless queer and bad forms, 
 a small moulding should be placed along the wall, 
 under the frieze, into which hooks can be screwed and 
 removed at will, or a light iron rod — ordinary \ or 
 |- inch gas-piping will do — may form the lowermost 
 moulding of this rail, on which any amount of pictures 
 or drawings may be hung. If the wall is to form a 
 background fcr pictures, a good warm brown or 
 chocolate colour, in paint or distemper, will be found 
 most effective. There are innumerable colours which 
 can be adopted, but, for goodness' sake, avoid the 
 dreary commonplaceness of light apple and sage 
 greens, which seem to be the only colours thought 
 appropriate for dining-room walls. 
 
 I give here an illustration — Plate X VI. — ofa dining-- 
 room which has been lately decorated and furnished 
 
172 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 from my own designs, as an example of simple treatment 
 for wall decoration and furniture. In this room the 
 mantel-piece, with the itagere over, is made to form an 
 important feature of the general design ; the wall space 
 is divided by a high dado or picture rail slightly moulded 
 with \ inch gas piping under, as a picture rod. The 
 frieze is painted in plain vellum tone of colour, and 
 decorated with stencil pattern enrichment. The wood- 
 work generally is of deal varnished, the panels of the 
 doors and shutters filled in with stencil decoration in a 
 light shade of brown under the varnish. The general 
 wall surface is hung with an all-over pattern paper of 
 good warm golden brown tone of colour, admirably 
 adapted for pictures. The furniture throughout is 
 executed in Spanish mahogany, and designed to har- 
 monise with the general character of the decoration. 
 
 The use of what is called a flatting coat, or finish- 
 ing coat, of paint mixed with turpentine only, for wall 
 surfaces, so as to produce a dull flat or dead surface 
 without gloss, is, I think, a mistake, for this kind of 
 work does not last when exposed to the weather ; 
 it shows every mark of dirt, and will not stand 
 washing. This picture -surface, if painted, should not 
 be varnished, but the dado and all woodwork of 
 the doors and windows will be made much more 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 173 
 
 effective if varnished, as I have before recommended. 
 The woodwork should be painted of similar colour, as 
 a rule, to the walls, but of much darker tone in two 
 shades, and the panels covered with good ornament, 
 stencilled on, all of which is inexpensive, and adds 
 materiallv to the general artistic effect. The broad 
 frieze, above what I call the picture or general wall 
 space, should be much lighter in tone, and here of 
 course there is an opportunity for real art-work. A 
 broad decorative painted frieze, painted in compart- 
 ments or panels, with figure-subjects, is of course, to 
 my mind, the most desirable finish. 
 
 I have already in my second lecture discussed this 
 important question of high art-decoration, and I need 
 not further refer to it except to say that for one 
 hundred pounds, the price of a small picture or piece 
 of really good china, you may get good painted decora- 
 tion, designed and carried out by an artist, for the 
 frieze of an ordinary dining-room, in which good figure 
 painting, in combination with birds, foliage, or other 
 decorative accessories, shall be carried out in oils on 
 canvas or panel so as to be removeable at any time ; 
 failing this, I suggest good artistic decoration in dis- 
 temper or oil. 
 
 As an example of what may be done in stencil 
 
174 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 work in oil, I have seen some designs by a practical 
 working decorator, in which the general treatment is 
 thoroughly artistic in • its character, and free from the 
 usual mechanical sameness of colouring, or repro- 
 duction of various cut stencil plates, in one tone or 
 shade of tinting, and in unvaried and monotonous 
 repetition. 
 
 In ordinary stencil decoration, the pattern is gener- 
 ally rubbed on in one tone of colour, and the arrange- 
 ment of the design is, as a rule, a mere reproduction of 
 parts prolonged indefinitely, according to the amount 
 of space to be covered ; in the special work I refer to, 
 instead of plain flat treatment of the stencil pattern, 
 there is produced, by cleverness of handling and 
 artistic touch, a varied tone in the different leaves and 
 fruit forming the pattern, either by working the stencil 
 brush very slightly over a portion of the leaf, and in- 
 creasing the strength of touch and amount of colour 
 in the lower portion, by which a pleasant gradation of 
 colour is carried out, or by the use ol two or more 
 tints in the same leaf or flower, carefully blended at 
 the moment, and worked off into delicately shadowed 
 surfaces, by which an extremely good effect is ob- 
 tained. 
 
 The general decorative effect is still as it should 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 175 
 
 be in this kind of work, quite fiat and simple ; but in- 
 finitely greater artistic character is given to the work by 
 the skill and feeling shown in the manipulation of the 
 brush, and in the interchange of one or two colours, to 
 say nothing of a fairly artistic rendering and decorative 
 treatment of the design itself by interchanging the 
 stencil plates, and avoiding, as far as possible, any 
 formal repetition. I am glad to see this attempt to 
 improve upon the ordinary mechanical work of sten- 
 cilling by making it more decorative and artistic, and 
 to feel that there are workmen who can and will carry 
 out, as far as practicable, the views I have so strongly 
 advocated, of making cheap decoration artistic in 
 character and feeling. 
 
 The men who could do this kind of work could, 
 with a little teaching, do anything in this character of 
 decoration, and with a little extra teaching and study 
 of good examples, would avoid the anachronisms and 
 errors in design and treatment which, in the parti- 
 cular work referred to, were especially noticeable, and 
 wherein, if anything, there was too much striving after 
 imitation of Japanese ornament, without the know- 
 ledge of the ' motif,' or power of drawing and artistic 
 grouping, so noticeable in the work of Japanese 
 artists. This kind of work could be produced, 
 
176 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 including the three or four coats of colour necessary 
 for the groundwork, at from 4s. 6d. to $s. 6d. per 
 square yard, so that a frieze of, say, 2 feet deep in 
 an ordinary room of say 24 by 16, after deducting the 
 window openings, could be done for 5/. or 61., about the 
 price of good flock-paper, and when done would last for 
 ten or fifteen years at least. In all artistic work of this 
 kind, it must always be remembered ' that immoderate 
 multiplicity fatigues the eye ; that excessive copiousness 
 causes many objects to be condemned as useless ; that 
 unity of conception, proportion of parts, and symmetry 
 in the principal decorations are indispensable laws 
 never to be neglected.' Raphael, carried away by the 
 exuberance of his genius, and the skill of his pupils, 
 squandered and wasted decoration in the Vatican, and 
 lost the chief attributes of his ancient models — simpli- 
 city and moderation in design and treatment. 
 
 In the papering of the walls of dining-rooms and 
 libraries, there are, of course, very many ways of treat- 
 ment, and, amongst the numerous good examples of 
 paper-hangings now made, there should be no difficulty 
 in selecting some really good pattern, artistic in design 
 and colouring. As I have before stated, I consider a 
 dado a desirable basis for a dining-room, and a wide 
 frieze a proper finish to the wall, instead of carrying up 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 177 
 
 the general tone of colour of the walls to the ceiling or 
 cornice line ; the treatment suggests itself as infinitely 
 better and more artistic than carrying up the same colour 
 or decoration to the top of the room, and thus making 
 a sudden break without any gradation of colour be- 
 tween it and the ceiling. If the dado is formed in 
 stamped paper of dark colour, the general wall surface 
 should be treated with artistic papers of green, brown, 
 red, and blue grounds, of various shades, all adapted 
 for backgrounds for pictures or engravings. The 
 frieze may be in various coloured flock- papers ; the cost 
 of these vary : the sunflower and sunflower bud flock 
 patterns, made by Messrs. Jeffrey, both extremely 
 decorative and good in colouring and design, are re- 
 spectively 5-s - . 6d. and 6s. per yard ; the plain water- 
 colour adaptation of the same being only is. per yard. 
 The ' Albert Moore ' pattern, made by the same firm, 
 either in brown and white, or blue and white, in single 
 print and other patterns, varies from 5s. to 12s. per 
 piece ; a dark dado papering in imitation of stamped 
 leather costs about $s. per yard, and flock pattern 
 papers, for friezes and ceilings, from 4.?. to 6s. per 
 yard ; plain ceiling patterns, in one tone of yellow or 
 other colour diaper, vary from 2s. 6d. to 35-. 6d. per 
 piece. 
 
 N 
 
178 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 As an example of a purely decorative paper of 
 high artistic character, there is the ' Mermaid ' paper, 
 designed by Mr. Walter Crane, in which the dado is 
 treated as a pebbly beach, the general surface as water 
 with fishes swimming in it, and the frieze as mermaids 
 rising out of. the water under. There are other good 
 examples of papers all capable of making highly 
 artistic wall decoration ; all good in design and colour- 
 ing. 
 
 In choosing paper great care should be exercised, 
 as the colour and general appearance of most of the 
 patterns change very greatly under gas or candle light. 
 It is, therefore, desirable to select three or four 
 patterns, and put them up on the walls of the room 
 you are intending to cover, and examine their general 
 effect carefully, by day and night, before making a 
 final choice ; for not only do some patterns and colours 
 materially alter by gas or candle light, but some, 
 especially green and blue, absorb an immense amount 
 of light, and are, therefore, not fitted for any rooms 
 which are not strongly lighted. 
 
 Messrs. Morris and Co. are well known for the 
 general artistic excellence of their papers and hang- 
 ings, showing colours which contrast and harmonise 
 well together, some of them especially good in design 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 179 
 
 and colouring, and inexpensive in price ; the papers 
 varying from $s. to 1 2s. per piece, and the hangings of 
 tapestry or creton from 2> s - to 12.?. per square yard. 
 Their printed washable cottons 3 feet wide at 2s. per 
 yard, and their cotton damasks 50 inches wide with 
 pattern alike on both sides, and their wool tapestry 2 
 yards wide, all made in various good tones of colour- 
 ing, are artistic and effective in design and exceedingly 
 moderate in cost. They make also various specimens 
 of Kidderminster and Wilton carpets adapted for their 
 papers, at from 6^. 6d. to ioi". 6d. per square yard. 
 
 At most of the better upholsterers, it is now 
 possible to obtain hangings for window-curtains of 
 different stuffs and materials, which can be put up 
 at a cost varying from 15^. to 15/. 15^. a window 
 complete. Some of the cheaper kinds of creton, jute, 
 and cotton-waste hangings are not only artistic, but 
 extremely moderate in cost, and you need have no 
 difficulty in providing good curtains for any ordinary- 
 sized window from 25.?. to 6oj". a set complete. 
 Ordinary Kidderminster rugs, 2 yards long by 1 yard 
 wide, are quite good enough for any ordinary room or 
 staircase landings, and can be bought for 1 8s. each ; they 
 are good in design and colouring, and, as I know by 
 experience, capital rugs for wear. I have mentioned 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 these various patterns of papers, stuff-hangings, and 
 carpets, only with a view of showing you that you can 
 obtain these from any good decorator or upholsterer 
 at moderate prices, and to disabuse you of the idea that 
 cheap things must necessarily be nasty. 
 
 It is unfortunate that there is not a little more 
 common honesty amongst a certain class of manu- 
 facturers, and that they should lower themselves by 
 stealing the designs of others in the same trade, or by 
 bodily adapting, without leave and without payment, 
 artists' designs which have been made to illustrate 
 Christmas books, or for other purposes, in no way 
 intended for paper decoration. As an instance of this, 
 I believe I am correct in stating that the whole of Mr. 
 Walter Crane's admirable illustrations of ' The Babies' 
 Opera ' have been bodily appropriated and adapted as 
 a design for wall paper, without permission, thanks, or 
 recognition of any kind. All this kind of treatment is 
 not only grossly unfair, to use the mildest possible 
 term, but is in the highest degree discouraging to 
 artists (whose brains and skill of design and drawing 
 are their living), who naturally hesitate to design work 
 of any kind, if they know that it is to be stolen and 
 mutilated for other purposes without recognition. 
 
 I take it this kind of treatment of artists' work is as 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 1S1 
 
 grossly dishonourable and dishonest as appropriating 
 any other kind of goods from another man's premises, 
 or forging his name to a cheque and obtaining payment 
 of cash in change ; and much as we may desire free 
 trade in everything, I fancy all right-minded people 
 would accept a more stringent law of protection and 
 copyright, if only it might save us from these prac- 
 tices, alike dishonourable to the individual and to 
 the trade. 
 
 In the dining-room of the house, everything in 
 furniture should be as comfortable and convenient as 
 possible, and designed for use, not show ; the chairs 
 should be broad-seated and backed, and strong, not 
 narrow, high-backed, and spindle-legged, with knobs 
 and irregularities to torture the back. The seats and 
 backs stuffed and covered with strong, serviceable 
 leather, or morocco in preference to velvet, which is 
 liable to hold dust and to drag the laces of ladies' 
 dresses. Good plain chairs of unpolished wainscot or 
 American walnut are better than any highly polished 
 surfaces, which show the least scratch, or deal chairs of 
 solid design, painted and decorated in low colours, 
 would answer equally well, and be cheaper. 
 
 I hardly like to suggest rush bottoms, lest I should 
 be thought too archaic, but, believe me, that these are 
 
1 82 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 as comfortable as any leather ; and if made with 
 various colours, pleasant to look at. In addition to 
 the ordinary chairs,' I would have two comfortable arm- 
 chairs, of sufficient size to give freedom of space for 
 carving purposes, and perhaps one or two comfortable 
 lounge chairs, for drawing round the fire after dinner. 
 
 The table should be so made that those who are 
 placed at the angles are not made to suffer torture 
 and misery during the long hours of dinner, by 
 projecting legs, which are always in the wrong 
 place. 
 
 I can conceive nothing more suitable or better for 
 an ordinary room than a round table 4 ft. 8 in. to 
 5 ft. in diameter, on one massive central support, the 
 top made expanding, into almost any length, by some 
 simple contrivance such as that shown in a table of the 
 kind exhibited at Paris by a London firm, so as to 
 form, when open, an elongated oval. Avoid all un- 
 necessary carving or shaping in the legs ; plain turning 
 is amply sufficient, and much less costly. Nothing, 
 to my mind, shows off flowers and silver better than 
 an ebonised top left open in the centre, with good 
 linen slips on the sides for dinner, easily removeable 
 before the wine comes round. 
 
 Instead of the ordinary sideboard, with its grot- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 183 
 
 esque spider-like legs and carved pedestals, and utterly 
 useless mass of looking-glass back, with hideous carved 
 scroll frame and top, I would suggest a plain but solidly- 
 handsome buffet, arranged for the reception of plate 
 and glass, or for good pieces of china, the lower por- 
 tion fitted up with a cellaret and liquor tray within 
 a panelled cupboard front on one side, and a useful 
 cupboard on the other, a few drawers for plate and 
 other necessaries for a dinner table : between the 
 cluster of shelves above, a small splayed mirror might 
 be fixed, arranged to reflect the many objects set on 
 the buffet, and to help to brighten the room. Perhaps, 
 for convenience of serving, the central portion might 
 be made into a sliding hatch communicating with the 
 small back parlour or breakfast -room, or a light lift 
 from the basement might easily be made to run up in 
 the lower portion ; on either side might be repousst 
 copper or brass sconces for candles, so arranged as to 
 light not only the buffet, but the end or side of the 
 room at which it stands. Whatever portion of the 
 work is made solid, it should be brought down close 
 to the floor with a slight plinth, so as not to allow 
 space for the accumulation of dirt and dust, which 
 cannot be cleaned away without moving the furniture. 
 The panels of the doors, when sufficiently high to be 
 
184 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 seen, might be filled in with low carving in relief, in 
 box or other hard wood, as a contrast to the other 
 work, or with marquetry or Japanese lac panels, but 
 the use of miniature carving, fretwork, or turned 
 balusters a few inches in height, should be avoided 
 as bad in taste and form, and expensive ; all supports 
 for shelving above should be as light as possible, so as 
 not to hide the objects with which they are filled ; 
 the backs may be formed of plain deal, covered with 
 stamped leather or some other light stuff ; the general 
 furniture should be, as a rule, en suite, essentially useful 
 and comfortable, and free from anachronisms which are 
 offensive and objectionable. 
 
 I see no reason why pitch-pine or deal should not 
 be much more largely used in dining-rooms for buffets 
 and panelling. These can either be simply treated in 
 plain lacquer colour, or can be worked out with the 
 greatest elaboration of colour and ornamental design 
 and figure decoration on quite plain surfaces, and I 
 fancy that our rooms would be much more cheerful 
 if the money expended on cuttings and turnings 
 and costly carvings were to be devoted to good 
 artistic panel decoration on flat surfaces, like some 
 of the old painted furniture of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. Carving is apt to get filled up 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 185 
 
 with dirt, and requires constant care and time in 
 cleaning. 
 
 In olden days, the most distinguished artists were 
 not ashamed to devote their talents to panel painting, 
 and my friend Mr. Marks, and other eminent 
 artists of our own day, have shown us how furniture 
 can be artistically decorated. Why should we not 
 have furniture painted with hunting or sporting scenes, 
 stories of home life of town and country, and thus 
 bring into the dinginess of our rooms some elements 
 of good artistic painting, even as the Italians were 
 accustomed to decorate their buffets, elbow chairs, and 
 couches with beautifully depicted stories, telling of the 
 riches and magnificence of the citizens who possessed 
 them, and of the ability of the painters who adorned 
 them ? One good painted panel is worth ten thousand 
 times more than all the meretricious carving with 
 which so much of our modern furniture is filled. The 
 furniture so decorated not only does its duty, but 
 speaks and tells a story. Good deal panelling painted 
 red, or some other warm colour, if free from elaborate 
 mouldings and carvings, is almost as inexpensive as 
 some of the gorgeous pattern flock- papers painted in 
 several tints, with which it is considered necessary 
 to make dull and heavy the walls of many a town 
 
186 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 room. Above all, let the room be light and cheerful, 
 the furniture strong, comfortable, and serviceable, and 
 avoid everything which takes away, so to speak, 
 from the freedom of the room. For lighting, I would 
 suggest a central hanging-lamp, with good shade of 
 subdued or warm tinted glass, throwing a pleasant soft 
 light upon the table, without the heat and glare of the 
 filthy compound which gas companies of the present 
 day are content to give us long-suffering inhabitants. 
 Nothing tends to make an otherwise pleasant dinner 
 so miserable and enervating as the heat and stuffiness 
 engendered in a brief space of time by this nineteenth- 
 century abomination. 
 
