September, 1913 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



333 



mirror, glass seems to brighten the darkest of 

 rooms and add a note of cheer. In the bed- 

 room glass may find a place, and it is surprising 

 to see what cheer it will bring with it. Glass arti- 

 cles for the dresser are not only attractive, but 

 are so suggestive of neatness and always pos- 

 sible to keep in tidy order. On the little table 

 beside the bed, with its glass top, the glass tray, 

 with the glass pitcher for water and the glass 

 tumbler, will add a note of freshness that is 

 surprising. 



One or two glass bowls filled with the sim- 

 plest garden blossoms give a bit of color and 

 are cheerful reminders of the garden itself just 

 outside. The goldfish bowl makes a charming 

 flower holder, and one sees it used without 

 a blossom simply for its decorative value to 

 set aglow an otherwise dull surrounding. The 

 opalescent glass is another variety that lends 

 itself most admirably to the decorative scheme 

 and needs little garnishing in the way of 

 blossoms. 



What a pleasure it is to see a well-arranged 

 collection of glass, and how one lingers, fasci- 

 nated by the fairy-like charm that weaves a 

 mystic spell about it. If glass hath a charm 



of this splendid loan collection. What a true 

 joy to collect and what a genuine satisfaction 

 to realize that each individual piece is a decora- 

 tive jewel of the long chain that for years has 

 been growing. 



In old American glass, both the searcher for 

 unusual decorative pieces and the collector will 

 find many opportunities worth grasping. The 

 writer knows one piece of this old American 

 glass that makes every one who sees it covetous 

 to possess it. It is a large round milk "pan," 

 of greenish hue, with a broad-flaring rim and a 

 slightly depressed lip at one point for pouring. 

 Its place is on a lowboy, beneath a pier-glass, in 

 the hallway of an old-fashioned house, where 

 there are many beautiful things of bygone days, 

 but it gives more character and decorative charm 

 to that hallway than any other object in it. Old 

 toddy and flip glasses, and also mugs with han- 

 dles, all of which were made in great number, 

 make admirable flower holders, and even empty 

 have a recognized decorative value. Occa- 

 sionally well-shaped vases turn up, and old 

 bottles are by no means to be despised. Many 

 of them are of such graceful form and decora- 

 tive interest that it is a real joy to possess them. 



Old glass lamp, Colonial 



to soothe — and truly it has — why not let it come into the What a thankful thing it is that we do not all think 



home and take its place among the many other things we alike, for this world would be, indeed, a dreary place to 



cherish? live in, and the very surroundings would become dull and 



The old painted glass of Germany seems to tell a tale of monotonous. Glass would everywhere be the first thing 



a period when great pains were always taken to make to greet our gaze and what variety we now indulge in 



this fragile necessity a decorative feature, and the tall gob- and literally thrive on would become 'heavy-laden with that 



lets, with their gaily decorated surface and domelike covers, dull stupidity that would rob the old saying of all its truth, 



are indeed examples of the art that flourished in the days that "Variety is the spice of life." Anything that is worth 



when the appreciation was sincere, and with it was the love doing at all, is worth doing well, and the collector and 



of craftsmanship that ruled the day and gave the finished seeker for decorative treasures must bear this in mind, 



article its charm that we to-day wonder at and try so hard and does, as experience is the best of teachers, though 



to imitate. at times most severe. Patience and experience must go 



Glass, like the rest of our present-day essentials, is hand in hand, and the result will be all that one wishes, 



turned out by the thousand pieces, some good, others bad and will repay tenfold the time and cost given. The deco- 



and a third sort that we are sad to call "horrid," but as long rative value of glass is simple, but must impress upon the 



as the manufacture of glass is kept up the variety will cover a mind two things. A thing to be decorative must have a 



wide field and the taste displayed will depend on the demand value in its selection, and a thing of value must, in one way 



of the community and not the individual. Could the indi- or another, suggest great care and discrimination, or the 



vidual choose the patterns, our world of glass would indeed spell is broken. 



be improved — that is, if taste were a unit in the make-up of The reader will remember Shakespeare's allusion, "Like 



the individual; otherwise it would be a minor repetition that a glass did break i' th' rincing," which reminds one that a 



would warn us that it is better "to bear the littleness than word here concerning the care of glass will be in place. It 



the largeness of life." One often wonders when a re- cannot be expected that beautiful glass will make an appeal 



spective purchase is being made, what sort of a home the to the untutored mind any more than any other beautiful 



articles will repose in, for one cannot always judge, appear- object would whose attributes were not those of mere pretti- 



ances are so deceptive, and yet it does seem that the moment ness. And it is just as true that when the quality of fragility 



of a purchase js almost a give-away of the individual, and is added to that which does not appeal to the unimaginative 



opens an enticing vista of the 

 journey and destination of the 

 piece or pieces purchased. 



In England the love of 

 glass has led to more than 

 one exhibition, and one col- 

 lector, beginning in 1890, did 

 not allow one piece that was 

 desirable to escape the mar- 

 ket. The growth of this col- 

 lection was steady up to 1 908', 

 numbering at that time some 

 hundreds of pieces. At the 

 present writing, this collection 

 numbers some four hundred 

 and sixty to seventy pieces. 

 The Victoria and Albert Mu- 

 seum is the happy possessor 



Early English glass 



miind it is not a thing to be 

 surprised by when a careless 

 servant mistakes the amount 

 of indifferent handling glass 

 will withstand. However the 

 student of history is invari- 

 ably impressed with the re- 

 markable instance of so 

 much apparently perishable 

 glass having descended to 

 us from ancient Phoenician, 

 Syrian and Roman eras 

 when time has been less 

 kind to bronze and iron, 

 materials one would have 

 imagined would have with- 

 stood the ravages of cen- 

 turies far more successfully. 



