AMERICAN 
February, 1912 
windows are 
have the happy faculty of changing 
under artificial lights, and this is an- 
other reason why the effect of wall 
coverings should be experimented 
with in the actual rooms in which 
they are to be used. Most wall-paper shops will not give 
samples, but a whole roll can be purchased and returned if 
it should prove unsatisfactory. 
If plaster walls are to be tinted and the woodwork 
stained, it is extremely important that one should take the 
precaution of gaging the ultimate results after the drying 
process has taken place. If it is a new house which is being 
decorated, some of the plaster can be spread on boards for 
experimental purposes with the wall tints, and the wood dyes 
and stains can be rubbed into bits of molding. This may 
appear to be a great deal of trouble, but the results will 
justify all the time and thought that has been expended. 
THE ADAPTABLE WINDSOR CHAIR. 
CHAIR that looks well in almost any environment is 
indeed worthy of note, especially when it is inexpen- 
sive, and such is the case with our old friend, the sturdy 
Windsor chair. This type of chair can be used to advantage 
in rooms furnished in Colonial, mahogany, Mission, old 
English, or in conjunction with any furniture finished in a 
dull dark stain and showing the grain of the wood. The 
writer had the extreme adaptability 
of this chair forcibly brought to his 
attention recently in the living-room 
of a new house. Strict economy had 
to be practiced in the furnishing of 
this room, so it was decided to use 
some Windsor chairs in addition to 
the old mahogany ones which the 
owner already possessed, as they 
were economical and helped along 
the Colonial spirit of the room, and 
could also be used as porch furniture 
during the Summer. 
In another small house in the 
country some of these chairs had 
been treated to a coat of flat dark 
green paint, and made most accept- 
able chairs for the dining-room, with 
its yellow tinted walls, sage-green 
woodwork and yellow China silk sill- 
length curtains at the windows. 
The shops carry these chairs in 
the white wood, and they will furnish 
them in various stains and in ma- 
hogany to carry out any desired color 
scheme and they cost exactly $4.50. 
LEFT-OVER WALL-PAPERS IN REACH OF ALMOST ANY PURSE 
NE resourceful woman, who is her own decorator and 
has just finished the refurnishing of some bedrooms in 
a little house in the country, has told me of the good use 
which she made of the flower-bedecked papers which were 
left over. Large square hat-boxes, which adorned the 
Nasal 
vhs 
The several types of draperies for doors and 
designed upon 
emphasize the value and dignity of simplicity 
A Windsor chair looks well in almost any environment 
AND GARDENS 
lines that 
upper shelf in a closet, were covered 
with the paper, and thus brought into 
harmony with the rest of the room, 
and gave the closet a neat and tidy 
appearance if the door should be left 
open. The drawers of the chiffoniers and bureaus were 
lined with the wall-paper, which was held in place by 
thumb-tacks, so that it could be easily changed if it should 
become soiled or necessary to be removed for any cause. 
EE Ea wea ot conic tf fo oct ft ecco I) (OS ec ab foci tO occa er cman) SED 
REAL TAPESTRIES 
(Continued from page 48) 
Gears Sania BS GD a a eS 
these are the tapestries that Aubusson weavers understand 
best how to produce. Not that I would decry the art of the 
Aubusson weavers. From time immemorial this little city 
of Aubusson, in France, two hundred and seven miles by 
rail south of Paris, has been noted as a center of tapestry 
weaving. ‘Tradition says that the industry was established 
here in 732 A.D., by stragglers from the great Saracen 
army, defeated near Tours by Charles Martel, grandfather 
of Charlemagne. As late as 1585 the weavers were called 
tappiciers sarrazinois (Saracen tapestry-makers). The Au- 
busson product is by no means confined to furniture cover- 
ings. At the Paris Exposition of 
1900 two Aubusson manufacturers 
received the grand prize, displaying 
among the reproductions two of Le 
Brun’s Seventeenth Century ‘‘Royal 
Residences,” of which the jury said, 
‘They are so like the originals as 
to be mistaken for them.” The so- 
called Aubusson rugs are real tap- 
estry in heavy weave, and in designs 
suitable for the floor. 
Of Eighteenth Century tapestries 
in general, it may be said that they 
are vastly inferior to the Baroque 
ones of the Seventeenth Century, 
just as these are inferior to the 
Renaissance ones of the Sixteenth 
Century, and the Renaissance ones 
to the Gothic tapestries of the Fif- 
teenth Century and earlier. 
Among Renaissance tapestries 
especially desirable for reproduction 
are the Grotesque ones that have 
ornament pure and simple—orna- 
ment often incorrectly called ara- 
besque and consisting of arbors and 
foliage and flowers, and occasional human and animal 
forms—and that get their name ‘“‘Grotesque”’ from the Ro- 
man excavations (crypts or grottos) that at the beginning of 
the Sixteenth Century disclosed the Golden House of Nero. 
Photographs and color sketches are easily accessible, from 
which the reproductions can be woven with finished effect. 