 As regards the floor, the practice of covering the 
 whole with carpets, good, bad, or indifferent, answers 
 no purpose but to increase the upholsterer's bill, and to 
 keep up a dust trap which is not got rid of until the 
 times of the annual spring or autumn cleaning. Paint 
 or stain and varnish the floor 2 or 3 feet all round 
 in some good-wearing dark colour, by which two-thirds 
 of the cost of the often useless, elaborate, and expensive 
 carpet bordering is saved, and put the money thus 
 saved into some good Indian or Persian carpet, which, 
 while warm and comfortable to the feet, is grateful and 
 pleasant, with its harmonious colouring, to the eye. 
 
• OF TOWN HOUSES. 187 
 
 The design and colouring of most carpets have 
 been materially improved in the last few years, but we 
 have not quite got rid of the atrocious floral and other 
 sprawling patterns of our fathers' time. In Kidder- 
 minster, Brussels, and Wilton carpets there are now 
 innumerable simple designs with no distinct or staring 
 patterns, quiet in colouring, and moderately inexpen- 
 sive, and a square carpet with a simple border may 
 be made with any of these, to cover the central portion 
 of the room. As a general rule, carpets should be 
 darker in tone than the general wall decoration, so as 
 to form a good background for the furniture placed 
 upon them. Turkey carpets are not always satis- 
 factory, because the pattern is destroyed or broken 
 up by the table, instead of being entirely seen, when 
 used for its original purpose of reclining. The carpets 
 themselves are expensive from their elaboration of make 
 and design, and it seems waste of money to buy such 
 coverings for dining-room floors, where the best part 
 of the pattern is practically hidden by the dining-table. 
 
 As regards colours, bear in mind that, for all prac- 
 tical purposes, pure red may be said to be a perfect 
 contrast to pure green, pure yellow to purple, and 
 blue to orange. Many of you understand harmonious 
 grouping of colours, but few study the causes. 
 
1 88 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 A plain brass pole, or piece of ij gas piping, is 
 ample for curtain rods. Nothing can be worse than 
 the heavy lacquered brass or wood poles and unmean- 
 ing fringe valances, which only serve to show dirt and 
 dust, and are execrable in taste. 
 
 The library of the house should also be as com- 
 fortable as possible, with broad easy chairs, low 
 centre table for books and periodicals, a large 
 pedestal desk with circular revolving top, to shut up 
 all papers and keep them free from dust. This kind 
 of desk I consider invaluable to any man who really 
 uses his library as a work-room, whether it be for 
 real literary work and study, or for the ordinary ex- 
 amination and arrangement of household accounts ; 
 for it is quite impossible, on an ordinary writing 
 table, to keep papers clean or tidy, and this circular- 
 headed desk shuts down at once papers as they 
 lie, which then cannot be ' tidied ' by the housemaid, 
 who would seem to take a pleasure in putting away 
 papers and notes in all kinds of out-of-the-way corners ; 
 the desk should have plenty of drawers and pigeon- 
 holes ; these latter, not as many of them are, an inch too 
 narrow or two inches too wide for ordinary letters, but 
 all made for the objects for which they are intended. 
 It may seem absurd to say — think carefully of the use 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 189 
 
 to which the drawers are to be put — but how often are 
 they practically useless or wasteful of precious room, 
 by being made shallower or deeper than is required. 
 The room should be surrounded with bookcases, the 
 lower portion made to take large books, and with some 
 part of it covered in with cupboard fronts, with shelving 
 inside to file away periodicals and papers ; the shelf 
 which this lower projection forms will do admirably for 
 the arrangement of ornaments, small busts, or other 
 personal things, with which a man crowds the room he 
 really lives in ; of course, I am speaking to those who 
 make a den or working room of their library, and not 
 to those who fit a back room up with various tiers of 
 shelving, on which are arranged a library of books 
 which are seldom looked at, and where the room is 
 only occasionally used, and that only for the purpose of 
 a cloak room on grand occasions. Above this lower 
 nest of cupboards and shelving should be shelving 
 arranged for various sizes of books, part carried up all 
 round the room, so as to be within easy reach ; the top 
 of these will be found useful for china or busts, or other 
 objects of art, while the centre portions may be carried 
 up to the ceiling to give greater accommodation ; all 
 these breaks will take away from the stiffness of the 
 room, and, if properly arranged, will all assist in making 
 
igo DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 the library a room pleasant to work or play in. All 
 this kind of work can be made of plain deal, stained 
 and polished, and is infinitely cheaper than the elabo- 
 rate moveable cases of wainscot or walnut, in which the 
 aim of the designer seems often to make the frame- 
 work as expensive as possible, whereas, in truth, the 
 books within are really what should be thought of and 
 cared for. 
 
 I give an example, in Plate XVII., of a simple 
 mantel-piece with cupboards for pipes or other odds 
 and ends, and wall shelving and cupboards, executed 
 in deal at a very moderate cost, for the fitting up of a 
 small library in an ordinary town house. 
 
 The floor should be painted or stained and var- 
 nished all over, so as to be easily cleaned and dusted, 
 and everything that is likely to permanently hold dust 
 should be avoided. On the floor, thus painted, a few 
 cheap Indian or other rugs may be laid about in places 
 where most necessary and useful. 
 
 Too much trouble cannot be taken to make the 
 library a pleasant room to live in ; it should have 
 everything arranged and adapted for use and comfort, 
 and not be stiff and dreary with any set arrangement. 
 The panels of the cupboard doors may be filled in with 
 Japanese lacquer work or painted decoration, and here 
 
Plate "N° 17. 
 
 ( A -Library^lantel -Piece •&* • 
 
 ■ Showing arrangement of- Wallspoce ■ 
 
 ROBERT W. E Di 5, f.S. A. ARCHITECT 
 
OF TOWN .HOUSES. 191 
 
 and there, in the recesses, nests of shelves may be 
 fitted with projecting brackets, designed as part of 
 them, for pieces of china, vases of flowers, or busts, and 
 not looking like bats stuck on to a barn door. 
 
 I must not omit to say that in the lower portion of 
 the bookcase should be arranged drawers — not carried 
 down to the floor, for these are inconvenient — for 
 use for prints and valuable photographs and sketches. 
 
 The library should be essentially home-like, with 
 the wall space fitted up as conveniently as possible ; 
 on the top of the bookcases or nests of shelves, spring- 
 roller blinds might be easily arranged in the cornices 
 to draw down at night or other times, and fasten with 
 clips to protect and preserve the books, etc., within 
 them. 
 
 I might offer many other suggestions for the de- 
 coration and furniture of the rooms I have specially 
 referred to. I trust those I have made will be found 
 of some practical use, and that, above all, you will 
 believe that my aim throughout has been to avoid all 
 dogmatic and set rules of fashion or design, and to 
 insist only that truth and beauty of form and colour, 
 combined with fitness and common sense, are the main 
 elements of all true artistic treatment in decoration and 
 furniture of modern houses. 
 
192 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE DRAWING-ROOM AND BOUDOIR, BEDROOMS, 
 NURSERIES, AND OFFICES. 
 
 The drawing-rooms of a town house should be the 
 rooms of all others in which good taste, both in 
 decoration and furniture, should be everywhere appar- 
 ent. The rooms wherein we practically live, talk, play, 
 and receive our guests are essentially the ladies' rooms 
 of the house, and should be decorated in a pleasant, 
 cheerful manner, without stiffness or formality. The 
 walls should be pleasant objects to look upon, not cold 
 and dreary blanks of mere one-tinted paper, varied 
 perhaps with birds, or bunches of flowers in gold, 
 scattered here and there in monotonous array. 
 
 The furniture should essentially be comfortable, 
 couches and chairs pleasant to lounge and really rest 
 upon, not so-called artistic monstrosities, on which it is 
 impossible to do one or the other. The rooms should, 
 above all, look and be home-like in all their arrange- 
 
TOWN HOUSES. 193 
 
 merits, with ornaments, books, and flowers, not merely- 
 arranged for show, but for pleasant study or recreation. 
 Here, especially, the usual good taste of the ladies of 
 the house may find, if they will, innumerable ways of 
 rendering their especial quarter of the house bright 
 and cheerful, and one in which the home circle, as well 
 as guests, may feel at once at ease and at rest. 
 
 But here I must protest against fluffy wool mats 
 scattered about the tables, antimacassars of lace, 
 worsted, or other work hung loosely over the backs of 
 the chairs and sofas, velvet-covered brackets, with use- 
 less fringe fixed on with brass-headed nails, on which 
 too often are placed trumpery bits of Dresden or other 
 china, in the shape of dogs, cats, or birds. The wool 
 mats and velvet-covered brackets are nothing- but 
 traps for dirt and dust, while the loose antimacassars 
 are an endless source of untidiness and annoyance. 
 By all means have coverings to protect the chair-backs, 
 if you will, but let them be of some good embroidered 
 stuff or well-designed crewel work, fixed securely to 
 the chair or sofa-backs, so as not to be liable to be 
 carried off as pendants to the fringe of a lady's dress, 
 or to the buttons of a gentleman's coat. 
 
 Any scheme of decoration, therefore, which shall 
 consist merely of so-called artistic papers, arranged in 
 
 o 
 
194 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 two or more heights, in the present indiscriminate 
 fashion, without reference to the proportion of the 
 rooms, high or low, long or square, or of stiff spider- 
 legged furniture, of would-be quaintness in make or 
 shape, covered with creton or stuff, more or less to 
 match the paper ; anything, indeed, that shall give a 
 cold, comfortless, not-to-be-touched appearance, a sort 
 of culminating finish of so-called high art decoration, is 
 as much a mistake as the dreary lifeless formality, of 
 the gilt and ginger-bread type, of imitation French 
 work, so long affected. 
 
 The art work in the room should assist, not take 
 away from, its home-like feeling. We want a room 
 we can live in, delight in, and be really at home in ; 
 not a museum in which we may walk about and 
 admire, but must not touch, in which everything seems 
 got up in the highest art fashion, which you are to 
 look at and say, ' How pretty ! how lovely ! ' but 
 which, somehow or other, will probably lead many 
 common-sense people to go away dissatisfied, and 
 think that if this kind of frozen art is the real artistic 
 bread we are to partake of, there is but little real satis- 
 faction in it. Surely all this kind of stilted decoration 
 is giving a stone when people are asking for bread. 
 
 A drawing-room should not only contain works of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 195 
 
 art, and books for pleasant study, but should also be a 
 room in which you need not fear to move or joke, or 
 have that always pleasant hour before dinner with the 
 younger members of the house. If the room be bright 
 and cheerful, with art work of all kinds about, these 
 little ones will be imperceptibly undergoing a pleasant 
 mental training, while they will not be made to feel 
 that art is a thing of which they are to be afraid, or by 
 which their pleasant young feelings and joy of life are 
 to be frozen and subdued. Do not make children 
 believe that they must not move or play in a room, 
 because they will disturb or damage the art furniture, 
 ornaments, or set arrangement, or they will learn to 
 detest so-called high art, as intensely as I fear many of 
 them do going to church, from the injudiciousness of 
 some parents forcing upon them, in early life, an over- 
 dose of it 
 
 The one unfortunate thing to my mind nowadays 
 is the everlasting seeking after some novelty in papers, 
 curtains, or other hangings. We seem never satisfied 
 unless we can make our rooms different from those 
 of our neighbours. Decoration is being done as .a 
 fashion, not from any real love of it. Of course, we 
 should not like to see room after room repeating itself 
 
 an decoration, but I see no reason why a few really 
 
 o 2 
 
196 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 good papers should not be the ground- work of real 
 artistic decoration — when the narrowness of worldly 
 circumstances prevents the more elaborate and more 
 expensive artistic hand decoration in paint or dis- 
 temper — and let the rest follow from the design of the 
 artist ; then we might hope for real art work, instead 
 of the cold formality and everlasting interchange of 
 two or three colours. As a critical writer on art 
 decoration has said, ' If the papers on our walls, and 
 the curtains we hang in our rooms, were, even at 
 second hand, but the record of the fresh impressions 
 and the graceful fancies of artists of our own day, 
 instead of being encumbered with mechanical pattern 
 work, struggling to be artistic, it would be better than 
 all the present miserable striving after novelty.' Mr. 
 William Morris, artist and poet, has, to my mind, 
 realised this in many of his designs for wall papers and 
 hangings. Not to have what your neighbour pos- 
 sesses is the bane of decorative art ; if we could give 
 some one the monopoly of some half-dozen or a dozen 
 really good papers, plain and good chairs and tables, 
 we should be at peace ; ' the refinement of luxury 
 would make frugality once more possible.' 
 
 Without in any way seeking to object to or despise 
 real individuality or originality in art decoration, I 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 197 
 
 must protest against the craving after eccentricity and 
 so-called novelty which is called ' originality,' and the 
 striving after quaintness, bad in taste and effect, which 
 is called ' individuality.' The individuality of the true 
 artist will show itself in many ways through the house, 
 in the tone and treatment of the colouring and furni- 
 ture of the various rooms, in all of which there will 
 be grace and beauty, and harmony of general effect 
 and contrast ; and in the general arrangement of the 
 furniture, whether eclectic or of some distinct style and 
 design, and in the happy grouping of ornament, which, 
 while seemingly careless, shall yet be studied and 
 effective ; so that, although there be perhaps a distinct 
 difference from other houses, marking the artistic 
 individuality of the owner, there will be no stagey and 
 striking effects, no glaring colours, or fantastic forms to 
 tire and offend the eye. I venture to think that any 
 room or house decorated after some set form, so that 
 it be stamped as the work of this or that fashionable 
 decorator, is utterly a mistake ; an example of that 
 fashion which throughout I have sought to deprecate, 
 and of a set style which is based on fashion only, and 
 which, in a few short years, will have to give place to 
 some other style. 
 
 The aim of all true artists should be so to design 
 
198 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and decorate the buildings of to-day that they may be 
 looked upon as equally beautiful, equally artistic, and 
 equally appropriate a hundred years hence ; and that 
 as we to-day look with pleasure and admiration on the 
 work done two thousand years ago in Pompeii, so 
 may we have decoration in our day and generation 
 which, in future times, shall be looked upon with equal 
 pleasure and delight. I can conceive nothing more 
 opposed to all true decorative taste than to have one 
 room Pompeiian, a second mediaeval, and a third 
 Queen Anne, or modern Jacobean, while, to complete 
 the anachronisms of the house, a fourth should be gilt 
 and carved to imitate a Chinese joss-house or an 
 Indian temple; if the general effect be not vulgar and 
 trashy, it will be suggestive of no real thought or feel- 
 ing, but rather of that poverty of invention and artistic 
 design which finds shelter under the adaptation bodily 
 of other men's work. 
 
 The true artist should have an ideal of his own, 
 of simple refinement and graceful completeness, which 
 will save him or her from the temptation of extrava- 
 gance. As a rule, it is the mere decorator who makes 
 art decoration costly and extravagant ; he or she 
 cannot see that simplicity of colour and treatment 
 are better than all the heavy work of set patterns, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 199 
 
 all the colours of the rainbow, or all the gold they can 
 use. 
 
 In the drawing-room a dado is not, as a rule, 
 desirable, but this will of course depend on the 
 character and design of the furniture and proportion 
 of the room. Cabinets, book-cases, and general furni- 
 ture of unequal size and height are better framed 
 against the general colour of the walls than cut in two 
 by a dividing dado, or chair rail I would retain a 
 broad frieze under the cornice at the top of the room, 
 and decorate it, if possible, with good figure decora- 
 tion, either in oil or distemper. Anyway, try to have 
 some pleasant lines of colour in the upper frieze, with 
 distemper and stencil ornament, of good form, or, if 
 you have nothing better, get some of the exquisite 
 Japanese drawings of birds and flowers, and frame 
 them in panels, but, above all, avoid stiff conventional 
 decoration, which, however well done, is always lifeless 
 and unsatisfactory, and tires and palls upon the eye in 
 a very short time. Under this frieze may be a broad 
 gilt or painted moulding, with picture rods of light 
 painted or gilt iron, as I have before suggested. 
 Below, the walls should be covered with some good 
 decorative paper, a paper which will look bright and 
 cheerful with or without pictures ; such an one is 
 
2oo DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 Messrs. Morris's ' pomegranate ' pattern ; but there 
 are very many others of equally good design, and 
 there need be no difficulty, therefore, in selecting such 
 a covering at no greater cost than the French papers 
 with which it has been thought necessary to cover our 
 walls so long. The stamped French papers, although 
 quiet in tone, are generally cold and lifeless in colour- 
 ing and design. Avoid stiff and staring patterns, raised 
 patterns, and all patterns where lilies, primroses, and 
 other flowers are frozen into conventional forms, and 
 have an unnatural and lifeless look. 
 
 As regards the colour of the woodwork in a draw- 
 ing-room, this must depend much upon the paper or 
 general tone of wall colouring selected. Such a paper 
 as that I have named, having in itself such a power of 
 colour, looks well framed in with black ; if black is 
 used, it should be finished in what is technically called 
 half, or bastard flat ; for, as a rule, any varnish or glaze 
 would make the black too pronounced ; if gold is used, 
 it should be in masses, and not in thin lines ; the 
 panels, therefore, should be entirely gilt, and can 
 hereafter be decorated with flowers, painted slightly in 
 their natural colours on the gold ground. 
 
 In the illustration which forms the frontispiece of this 
 book, ' a drawing-room corner,' I give a sketch of my 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 201 
 
 own drawing-room, showing what can be done in the 
 drawing-room of an ordinary London house. The 
 general tone of the woodwork is black, painted in what 
 is technically called ' bastard flat/ the panels of the 
 doors and shutters being covered with gold leaf as a 
 ground for painted decoration of flowers or birds. 
 The general wall surface is covered with Morris's 
 pomegranate pattern paper of bluish grey ground, with 
 exceedingly good decorative effect in colour of fruit 
 and flowers. This paper has been on the walls for 
 over ten years, and is as good to-day as it was when 
 first put on. The wall space is divided about 3 feet 
 6 inches below the cornice, with a plain flat gilt mould- 
 ing, under which is a simple \ inch gas pipe, also 
 gilt, as a picture rod. Above this the wall space or 
 frieze has been lined all round with canvas pasted on 
 to the plaster, and on this Mr. Marks has painted a 
 decorative frieze, consisting of figures, birds and foliage 
 representing no particular subjects, but all harmonising 
 well with the general tone of the walls, and brighten- 
 ing up the whole room with good drawing and pleasant 
 naturalistic colouring, all treated decoratively in bands 
 of colour with figures, birds and foliage breaking up 
 the general lines. The cabinet shown is of mahogany 
 ebonised, free from all mouldings and carving, and 
 
202 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 designed especially for china and books, with drawers 
 for photographs and prints, the panels filled in with 
 painted heads, representing the four seasons. The 
 floor surface is painted dark brown, and the centre 
 space covered with an Indian carpet, the ceiling 
 being slightly toned in colour. 
 
