The Art of Interior Decoration by Emily Burbank (smart books to read TXT) 📖

collector's eye. He bought some, made inquiries as to facilities for reproduction at these potteries, and exchanged addresses. The result was that to-day, that humble potter directs several large factories, which are busy reviving classic designs, which may be found on sale everywhere in Italy and in many other countries as well as America.

CHAPTER XLI VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN

If you have been in Venice then you know the Murano Museum and its beguiling collection of Venetian glass, that old glass so vastly more beautiful in line and decoration than the modern type of, say, fifteen years ago, when colours had become bad mixtures, and decorations meaningless excrescences.

A bit of inside information given out to some one really interested, led to a revival of pure line and lovely, simple colouring, with appropriate decorations or none at all. You may already know that romantic bit of history. It seems that when the museum was first started, about four hundred years ago, the glass blowers agreed to donate specimens of their work, provided their descendants should be allowed access to the museum for models. This contract made it a simple matter for a connoisseur to get reproduced exactly what was wanted, and what was not in the market. Elegance, distinguished simplicity in shapes, done in glass of a single colour, or in one colour with a simple edge in a contrasting shade, or in one colour with a whole nosegay of colours to set it off, appearing literally as flowers or fruit to surmount the stopper of a bottle, the top of a jar, or as decorations on candlesticks.

It was in the Museo Civico of Venice that we saw and fell victims to an enchanting antique table decoration—a formal Italian garden, in blown glass, once the property of a great Venetian family and redolent of those golden days when Venice was the playground of princes, and feasting their especial joy; days when visiting royalty and the world's greatest folk could have no higher honour bestowed upon them than a gift of Venetian glass, often real marvels mounted in silver and gold.

We never tired of looking at that fairy garden with its delicate copings, balustrades and vases of glass, all abloom with exquisite posies in every conceivable shade, wrought of glass—a veritable dream thing! Finally, nothing would do but we must know if it had ever been copied. The curator said that he believed it had, and an address was given us. How it all comes back! We arose at dawn, as time was precious, took our coffee in haste and then came that gliding trip in the gondola, through countless canals, to a quarter quite unknown to us, where at work in a small room, we came upon our glass blower and the coveted copy of that lovely table-garden. This man had made four, and one was still in his possession. We brought it back to America, a gleaming jewelled cobweb, and what happened was that the very ethereal quality of its beauty made the average taste ignore it! However, a few years have made a vast difference in table, as well as all other decorations, and to-day the same Venetian gardens have their faithful devotees, as is proved by the continuous procession of the dainty wonders, ever moving toward our sturdy shores.

IN CONCLUSION

In bringing our book to an end we would reiterate four fundamental principles of Interior Decoration (and all decoration):

Good lines.

Correct proportions.

Harmonious colour scheme (which includes the question of background) and

Appropriateness.

Observe these four laws and any house, all interior decoration, and any lawn or garden, will be beautiful and satisfying, regardless of type and choice of colours.

Whether or not you remain content with your achievement depends upon your mental makeup. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.

To learn what is meant by good line, one must educate oneself by making a point of seeing beautiful furniture and furnishings. Visit museums, all collections which boast the stamp of approval of experts; buy at the best modern and antique shops, and compare what you get with the finest examples in the museums. This is the way that connaisseurs are made.

INDEX

Acanthus leaf, 176
Accessories, 285-290
Adam, James and Robert, 195-196, 197, 200, 206-207, 209, 222
Alhambra, 111
Amateur, 112
Andirons, 111
Angelo, Michael (See Michelangelo)
Antique, 16, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 48, 53, 138, 290, 303
"Antiqued", 223
Apelles, 145
Applique, 131
Appropriate, 17, 134, 288, 293, 340
Arabesques, 147, 156
Architectural picture, 51, 88, 139
Architrave, 204
Arras, 182
Assyria, 141, 142, 143
Athenian, 144
Attic rooms, 234-235
Awnings, 82, 87, 266, 267

Background, 23, 39, 41, 42, 50, 51, 291, 294, 300, 304
Bakst, 18, 23, 139, 143
Balance, 77, 81
Barrocco, 144
Bathroom, 16, 114, 119, 120
Beauvais, 182
Behnes, 242, 245
Belgium, 210, 220
Benares, 42
"Bodies", 326
Bohemian glass, 121
Boucher François, 183
Boudoir, 24
Boule, André Charles, 189
Bric-à-brac, 301
Bristol glass, 220
Brocotello, 74
Byzantine, 147, 148, 150

Cabriole, 171, 181, 197, 199
Cæsar, Augustus, 146, 147
Carlovingian, 148, 149
Carpets (See Floor) 70, 232, 234, 236
Ceiling, 2, 33, 77, 182, 201, 207, 224, 299, 323
Cellini, Benvenuto, 155
Charlemagne, 149
Charles I, 193, 198
Charles II, 193, 195, 201
Charles V, 162
Chares VIII, 164
Charts, 190-193
Chef d'oeuvre, 322
Chimney-pieces, 182
Chinese, 133, 202, 203, 204
"Chinese Craze", 196
Chintz, 41, 52, 53, 59, 226, 232
Chippendale, 133, 195, 198, 200, 201, 204
Cipriani, Giovanni Battista, 196
Classic, 200
Clocks, 242, 302, 303
Closets, 276, 277
Cold Colours, 15, 33, 285, 299
Collecting, 26, 32, 140, 204, 290, 311, 312, 313, 323, 325, 337
Colonial, 132, 133, 137, 209
Colour, 3, 4, 16, 23, 39, 40, 53, 54, 59, 104, 136, 137, 143, 225, 301, 303, 340
Commode, 124
Composition, xiv
Connoisseur, 31, 330, 335, 341
Console, 173, 278
Correggio, Antonio Allegri, 154
Cretonne (See Chintz)
Cross-stitch, 70, 220

Dado, 204, 210
Dark Ages, 147
Day-bed, 226, 232
Decoration, 174, 222, 300
Decorative, 50, 176
Dining-tables, 47, 289, 300
Directoire, 172, 213, 214
Distinction, 49, 50
Dressing-room, 269, 270
Dressing-table, 241, 270
Du Barry, Madame, 165
Du Barry rose, 165, 166, 205, 270
Dürer, Albrecht, 161, 162
Dutch, 202

Egypt, 141, 142
Elimination, 208, 301
Elizabethan, 192
Empire, 24, 137, 173, 191, 213, 214, 313
England, 153, 195, 196
Ensemble, 32, 293

Fads, 26, 291, 311, 312, 313
Feudal, 134, 151, 210, 291
Fire-dogs (See Andirons)
Fireplace, 111, 112, 113
Fixtures, 10, 72, 77
Flaxman, John, 327
Floors (See Carpets) 4, 32, 34, 231, 232, 234
Flower-pictures, 188
Flowers, 50, 51, 289, 300
Fontainebleau, 165
France, 148, 164, 166
Francis I, 164, 165
Franklin Stoves, 112
French, 34, 164, 165, 173
Frieze, 204

Georgian, 18, 194, 207
Germany, 161
Gibbons, Grinling, 194, 201, 207
Gimp, 59
Glass, 121
Glazed Linen, 242
Gobelin, 182
Gothic, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 192, 210, 323
Greek, 146, 147, 326, 327
Gubbio, 155

Hallmark, 31, 153, 156, 181, 203
Hangings, 3,