CHOOSING CHINTZES FOR 
SUN-ROOM AND VERANDA 
AMY RICHARDS COLTON 
Decorator and author of “Pottery That Plays a Part in Garden and Loggia,” “Decorative Ironwork,” and other articles 
Gay Flower Patterns of Ancient Lineage that Carry the Message of Summer 
—Selecting Color Schemes to Blend with Both Dwelling and Garden 
F LOWERS and birds, as everyone knows, form the prin¬ 
cipal motives of most chintzes and printed linens, 
which in itself seems an excellent reason why these 
materials serve so well in furnishing verandas and 
sun-rooms. They strike at once a gay and cheerful 
note, at the same time making a link with the living bloom in the 
garden beyond, or supplying the lack of it when the outer world 
is snowbound and the glass enclosed sun-room remains the 
only substitute for the open view of the flowering summer 
garden. 
One thinks of some of the fine modern chintzes as being ex¬ 
pensive, but when one compares their prices —$ 190 for the quilt 
of a bed—in the 17th Century, our latter day prices seem modest 
enough. 
The ancestors of our modern chintzes—first painted on cotton, 
later painted or printed on cotton or linen—lead us back into 
very ancient days. There are historical records of the use of 
them from many astonishingly early sources. Herodotus, 450 
B. C., refers to cottons with patterns, and the elder Pliny in the 
first century A. D. gives us in his “Natural History” a de¬ 
tailed description of both printing and dyeing with the use of 
mordants. 
The Peruvians seem to have had printed or painted cottons 
before the Spanish Conquest in 1533, and there is a reference in 
Isaiah to some patterned cottons as well as the famous Joseph’s 
coat in earlier Biblical history. There are also early records of 
printed cottons, or those treated with wax (batik) or tied and 
dyed to form patterns, in Japan, China, Korea, Persia, and the 
East Indies, as well as Egypt and the nearer Eastern countries. 
Armenia was at one time a channel through which these 
early patterned cotton materials passed into Europe from the 
East. 
But above all, India, as far back as 400 B. C., seems to have 
been the birthplace and progenitor of our modern hand-blocked 
SUN-ROOM AT THE HOME OF MRS. C. LE ROY HENDRICKSON AT GARDEN CITY, L. I. 
Chintz of a very good old pattern of English descent whose dominant tone is a warm pleasant yellow offset by dashes of peacock blue, 
orange, and sepia. The yellow is repeated in plain curtains of sheer material and a canary and goldfish lend a final vivacious 
touch. The floor is also delightfully patterned with tile insets of peacock, yellow, etc.; walls and woodwork of a soft neutral tint 
which both relieves and enhances the gay color scheme. Amy Richards Colton, Decorator; Aymar Embury II, Architect 
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