 For a drawing-room in a large house, where, to a 
 certain extent, it is required only for great entertain- 
 ments — the ladies' sitting-room and general friendly re- 
 ception-room being provided for in some smaller room 
 in the house — a rich and effective treatment of the wall 
 would be with a low panelled dado of dark black, 
 with a delicate inlaying of ivory-toned ornament, the 
 doors and general woodwork being painted to match, 
 the general wall surface painted bright warm-coloured 
 golden yellow, and powdered all over with a flower 
 pattern or diaper of a darker tone of golden brown, 
 the frieze being coloured in a delicate vellum or ivory 
 tone, with arabesque or figure decoration in black, the 
 cornice treated with delicate shades of brown and 
 green, and the ceiling slightly tinted to match the 
 frieze. 
 
 I saw lately a drawing-room of a newly built so- 
 called Queen Anne house, in which the whole of the 
 lower portion of the walls was covered with a good 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 203 
 
 golden yellow pattern paper, the woodwork painted a 
 vellum or cream-coloured white and varnished, and 
 the frieze formed in decorative plaster-work in very 
 slight relief, like Adam's work ; the ceiling formed 
 after similar 'designs, and all slightly tinted like 
 Wedgwood ware. The general appearance was bright 
 and cheerful, and the low tone of colour throughout 
 formed an excellent contrast to the Persian rugs, 
 marquetry furniture, blue and white china, and other 
 decorative objects in the room ; there was a bright 
 home-like look, pleasant to see, and yet it was 
 eminently an artistic room, in which money had in 
 no way been lavishly or carelessly expended. 
 
 I give a few other examples for the general treat- 
 ment of the colouring and decoration of drawing- 
 rooms which have been carried out by my friend Mr. 
 Crace, and which suggest themselves as generally 
 good in treatment : — 
 
 1. Drawing-room, about 28 ft. by 18 ft., and 14 ft. 
 high. — Adam's ceiling, in low relief, tinted in ' Wedg- 
 wood ' colouring ; the cornice relieved in somewhat 
 stronger tones ; the walls hung with ' brocade ' paper 
 of pale Indian blue, divided by pilasters of ' Adam's ' 
 arabesques, painted in quiet tones of brown, warm 
 greens, and russets, with carved medallions in each. 
 
204 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 Dado and woodwork of quiet cream tint, with line 
 ornaments in drab and gold. 
 
 2. Drawing-room, 30 ft. by 18 ft., and 13 ft. 6 in. 
 high. — The plain ceiling was divided into three, and 
 ornamented with plaster enrichment in low relief, very 
 lightly tinted, and slightly relieved by gilding, cornice 
 picked out to harmonise with the walls. The walls 
 hung with crimson ground 'brocade' paper, with a 
 pattern in very dull white and gold ; the dado and 
 woodwork black and gold, with margins of rich maroon, 
 next the gilt mouldings of the panels. 
 
 3. A boudoir, 16 ft. square, and nearly as high. — 
 Plain ceiling, decorated in arabesques of quiet colours.. 
 Walls divided by an architrave moulding, or picture 
 rail, so as to reduce their extreme height ; the upper 
 
 3 ft. 6 in. painted with ornament on light ground ; the 
 lower portion hung with silk damask of quiet tone of 
 pale blue ; dado and woodwork light, with gold lines 
 and fine stencil decoration ; curtains light, with a little 
 blue introduced. 
 
 4. Small drawing-room or boudoir, 12 ft. high. — 
 Flat ceiling, panelled out with a painting about 8 ft. by 
 
 4 ft. in centre, with low relief ornament outside this. 
 The whole room panelled 9 ft. high, with pale wains- 
 cot oak ; the space above this hung with embossed 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 205 
 
 leather paper, with pattern in gold, and colours of a 
 light dull green tone. Curtains, silk and wool 
 tapestry. Floor, oak, rather darker than walls, with 
 Oriental carpets. Furniture, dark mahogany ; the 
 coverings varied to some extent. A few water-colours 
 hung on the oak panelling ; chimney-piece carried up 
 in light oak, with arrangement for bronzes, statuettes 
 in side niches, and spaces for china. 
 
 5. Boudoir. — Ceiling divided with set panels by 
 ribs of cedar colour. Centre octagon, with radiating 
 foliage on gold ground ; eight circular panels con- 
 taining paintings of children, alternately two and one, 
 representing the months ; the other panels delicately 
 bordered with stencilling. Cornice cedar colour and 
 gold. Walls hung with a mixed silk material of small 
 pattern ; mixed gold and greenish blue. Dado of 
 cedar about 4 ft. 6 in. high, with narrow shelf for small 
 china, &c. Stonework of window and recesses deco- 
 rated with bramble foliage in russet green on the stone 
 ground. Floor, oak parquet, with Indian carpet. 
 Chimney-piece carried up and coved into ceiling ; dark 
 walnut and gold, with some embroidery on velvet 
 panels. Cabinets to match. 
 
 In the treatment of the drawing-rooms much must 
 naturally depend upon the light and aspect, the special 
 
2o6 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 uses to which the rooms are intended to be put, and 
 any special objects which may be intended to become 
 features in their ultimate finish. The same tones of 
 colour which might be selected as a ground for old 
 pictures would rarely be equally favourable for water- 
 colour drawings. In some rooms the repose of quiet 
 tones is demanded, in others light and cheerful colouring 
 is desirable ; and whereas, in ordinary town houses, 
 any decoration which favours the lodgment of dust is 
 to be avoided, this condition need not be so strictly 
 enforced in the country ; hence, in the country, away 
 from dirt and smoke, wall hangings, whether of silk, 
 tapestry, or other stuff, may often be used, and give 
 an air of comfort and completeness which cannot be 
 obtained with mere paperhangings, beyond which there 
 is a play of light and colour in a woven fabric, hanging 
 to the wall, very different from the absolute flatness of 
 tone resulting from paint, or paper-hanging pasted to 
 the surface. This fact has led some manufacturers, 
 both in this country and in France, to seek to produce 
 the appearance and effect of woven fabrics by various 
 methods of relieving or embossing the surfaces of their 
 papers. Very ingenious and clever are some of 
 these productions, and the reproductions of ancient 
 brocades, cut velvets, etc., by M. Balin, of Paris, are 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 207 
 
 excellent examples of what enterprise and skilful 
 handicraft can do. It is, perhaps, unfair to exclude 
 from consideration, on the mere score of their being 
 imitations, papers like these, which are distinctly 
 decorative and agreeable. 
 
 In the case of the paper imitations or reproductions 
 of the ancient embossed leathers, they must not be 
 considered as mere imitations, because the result on 
 the surface is, or may be made, the same in one as in 
 the other ; for it is quite as legitimate to emboss and 
 gild or ornament the surface of thick paper, as that of 
 leather or any other material. 
 
 These embossed leather papers, with their rich 
 tones, the slight play of light from the low relief 
 surfaces, and with their hard varnished surfaces, afford 
 an excellent wall covering, at a cost varying from one 
 third to one sixth the price of the leather. They are, 
 perhaps, most suitable for libraries, dining-rooms, or 
 smoking-rooms, but they may occasionally be used in 
 drawing-room decoration with good effect. 
 
 Of course, with money, you can do anything ; but 
 I hold you may also make your rooms quite as 
 beautiful, quite as pleasant, and quite as artistic and 
 refined, and perhaps a good deal more home-like, 
 with limited means, and at small cost. This present 
 
208 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 age of luxury is, if anything, rather a curse than a 
 help to true art feeling, so much is done for show and 
 effect, and so little from the real love of the beauty and 
 grace of real art. We do not want museums, we want 
 homes. There are innumerable ways of making your 
 walls beautiful with stamped leather, damask, and silk, 
 and tones of gold and silver, ivory and ebony. Dark blue 
 and gold, dark red and white, grey and red, chocolate 
 and gold, all look well when harmoniously arranged. 
 
 At South Kensington Museum, in the refreshment 
 rooms, there are many suggestions for interchange of 
 colour, but all carried out utterly regardless of cost, and 
 the walls are much too overladen and crowded with 
 detail. 
 
 Another decorative treatment of a small drawing 
 or music-room would be by panelling the lower portion 
 of the walls with a deal dado, delicately painted in 
 yellowish pink or blue, and covering the general wall 
 surface with a golden-toned paper, arranged in panels 
 to suit the proportion of the room, with painted and 
 stencil arabesque patterns on the dividing spaces ; the 
 frieze treated with good figure or ornamental enrich- 
 ment of canvas-plaster or papier mache in low relief, 
 painted white, with a groundwork of reddish gold or 
 Bartolozzi engraving tint. The floor might have a 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 209 
 
 border of light ebony and maple or boxwood parquet, 
 with a low-toned Persian carpet in the centre, with 
 easy lounges or divans all round the room for rest and 
 comfort, the centre space being left clear of furniture, 
 so as to allow of ample room for guests passing through 
 to other rooms, or to congregate, whilst listening to 
 song or music. Or the general tone of the wall sur- 
 face may be of a bright bluish drab-coloured pattern 
 paper, with a frieze of small yellowish diaper pattern, 
 the woodwork throughout being painted in brighter 
 tones of blue, with mouldings and stencil decoration on 
 white, like Wedgwood china. 
 
 The examples of this kind of treatment which I 
 have seen were quiet and pleasing, and looked exceed- 
 ingly well, where the walls were lighted up with a few 
 water-colour drawings, and here and there brackets 
 with vases of deep red and blue ' splashed ' Chinese 
 porcelain. There are, of course, numerous other ways 
 of treating the walls of a drawing-room with good 
 taste and pleasant variety and brightness of colouring. 
 The examples I have quoted are merely suggestive 
 as giving a few types of colouring and contrast. In 
 any treatment that may be adopted, let it be, above 
 all, remembered that the walls, while bright and glow- 
 ing in colour, should have no staring patterns or design, 
 
 p 
 
210 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 which give at once to the educated eye a feeling of 
 discomfort and unrest, and tend materially to destroy 
 the harmony of the room. 
 
 The good taste and agreeable effect of the room 
 will depend much upon the skill with which the wall 
 surface is divided, and by the contrast and arrange- 
 ment of its colouring and general belongings. ' The 
 most harmonious proportions may easily be destroyed 
 by an arrangement of wall paintings, while, on the 
 other hand, the narrowest and most inconveni- 
 ent spaces may often be rendered, not only pleasing, 
 but of comfortable and domestic aspect. It is in 
 Pompeii that we learn more especially to appreciate 
 the magic effect of colour in the adornment of walls, 
 which makes the rooms, almost without exception 
 small, appear much larger and more elegant than they 
 really are. In this character of decoration, the 
 ornamentation becomes substantial by the opposition 
 of colours. The contrast, in which white is placed to 
 the darker tints, has likewise a magical effect, causing 
 the surface of the wall to appear, as it were, broken 
 through. The blue, in opposition to dark red, pro- 
 duces the illusion of aerial perspective, throwing back 
 the actual plane of the wall, and making it appear to 
 retire in the distance.' 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. in 
 
 All kinds of tricky, glaring conceits and eccentrici- 
 ties in colouring are equally wrong in house decoration 
 as in a lady's dress. There should be, throughout, 
 grace and beauty of design and colour, and quietness and 
 repose of ornamentation. The decorative treatment 
 of some of the rooms in the Prince of Wales's Pavilion, 
 by Messrs. Gillow, and of some of the rooms in other 
 houses in the Street of Nations, by Messrs. Jackson 
 and Graham, Messrs. Shoolbred, Messrs. Trollope, and 
 Messrs. Collinson and Lock, in the late Paris Exhibition, 
 together with the design and execution of the various 
 examples of furniture, were especially good ; the 
 boudoir of the Princess of Wales, by Messrs Gillow, 
 and the drawing-room in Messrs. Collinson and Lock's 
 house, being especially noticeable for delicacy of 
 colouring and harmony of general effect. In the 
 latter, the walls were finished in soft, delicate tones of 
 yellow and yellowish pink, the woodwork being tinted 
 a delicate blue colour ; the mantel-piece, of good and 
 characteristic design, being set off by tilework of red 
 lustre ware by Mr. De Morgan ; the windows hung 
 with light curtains of Crete muslin, printed in light 
 shades of yellow pink ; the floor covered with Indian 
 matting, and Persian rugs of exquisite design and 
 colouring scattered over it here and there ; the furni- 
 
 P 2 
 
212 DECORATION AND FURNITURE. 
 
 ture of satin and rose woods, with painted and inlaid 
 panels, appropriate and good in design, but eclectic in 
 character. All gave a pleasant, home-like air of com- 
 fort and suitability, combined with harmony and 
 elegance of general effect. 
 
 In decorating a town house, you must bear in 
 mind that dark papers and dark hangings absorb an 
 immense amount of light, and that you can do with 
 half the amount of candles or gas if you keep a 
 reasonably light tone in your general decoration. 
 
 A dining-room must have gas, I suppose, but 
 candles or lamps should be used in drawing-rooms, 
 as softer and less damaging to all works of art. A 
 glass candelabra of small size, so as not to obtrude 
 itself, in the centre of the room, a few good sconces, 
 such as that shown in Plate XIII., with light brass 
 repoussd backs, or small Venetian mirrors at the 
 back, to reflect the light, fixed here and there to 
 the walls, will be found ample for general lighting 
 purposes. 
 
 And here let me say the brass gaseliers now made 
 after old Jacobean designs are better than all the pre- 
 tentious mediaeval forms that have been so long the 
 fashion. Messrs. Powell and Sons and the Murano 
 Glass Co. make some pretty opalesque glass sconces 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 213 
 
 and lamps, inexpensive, and generally good in design 
 and treatment. 
 
 I shall not presume to set forth any given rules for 
 the furniture of the drawing-room. This must natur- 
 ally, in a large degree, depend upon, as indeed, 
 practically, does every other room in the house, the 
 good taste of the lady of the house ; a drawing-room 
 may be purely eclectic in its arrangement^ that is to 
 say, works of almost every period of art may be here 
 collected, provided there be a general harmony of 
 arrangement. 
 
 Simple cabinets, filled in with panels, of Chinese 
 or Japanese lac ware, valuable inlaid or mahogany 
 cabinets with their collections of valuable works, bric-a 
 brae, armour, jewellery, rare china, embroideries, or 
 whatever else may be the fancy of the owner, may 
 well find a place in the drawing-room of the house, so 
 long as they are arranged in some sort of careless 
 harmony of grouping and colouring ; the pleasant and 
 judicious arrangement of these rooms, the choice of 
 form and the assortment of colouring, so as to make 
 up the supreme elegance of the whole put together, 
 will make all the difference in a cheerful home-like 
 room, which shall not only be handsome and beautiful 
 with numerous objects of art work of every kind, but 
 
2)4 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 215 
 
 shall, above all, look as if it is arranged also for com- 
 fort and use. Small hanging cupboards with shelves 
 for books or china, similar to the one shown in sketch, 
 are useful and inexpensive pieces of furniture. 
 
 We do not want drawing-rooms to be filled with 
 stiff, uncomfortable furniture, nor do we want museums 
 in which we fear to walk or move about, but we want 
 pleasant, cheerful rooms, in which the collection of 
 furniture and objects of art shall all tend to make the 
 room comfortable and habitable, not a mere show-room, 
 from which the coverings are to be removed only on 
 some grand occasion. The floor may be painted or 
 covered with India matting, with good-coloured rugs 
 scattered here and there about it, the chairs and 
 couches should above all be comfortable and easy, and 
 even as the thoughts and taste of the lady occupant 
 are given to the careful arrangement of furniture, to 
 show off to the best advantage a piece of tapestry, a 
 laquered cabinet, to place well porcelain and bronzes 
 Persian embroidery, or Indian brocade, so as to avoid 
 anachronisms, so will be enhanced the cheerfulness, 
 grace, and artistic elegance of the room ; for it must 
 be admitted that ' the anachronisms between two ill- 
 assorted pieces of furniture may be as offensive to the 
 eye as between the scattered parts of a complete set 
 
216 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 of furniture, the finest pieces of armour will assume 
 the look of old iron, according to the background 
 which sets them off.' The present fashion of collecting 
 works of Oriental design in china or other art work, so 
 far assists even the uneducated, as their especial purity 
 of taste and brilliancy of colour admit of their bearing 
 almost every contrast. By all means have works of 
 all kind of art surrounding you, but depend upon it 
 your enjoyment of them will be materially increased, 
 if they are carefully arranged and harmoniously set 
 out. 
 
 The exquisitely beautiful satin-wood furniture of 
 Adam's stvle, exhibited in the boudoir of the Princess 
 of Wales's Pavilion at Paris by Messrs. Gillow, and 
 shown in illustration No. XVIII., was, to my mind, an 
 example of exceedingly delicate and graceful adapta- 
 tion of eighteenth-century design to modern furniture ; 
 the panels of the various pieces formed in walnut- 
 wood, with ebony inlaid, and laid over with box-wood, 
 carved down, so as to show the ebony behind, in ex- 
 quisite cameo-like medallions after Flaxman, the deli- 
 cate enrichments and ornamentation of gilt lacquer-like 
 character, were all elegant in design, and marvellously 
 beautiful in workmanship. 
 
 The walls of this charming little room were 
 
3 lateN°18 
 
 Octadon Boudoir Adams •'style 
 
 ?leJ&rs Gtllow % 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 217 
 
 arranged in panels, hung with blue figured satin, 
 divided by pilasters decorated in shades of blue and 
 gold on maize-coloured silk, the general tone of the 
 ceiling being ivory colour, with the background of the 
 enrichments lightly tinted in green. The satin-wood 
 chairs and couch were covered with figured blue satin, 
 and the floor with a carpet of rich Persian colouring on 
 a maroon ground. 
 
 The illustrations Nos. VII. and VIII. show ex- 
 amples of various good pieces of decorative furniture, 
 made by Messrs. Jackson and Graham, which set forth 
 some of the views I have expressed as to simplicity of 
 form and design, and of the use of lacquer and painted 
 decoration in panels. Let your drawing-room, there- 
 fore, be filled with beautiful objects, which need not 
 necessarily be expensive, comfortable causes and 
 divan seats, low tables for work or papers, cases for 
 books, and cabinets for ornaments and china, but let 
 there be no eccentricities or conceits, which are as bad 
 in taste in furniture and decoration as they are in a 
 lady's dress. Let everything tend to make the room 
 bright and cheerful, home-like and artistic, with 
 general grace and quietness of design and colouring 
 throughout. 
 
