The Garden Magazine, May, 1924 
207 
Patterns That Wear “Mentally” as Well as 
Physically 
I N CHOOSING either chintzes or printed linens, 
one of the principal requisites is a fine pattern 
full of character, harmonious and well balanced 
in design and color. It will be found that those 
which are the least naturalistic in effect will men¬ 
tally wear the best and give the most lasting 
pleasure. A naturalistic design gives a restless 
appearance to a room, and seems to be forever 
falling or jumping from the walls or furniture 
instead of peacefully or gaily forming a part of 
the scheme of the room. 
A design to be successful must be so balanced 
in form and color that one is at first only aware 
of its harmony and charm, the details appearing 
as one examines it more closely. Like really de¬ 
lightful people, one does not discover all their 
charms on first acquaintance. 
The old India prints were almost invariably 
printed on light backgrounds, but many modern 
ones—as well as some in the 18th and early 19th 
Centuries)—were made effective by developing 
the designs against black or colored grounds. 
Creating Restful Effects by Restraint 
I N PLANNING to use chintz for a sun-room it 
is well not to overdo it. There are practically 
only two places it can be used: for curtains or for 
furniture covering. The “or” is used advisedly, 
for, in general, it is more effective to combine a 
plain material with the chintz, carrying out some 
dominant tone in it, preferably one that is an ac¬ 
cent. Curtains may be of a plain color, combined 
with furniture covering of a figured chintz and 
where a large sofa is used this again may be plain, 
the figured material reappearing on the pillows. 
If there are many windows and a bare look is produced by 
too many plain curtains, the monotony can be broken by 
figured valances. Here and there a lamp shade of pleated 
chintz may also be introduced. If willow or rattan furniture 
MODERN INTERPRE¬ 
TATION OF THE FA¬ 
MOUS OLD CHINESE 
“FOUR SEASONS” 
MOTIF 
The Lotus, Peony, Chrys¬ 
anthemum, and Plum— 
symbolizing summer, 
spring, autumn, and winter 
respectively—long favored 
in the Oriental arts, here 
find fresh expression and 
some new companions. 
Flowers very decoratively 
rendered in orange, terra¬ 
cotta, yellow, and cream 
on a black linen ground 
(Courtesy of Proctor & Co.) 
is used, this can be brought 
into the scheme first sug¬ 
gested by the chintz, by paint¬ 
ing or staining it to one of the 
darker tones in the chintz, 
sometimes touching it up to 
one of the brighter colors. 
When the curtains are plain 
they make a more restful 
frame to the landscape be¬ 
yond, which is important in 
a sun-room where the win¬ 
dows are usually large and 
numerous and the view from 
them is often a feature of the 
room. There are many plain 
materials dyed with sun-fast 
colors, another advantage for 
curtains in a room flooded 
with sunshine. 
There remains a third way 
in which another form of chintz can be introduced into a 
sun-room. Real India prints or their reproductions may 
be hung on the walls, as one would hang tapestries in a hall 
or more formal room. They are extremely decorative and 
“TREE OF LIFE” 
“The most usual pattern for the original India 
prints, on which many changes were rung, was that 
of a gracefully curving tree rising from a mound of 
earth and breaking into many branches. From these 
branches spring all the flowers of the Orient, and 
among them cluster or hang its birds, and beasts, 
and butterflies.” Copy of one of these fascinat¬ 
ing antique hand-blocked prints here shown in crim¬ 
son, green, yellow, brown, with touches of blue 
and mauve (Courtesy of F. Schumacher & Co.) 
The earliest patterns were entirely painted by hand; when the cutting 
of wooden blocks was invented, at first only the outlines of the designs 
were printed from them, the patterns being filled in by hand in color; 
later, as in our day, the whole was printed by hand from wooden blocks. 
Even now the methods of block-printing are almost identical with those 
described in early Indian records and in Pliny, and there is no limit but 
expense to the number of colors or length of the repeat in a hand-blocked 
pattern. But when machine-made, the length of the repeat is gauged 
by the circumference of the roller the material is printed from, and twelve 
colors are about the limit. After the invention of printing cottons by 
machinery, they ceased to be a luxury. All our cheap ones to-day are 
machine-made, while those that have real charm and distinction are still 
printed by hand. In many cases the actual blocks of more than a century 
ago are used. 
Printed linens are developed to the highest point in France and have 
been since the 18th Century. The famous toiles de Jouy were designed 
and printed at the town of Jouy and still are to the present time. These 
early French linens were influenced in design by many great painters 
and designers of the time and the old flowery Indian patterns often gave 
way to those full of human figures, gracefully and conventionally com¬ 
bined with landscape effects as in a Watteau picture. They were usually 
printed in one tone on an unbleached background. In England at this 
time the designs on printed cottons and linens were influenced by Adam, 
who had brought all sorts of classic ideas from Italy, and these with their 
garlands, laurel wreaths, torches, etc. drove out for the time being the 
more highly colored floral patterns of India. The earlier designs with 
direct Indian influence are far more suitable for a sun-porch or veranda 
than the more formal classic designs of the late 18th Century. 
