May, 1912 
The rustic garden seats of good design find their proper place in the informal rather than in the formal gardens 
Garden Furniture of Good Design 
By Mary H. Northend 
Photographs by the author 
] HE everyday, varnished armchair or rocking- 
chair, when used as a garden seat, does not 
seem altogether appropriate, or suggestive of 
the fitness of things. At the best one feels 
that its stay is but temporary, and almost un- 
consciously, when the first cool days of Fall 
appear, feels a keen sympathy for the individual who will 
soon be tugging these chairs across the lawn and up the steps 
through the doors and passages, to their former resting place. 
On the other hand, a few 
pieces of well chosen, well built 
rustic or painted furniture make 
the lawn attractive, inviting and 
homelike, and add much toward 
beautifying an otherwise unat- 
tractive garden. 
The garden seat was the ear- 
liest form of garden furniture 
and served our ancestors as a 
convenient resting place, al- 
though in Arnerica the value of 
garden furnishings has never 
been as evident as in foreign 
countries. In fact, it is only in 
more recent years that orna- 
ments have been employed in 
gardens to any great extent. 
The French were appreciative 
of their decorative qualities, as 
well as the Greeks and Romans, 
as is evident by the manner in 
which their gardens were dec- 
orated with fountains, statues, 
urns, seats, etc., but of late years 
little thought has been given 
garden furnishing, and _ conse- 
quently much of their old-time 
charm has been lost. Up to 
within a few years this was par- 
ticularly true of American gar- 
adoption of the Italian garden decorations, they are to-day 
extensively employed. 
Of these, perhaps, seats occupy the most important place. 
They not only afford a resting place for weary individuals, 
but frequently possess artistic qualities quite aside from their 
usefulness. 
There are so many designs in this furniture that it is well 
to consider them in classes, such as those which require 
skilled workmen to manufacture, and must therefore be pur- 
chased ready made, and others 
of a more rustic nature, which 
may be constructed on the place 
with or without the assistance 
of a nearby carpenter. 
In the construction of one 
style of ‘this rustic furniture, 
very irregular and _ crooked 
pieces are used, so that the re- 
sult will present as many fan- 
tastic twists as possible. This 
style of seat is far from comfort- 
able, and owing to the intrica- 
cies of its design, it is impossible 
to clean it when it becomes dirty 
and dusty, owing to weather 
conditions, which usually obtain 
shortly after its arrival in the 
garden. On the other hand, a 
simple design, in which all un- 
necessary lines are avoided, 
gives a result which is both 
pleasing and_ practical, and 
which will stand the most severe 
climatic conditions if carefully 
and solidly constructed. 
The position the seat occu- 
pies in the garden is quite as im- 
portant as the seat itself, as too 
often when placing them gar- 
deners forget to provide any 
dens, but possibly owing to the A portable garden chair is one of the season’s novelties shelter from the sun and wind, 