 In most town houses of any size or pretension, the 
 
218 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 bedrooms are in a measure sacrificed, as regards 
 height, to the reception rooms. For the most part the 
 best rooms, and these are on the second floor of the 
 house, are rarely more than 10 ft. high, and some- 
 times considerably less, while the rooms over vary 
 from 7 ft. 6 in. to 9 ft. in total height. At the princi- 
 pal floor of bedrooms, or second floor, the main or 
 principal staircase generally ends, and a dingy back 
 staircase commences, running up in the centre of the 
 house, obtaining only such partial light as is glimmered 
 down from the skylight overhead. In the bedrooms, 
 above everything, it is necessary to have a cheerful, 
 home-like look. Often in cases of illness we have 
 to live in these rooms for days, perhaps weeks ; we 
 should seek, therefore, at all events to make them as 
 pleasant and comfortable as possible. It is hardly 
 necessary to suggest that it is most undesirable to have 
 heavy curtains or hangings anywhere, as they only 
 tend to make the room stuffy, to collect dust and all 
 the thousand ills that flit innocently about in the air of 
 a London bedroom, and which, like a flight of starlings 
 alarmed by some sudden noise, flit away on the first 
 touch, and help to cover everything with fluff and dust, 
 adding materially to the unhealthiness of the room. 
 Beyond all this, let those who at any time have been 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 219 
 
 compelled through illness to stay long in their bed- 
 rooms, tell of the misery and restlessness caused by 
 the perpetual shaking of the fringe or valance of the 
 curtains overhead, which with the least movement 
 nods and chatters, like a collection of jackdaws in some 
 ancient ruin. 
 
 The old four-post bed is now almost a thing of the 
 past. We have learnt that to shut ourselves up in the 
 limited space of such monstrosities, by close hangings 
 and closed tops or coverings, means not only excluding 
 light, which may not be desirable, but air, which is of 
 the highest importance ; for remember, to secure 
 healthy and refreshing rest and sleep, it is of the 
 highest importance that there shall be a proper and suf- 
 ficient supply of pure air during the hours of sleep, so 
 that our morning waking may not find us feverish and 
 nauseated by the continual inhaling of impure air, and 
 this must naturally ensue, if our only supply is limited 
 to the space inclosed by the covering and hangings of 
 one of these ancient four-posters. 
 
 A bedroom should be essentially clear of every- 
 thing that can collect or hold dust in any form ; should 
 be bright and cheerful, pleasantly furnished, not with 
 the everlasting heavy mahogany wardrobes and dingy- 
 looking chests of drawers, but with light and cheerful 
 
220 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 furniture of good and simple design, in which every- 
 thing shall be carefully arranged and studied for use, 
 not show. The good taste of the lady inhabitants of 
 the house will soon add to the general home feeling of 
 rest and comfort, by innumerable knick-knacks. 
 
 I give an illustration, Plate XIX., of a simple and 
 well designed set of bedroom furniture by Messrs. 
 Holland, in black walnut and mahogany. The vari- 
 ous pieces are conveniently arranged for the purposes 
 for which they are required,, without any excess of 
 ornament or moulding. The general designs are well 
 adapted for cheap bedroom furniture in light stained 
 or lacquer-painted wood. The wardrobe might be 
 fitted with a useful top cupboard, made to go right up 
 to the ceiling, with a simple finishing moulding at the 
 top, by which the objectionable feature of a large flat 
 top, for the accumulation of dirt and dust, would be 
 avoided. 
 
 I would have the whole floor of the rooms stained 
 and varnished, or painted, and strips of carpet, matting, 
 or rugs thrown down only where required ; these can 
 be taken up and shaken every day without trouble, 
 the floors washed, and the evil of fixed carpets thus 
 avoided. If, however, a carpet must be laid down, let 
 it on no account go under the bed or within 2 feet of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 221 
 
 the walls ; the spaces under the bed or wall furniture 
 would rarely be thoroughly swept, and under heavy 
 wardrobes and chests of drawers there would be a 
 gradual accumulation of dirt and dust, until such times 
 as the annual general turn-out and cleansing takes 
 place. Canopies over beds, and the old-fashioned 
 system of hangings, must suggest themselves to all of 
 us as being unhealthy, even if some of us think they 
 may be comfortable. Shut, closely up at night as bed- 
 rooms mostly are, we want as much free breathing 
 space as possible, not to shut ourselves in with heavy 
 canopies and closely drawn bed-curtains. Some of 
 you, who may perhaps disagree with my views about 
 canopies, will perhaps take the trouble to get up and 
 look at the top of any such arrangement in your own 
 rooms. I fancy you will be somewhat startled by what 
 you will see, and will be hereafter more inclined to 
 do without such dust-traps. If a room be carefully 
 decorated, curtains are much better away, on the 
 ground of health as well as of decoration. If you 
 insist on having your room made quite dark at night, 
 have double blinds or shutters ; a thick green tammy 
 or tussock silk blind will effectually darken any win- 
 dow, and materially add to the warmth of the room. 
 Depend upon it, from all points of view — for the 
 
222 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 sake of comfort, health, and cleanliness — you will find it 
 infinitely better to do with as little carpet and drapery in 
 town bedrooms — indeed, in any bedrooms — as possible. 
 As regards the walls of bedrooms, even as it is un- 
 desirable to cover the whole of the floor with carpet, 
 equally undesirable is it from all points of view — 
 health, light, and decoration — to cover the whole walls 
 with paper. As a matter of health, it is better to have 
 as little material as possible that will absorb and retain 
 the too often impure air of a bedroom ; as a matter of 
 light, it is desirable to have a portion of the wall, at 
 least, of some light general tone, even if the lower 
 portion of the wall be papered in a somewhat dark 
 shade. I have seen bedrooms, which looked cheerful 
 and pleasant in their decoration and general appear- 
 ance, where the walls to a height of about 4 feet 
 from the floor had a dado of manilla or Indian mattine 
 stretched close to the wall, and fixed top and bottom 
 with a small round moulding, screwed down, so as to 
 be easily removed for cleaning behind the dado, or 
 replacing it, when required, with new. v Above this, 
 the wall was finished with a pleasant light paper of no 
 particular pattern, so that you could not be annoyed at 
 night by flights of birds or symmetrical patterns of 
 conventional primroses, daisies, or fruit, which might 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 223 
 
 in any way suggest a countless and never-ending pro- 
 cession along the walls. Any pattern or design which 
 shows prominently any set pattern, or spots which 
 suggest a sum of multiplication, or which, in the half- 
 light of night or early morning, might be likely to fix 
 themselves upon the tired brain, suggesting all kinds of 
 weird forms, are especially to be avoided. The design 
 should be of such a description that, saving as regards 
 colour, it should offer no specially marked pattern. I 
 have seen various designs for papers of high artistic 
 character, but in which flights of birds or rows of con- 
 ventional flowers stood out in bold relief, sug^estino- 
 ideas of counting, or dreaming thoughts or restlessness, 
 which, to an over-tired or restless brain, soon bring 
 utter wakefulness. I see no reason, however, why the 
 whole wall above the dado should not be tinted or 
 coloured in distemper ; and, although I do not for a 
 moment advocate the imitation of Pompeian work in 
 English houses, we might with advantage adopt some 
 of its general and very effective tones of colour and 
 design for bedroom wall and ceiling decoration. I 
 would suggest a dark matting dado as a base, and the 
 remainder of the wall distempered of some grateful 
 soft tint, with graceful pattern border and frieze 
 stencilled on, and here and there panels formed in the 
 
224 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 decoration, with inclosing lines of bright and well- 
 selected colours, wherein might be enframed looking- 
 glasses with shelves under for use, and here and there 
 water-colours or photographs, all forming part of the 
 decoration of the room, but not standing out of it in 
 any too prominent manner. All this kind of work can 
 be treated simply, and at little cost, and the distemper 
 work can be rubbed over with bread crumbs, or brushed 
 down, and thus easily cleaned. Any such scheme of 
 distemper colouring, not necessarily of Pompeian cha- 
 racter, but based on some simple and harmonious style 
 of decoration, of which there are many good examples, 
 surely is better than all the wall papers in the world. 
 ' Imagine,' as a writer on Pompeii says, ' what the 
 ruins of Pompeii would have been, had the houses 
 been lined with our fashionable wall papers. We may 
 form some idea of the effect they would have pro- 
 duced by contemplating a modern dwelling, which has 
 been deserted for a few months, with its shabby walls 
 hung with tattered strips of tawdry hangings.' One 
 of the prettiest rooms I remember to have seen was 
 finished in soft tones of distemper, in which dark grey, 
 red, and yellow were the chief colours in the deco- 
 ration, and where a broad decorative frieze under the 
 ceiling added immensely to the general effect. 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 225 
 
 The general woodwork of the doors, windows, and 
 skirtings should be painted in some plain colour to 
 harmonise or contrast with the wall decoration, and 
 the whole varnished ; woodwork finished in this way 
 can be easily washed or cleaned, and the extra expense 
 of varnishing will be saved in a few years. The bed 
 should be of brass or iron, the furniture of light wood, 
 varnished or polished ; and, now that good painted 
 tiles can be obtained at small expense, they may be 
 used in washing-stands with good effect, or the wall 
 above may be lined entirely with them to a height of 
 2 or 3 feet. 
 
 There are now so many really good designs of wall 
 hangings of subdued and harmonious colouring, that 
 there should be no difficulty in selecting such an one. 
 It is well to remember that the greatest artistic skill of 
 colouring alone can so graduate all the various colours 
 as to confuse the eye without attracting it to any given 
 portion of the design, and that, therefore, it is far safer 
 to trust to some really good distemper colour ; and 
 this should, and may well be, of such an absolutely 
 undefined shade that you hardly know what to call it. 
 A little thought, a little study, and a little time will be 
 well spent in the careful furnishing and decoration of 
 
 Q 
 
226 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 the sleeping-rooms of our houses, so that they may be 
 healthy, cheerful, and comfortable. 
 
 I need scarcely say that the laws of health require 
 that there shall be ample ventilation in all the sleeping 
 rooms of the house, or they will get stuffy and ab- 
 solutely unhealthy at night, when shut up, and there 
 is no opening and shutting of doors and windows for 
 ingress of fresh air, and no fires for egress of foul air 
 Fresh air must be brought in either by the ordinary 
 gratings and tubes through the outer wall, or from the 
 staircase well, in which there is generally a fair supply 
 of fresh air, — although not always of the purest kind, — - 
 by means of ventilators over the doors. All this kind 
 of practical decoration is as necessary for bodily health 
 as art decoration is for mental enjoyment and plea- 
 sure ; and if the one be neglected, the other may 
 almost as well be left undone. 
 
 In the dreariness of town houses, nothing has 
 struck me as so utterly cruel as the additional dreari- 
 ness which generally pervades the rooms especially 
 devoted to children — the nurseries of the house, the 
 rooms in which our little ones spend so large a portion 
 of their early lives — and yet I know of no rooms 
 which should be made more cheerful and more beauti- 
 ful in their general appearance than these. I do not 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 227 
 
 mean that you are to put expensive cabinets, rare 
 china, or even pictures on the walls. These would not 
 be understood, and would naturally help to the dis- 
 comfort of the little inhabitants, who would be told 
 that they must not play or romp, for fear of damaging 
 them in some way or other. 
 
 While the furniture should be strong and useful, it 
 need not be prison-like ; the walls need not be covered 
 with some monotonous imitation tile paper, because it 
 wears better than another. 
 
 In the windows of the day nursery there should 
 be boxes of flowers, in which buttercups and daisies, 
 primroses and daffodils, might be cultivated, to teach 
 the little ones of the country, and of the nursery 
 rhymes and fairy tales they love so well. A few 
 shillings will buy bulbs or seeds enough to make a 
 constant variety from springtide to winter, and an 
 endless source of pleasure for little hands to tend 
 and weave into fairy chains and tresses ; and little eyes 
 will brighten in watching for the outburst of some new 
 flower. Let the walls be papered with some pleasant 
 paper, in which the colours shall be bright and cheer- 
 ful, distemper the upper portion of the room for 
 health's sake, and varnish the paper if you please. But 
 nowadays, when really good illustrations are generally, 
 
 Q2 
 
228 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and not as an exception, to be found in so many of our 
 monthly and weekly publications, why not, instead of 
 destroying them, cut them out, or, better still, let the 
 little ones do so, and paper them over the whole 
 of the lower portion of the walls ? A band of colour 
 might be made by buying some of the Christmas books, 
 — which Mr. H. S. Marks, R. A., Miss Kate Greenaway, 
 and Mr. Walter Crane have so charmingly and artisti- 
 cally illustrated, — and by pasting the scenes in regular 
 order and procession, as a kind of frieze under the 
 upper band of distemper, varnished over to protect 
 from dirt. The variously depicted scenes from the 
 stories of Jack and the Bean Stalk, Cinderella and her 
 sisters, of the numerous beautiful princesses and en- 
 chanted princes, and a host of other nursery rhymes and 
 tales, may thus be used, while here and there, as var- 
 nished panels, might be pasted up the large Christmas 
 coloured illustrations, which few Christmas numbers 
 are now without. Why not cover the walls of the 
 nurseries with illustrations, telling of the glories and, 
 if you please, the horrors of war — teaching peace and 
 goodwill by illustrating the antitype — of the various 
 birds, beasts, and reptiles that went into the ark, of 
 flowers, and all other things which are bright and 
 beautiful ? All these would make the children's room 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 229 
 
 a bright and cheery spot, and in pleasant guise teach 
 them many things, better than all the lesson books in 
 the world. 
 
 There are some charming papers designed by Mr. 
 Walter Crane, illustrating some of the best-known 
 nursery tales and rhymes, which are admirably adapted 
 for the walls of day nurseries, and are cheap enough 
 to be frequently changed. Do not have curtains of 
 any sort in your nurseries ; they only hold disease 
 and dust. The more cheerful and gay your nurseries are, 
 believe me, the brighter and happier will your children 
 be. In the night nursery the walls should be all dis- 
 tempered, so as to be cleaned or re-done at small cost 
 at frequent intervals ; for I am quite certain that here, 
 above all things, it is essential to wash out, as often as 
 possible, the peculiar bedroom atmosphere which must 
 cling, in a measure, to the generally low rooms of the 
 upper floor of a town house ; a simple dark shade of 
 colour will offer no spots or nightmare effects to drive 
 away sleep or disturb the little ones in their times of 
 feverish unrest or illness. But in the rooms they live 
 in, there is no reason why the ' writing on the wall ' 
 should not be the earliest teaching of all that is beau- 
 tiful in nature, art, or science ; and by the illustra- 
 tions of fairy lore, incline the thoughts of our little 
 
230 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 ones to all that is graceful and beautiful in imagina- 
 tive faculties. The knowledge thus gained, amid the 
 smoke and dinginess of most of our large inland cities 
 and towns, will tend to make the annual change to the 
 country or seaside ten times more enjoyable, ten times 
 more instructive. 
 
 The floors of the rooms should be stained and 
 varnished or painted all over, and a small centre 
 carpet pinned down in the day nursery, so as to be 
 easily taken up and cleaned ; small strips of carpet or 
 India matting laid down beside the beds will be amply 
 sufficient in the night nursery. Let the beds be of iron, 
 and the furniture strong and useful : painted or stained 
 deal will be found amply sufficient, and is at the same 
 time light and cheerful. London nurseries are, unfor- 
 tunately, very low, and unless the back and front 
 rooms communicate by large folding doors, which can 
 be thrown open with the windows — so as to allow of a 
 thorough current of air to sweeten the rooms, when 
 the children are out of them — there is much difficulty 
 in securing good and. proper ventilation. Too much 
 care cannot be taken to obtain this, and large open 
 gratings fixed over the doors and communicating with 
 the staircase landing., with Boyle's ventilators in the 
 chimneys, will be found good and effective means of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 231 
 
 obtaining a large amount of artificial ventilation. No 
 pains should be spared to render the nurseries of the 
 house as cheerful and pretty as possible, or to secure 
 ample light and thorough ventilation. 
 
 To surround our little ones with decoration and 
 every-day objects, in which there shall be grace and 
 beautv of design and colour, instead of the common- 
 place and vulgar tawdriness which in so many houses 
 is thought good enough for the nurseries, will imbue 
 them with a love and appreciative feeling for things 
 of beauty and harmony of form and colour ; but if we 
 wish to have healthy children, we must have healthy 
 homes, and, in studying how best to decorate the walls, 
 do not let us forget that it is first of all imperative that 
 there shall be no overcrowding of the generally low 
 rooms, and that ample light and pure air are essential 
 to their bodily and mental health and well-being. 
 
 Those who value good servants will not forget that 
 their rooms be made bright and cheerful, and that, if 
 possible, in one room in the basement there shall be 
 some pleasant corner where rest and change may be 
 got after the daily work is done. The servants' hall 
 or sitting-room should not be the dingy place it gener- 
 ally is ; let it be papered with some cheerful pattern 
 paper of pleasant colour ; let the floor be painted and 
 
232 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 varnished, with a small centre carpet or matting, and 
 the walls hung with some good photographs or prints, 
 which are nowadays to be obtained at small cost ; put 
 boxes of flowers in the windows, and let the furniture 
 be strong and serviceable, but not prison-like. 
 
 In the generally dark underground passages of 
 town houses it is difficult to do anything with the 
 walls to make them clean and light, unless the whole 
 surface is covered with white Dutch tiles ; but this 
 of course is expensive, and cannot always be done, 
 especially when the house is held for the usual short 
 term on lease or agreement The upper portion of 
 the walls may be distempered, and the lower portion 
 painted to a height of, say, 5 ft. from the floor, so as to 
 be easily cleaned. The servants' bedrooms should all 
 be distempered, and the floors painted all over. The 
 rooms throughout should be thoroughly ventilated by 
 some such system as that recommended for the nur- 
 series, and every means taken to render them light, 
 airy, and cheerful. 
 
 In the bedrooms of a London house, which, as a 
 rule, are sacrificed in height to the reception-rooms 
 below, it is desirable to utilise every corner and recess, 
 without filling the rooms with heavy and inconvenient 
 furniture. And although the wardrobes of the present 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 233 
 
 day may combine in themselves many conveniences, 
 they are lumbering and unwieldy, and occupy far 
 too much space in the limited area of the rooms, 
 besides which they are necessarily expensive articles 
 of furniture. I would suggest that the recesses 
 formed by the chimney breasts should, in part at 
 least, be filled in with good hanging closets, which can 
 be screwed to the walls and removed at will. These 
 may be made to go up quite to the ceiling, by which 
 arrangement no spaces, such as those formed by tops 
 of wardrobes, would be left to harbour and accumulate 
 dust and dirt: The top portion may be arranged with 
 shelves, whereon can be stowed away articles of dress 
 not immediately required. The middle space should 
 be fitted with hooks and rails, on which to hang dresses 
 and other articles of a lady's belongings ; the lower 
 portion being fitted with sliding shelves and drawers, 
 for caps and bonnets, and the whole inclosed in folding 
 doors in two heights, the lower panels of which may 
 be fitted with plate-glass, which is a necessary element 
 in the room. All this work can very well be done in 
 good sound deal, without any frittering away of detail 
 or ornamentation — which are utterly unnecessary and 
 out of taste — and the whole painted in some shade of 
 colour to harmonise with the decoration of the room. 
 
