HOUSES AND GARDENS 



cost ; and such things, with a few special made furnishings which cannot be 

 obtained in this way, will always be at home in a house such as I have 

 described. This old furniture has a sort of human character about it ; and the 

 varied planes of its surfaces, with its strong construction and evidences of 

 careful leisurely work, make it inviting and homely. The modern " Art " 

 furniture bears testimony, on the contrary, that it is the work of a drilled 

 automaton. Its pretence to finish is a mere superficial deceptive smartness. 

 No human being ever loved or lingered over its completion, and its Art is the 

 bait held out to the purchaser as a substitute for real excellence of design or 

 manufacture. 



In modern furniture all the charm which belongs to the imperfect efforts 

 of the hand of man, all the sympathy with material and carefulness of finish, 

 are replaced by this superficial mechanical perfection. The old furniture 

 stands against the wall at its ease. It is affable, generous and comely, but the 

 modern work is stiff and repellant. There is nothing personal or human 

 about it, and while its shallow smartness may be well enough for a room kept 

 for show, it will never seem quite at home in the rooms we live in. 



To the man about to furnish perhaps the best advice is that contained in 

 the single word " Don't." Or at least he may be invited to pause and 

 consider. Furniture making and furniture selling, as now practised, is a 

 trade rather than an art, and the only artistic skill apparent is that evinced 

 by the salesman in inducing the public to believe that they must have things 

 which they can very well do without. The art of furnishing is perhaps best 

 understood by the Japanese, who have no furniture at all in their houses. 

 But in the Western World we have acquired the habit of sitting on chairs 

 and at tables, and a certain degree of furnishing is essential. The great fault 

 of nearly all modern rooms is that they are over-furnished, and the first step 

 in their reform would consist in removing all the unnecessary and cumbrous 

 furnishings which crowd floors and walls. There would then be sufficient 

 floor space for the use of the occupants, and the few furnishings carefully 

 disposed could be seen to the best advantage, while the domestic evolutions 

 the turning out of rooms and the daily dustings and cleanings of furniture 

 would be a simple matter. 



The modern lady who wishes to achieve in her drawing-room an effect 

 which is " quite Japanese " fondly imagines she is doing so by accumulating 

 the greatest possible number of vases, fans and bamboo furniture. In the real 

 Japanese room how different is the aim of its occupant ! The walls and the 

 floor are alike bare, and there is nothing to distract the attention from the 

 single flower arrangement or picture which adorns the room. Or again, the 

 collector of the antique surrounds himself with a host of cabinets, tables and 

 chairs, and other pieces, and thinks in this way to recall the beauty of the Old 

 English apartments. But here again it is not realised that the furnishing of 

 these was really of the simplest, and the single contents of one modern house 

 would furnish a dozen houses in the old way. While, however, this custom 

 of over-furnishing may be tolerated in the mansion, in the contracted space 

 of the smaller houses, where space and means are alike limited, there is 

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