August, 1 9 10 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



315 



dry they can be laid out on paper to finish the stalks. 



Flowers that are being crystalized in sprays for decora- 

 tion do not keep very well or very long so it is the best 

 plan to prepare them quite a short time before they are 

 required. If they are not to be used as soon as dry, 

 they should be placed in air tight tins, between sheets of 

 clean paper. 



The arrangement of the flowers to the best advantage is 

 a matter to be settled by individual taste. Sometimes those 

 blossoms with very thin stalks are inclined to droop too 

 much in an upright position and it is then better to place 

 them tastefully on flat dishes. Maiden hair fern, aspara^ 

 gus and smilax are invaluable for putting the final touches 

 to the scheme of decoration, and these are of course to be 



used uncrystalized. Ribbons of delicate shades to harmo- 

 nize with those of the flowers can sometimes be introduced 

 with decided success. Violets look nice made into 

 bunches backed with a crystalized leaf and arranged on 

 shaded paper trays. When preparing roses several of the 

 petals can be separated from the flowers and crystalized 

 alone. Then they can be scattered round the vases as if 

 they had fallen of themselves. At a dinner party a vase of 

 roses, arranged on a Japanese tray with the petals beside 

 it, would be both pretty and effective at the place of each 

 guest. 



Not only do they give a charming appearance to 

 the table, but they make a delicious accompaniment to 

 coffee or ices. 



Some Novel French Chimney Pots 



By Frances B- Sheaf er 



[HERE is almost no length to which the 

 French fondness for decoration will not 

 go. The whole nation instinctively deco- 

 rates and adorns everything. The ex- 

 tremest example of an original subject for 

 decoration which has appeared in Paris 

 lately is a set of galvanized tin chimney 

 tops made by a Parisian designer, and exhibited in the 

 Grand Palais at the 

 Salon d'Automne of 

 1908. 



Chimney Pots, as 

 every one knows, are 

 an eminently charac- 

 teristic and essential 

 feature of all French 

 houses, where, there 

 being rarely any cen- 

 tral heating, the in- 

 numerable forests of 

 small pipes leading 

 from individual flues, 

 are as absolutely nec- 

 essary as they are pic- 

 turesque and paint- 

 able. Hitherto, how- 

 ever, no one has had 

 the fancy to change 

 the accepted shape, a 

 straight pipe with an 

 elevated cap to allow for a draught and at the same time to 

 keep the rain out. When the pipes have had swinging caps 

 for ventilators, they have been only the simplest possible ex- 

 pression of the tinsmith's craft. 



The French designer who has lit upon the novel idea of 

 making the tin chimneys a bit more ornamental is Edouard 

 Schenck, whose workroom is at 13 Boulevard du Montpar- 

 nasse. The three exhibits he made at the Salon were treated 



Novel French chimney pots 



with great simplicity, very slightly changed, in fact, from 

 the accepted forms so long in use. The fixed cap follows 

 the old lines, almost the old proportions, but the tin braces 

 which raise the cap are elongated into a group of four 

 doves, their beaks meeting at the top in a bird kiss. The 

 bird forms are flat, almost crude. They might have been 

 cut out of cardboard, with a pair of scissors, but they suit 

 the material and they make of the useful little chimney pot 



an affair of the imag- 

 ination, instead of a 

 merely useful detail of 

 house construction. AI. 

 Schenck catalogued 

 this chimney pot as a 

 "champignon, Colom- 

 bier." 



The turning lantern 

 top of this group of 

 chimneys was sug- 

 gested by the owl, and 

 it is so catalogued, 

 "Hibou." Its lines 

 are good, and the ef- 

 fect of an owl's head 

 is curiously produced 

 by the tin strips which 

 join the folding cap 

 and the body of the 

 hood. 



The ventilator of 

 this group is a "Gueule de loup," a "Coq," whose comb and 

 beard act as the necessary wings to turn the hood in the 

 wind. The form does suggest in a remote wav a cock's 

 head. It is treated with the same simplicity as the other 

 two chimneys; and doubtless all three are as practical as 

 they are original and decorative. The chimney pot not onlv 

 meets the requirements for which it becomes a necessitv, but 

 it adds an artistic value to a house. 