234 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 Naturally, chests of drawers are required, but these 
 should stand up well above the floor, on strong or 
 plainly turned legs, so as to be easily removeable, and 
 to allow of the space under being thoroughly cleaned 
 and dusted. The dressing-table should have nests of 
 convenient drawers on either side of the lower portion, 
 while inclosing cupboards may be arranged on either 
 side of the swinging glass for gloves or jewellery. 
 But, above all, the mere furniture of the room, whether 
 it be of painted deal or inlaid satin-wood, should be 
 perfectly simple in design, made for use and not for 
 show, and free from the expensive trimmings of 
 unnecessary carving and rows of tiny balusters, which 
 are not only bad in taste, but must be terrible to those 
 who, in times of sickness and suffering, are naturally 
 led by distorted imagination to think them wearisome 
 and countless. If the panels are to be decorated at 
 all, let them be done with some pleasant drawings 
 in monotone or deeper enrichment, which shall not 
 suggest spottiness and crudeness to those who have to 
 lie long hours and look upon them. 
 
 In the windows may be arranged plain deal boxes, 
 fitted as ottomans, in which to stow away articles of 
 dress, with soft and luxuriously stuffed seats and backs, 
 that would in themselves suggest rest and quiet. I 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 235 
 
 cannot in any way agree with the fashion which is 
 endeavouring to revive the heavy wood bedsteads of 
 our ancestors, whether with or without the heavy posts 
 and top superstructure. To my mind, nothing can be 
 better or more cleanly than the painted iron or brass 
 bedsteads, with perhaps some light hangings, cheerful, 
 yet subdued in colour. At any good upholsterer's, it is 
 possible to obtain a variety of patterns of printed 
 cottons and cotton tapestries, good in design and 
 colour, and exceedingly moderate in price. If these 
 be too sombre to your taste, I would suggest that, 
 instead of the more expensive hangings, you should 
 endeavour to buy some of the printed Indian cottons, 
 called ' sambars,' which will give you as much colour- 
 ing as you please, at a moderate cost, or some of the 
 Indian silks with cotton backs, which can, nowadays, 
 be bought for something less than 2s. a yard. 
 
 As I have said before, avoid carpeting the whole 
 of your room, and paint the floor all over, of some 
 dark shade of colour, and put down mats or rugs only 
 where required. I am quite certain that this arrange- 
 ment will decrease the stuffiness, and add much to the 
 healthiness of an ordinary town bedroom, and that 
 every common-sense person will agree that everything 
 that harbours dirt or dust, or tends to prevent 
 
236 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 the thorough circulation of air during the long 
 hours of night, when the room is necessarily shut up, 
 will be in every sense undesirable. The blinds of 
 a bedroom should be of some soft toned colour, and 
 not the vivid staring white and yellow to which we 
 are so accustomed. I need not dwell further on this 
 portion of my subject, as the cheerfulness and comfort 
 of a bedroom is quite as much dependent upon the 
 graceful taste of arrangement of the ladies of the 
 house, as upon the upholstery and fittings with which 
 it is furnished. 
 
 There are innumerable small items of furniture 
 which all tend to make up the general requirements of 
 a bedroom, which with care and thought can be pro- 
 vided at comparatively small cost, in the way of 
 hanging-glasses, jewel boxes, boot racks, bonnet cases, 
 cases for medicine bottles, without lumbering up the 
 generally small floor surface of the room, provided that 
 they be thought of and arranged for, before any set or 
 so-called ' suite ' of bedroom furniture is bought ; for 
 a few pounds all these necessary arrangements can be 
 provided in suitable and useful form, in place of the 
 usually extravagant, and ofttimes comparatively useless, 
 articles of furniture which are generally considered 
 necessary in the bedrooms of the house : chests of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 237 
 
 drawers should be so arranged that the lower portion 
 may be adapted for clothes, while small flanking cup< 
 boards may be provided on each side for the hundred 
 and one small articles which are necessary in an 
 ordinary family household, and which all help to make 
 up the harmonious whole of a well-furnished house. In 
 a small room the chest of drawers may be so fitted up 
 that it shall do duty for a dressing-table with looking- 
 glass complete, or the recesses formed by the chim- 
 ney breast may be fitted with shelves and drawers, 
 bonnet boxes and boot racks, all combined, with hang- 
 ing spaces for clothes, at a much smaller expense than 
 that of the elaborate and heavy articles which are 
 sold as ' wardrobes,' and which all take up too much 
 of the wall and floor space, in the usually cramped 
 area, of an ordinary bedroom. The mantel-pieces 
 may be fitted up with cupboards, shelves, and glasses, 
 so as to add materially to the artistic character, as well 
 as the general comfort of the room ; and at a small 
 expense a plain writing shelf or table may be attached 
 to any of these pieces of furniture, and made to fold 
 up or slide in, when not absolutely required for use. 
 Often a bedroom is made to do duty as a private 
 sitting-room as well, and too much care cannot there- 
 fore be taken to design the general furniture so that it 
 
238 DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 may combine the necessary requirements for general 
 use, as well as for the storage of clothes and linen, 
 and so that the greatest amount of accommodation 
 may be obtained in the smallest amount of space. 
 Hanging book-shelves with cupboards on each side 
 for medicine bottles are invaluable in a bedroom. I 
 cannot too strongly advocate the desirability of all fur- 
 niture being designed, in the general rooms of a town 
 house, so that it may afford accommodation for the 
 numerous requirements to which it has to be put, and 
 cannot too strongly protest against the generally 
 inconsistent and in great part useless articles, which 
 are provided nowadays by ordinary upholsterers in 
 the so-called ' suite ' of bedroom furniture. 
 
 In my next and last lecture I shall endeavour to 
 treat generally of the every-day articles of domestic 
 use. 
 
 In decoration and furniture, it is above all desirable 
 to avoid all eccentricity and seeming quaintness in 
 design, with no particular use or object, to take care 
 that everything in furniture shall be strong, serviceable, 
 and fitting for its particular use, and to remember that 
 elaboration and expense are really as unnecessary ele- 
 ments in the furnishing of a house as in dress and 
 decoration. 
 
239 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 GENERAL ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC USE. 
 
 In this, my last lecture, I propose to speak generally 
 of the many articles of domestic use which are 
 essential in the furnishing of a house, and which should, 
 as far as possible, be as much examples of good taste 
 in design, and of beauty of form and colouring, as the 
 more important works of decoration and furniture ; 
 nor can I see any reason why every little piece of 
 pottery, porcelain, glass, plate, bronze, iron, or other 
 work, however humble in itself, should not be essen- 
 tially artistic and pleasant in form, instead of being, as 
 it generally is, essentially ugly and commonplace. I 
 see no real reason why everything that is made should 
 not be beautiful in itself, or why the general articles of 
 domestic use in our day and generation should not be 
 quite as beautiful, and quite as good in artistic treat- 
 ment, as any of those in the best periods of ancient art. 
 I am quite aware that at present it would be almost 
 
240 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 impossible to realise any such hope, as the public 
 taste, in most matters pertaining to art, is in a transi- 
 tion state, and is only gradually being improved and 
 educated by the examples of good art, which are to be 
 found in ■ the innumerable collections, public and pri- 
 vate, which now exist ; and thus many of us are willing 
 to accept, almost without a protest, or indeed to prefer, 
 grotesque forms or shapes in which mere novelty and 
 eccentricity of form or colouring are their only recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 It cannot therefore be wondered at, that manu- 
 facturers of all kinds are willing to pander to this false 
 and vulgar taste as a mere matter of trade profit 
 and advantage ; we can only hope that as the public 
 become more educated in art matters, and by con- 
 stantly being brought into association with examples 
 of ancient art, not only in the elaborate types of deco- 
 rative art and furniture, but in the commonest objects 
 of daily life and use, they will gradually learn to dis- 
 tinguish things beautiful and true, from those essentially 
 ugly, commonplace, and false. 
 
 Until there is a demand for better taste in ordinary 
 things, we can hardly expect that the manufacturers 
 themselves will go out of their way to provide it, but 
 will content themselves with pandering to the perverse 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 241 
 
 fashion of the day, and to the insane and vulgar 
 striving after mere novelty and eccentricity of design 
 and form. So long as people of wealth and- supposed 
 good taste are content to people their rooms with 
 porcelain monkeys, pug dogs, cats, and birds, and 
 other monstrosities of similar kind, we can hardly 
 expect manufacturers to attempt to guide them into 
 more sober and less expensive tastes. The age of 
 luxury can hardly be one of refinement, nor can we 
 expect to find our mere manufacturing guides and 
 teachers setting before their customers things beauti- 
 ful, simple, and artistic, when far greater profit and 
 gain may be obtained, by pandering to the craze after 
 novelties and the present fashion of luxury and ex- 
 penditure in things, certainly gorgeous and elaborate, 
 but withal eminently ugly and inartistic. 
 
 I saw lately in the shop window of one of the 
 principal silversmiths in a northern town a thermo- 
 meter made after the design of the Nelson monument, 
 and a trinket box with the outline of the Burns 
 memorial on a small scale, with toast-racks in imitation 
 of spreading vine-branches, brooches of grouse feet 
 mounted in gold, and various other examples of the 
 utterly depraved taste of modern design. 
 
 There is no real reason why simplicity and grace 
 
 R 
 
242 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 of form should be more difficult to obtain in pottery, 
 china, glass, silver, and other objects of daily domestic 
 use, than the extraordinary productions which are 
 offered for sale in almost every china, glass, or other 
 shop, except that these are more profitable to the 
 maker, and require less thought and study at the 
 hands of mere manufacturing designers. I was told 
 a short time ago, by an eminent manufacturer, that 
 he was obliged to produce for the million, and that 
 he could not live if he did not, as other makers 
 provide the articles of form, shape, and colour which I 
 condemned, and that mere good designs did not pay. 
 I could only answer that there are some few artist 
 tradesmen who do make it pay to sell only good things, 
 and that in the time when Messrs. Wedgwood em- 
 ployed Flaxman, all their designs in pottery and china 
 were good in form and ornament, from the most 
 elaborate vase to the humblest plate or cup. What 
 beauty can there be in bulbous vases, supported by 
 primroses and cowslips, the roots of which are matted 
 together to form the feet ? or in the hosts of objects 
 in pottery, glass, or porcelain, of similar character, in 
 which the design is contorted into all kinds of extra- 
 vagant forms and shapes ? 
 
 It is satisfactory to notice that many of the best 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 243 
 
 potters and glass -makers are endeavouring to teach 
 the public to appreciate quieter and more simple taste, 
 by introducing into their work imitations of good 
 ancient forms, or in obtaining really good designs from 
 artists, who are artists and not mere trade designers, 
 and thus producing works in which graceful simplicity 
 of treatment, beauty of outline, and artistic skill in 
 ornament and decoration are especially noticeable. 
 In the works of Wedgwood, aided as he was by an 
 artist of the highest ability, Flaxman, we find examples 
 in charming ware, delicate in tone and colouring, and 
 of the most refined classic treatment, with infinite 
 beauty of design, form, and workmanship ; and I am 
 glad to find that this well-known firm are falling back 
 on their old models, reproducing Flaxman designs, 
 and, as a consequence, offering to the public not only 
 works of great beauty and elaboration, but ordinary 
 breakfast, dinner, tea, and toilet services, in which the 
 old forms and shapes are preserved, all of which are 
 infinitely more beautiful than the more modern pro- 
 ductions. The two sketches given are examples of 
 modern Wedgwood ware now produced by the firm, 
 and are all reproductions of old designs and shapes, 
 the small ' diced ' pattern vase in black Jasper ware 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 245 
 
 being from a design by Flaxman, the other vases and 
 plaque being made from the old moulds, and decorated 
 with good figure painting by T. Allen. I give an 
 illustration, Plate XXII., of several of the pieces 
 of pottery and china now made by this firm, for domes- 
 tic use, all good in form, design, and colouring, and 
 withal moderate in cost, and can only express a hope 
 that they will be content to continue to produce only 
 such things as are good in form and design, and thus 
 to maintain the high position and rank among potters 
 to which they long since attained. One of the toilet 
 services, the ' peony pattern,' shown in the illustration, 
 is an absolute reproduction of the old ware, in form, 
 colour, and design. The general shapes of all the 
 examples shown in the illustration are purely true 
 potter's shapes, and not those which suggest that they 
 should be executed in cast-iron, repousse brass, or 
 chased silver or gold, in fact, anything but clay ; they 
 exemplify, moreover, what I have been throughout 
 advocating, that good things may be cheap things, 
 especially noticeable in the specimens of breakfast and 
 dinner services, and bedroom ewers and basins, which 
 are generally good in shape, decoration, design, and 
 colouring, and all to be obtained at prices quite as 
 reasonable as those paid for similar articles, but of 
 
246 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 commonplace and vulgar design, which are produced 
 ad nauseam by any third or fourth-rate potter. 
 
 The copy of the Portland vase, shown in Plate 
 XXL, and the plaques of pale blue and white, and 
 black and white jasper ware, from Flaxman's moulds, 
 show the general excellence of handicraft in the work 
 of this firm. The ' Pegasus ' vase in black and white 
 jasper ware, shown in the same Plate, is also a copy of 
 an old Flaxman design, of great beauty of form and 
 modelling, only two of the original vases being extant. 
 
 Messrs. Minton, Messrs. Minton, Campbell, and 
 Co., Messrs. Doulton and Co., the Royal Worcester 
 Porcelain Manufactory, Messrs. Webb, Messrs. Powell 
 and Sons, and other English manufacturers, have, 
 respectively, in their specimens of pottery, porcelain 
 and glass, spared no pains to improve the design and 
 manufacture of their various wares, all of which show 
 an immense progress in skill of manipulation and good 
 artistic treatment. 
 
 From the earliest times, the work of the potter has, 
 in a great degree, marked the progress of civilisation 
 and art knowledge in all nations. The very plastic 
 nature of the material, which, under the potter's 
 skilful hand, was moulded into various shapes and 
 forms, offered, perhaps, an incentive to artistic imagi- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 247 
 
 nation, not only in the lines and shape of the mere 
 material clay, but in the decoration with which it was 
 ultimately adorned. 
 
 The history of the art is of the highest interest, as 
 offering not only an insight into the various skilled 
 work of the manipulation and mixing of the clay, but 
 also as giving important proof of its early use and 
 antiquity. 
 
 In the tombs of Thebes, dating about 2,000 years 
 B.C., have been discovered drawings, showing the 
 potter at work kneading, balling, and throwing the clay, 
 and it is a curious fact that, until quite recently, this 
 latter part of the work of the potter has been almost 
 identical through some thousands of years, except that 
 in this century the motive power of machinery has 
 been brought into use instead of hand labour. 
 
 To a certain extent, too, the same system of 
 decoration — varying, of course, materially in treat- 
 ment and skill of drawing and colouring, as the intelli- 
 gence of the world progressed — has been carried out. 
 
 Throughout all ages the potter's art has taken high 
 rank in the manufactures of nations, and many dis- 
 tinguished poets, historians, and philosophers have 
 been handed down as eminent in the art, while, from 
 the days of Phidias to those of Flaxman, eminent 
 
248 DECORATION AND FURNITURE OF TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 sculptors have been associated with the potter in the 
 making of models and designs. In the various national 
 museums throughout the world are preserved many 
 exquisite specimens of pottery, in which the interest of 
 the historic and mythological stories worked in their 
 decoration is combined with grace and beauty of form. 
 What can be more artistic or beautiful than the 
 old Dutch terra-cotta stove shown in the illustration, 
 and why cannot modern potters give us stoves of equally 
 good artistic character, but simpler in design, for heat- 
 ing large halls, studios, or picture galleries ? 
 
 From the tombs of Etruria and Pompeii, from the 
 burial-places of ancient Britons, many interesting speci- 
 mens have been gathered, all telling of the early use 
 of pottery. In early mediaeval times, many architec- 
 tural monuments were adorned with specimens of the 
 potter's art, and the works of Luca della Robbia, 
 sculptor, goldsmith, and potter, are amongst those 
 which are most valued. In Italy, the lustre ware of 
 Gubbio, Urbino, and Faenza — which Mr. de Morgan 
 is so successfully endeavouring to imitate — the delft 
 ware of Holland, the exquisite faience of Persia, — in the 
 Azulejos of the Alhambra, and the so-called Rhodian 
 ware, — and the marvellous examples of faience and 
 porcelain of China and Japan ; and, in later times, the 
 
249 
 
 J* 
 
 Anold-Dulchl 
 TerroCotta ■ 
 
 •JoSTOVCKl 
 
250 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 works of Sevres, and the best of our own English 
 potters, have all been equally sought for and prized as 
 gems of artistic production. While we are glad to 
 pay large prices to secure examples of any of these 
 artistic productions for our cabinets, or for the deco- 
 ration of our rooms, we might surely insist that the 
 things we use daily on our tables, or the commoner 
 ornaments or vases which we place on our mantel- 
 pieces for use and show, should be, in some slight 
 degree, a reflex of those ancient examples which we 
 prize so much, not only for their intrinsic value, but 
 for their artistic beauty. Without copying their in- 
 dividual peculiarities, we might learn from their general 
 exquisite form, and design of ornament and decora- 
 tion, some lessons for the treatment of similar articles 
 in our own day and generation, so that we might 
 eventually be able to produce, not only articles of 
 luxury, but the commonest objects of every-day use, 
 beautiful in form, good in colouring, and graceful in 
 design and decoration. 
 
 Many of the best firms are, I am glad to say, turn- 
 ing their attention to these common objects, and are 
 producing every day breakfast, dinner, tea, and toilet 
 services, combining excellence of form and workman- 
 ship with delicacy of colouring and moderation of cost. 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 251 
 
 In the commoner objects, however, there is yet much 
 to be desired ; a dish or bowl, good in shape, is often 
 utterly ruined by some vulgar piece of ornamentation, 
 or handle of coarse and ugly form and shape, or by 
 crude enamel colouring, which chips and breaks off 
 with the least knock. 
 
