August, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



271 



g| o^ ^, ^85 ^^^^ 



Small Bronzes 

 for the Home 



By Elizabeth Lounsbery 



Copyright by Brenda Putnam. 



Book-end, "Investigation," by 

 Brenda Putnam 



HE movement in this country among people 

 of refinement and good taste, to express in 

 their home decoration the feeling for good 

 art and consistent furnishings, is being shown 

 to a marked degree at 

 the present time in the 



details of the modern house and its 



ornamental accessories — for example, 



the small American bronzes, now ob- 

 tainable for decorative and useful pur- 

 poses, which are rapidly freeing us from the 



thraldom of early Victorian "Spelter" (a 



combination of bronze and lead) or imi- 

 tation bronze which was so extensively used 



for clocks and ornaments in the past. 



One of the conspicuous and interesting 



features of this movement is the fact that 



the decorators are not only taking pains and 



pride in the consistent decoration of the 



homes they furnish, but with the 



architects interested in sculpture are 



united in a praise-worthy effort to 



lead in the right direction, to help 



create "connoisseurs" and to make 



the home-builder study for himself. 

 In addition is this fact, although 



very little known even to people 



most closely identified with art 



matters in America — in New York 



and indeed throughout most of the larger cities, a surprising 



number of young sculptors are working out their art salva- 



Copyright by Brenda Putnam. 



Book-end, "Investigation," by 

 Brenda Putnam 



tion to this same end. All classes of society, from the very 

 rich to the east side street vender, have become blood 

 brothers in pursuit of the art they both love — which as a 

 wonderful leaven is permeating the whole social fabric and 

 is creating as well the thoughtful and studious crowds of 



people of all classes who visit our 

 museums, art galleries and sales- 

 rooms of art shops and pick out 

 with unerring judgment and nicety 

 of taste, hitherto unknown — the 

 best work. 



Probably one of the most popular 

 uses that modern small bronzes have been put to 

 has been in the creation, by many of our most 

 noted sculptors, of book ends, which have 

 become attractive adjuncts of the reading table. 

 Notable among these may be mentioned the 

 "Humanity" book ends by Robert Aitken, 

 illustrated, which from a sentimental and 

 sculpturesque standpoint are inter- 

 esting examples eloquent of the 

 poetry and sanctity of the home and 

 of the willing sacrifice of those who 

 spend themselves in its preserva- 

 tion. Of a more playful character, 

 for the nursery or living-room, are 

 those by Miss Brenda Putnam — a 

 most sympathetic treatment of a 

 baby's figure and of the interested 

 curiosity excited by its discovery of the engaging even 

 though external qualities of a "new" thing called a book. 



Copyright by Willard Dryden Paddock 

 The flower boys 



Book-ends, "Humanity," by Robert Aitken 



Copyright by Robert Aitken. 



