September, 1910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



365 



Keramic Studio, which coming as it did to fill a long felt want 

 among china decorators, met at once with phenomenal suc- 

 cess. 



Kept always at a high standard of excellence, this 

 magazine has almost revolutionized the art of china decora- 

 tion in this country, educating its readers and students by 

 pleasant and gradual steps away from the cheap and com- 

 monplace realistic painting of flower and fruit to the more 

 chaste and truly decorative conventionalized type. In ad- 

 dition to this work, in the fall of 1908, they started the pub- 

 lication of a second periodical. Palette and Bench, a mag- 

 azine for art students 

 and crafts workers, 

 which has been received 

 with the highest com- 

 mendation by artists and 

 critics. 



Mrs. Robineau's life 

 is a busy one, full of 

 intense interest; divided 

 between the Pottery, the 

 editorial sanctum, and 

 the hours of recreation, 

 in a garden where three 

 happy children play 

 among the flowers. 

 Nourished in the sun- 

 shine of such surround- 

 ings, is it any wonder 

 that a purpose to de- 

 velop and produce a pot- 

 tery equal to any in the 

 world has taken deep 

 root in her determina- 

 tion and has already 

 brought forth blossoms 



of achievement which give glorious promise of a future 

 wealth of bloom? 



Among the early contributors to Keramic Studio was 

 M. Taxile Doat, at that time the head of the Sevres Porce- 

 lain Manufactory in France. His series of articles, trans- 

 lated by Mr. Robineau, describes the processes by which 

 the high-fire porcelains of Sevres are made. His pro- 

 cesses and recipes were studied by Mrs. Robineau with the 

 utmost fascination and she at once began a series of ex- 

 periments. She found that the American clays were of very 

 difi^erent quality from those used by the French potters, but, 



The living-room in the cottage 



filled with a commendable national pride, and also swayed 

 by the creative instinct of the true artist, she determined not 

 to import her materials, but to experiment with the native 

 clays until she should invent a practical recipe of her own. 

 This she has succeeded in doing and has developed a 

 "body" which, when thrown upon the wheel, responds to 

 her touch and is yet durable enough to withstand the high 

 fires necessary for the production of true porcelain. 



A visitor at Four Winds Cottage would have difficulty in 

 deciding which spot is the most attractive. The charming 

 garden with its rose laden trellises, and beds and borders 



glowing with color, lies 

 on a hill slope stretching 

 down to an old reser- 

 voir, now transformed 

 into a lake and part of 

 the Onondaga Park 

 property. Beyond the 

 meadows and groves of 

 this park rise the heights 

 upon which stands the 

 group of buildings of the 

 Syracuse University. Be- 

 hind these heights and 

 on every side roll the 

 lovely, wooded hills. 

 Within the city limits 

 and close to the throb- 

 bing heart of busy life 

 and yet protected by the 

 calm peace and serenity 

 of the country, one could 

 scarcely imagine a situa- 

 tion better suited to sat- 

 isfy an artist's craving 

 for natural beauty and 

 to stimulate the artistic instinct for creation. 



The interior of Four Winds Cottage carries out very 

 completely William Morris's precept that a room should 

 contain nothing which its owner does not know to be useful 

 and think to be beautiful. Simplicity, comfort and conven- 

 ience, nothing for show and all for practical use, are the 

 rules which have guided the designing and furnishing of this 

 home. 



The well proportioned living-room is finished and 

 furnished in brown chestnut with warm buff walls and sim- 

 ple, straight voile curtains of a cream tone. Save for the 



Working at the wheel 



The kilns in the pottery 