 It is questionable whether the taste which produced 
 many really beautiful examples of pottery, faience, and 
 porcelain, contributed by some of the leading English 
 firms to the late Paris Exhibition, and illustrating, to a 
 great extent, mere attempts at copying or imitating 
 Oriental and European designs and colours, is right in 
 principle ; quite certain it is, however, that English 
 artists can never imitate that delicacy of drawing and 
 finesse of design and decoration so peculiar to Oriental 
 art, in which, by a few dots and seemingly careless 
 touches, infinite beauty of effect is produced. The 
 Oriental artists never painted two flowers alike, but 
 varied their designs with infinite grace and beauty of 
 everchanging ornament, whereas the English and 
 European artists, if they do attempt irregularity at all, 
 show a manifest method in it, as utterly unlike the 
 real thing as modern blue and white is to the old 
 work of the same kind. 
 
 Messrs. Doulton & Co., of Lambeth, have of late 
 
252 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 years laid themselves out, w ith great success, to produce 
 terra-cotta work and pottery of good artistic character 
 for architectural ornamentation. In the stone ware, 
 known as • Doulton' or ' Lambeth ware,' they have been 
 eminently successful in producing work not only good 
 in form, but very beautiful in decoration, design, and 
 glazing ; thanks chiefly to their having secured the ser- 
 vices of skilful artists and designers, — foremost amongst 
 whom are Mr. George Tinworth, whilom pupil and 
 student at the Lambeth School of Art, and Miss 
 Barlow, — whose designs and ornamentations of the 
 various works executed under them, by Messrs. 
 Doulton, are especially good in modelling, design, 
 and decorative treatment. 
 
 This ware is practically the treatment of pure 
 pottery clay, in the same manner as the system known 
 as p&te-sur-p&td in porcelain, the art of painting with 
 clay upon clay, by which great beauty and artistic 
 character of decoration is obtained. The especial 
 characteristics are perhaps the beauty and depth of the 
 glaze, which are entirely obtained by the decomposition 
 of salt in intense heat. The various tints required are 
 painted on the clay before firing, and the uncertainty 
 of the firing and glazing prevents any two pieces being 
 alike ; the manufacturers themselves hardly knowing 
 
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OF TOWN HOUSES. 253 
 
 what will be the result of the firing, and only arriving 
 at a general idea by the known effects produced. 
 
 I give two illustrations, Plates XXIII. and XXIV., 
 of various articles de luxe and for domestic use, made 
 by this firm to illustrate this portion of my lecture, 
 and I cannot speak too highly of the improvement 
 shown therein, in form, outline, and decoration. 
 
 By these it will be seen that the commonest 
 articles of domestic use, filters, beer-jugs, tobacco-jars, 
 butter-coolers, teapots, salad-bowls, and the smaller 
 pieces, such as salt-cellars, pepper-boxes, and common 
 candlesticks, are all treated artistically, with good 
 forms and ornamentation, and generally in a practical 
 and common-sense manner for every-day use. 
 
 In the present day, painted tiles are largely used, 
 not only for wall decoration, but in the design of very 
 many articles of furniture. All this kind of work may 
 well be taken up by women, anxious, if possible, by 
 some honourable means to gain a livelihood in the 
 world, provided they will give a fair and proper study 
 to the theory and practice of the art, and not look too 
 lightly on the study and application necessary to 
 produce any really good work, by doing which they 
 will assuredly fail in producing any satisfactory result. 
 By a careful study of natural objects, or even mere 
 
254 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 skill of adaptation of good designs, much may be done 
 by any lady who has fair taste and skill in drawing, 
 and the knowledge of colouring necessary to produce 
 really good decorative work on china. With a little 
 thoughtful labour and care, women may paint decora- 
 tive tiles for any ordinary purposes, and may, if they 
 are content to labour diligently to produce good draw- 
 ing and harmony of colour and design, make it a work 
 of profit as well as of pleasure. In every garden there 
 are innumerable flowers, which can be arranged natur- 
 ally or conventionally for tile or china decoration ; 
 these should be drawn in outline, and slightly tinted in 
 one or two colours, so as to be easy of production, for 
 it is well to remember that the million will gladly buy 
 simply painted tiles, or china ware, for decorative pur- 
 poses or use, if well drawn and good in design ; where 
 the few can only afford to purchase, at any remunera- 
 tive price, the more elaborate pieces of painted faience 
 and porcelain, which are the result of long years of 
 labour and infinite knowledge, gained by much patience 
 and innumerable failures. 
 
 There is no reason why this kind of work should 
 not be taken up by numbers of women, who are 
 anxiously seeking to find some remunerative use for 
 their artistic talents ; too often, however, they are not 
 
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OF TOWN HOUSES. 255 
 
 content to follow out the simpler work, but aim at pro- 
 ducing elaborate paintings, often more or less adapted 
 from inferior copies, and thus, as a rule, invariably fail 
 from insufficient knowledge or want of power in draw- 
 ing and design. This is more especially noticeable in 
 figure work, which requires years of close study and 
 drawing from nature, before any real excellence can be 
 obtained. Some of the exquisite paintings of patd-sur- 
 patt on china by M. Solon, for Messrs. Minton, Camp- 
 bell, and Co., are especially beautiful in drawing and 
 general treatment of design. 
 
 The aim of all true art should be to produce good 
 work for the million, and thus gradually to oust out all 
 that is bad and ugly, by bringing into common every- 
 day use things beautiful and artistic in colouring and 
 design. It is easy to produce elaborate and costly 
 works for the few collectors who may care to purchase 
 them, but it is infinitely more satisfactory to make 
 good work, which shall be within the reach of all 
 classes of the community. I was indebted to my 
 friend Miss Spiers, who is an artist in every sense of 
 the word, for some excellent examples of artistic 
 design and colouring in painted plates and dishes, 
 which, through her kindness and courtesy, I was 
 enabled to exhibit, as illustrating this portion of my 
 
256 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 lecture, and to Messrs. Minton for some excellent 
 examples of cheap hand-painted and printed tiles, suit- 
 able for the lining of fire-places, ordinary panels, 
 wash-hand-stands, and other every-day purposes, many 
 of which can be bought from 1^. to is. 6d. each. 
 
 Dr. George Birdwood, in a lecture lately given in 
 the Rooms of the Society of Arts, very aptly drew 
 attention to the causes which, to a large extent, were 
 enfeebling and corrupting the artistic character of 
 Indian pottery, and many of his remarks may justly 
 be applied to all other pottery and porcelain of the 
 present day, insisting as they did on beauty of form, 
 delicacy of surface, and gracefulness and proper sub- 
 ordination of ornament in all articles of domestic use. 
 
 In the examples of pottery, faience, and porcelain 
 of all countries of all dates, up to the last two centuries, 
 as a rule, we find beauty of outline, comeliness of form 
 and decoration, and harmony and moderation of 
 ornamentation and colouring, not only in the more 
 elaborate objects, but in the smallest and most unim- 
 portant pieces of domestic ware. Why, therefore, 
 cannot we have nowadays all things more or less beauti- 
 ful and truthful in design and treatment ? If only the 
 manufacturers and their designers would seek to copy 
 the simplicity of ancient forms, rather than to strive 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 257 
 
 after the production of grotesque novelties in shape 
 and colouring, then might we hope that everything in 
 daily use should be more or less true in taste, correct 
 in drawing, and beautiful in form. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to assert that grace and 
 beauty in design need be no more expensive than 
 ugliness and eccentricity, and that education in artistic 
 matters, combined with a study of all that is graceful 
 and beautiful in the best periods of art, can alone help 
 us to that refinement and innate truth and elegance of 
 design which should guide us in the humblest as in 
 the most elaborate productions of pottery, faience) and 
 porcelain in the present day. 
 
 In these days much anxiety is rightly shown for 
 providing work of brain, eye, and hand, in which the 
 tenderness of touch and true feeling of taste of the 
 lady portion of the community may be utilised for the 
 general good of humanity, and as a means of liveli- 
 hood to themselves. In painting on china and artistic 
 embroidery there are, I contend, ample opportunities 
 — at once legitimate and useful — for their skill and 
 taste, which may be used to the advantage of the 
 public and to the profit of themselves. 
 
 In the present fashion for art-needlework, there is 
 excellent opportunity offered for ladies to take up work 
 
 s 
 
258 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 which is especially their own, and which, rightly carried 
 out, lends itself essentially to good decoration in the 
 various hangings and coverings so necessary in all 
 houses ; but here again there seems to be something 
 wrong, either in the training of those who learn their 
 art at some fashionable school of needlework, or in the 
 taste of those who make the designs, for the work 
 which is offered to the public is not always artistic, 
 and too often is filled with too much elaboration of 
 detail and ornament, involving infinite labour and 
 infinite expense. 
 
 I have had recently worked for me, by a lady who 
 has devoted some portion of her time, for various 
 reasons, in part to art-needlework, some excellent 
 curtain borders, in crewel-work, in which the arrange- 
 ment of natural flowers into a sort of conventional 
 pattern, — necessary for the treatment of a narrow 
 curtain border, — was carried out in a highly artistic and 
 satisfactory manner. But then the worker was practi- 
 cally an artist, who, instead of copying bad examples, 
 out of a book, of some stereotyped pattern of decora- 
 tion, went into the garden or the field, and copied in 
 one case sunflowers, sunflower buds, and leaves; in 
 another, flowering rush and corn flowers ; in a third, 
 Tritoma uvaria grandiflora, or what is commonly 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 259 
 
 called ' poker plant,' and arranged the design practi- 
 cally as she worked, so that no one yard of border- 
 ing was exactly like another ; but the whole was 
 harmoniously and gracefully treated, and the brilliant 
 colouring and true artistic rendering in the work, thus 
 rightly treated, assisted much in the general effect 
 of the room ; the cost, exclusive of materials, was a 
 guinea a yard, a marvellously reasonable price for real 
 art work, which, with care, may last for generations 
 and be always beautiful. But it is useless repeating 
 in crewel or applique embroidery, Japanese designs or 
 elaborate arabesques not adapted in any way for such 
 work. There are innumerable ways in which this 
 really artistic embroidery can be made eminently de- 
 corative, and eminently useful for all kinds of coverings, 
 hangings, and for dress, and I should gladly see it 
 more largely used, but the proper rendering of em- 
 broidery and applique 1 work is as much a matter of 
 artistic training as painting, or any other work of the 
 kind ; and we are apt to be disgusted with the many 
 poverty-stricken attempts of young lady amateurs, 
 who offer us, for natural effects, the stiffness and up-li- 
 ness of conventional forms, on chair coverings, dresses, 
 and antimacassars, and to hesitate before sup-o-estino- 
 
 work of the kind, for fear that it should be not only 
 
 s 2 
 
260 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 extravagant in price, but unsatisfactory and unartistic 
 in design and treatment. With good taste and artistic 
 skill, embroidery of all kinds may be largely used to 
 beautify and enliven our rooms. 
 
 We are told that the holy robes of Aaron were 
 bordered by pomegranates of blue and purple and 
 scarlet, intermingled with bells of pure gold, and in 
 every museum in the world, and in many an old house, 
 there still remain examples of ancient embroidery, 
 eminently beautiful, the work of many a noble lady, 
 and many a devout religieuse ; but with everything 
 else in the seventeenth century, embroidery became 
 debased in taste and workmanship. Now that it is 
 being so largely taken up again, it is well to remember 
 that to be good, the design, drawing, and work must 
 be the work of one head and one pair of hands, and 
 for true artistic rendering Mr. Ruskin's precept, ' that 
 the first condition of an ideal work of art is that it 
 should be conceived and carried out by one person,' is 
 more or less essential. 
 
 We pride ourselves, nowadays, on the general 
 purity and excellence of our English glass, and yet 
 how often do we see the most beautiful forms utterly 
 ruined by inartistic engraving and cutting, or coarse 
 and crude colouring ! It is not necessary to describe 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 261 
 
 the many uses to which glass, in all ages, has been 
 applied, whether in the mosaics of Pompeii or the 
 elaborate Roman glass engraving, such as the marvel- 
 lous gem-like work of the Portland vase — of which 
 an exceedingly good copy has been made by Messrs.. 
 Wedgwood, and is shown in one of the illustrations of 
 the work of this firm — or in the elaborate designs and 
 skilful workmanship of the Byzantine enamelled and 
 gilded glass, or in the exquisite examples of Venetian 
 filagree work, in which great elegance of form and 
 infinite variety of colouring were combined with the 
 highest skill in handicraft and design. 
 
 In the numerous modern examples of Venetian 
 glass there is much that is graceful and beautiful in 
 design and treatment, but, unfortunately, the influence 
 of bad designs, and a craving after so-called novelty of 
 treatment, is doing much to damage otherwise beautiful 
 work, and modern requirements and false taste are 
 falling foul of ancient traditions, and in glass as in 
 china we are seeing imitations of work essentially 
 suggestive of other materials, and utterly subversive of 
 true artistic treatment. 
 
 In purity of material and skill in production, glass- 
 makers can, to a great extent, hold their own with the 
 workmen of any period of the art, but, unfortunately, 
 
262 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 with their skill of handicraft there is a manifest deteriora- 
 tion of design and artistic treatment, which would 
 seem to arise from absurd attempts to produce in 
 glass, objects and forms utterly inconsistent with the 
 true use and rendering of the material, and quite in- 
 consistent with its real use and purpose. In glass, as 
 in pottery, queer and grotesque forms, coarseness and 
 bad elaboration of ornament and detail, are taking the 
 place of graceful charm and beauty of form, which 
 the peculiar delicacy of the material would seem to 
 suggest in its proper treatment. 
 
 By all means let us reproduce old Venetian forms, 
 and put into the modern glass all the delicacy of 
 colouring and shape peculiar to the best works of 
 ancient examples, but in the interest of art, of common 
 sense, and practical use, let us avoid all extravagant 
 forms, which are not only bad in art but costly in 
 make. Table glass should be as pure and as simple 
 as possible, delicate in shape and ornamentation, in- 
 expensive and fitting. 
 
 It may be a triumph of mechanical skill to produce 
 a throne or a buffet in solid glass, but surely utterly 
 inconsistent with the real use of the material ; and 
 while it is legitimate to employ the highest talent, 
 in producing such elaborate and eminently artistic 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 263 
 
 designs of engraving, cutting, and modelling shown in 
 the examples by Messrs. Webb in the late Paris 
 Exhibition, surely it is utterly out of keeping with the 
 real purpose of the material, which is at once brittle 
 and risky to move without extreme care, to employ it 
 for furniture stands and other works of the kind. In 
 table glass it is essential to have elegance in form 
 combined with purity of decorative treatment, and we 
 may well be thankful for the revival of the art of the 
 old Venetian glass-workers, which is giving to us for 
 every-day use table glass, ornamental and useful, 
 chandeliers, sconces, and a host of similiar objects of 
 great excellence in design, great beauty of form, and 
 moderation of cost. 
 
 Far be it from me to advocate in any way the 
 more extensive use of foreign-made glass to the 
 detriment of our own English ware, but I cannot help 
 feeling that a dining-table looks infinitely more cheer- 
 ful and more artistic when covered with water bottles, 
 flower vases, and glasses of variety of colour and form, 
 than with the cold monotony of ordinary English glass, 
 no matter how pure its crystal or how elaborate its 
 cutting. The present fashion for colour and variety, 
 in glass as well as in everything else, is inducing 
 English manufacturers to turn their attention to similar 
 
264 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 work, and Messrs. Powell and Sons, of Whitefriars, 
 and other manufacturers, have produced many exceed- 
 ingly beautiful specimens of artistic glass for domestic 
 purposes at very moderate cost. But to the humble 
 glass-blowers of Murano, — whose forefathers, for six 
 centuries, largely contributed to the prosperity of 
 Venice, spreading the glory of its name to all parts 
 of the world, — must be conceded the prize for innate 
 beauty of form, colour, and ornamentation, and for 
 infinite variety of all kinds of table glass, in which 
 most of the old forms, still remaining in the local 
 museum at Murano, have been copied, or adapted for 
 modern requirements, and in which there is, for the 
 most part, the same good artistic treatment and purity 
 of form ; and, what is infinitely more to the purpose in 
 these very practical days, it can be bought at a price 
 which bears favourable comparison with any glass in 
 this country especially made for domestic purposes. 
 
 The modern Venetian glass made by the Murano 
 Glass Co., examples of which are shown in the illus- 
 trations Nos. XXV. and XXVI., are all more or less 
 adapted from ancient examples, are good in design, 
 suitable for general domestic use, and exceedingly 
 moderate in cost, some of the pieces being sold for a 
 few shillings, the ordinary wine glasses costing about 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 265 
 
 iSs. a dozen, and the decanters and water bottles from 
 about 255-. the pair. 
 
 The more elaborate examples of articles de luxe 
 have been copied from old pieces from various collec- 
 tions in this country and abroad, and are especially 
 beautiful in workmanship and colouring. 
 
 In English glass we see great variety of forms, 
 many exceedingly graceful and good, great excellence 
 of cutting and engraving, and occasionally some fairly 
 good specimens of coloured and gilt glass, but we look 
 in vain for anything which may compare with the 
 exceeding elegance and high artistic character of the 
 old Roman or Venetian glass. Quite recently, at- 
 tempts have been made by the Murano Glass Co., with 
 some success, to revive the old Roman practice of 
 placing a thin film of gold between two layers of 
 glass, and to overlay one colour with another ; and, 
 by cutting, to produce a cameo-like effect in the 
 ornamentation. But we have yet much to learn 
 before we can, in any way, notwithstanding all our 
 supposed greater knowledge and higher education of 
 the working classes, attain to that perfection of skill 
 and beauty of form and ornamentation which are so 
 noticeable in all the old glass. There is no need 
 why our glass should be made heavy with red lead, 
 
266 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 for the purposes of giving increased brilliancy to it 
 when cut ; we can have the same lightness of material 
 as in the olden glass, and ought to be able to produce 
 the most elaborate designs and the simplest forms for 
 every-day use equally well, equally beautiful, equally 
 artistic, and at reasonable cost. 
 
 In the last Paris Exhibition, Messrs. Powell and 
 Sons, Messrs. Webb, and other English manufacturers, 
 exhibited collections of glass of high excellence, show- 
 ing marked progress and improvement in design and 
 workmanship. But what we want nowadays is that 
 our English manufacturers should give us good general 
 forms for table use, sconces, and candelabra for ordinary 
 rooms, of common-sense and artistic design, and vases, 
 bowls, and dishes for ornament and use, of really good 
 form and ornamentation, at a price that shall be within 
 the reach of all. 
 
 In the lower sitting-rooms of most town houses 
 it is necessary to have some sort of lower screen or 
 blind, to render the rooms fairly private from the gaze 
 of too curious passers-by. For this purpose all kinds 
 of contrivances have been carried out, from the old 
 wire-gauze blind, with its general dirty and dingy look, 
 and everlasting painted ornament of Greek fret or 
 honeysuckle border, to the curious twisted cane in- 
 
Plate N° 26. 
 
 Table CrLass 
 
 THE VENICE AND MURANO GLASS AND MOSAIC COMPANY 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 267 
 
 ventions, which are bad in design, and infinitely too 
 spotty and strong in colour to be pleasant accessories 
 in any room, in which artistic decoration of any kind 
 is thought of. Instead, therefore, of these coarse and 
 unsatisfactory arrangements, I suggest that either a 
 pattern of good diaper, or good ornament, be done on 
 the lower portion of the window-glass, by the ordinary 
 means of embossing, or that a second sheet of glass 
 containing the pattern — which may be done in slight 
 tints — be fixed on the inside face ; or, better still, have 
 blinds of what is called jewelled glass in square quarry 
 lights, or good figure or flower decoration in leaded 
 olass, either done in outline, and stained in delicate 
 tones of yellow, or worked out in good stained glass of 
 various colours ; these can be made to any height, and 
 fixed inside the sash so as to be easily removed for 
 cleaning purposes. All this kind of work can be done 
 at the cost of a few shillings a foot superficial, and will 
 add materially to the charm of the room. Blinds fixed to 
 the sashes in this way may be objected to, on the ground 
 that the sash weights will have to be altered to carry 
 the extra weight of the blind, and that when the lower 
 sash is opened the use of the blind is practically done 
 away with ; but the first objection may be got over at 
 the price of a few shillings per window, and if flower- 
 
268 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 boxes are fixed on the sills outside, made of ordinary 
 zinc, with blue and white tiles inserted in the front, at 
 a cost of from 20s. to 2> os - each box, not only will the 
 latter objection be done away with, but the bright and 
 cheery look of low shrubs in winter, and many- 
 coloured and sweet-scented flowers in summer, will 
 add materially to the pleasantness of the room. 
 
 I am quite aware that I am offering no new sug- 
 gestions in these remarks on blinds and flower-boxes. 
 I am simply advocating their much greater use. For, 
 beyond the pleasure to yourselves in the pleasant out- 
 look upon bright flowers, the colour of the tiles and 
 flowers would be grateful spots, of life and colour in 
 the dreary monotony of our town streets. All this 
 kind of arrangement will be found much better than 
 the ordinary frame blinds,, which are fixed with bolts 
 to the sash-beads, and are troublesome to take down 
 and often in the way, especially when flower-boxes 
 are set outside as I have suggested. 
 
 In all kinds of silvers, electro-plate, bronze, brass, 
 and ironwork in the present day, there is generally an 
 utter want of taste, in form, artistic design, and general 
 treatment We have been inundated with specimens 
 of almost every description of metal of the worst 
 possible taste, and often of cheap and inferior work- 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 269 
 
 manship, for which we are largely indebted to the manu- 
 facturers of Birmingham, whose goods, at once bad in 
 taste and cheap and trumpery in execution, have ob- 
 tained the justly opprobrious title of ' Brummagem,' sig- 
 nifying, I take it, all that is nasty, cheap, and inferior ; 
 mind, I do not include in this sweeping condemna- 
 tion the works of Messrs. Elkington and other manu- 
 facturers of similar standing, who have done their best 
 to produce metal work of great artistic merit and great 
 perfection in manufacture ; but it is miserable to see on 
 our tables the trashy cruet-stands of filthy form and orna- 
 mentation, and the hundred and one articles in the shape 
 of dpergnes, cups, vases, tea and coffee services, candle- 
 sticks, and ornaments of all kinds, utterly devoid of all 
 good artistic character, commonplace in design, and 
 eminently trashy in execution and make ; or to see in 
 our rooms the commonest and most flimsy arrange- 
 ments in the shape of door handles and cast brass 
 bell-pulls, which are always coming off or breaking, 
 to our personal discomfort and continued expense in 
 replacing. 
 
 As specimens of good artistic iron and brass work, 
 adapted for general domestic purposes, I submit an 
 illustration, Plate XXVII., showing examples of stoves 
 and general ironmongery made by Mr. Thomas Elsley, 
 
270 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 of Great Portland Street, which I have selected for the 
 purpose of showing that, even in the smallest fittings of 
 a house, good design and good art may be obtained for 
 almost the same cost as the inferior and generally ugly 
 and commonplace fittings which are nowadays so largely 
 used. Some of the articles illustrated are necessarily 
 expensive from the elaboration and manual labour in- 
 volved in their making, but the repoussd brass or 
 copper finger plate shown in the illustration at ios., or 
 the engraved brass bell-pull at 255-., cannot be called 
 expensive, when it is understood that the make and 
 workmanship are as gGod as they can be, in addition 
 to their artistic merit. The grate shown can be bought 
 in plain iron for about 3/. complete, which is no more 
 than the cost of the commonest kind of register stove, 
 with its hideously designed ornament and burnished 
 steel mouldings. 
 
 There is no absolute reason why most of these 
 articles of domestic use should not be made good in 
 form and shape, honest and strong in construction, and 
 at the same cost as that now paid for them, except 
 perhaps that the manufacturer will not take the trouble 
 to procure two or three really good designs, or to copy 
 some of the exquisitely beautiful forms of ancient 
 examples, and work only upon these models for 
 
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OF TOWN HOUSES. 271 
 
 general cheap things ; perhaps, even if he were willing 
 to do this, he might well answer that the public would 
 not continue to buy of him, and would demand in his 
 work, as in that of most other trades, continual novelty 
 and continual change at the lowest possible cost. 
 
 I cannot help believing that both arguments are 
 wrong ; a vast proportion of the public are able to 
 appreciate good forms when they see them, and many 
 of them are willing to pay high prices for old silver of 
 artistic design and shape, and would, I am satisfied, 
 prefer to have, as far as possible, all these small 
 necessaries of daily use equally good in shape and 
 ornamentation, and to pay a fair price for the better 
 article, rather than have the same things bad in form 
 and altogether unartistic, provided always that, having 
 regard to better quality and sounder construction, they 
 could get them on equal terms as regards price. Un- 
 fortunately, as a rule, this is not to be done, for the 
 manufacturer naturally answers that things artistic in 
 character demand much higher skill of handicraft, 
 more careful execution, and therefore higher cost of 
 production, and that he cannot, therefore, produce 
 them without adding to the price charged for the 
 ordinary commonplace productions of similar character 
 or else materially lessening his profit on the transac- 
 
272 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 tion, and this we, a nation of shopkeepers, can hardly 
 expect him to do. 
 
 I combat this by saying that the higher education 
 of all workmen and the constant opportunities given to 
 them of seeing and studying good work of all kinds, 
 should, if they have any real heart in their work, 
 imbue them with the same kind of artistic feeling as 
 was evidently in the hearts and heads of the old 
 workers, and that it should be as difficult — with real 
 love and regard for their work and knowledge of true 
 form — for them to produce ugly things as it would 
 seem nowadays for them to produce beautiful ones. 
 
 I am quite aware that all this kind of argument 
 may sound Utopian, and that I may fairly be told that 
 in ancient days the workmen were surrounded with 
 refinement and art work of the highest type in great 
 things as well as in small, and that they worked practi- 
 cally under totally different conditions to what they 
 have to do in the present day ; but, on the other hand, 
 in olden days the workmen took infinite delight in the 
 work that they did, it was a source of pleasure and of 
 emulation ; high art and industrial art with them were 
 synonymous terms, and whether we look at the 
 marvellous examples of gold and silver filagree and 
 chasing, repoussd copper work, modelled bronzes, and 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 273 
 
 plate of all descriptions still left us of the ancient 
 Greek and Roman periods, or at those of the early- 
 mediaeval times under the Gothic kings, or at those 
 of the later days of the Italian Renaissance, we notice 
 throughout infinite beauty of form, delicacy of work, 
 and the highest skill of handicraft, and it must be 
 borne in mind that all these treasures, which from time 
 to time have been brought to light, were, as a rule, 
 nothing more than common objects of household and 
 domestic use. 
 
 I contend that there was in the workmen of past 
 days, an innate feeling for beauty, a skill of eye and 
 hand, and an education of mind in the rendering of 
 everything that they set their hands to, which, alas ! is 
 utterly wanting in the great majority of ordinary work- 
 men of the present day. We pride ourselves on a 
 higher state of civilisation, a greater freedom of life, 
 and surround all classes of the community with pro- 
 tecting laws and a high educational system. We have 
 before us thousands of the most beautiful examples of 
 the best periods of art work of all kinds ; this age of 
 steam and luxury is constantly bringing before us the 
 best works of all the countries of the world, and offer- 
 ing encouragement in every possible manner for the 
 production of high artistic objects for every-day use, 
 
 T 
 
274 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 and with what result ? With all our advantages, all 
 our opportunities, all our wealth, and all our education, 
 we are living, to a great extent, in the absolute lowest 
 depths of ignorance in most matters of art, so far as 
 beauty of form and power of design or even of adapta- 
 tion are concerned, in the commonest objects of daily- 
 life. 
 
 It is quite true that in these last few years there 
 has been great progress made in many trades cognate 
 to art, in the so-called industrial arts of the country, 
 but it is at present but a feeble glimmering of that far- 
 off light of love and truth for art s sake, which I hope 
 may some time shine forth as strong in all works of 
 handicraft and artistic skill of the present day, as it did 
 in the centuries that are past. 
 
 To my mind, the influence of trades-unionism is 
 asserting itself in a large degree to the detriment of 
 English work, and to keeping up extravagant prices 
 for ordinary articles of domestic use ; it is simply 
 absurd that all the various kinds of so-called art work, 
 whether in decoration, furniture, or other work, 
 should be paid for at a set price, no matter what 
 difference there may be in the skill and quickness of 
 the workman employed, and that work should be 
 paid for to all men in like proportion, whether well or 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 275 
 
 badly done. We have only to look at the various art 
 work imported into England to see that it holds its 
 own with, and often surpasses, the work of British 
 manufacturers, and, withal, is much more artistic and 
 much less expensive. Nowadays it would seem 
 that the grand old saying, ' Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth thee to do, do it with all thy might,' is changed 
 into ' Whatsoever thy hand is paid for doing, do it as 
 slowly as it is permitted, and have no care to the 
 might or the skill to be displayed.' As far as I read it, 
 trades-unionism, by reducing all men to a great extent 
 to one level, and by controlling to a great degree the 
 amount and quality of the work to be done, is degrad- 
 ing and demoralising to the true workman. Competi- 
 tion in the world will and must, in the nature of things, 
 increase, and, if he look not well to it, the British work- 
 man, unless he learns to think and act for himself, and 
 to throw off the burden and tyranny of trades-unionism, 
 will find himself beaten in the race. Let men be paid 
 according to their skill and power of work, and they 
 may be quite assured that all masters will gladly pay 
 well and liberally for high skill of handicraft and 
 honesty of labour, while the inferior men will naturally 
 find the level, to which inferiority, whether in labour 
 
 or material, naturally tends ; then might we hope for 
 
 t 2 
 
276 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 that fraternity and fellowship of interest and labour 
 which gave, as Mr. Ruskin says, to our old buildings 
 that ' distinct and indisputable glory, that these mighty 
 walls were never raised, and never shall be, but by 
 men who love and aid each other in their weakness ; 
 that all their interlacing strength of vaulted stone 
 has its foundations upon the stronger arches of manly 
 fellowship, and all the changing grace of depressed or 
 lifted pinnacle owes its cadence and completeness to 
 sweeter symmetries of human soul.' 
 
 I do not think that the general public is so want- 
 ing in common-sense as not to know that good engrav- 
 ing, or indeed any kind of ornamentation of silver or 
 other metal work, can be obtained without much cost 
 of time and labour, and therefore must be paid for ; 
 but why cannot we have in the ordinary tea and coffee 
 services, and the general articles of table use, whether 
 in silver or electro-plate, or in bronze ornaments, brass 
 and iron doorplates, bell handles, gaseliers, candelabra, 
 sconces, and other .work of the kind, good form and 
 general artistic character, instead of the commonplace 
 arid trumpery cast and wrought work of grotesque and 
 ugly form which is now offered to us ? 
 
 In Plate XX, I submit a sketch of an interior of 
 a small hall, for the purpose of showing the effect of 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 277 
 
 simple wrought ironwork in grilles for doors, in lieu 
 of the objectionable lift-up shutters, and various de- 
 signs for iron and brass work required for ordinary- 
 houses. The hanging lamp, from a design by Mr. 
 Callcutt, is exceedingly graceful and common-sense in 
 form, and, to my mind, infinitely more appropriate for 
 a hall or staircase, than the usual telescopic fittings in 
 general use ; it can be made in wrought iron, filled in 
 with leaded glass, for a few pounds, or even in polished 
 brass for the price of an ordinary hall lamp. There 
 are many other manufacturers, who, like Messrs. 
 Elsley and Messrs. Longden, have set themselves to 
 work out the problem of providing articles of every- 
 day use, in iron and brass, of good artistic design and 
 shape, and of moderate cost, so that there need be no 
 reason why the simplest piece of door or window fur- 
 niture, or ordinary grates, fenders, lamps, fire-irons, 
 sconces or bell-pulls, should be bad and vulgar in form 
 as well as inferior in workmanship. 
 
 In silver and electro-plated work the elegance and 
 simplicity of seme of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 century examples might well be copied, at no greater 
 cost to the manufacturer than the grotesque shapes, 
 and badly executed and designed chasing and engrav- 
 ing now produced. 
 
278 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 By the courtesy of Messrs. Widdowson and Veale, 
 I am enabled to give an illustration (Plate XXVIII.) 
 of various articles of silver of the period of George II., 
 dating from 1730 to 1760. These well-known silver- 
 smiths have done their best to adapt, as far as practic- 
 able, old designs of good artistic character to modern 
 plate, and their reproductions and adaptations are not 
 only therefore of great artistic merit, but free from the 
 inferior chasing and engraving which disfigure so 
 much of the silver and electro-plate of the present day. 
 It is gratifying to find that, considering how lament- 
 ably the art of the gold and silversmith has deterior- 
 ated in the last hundred years, there is evinced amongst 
 good silversmiths a desire to adapt really good ancient 
 forms to modern work. 
 
 Instead of the so-called mediaeval 'coronae,' and 
 elaborate wrought and twisted brass and bronze gase- 
 liers and brackets, utterly out of place in almost every 
 house or room, and, generally, extravagantly expensive, 
 why cannot we have the simpler forms of the later 
 Jacobean days, in which use and suitability were the 
 prominent features of the design ? 
 
 Brass-work gets dull, and iron and bronze rusts 
 or corrodes in town atmospheres, where impure gas 
 and bad coal are so largely used. The simplest forms, 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 279 
 
 therefore, will be found most serviceable and satisfac- 
 tory, and it is better to have the plainest objects which 
 are good in outline, and fitted for the purpose, than 
 the elaborate forms twisted and curled into all manner 
 of curious shapes, which may be called ' mediaeval ' or 
 ' Queen Anne.' Good brass repoussd sconces, fitted for 
 gas or candles, can be now procured at moderate cost, 
 and can be kept clean much more easily than the many- 
 twisted and scrolled brackets which are generally used. 
 Good wrought-iron work may be used for brackets, 
 if left from the hands of the smith, and merely kept 
 oiled ; or some of the simpler sconces and candelabras, 
 which can be fitted for gas, now made by Messrs. 
 Powell and Sons and the Murano Glass Co., and these 
 have the advantage generally of being graceful and 
 artistic in form and colouring, and can easily be washed 
 and cleaned. In all these kinds of artistic articles of 
 domestic use, which are necessary in every house, 
 choose those which are simple in outline and free from 
 useless and expensive scrollwork or engraving of bad 
 conventional or naturalistic form. The plainer all the 
 service of the table and the generally useful fittings 
 of a house are, the better will they be in taste, more 
 easily cleaned, and much more lasting than those in 
 which elaborate ornamentation, whether in mouldings, 
 
28o DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 stuck-on ornaments, or elaborate engravings are piled 
 up for show, not for use. Do not have on your tables 
 dpergnes representing palm-trees with a camel grazing 
 or a knight in armour sheltering beneath them, or metal- 
 work of any kind made after the form of baskets, barrels, 
 or other equally incongruous design. 
 
 If you will examine any of the bronze or brasswork 
 of past times, you will find that the forms are good in 
 outline, the ornament exceedingly delicate in treatment, 
 forming part of the design, and not elaborately con- 
 structed and laid on, quite regardless of the construc- 
 tion; and while many pieces are elaborately adorned 
 with beautifully modelled figure or other enrichment, 
 there is always great grace and beauty of form, 
 and eminent truth of construction ; and I confess I 
 see no good reason why we should not have an 
 equally good character of work in all ordinary objects 
 and articles of domestic use and furniture nowa- 
 days ; nor why, if manufacturers are asked to carry 
 out the design of an artist in which there is no more, 
 and possibly not so much, work as in a similar 
 piece of work out of their own stock, they should 
 immediately put an enormous percentage on the cost, 
 except that they, by this, admit that they are employ- 
 ing machines, and not artists, and that they will not 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 28 r 
 
 in any way strive to leave their ordinary groove or 
 to make themselves acquainted with work of the best 
 periods of art, so that they may direct their workmen 
 in the right principles of artistic design and execution. 
 
 In concluding this series of lectures, I would again 
 insist upon the fact that all true art should be the 
 practical rendering, in good taste and in pleasant guise, 
 of all the absolute necessities and requirements of 
 modern life, and that all domestic art is false and bad 
 which ignores the purposes for which the furniture, 
 decoration, or general belongings of a house are to 
 be put. 
 
 First of all, it is necessary that use and fitness 
 should be the special attributes of the general furni- 
 ture of our houses ; but I hold that there is no necessity 
 that practical common-sense in the requirements of our 
 houses should in any way interfere with good artistic 
 treatment, and that everything may be, and should 
 be, truthful and beautiful in design, form, and colouring. 
 
 If, however, we start from the false idea that art 
 means quaintness, eccentricity, and the elaboration of 
 curious forms or extraordinary colours, and that great 
 elaboration and cost are its necessary adjuncts, we shall 
 never really progress ; we may assist in bringing in a 
 
282 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 fashion which shall die as all fashions do, and be as 
 fickle and as fleeting as all fancies of an hour, founded 
 only on idle thought or caprice ; but we shall never 
 attain to that higher education or knowledge which in- 
 tuitively brings with it an innate love for things beauti- 
 ful and true, and which deprecates at once anything 
 that is vulgar or commonplace. 
 
 If we are content to accept only as a fashion of 
 the day the more artistic rendering of our rooms and, 
 without consideration, to follow indiscriminately in the 
 routine style of decoration and furniture which may 
 for the moment prevail, we shall in no way have any 
 real pleasure or delight in the work that is done, but 
 shall live rather in dread of the time when a new style, 
 a new fancy and fashion, shall be brought in, and when 
 we shall have to follow, like sheep, the new order of 
 the day. 
 
 I do not believe that things beautiful and artistic 
 need necessarily be costly, although I, of course, admit 
 that all works which require a great amount of skill 
 and time in their production must of necessity demand 
 a proportionate amount of payment for the time and 
 labour involved ; and I should as soon seek to do 
 away with the production of the more elaborate works 
 pf art in the present day, some of which may indeed 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 283 
 
 be the work of years, as I should ask for the suppres- 
 sion of the exquisite examples of ancient art, of great 
 elaboration and costliness of design ; but all these are 
 to a great extent luxuries, and not necessities, and will 
 in all time be produced to satisfy the requirements and 
 the higher artistic culture of those who delight in sur- 
 rounding themselves with articles of luxury, and of the 
 highest beauty in art. I have, in the lectures I have 
 given, attempted rather to dwell upon the practicability 
 of having good art in every-day life and in every-day 
 things, and to point out, to the best of my ability, the 
 means by which this may be obtained at a moderate 
 cost, rather than to enter upon the subject from any 
 point of view in which money is no object. 
 
 I have not pretended, nor do I pretend, that all my 
 views are correct; we are all students, and with the 
 true artist and real student our study ends only with 
 our life. I have endeavoured to point out, in, I hope, 
 a practical and common-sense manner, how your homes 
 may be made more cheerful, more beautiful, and more 
 artistic, at moderate cost. And I shall be satisfied if 
 I have set any one of you- thinking more earnestly, and 
 more seriously, on the subjects I have dwelt upon ; 
 and if any words of mine shall have been of practical 
 use, or good, to those who have patiently followed me 
 
284 DECORATION AND FURNITURE 
 
 in my arguments and remarks, or if I shall have in- 
 fluenced you, by all the means in your power, manfully 
 to set your faces against all pretensions, shams, and 
 conceits, which are the curse of good art of every 
 kind. 
 
 The art of our houses should speak the language of 
 our own day, and not be a reproduction or imitation 
 of the art, no matter how beautiful, of other days, in 
 which the conditions of life were totally different ; but 
 even as, by study of all that is purest and best in past 
 literature, we learn to speak and write well our own 
 language and thoughts, so assuredly should we study 
 the art-work of past ages, not as work to be cruelly 
 travestied or slavishly copied in our own day, but as a 
 means of imbuing us with a knowledge of all that is 
 graceful and beautiful in art, whether in architecture, 
 painting, or sculpture, or of those offshoots which are 
 called ' industrial arts/ To some few of you, the 
 sense of correctness of form, and truth, and harmony 
 of outline or colouring comes naturally, as the musical 
 words and rhythms flow from the brain of the poet ; 
 but with most of us this can only be attained by serious 
 study and observation, and hence, to a great extent, 
 from this want of knowledge in ourselves, we are con- 
 tent to accept the interested babble of false teachers as 
 
OF TOWN HOUSES. 285 
 
 the truthful outcome of that knowledge which we our- 
 selves do not possess. 
 
 Let us, then, by all means in our power, seek to 
 foster and encourage a better taste and a more truth- 
 ful treatment in the art-work of our homes, to avoid 
 shams and pretentious conceits, seeking rather for 
 things substantial, useful, and refined, than for those 
 splendid and luxurious ; and for simplicity, comfort, 
 and suitability, rather than pretentiousness, show, and 
 elaboration in everything about us ; so that with better 
 and more educated taste, combined with truth and 
 beauty of design and construction of the work we have 
 around us, we may live in a more healthy atmosphere 
 of art in domestic life ; and, by the influence exercised 
 by the demand created for higher artistic excellence 
 in all trades cognate to art, be able to surround our- 
 selves in our homes with the grace and preciousness of 
 beauty and refinement. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ADA 
 A DAMS' ceilings, treatment of, 
 
 Alteration of existing fireplaces, 
 
 132 
 Anomalies, curious, 169 
 Architects' work in design, 55 
 Architectural faience, 56 
 Arm-chair, Morris & Co., 28 
 Arrangement of modern houses, 
 
 141 
 Arrowsmith & Co., parquet work, 
 
 So 
 Art, modern teachers of, 12 
 
 — decoration in Pompeii, 74 
 modern, 79 
 
 Artistic stencil work, 175 
 cost of, 176 
 
 — treatment of paving, 42 
 
 — decoration, external, 51 
 
 — furniture, 92, 103 
 
 — grates and fireplaces, 130 
 
 — treatment of walls in Eliza- 
 bethan age, 59 
 
 — tiles, 64 
 
 — paper hangings, 6o, 66, 1 59, 
 207 
 
 — treatment of friezes, 84 
 
 of dining-rooms, 171 
 
 drawing-rooms, 199 
 
 Atkinson, Beavington, on art, 106 
 
 CAR 
 "DALIN, M., papers of, 206 
 
 Barnard & Co., grates, 130 
 Basket grates, 132 
 Bed-room chair, Morris & Co., 
 29 
 
 — furniture, 220 
 
 — hangings, 221 
 
 — mantelpieces, 237 
 
 — recesses, furniture in, 116 
 
 — treatment of Avails, 218, 222 
 of floors, 220 
 
 — ventilation of, 226 
 Bell-pulls, 270 
 
 Birdwood, Dr., on Indian art, 10 
 
 on Indian pottery, 256 
 
 Birmingham work, 269 
 Boudoir, treatment of, 205 
 Buffet, Morris & Co., 112 
 
 — Jackson & Graham, 114 
 
 — specially designed, 115 
 Buffets, extravagance in modern 
 
 design of, 1 1 1 
 Builders, speculative work of, 54 
 Burke & Co., mosaic work, 46 
 ' Burmantofts ''faience, 56 
 
 /^ABINET, drawing-room, 104 
 ^-' Canopies over beds bad, 221 
 
 Carpet parquet, 50 
 
283 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 CEI 
 
 Ceilings, treatment of, 71, 150 
 Cements, inlaid, 43 
 Chairs, various, 109 
 
 — cheap, 28 
 
 Children, influence of good art on, 
 229 
 
 — rooms, decoration of, 226 
 
 — surroundings of, 231 
 Chippendale, influence of his de- 
 signs, 31 
 
 — furniture, modern, 102 
 
 examples of, 100 
 
 Choosing papers, care in, 178 
 Colour in street fronts, 52 
 
 — for ceilings, 1 50 
 
 — for walls, 148, 159 
 
 Common sense, want of, in modern 
 
 decoration, 105 
 Contrasts of colours, 187 
 Cost of paint, paper, and distemper 
 
 143 
 Crane, Walter, design for wall 
 
 paper, 66, 178, 229 
 Curtain poles, 188 
 Curtains, cheap stuffs for, 179 
 
 T^ADOS, 139 
 
 ^^^ — use of matting for, 222 
 Day nurseries, 227 
 Decoration, influence of, 2 
 
 — of door-panels, 165 
 
 — distemper, cost of, 150 
 
 — floor, wall, and ceiling, 40 
 Design in paper hangings, bad, 
 
 223 
 Dilapidations, clauses of modern 
 
 leases, 91 
 Dining-room buffet, 183 
 
 — carpets, 186 
 
 ELE 
 
 Dining-room chair, 181 
 
 — colour of walls, 171 
 cost of, 103 
 
 — division of wall space, 171 
 
 — furniture, 181 
 
 — illustration of, 172 
 
 — paper, cost of, 177 
 
 — table, 182 
 
 — treatment of walls, 176 
 — woodwork, 173 
 
 — wall hangings in, to be avoided, 
 170 
 
 Division of wall spaces, 139 
 Domestic use, articles of, 239 
 Doulton & Co., Lambeth ware, 
 251 
 
 — examples of, 253 
 
 Drawing-room, treatment of, 192 
 
 — arrangement of furniture, 213 
 - — corner, illustration of, 200 
 
 — examples of decorative treat- 
 ment of, 202 
 
 — furniture, 2 1 3 
 
 — lamps, 212 
 
 — trumpery furniture in, to be 
 avoided, 193 
 
 should be homelike, 194 
 
 papers, 200 
 
 not to be museums, 215 
 
 — — careful and harmonious ar- 
 rangement of furniture and or- 
 naments, 216 
 
 Dutch stove, illustration of old, 249 
 
 T^ASTLAKE, C. L., on house. 
 
 hold taste, 24 
 Eccentricity in decoration to be 
 
 avoided, 197 
 Electro-plate, 268 
 
INDEX. 
 
 >39 
 
 ELS 
 
 Elsley & Co., examples of ironwork, 
 
 269 
 
 — ironwork in halls, 276 
 Embossed leather, imitation of, 207 
 Embroidery, art of, 258 
 Enamel painting for wood-work, 
 
 146 
 English glass, 265 
 
 — papers, difference between 
 French and, 143 
 
 Entrance-hall, treatment of, 138 
 
 colour of walls, 148 
 
 furniture, 1 56 
 
 division of wall space, 149 
 
 mantelpiece in, 1 54 
 
 treatment of frieze in, 149 
 
 of walls, 151 
 
 of floors, 155 
 
 use of marble mosaic slabs 
 
 in, 152 
 screen between, and inner 
 
 hall, 153 
 portieres objectionable in, 
 
 157 
 settle for, by Morris & Co., 
 
 illustration of, 157 
 
 External decoration, 51 
 
 — painting of walls, 53 
 
 — decorative treatment of ancient 
 work, 54 
 
 — use of faience in, 57 
 
 fresco worknot suitable for, 58 
 
 causes of general dinginess 
 
 of, 58 
 Extravagance in decoration, un- 
 necessary, 16 
 
 77ASHION, false, in art, 13 
 
 ■*- — change of, in furniture, 30 
 
 GLA 
 Fenders, general badness of, 1 33 
 
 — designed by Bodley, 132 
 
 — illustration of, 133, 277 
 
 — marble and stone, 134 
 Figure decoration, 76 
 
 — subjects for, 81 
 
 — value of, in all decoration, 82 
 Fire irons. 135 
 
 Fitness and truth essential ele- 
 ments in good art, 25 
 Fitted furniture, use of, 92 
 Flatting coats in painting, 172 
 Flaxman, designs of, 243 
 Flock-papers, 68, 151 
 
 — for ceiling decoration, 68 
 
 — not fit for wall surface, 60 
 Floors, treatment of, 49, 220 
 Flower boxes, 268 
 Friezes, decoration of, 85 
 Furniture, Lecture III., 88 
 
 — ancient, 33 
 
 — planned, 92 
 
 — decline of design in old, 95 
 
 — M. Jacquemart on, 98 
 
 — Chippendale, 101 
 
 — for general use, 107 
 
 /^AS, modern, 158 
 
 ^^ — destructive qualities of, 
 
 151 
 
 — piping for curtain rods, 188 
 
 General articles of domestic use, 
 
 239 
 Gillow & Co., turniture, 89 
 
 — example of modern hall, 167 
 
 — Princess of Wales boudoir, 217 
 Glass, jewelled for screens, 153 
 cost of, 153 
 
 — modern, 261 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GLA 
 
 Glass, false use of, 262 
 
 — hanging lamps, 279 
 
 — ancient, 26 1 
 
 — Messrs. Powel & Sons, 264 
 
 — Murano Glass Co., 264 
 
 — English, 265 
 
 — blinds for windows, 267 
 Gold in papers bad, 68 
 Gothic, sham, furniture, 27 
 Grates, modern, 129 
 
 — old Sussex, 133 
 
 — treatment of, 1 32 
 
 — slow combustion, 130 
 
 — Longden & Co., 131 
 Grilles, iron, for doors, 277 
 
 T T ALL, pavement, 44 
 A A — lamp, 16 r, 277 
 
 — treatment of, 148 
 
 Hanging cabinet, illustration of, 
 214 
 
 — lamps, 186 
 
 — closets, 116 
 
 — cupboards, 215 
 
 Health, influence of good decora- 
 tion on, 222 
 
 Hepplewhite, furniture, 102 
 
 History of porcelain, 247 
 
 Holland & Sons, furniture after 
 Chippendale, 100 
 
 — bed-room furniture, 220 
 Homelike feeling in rooms, 194 
 Howard & Co., carpet parquet, 
 
 5° 
 
 — wood tapestry, 65 
 
 IMITATION of other materials, 
 bad, 21 
 
 LEC 
 Incising floors, 42 
 Indian art, causes of present de- 
 cline, 10 
 
 modern imitation of, 1 1 
 
 Introductory, Lecture I., i 
 
 T ACKSON & CO., canvas-plaster, 
 J 74 
 
 Jackson & Graham, furniture, 89 
 
 drawing-room furniture, 103 
 
 side-board, 115 
 
 Jacobean hall, illustration of, 166 
 Jacquemart, M., on furniture, 32, 
 
 98 
 Japanese art, influence of, 162 
 — lacquer panels, use of, 184 
 Jeffrey & Co., paper hangings, 66, 
 
 177 
 Jones, the late Owen, on art, 21, 
 
 70 
 
 T ACQUER panels, use of, 123 
 
 — painting, 146 
 Ladies' work in decoration, 257 
 Lavatories, 118 
 Leasehold tenure unsatisfactory, 
 
 Lecture I., Introductory, i 
 
 — II., Floor, Wall, and Ceil- 
 ing Decoration, 40 
 
 — III., Furniture, 88 
 
 — IV., The Entrance-hall, 
 Staircase, and Library, 138 
 
 — V., Drawing-room, Boudoir, 
 Bedrooms, Nurseries, and 
 Offices, 192 
 
 — VI., General Articles of 
 Domestic Use, 239 
 
INDEX. 
 
 291 
 
 LIB 
 
 Library, treatment of, 188 
 
 — mantelpieces, 190 
 Lifts, 114 
 
 Lining papers, 144 
 Linoleum, 42 
 
 Longden & Co., cheap mantel-piece, 
 127 
 
 — hall lamp, 161 
 
 — dry grates, 132 
 
 TV/T ALIN'S design for tiles, 65 
 "*-*-*- Mantelpieces, 119 
 
 — dining-room, 122 
 
 — drawing-room, 123 
 
 — library, 124 
 
 — cost of, 125 
 
 — for bed and dressing-rooms, 1 26 
 
 — boards, bad, 128 
 Marble fenders, 134 
 
 — mosaic tiles, 47, 152 
 Margins of floors painted and 
 
 stained, 145 
 Marks, H. S., R.A., design for 
 
 frieze, 84 
 Minton & Co., tiles, 154 
 Modern rooms, want of taste in, 17 
 
 — grates bad, 129 
 
 Moral influence of the dwelling, 22 
 Morris & Co., buffet, 113 
 
 — cheap chairs, 28 
 
 — hall settle, 156 
 Muralis, 63 
 
 Murano Glass Co., examples of 
 
 glass, 264 
 Music-room, treatment of, 208 
 
 XT OWELTY, craving after, 195 
 -^ Nurseries, treatment of, 226 
 Nursery walls, 227 
 
 RUS 
 ORIENTAL art, study of, 7 
 ^^ — rugs for floors, 30 
 Ottomans in windows, 234 
 
 pAINTED tiles, 129 
 Paper hangings, 66 
 
 — English and French, 143 
 Paris Exhibition, Indian Section, 
 
 10 
 
 — examples of decoration in 
 rooms, 2ir 
 
 — Prince of Wales Pavilion, 211 
 Parquet floors, 50 
 
 Picture rods, 171 
 
 Pitch pine for furniture, 26 
 
 Pompeiian decoration, imitation 
 
 of, 13 
 
 — houses, 75 
 
 — wall decoration, 210 
 Portieres objectionable, 157 
 Potter, the work of the, 246 
 Pottery, modern, 250 
 
 — in late Paris Exhibition, 251 
 
 — Doulton & Co., 252 
 
 Powell & Sons, modern glass, 264 
 Professional men, buffets for, 1 14 
 
 QUARTERLY REVIEW on 
 art, 14 
 Queen Anne architecture, influence 
 of, 14 
 
 T> ECEPTACLES for dust, to be 
 
 avoided, 117 
 Recesses in rooms, treatment of, 
 
 233 
 
 Rushbottom chairs, 181 
 
292 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SCH 
 
 SCHOOL for art decoration, 83 
 Sconces, use of, 212 
 Servants 1 rooms, 231 
 Serving hatches, 114 
 Shelf cluster for china, 128 
 Sheraton's furniture, 102 
 Sideboard, modern, no 
 Silicate paints, 147 
 Silver, modern, 277 
 
 — examples of, 278. 
 
 Slow combustion grates, 130 
 Society of arts, teaching of, 5 
 Solon ware, 255 
 
 South Kensington, Government 
 School of Resign, 3 
 
 — bad teaching of, 6 
 
 — colour in refreshment-rooms, 
 208 
 
 Spiers, Miss, painted china, 255 
 Staircase, treatment of, 158 
 Stencil decoration, 174 
 
 cost of, 144 
 
 Sussex grates, cast-iron backs to, 
 
 / ~PABLE, dining-room, 108 
 
 — glass, 262 
 Tapestry hangings, 59 
 ' Tarsia de marbre,' 43 
 Terra-cotta for external use, 58 
 Tile pavements, 45 
 Tiles, illustration of, 154 
 — ladies' work in painting on, 
 253 
 
 wov 
 ' Times,' the, on change of fashion 
 
 in art, 136 
 Tobacco and cigars, cupboards 
 
 for, 124 
 Tops of modern cupboards, places 
 
 for dust, 117 
 Trades-unionism, bad influence of, 
 
 275 
 Trollope & Sons, furniture, 89 
 Trumpery ornaments, 193 
 Truth essential in good design, 
 
 20 
 Turpentine, use of, 147 
 
 ^TARNISHING woodwork, 152 
 Velvet curtains for fire- 
 places, 129 
 Venetian glass, 261 
 — examples of, 264 
 Ventilation of bed-rooms, 226 
 
 'ALL panelling, 62 
 
 Wedgwood & Co., china, 
 
 243 
 
 — examples of, 244 
 
 Widdowson & Veale, silver work, 
 
 278 
 Window blinds, 267 
 
 — seats, use of, 116 
 Wood floors, borders, 48 
 Workmen of past days, 273 
 
 — modern, 275 
 
 Woven fabrics, imitation of, 206 
 
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