70 
House & Garden 
How 
Good 
Should 
Plumbing 
Fixtures 
Be? 
3 E guided by experh 
ence- If your home has 
a noisy toilet, you and 
your entire family will under¬ 
stand and appreciate the virtues 
of the Silent Si-wehclo Closet. 
Again, if it has been your duty to 
daily clean the bathtub and lavatory 
—if you have struggled with the “soil 
ring” that quickly gathers after use, you 
would appreciate “Tepeco” All-Clay 
Plumbing fixtures, modeled along the 
most sanitary lines of the only material 
that is really efficient for building plumb¬ 
ing. Those who do the work of house¬ 
keeping are entitled to this consideration. 
The Trenton Potteries Company 
“Tepeco^^ All-Clay Plumbing 
is most sanitary, beautiful, practical and perma¬ 
nent. “Tepeco” plumbing is china or porcelain, 
solid and substantial. Dirt does not readily 
cling to its glistening white surface, nor will 
that surface be worn away by scouring. With 
time, inferior materials will lose their sanitary 
value, dirt will adhere, the appearance become 
uninviting—the piece loose its usefulness. 
I Insist that all your plumbing fixtures be of 
\ “Tepeco” ware. A wise investment—a 
\ beautiful one. 
American Sculpture for American Gardens ^ 
{Continued from page 68) 
him; he was not starved for apprecia¬ 
tion; he became a demigod of art. In¬ 
heriting as he did the ideals of his race, 
its genius and its inspiration, with the 
glory of achievement burning in his 
heart, he had freedom—freedom to ex¬ 
press all the beauty that was in his soul. 
Those wonderful statues of goddesses, 
of nymphs, of boxers, of discus throw¬ 
ers, of warriors, all were made either 
for Greek gardens or for the porticos 
and halls leading into those gardens. 
The remains of this art which are our 
heritage have been excavated on the 
sites of those ancient, suburban homes 
of Greece—for instance, the Venus di 
Milo, which was found on the site of a 
suburban home on the island of Milos 
—or else come from Italy, whence they 
were transported when Rome obtained 
the ascendency of wealth and when 
Roman aristocrats adorned their own 
gardens with the art not only of their 
own country but of fallen Greece. 
An Italian garden! The very expres¬ 
sion brings to mind the statuary that 
graced the Italian renaissance, and this 
renaissance was contemporary with the 
times when the Italian states were rich, 
when, midway between the Orient and 
the Occident, they were the traders of 
the world. 
The “pares” of France, those stately 
grounds surrounding the mansions of 
the French nobles who were the re¬ 
tainers of Louis XIV and Louis XV, call 
to mind the bronze groups of those 17th 
and 18th Century Frenchmen who 
created the most glorious school of 
French sculpture that the Gauls have 
ever produced. 
Is a golden era of American sculpture 
about to dawn, under precisely the same 
influences that brought greatness to the 
sculpture of Greece, Rome, Italy and 
France? The answer can well be 
affirmative; in fact, that the first 
streaks of that dawn already have ap¬ 
peared—a light that is full of promise. 
Sculpture lagged behind painting in 
America. Early American sculpture 
need hardly be mentioned. It was 
smooth, precise, sweet, uninspired, 
wholly Victorian—a mere imitation of 
the insipidities of 19th Century Italian 
sculpture—eclectic and conventional and 
even below the point of mediocrity. 
The New American Sculpture 
The new sculpture had its birth ten 
or twelve years ago, when America’s 
wealthy families began their movement 
toward magnificent and beautiful sub¬ 
urban homes. With the planning of 
these country homes, which came to be 
the year-around residences of many of 
their owners, there grew a demand for 
native sculpture which immediately 
began to develop the best that was in 
American talent. This development in¬ 
creased rapidly in its velocity, and 
reached such a point in 1913 and early 
in 1914 that American sculptors were 
flooded with orders. 
A new spirit developed, also. There 
came freedom and appreciation, and 
fine works were eagerly sought. The 
American patrons of art already had 
grown to appreciate the best in paint¬ 
ing. Their standard in sculpture was so 
high and their ideas so liberal that the 
native artist found full play for his 
imagination. His public demanded the 
highest artistic achievement of which 
he was capable. He was inspired by 
his opportunity, and today America 
with pride can say that its contem¬ 
porary sculpture, as well as its contem¬ 
porary painting, is leading the world. 
The world conflict temporarily 
checked the output of sculpture by 
abating the demand, but it did not 
quench the sculptor’s spirit, because he 
felt that the future was his, and he has 
emerged from the eclipse with his ideals 
strengthened. Opportunity is here again, 
not simply the old opportunity, but 
a boundless new one. When the war 
began there were eight thousand Ameri¬ 
can millionaires, who were prospective 
patrons of sculpture. Now, according 
to official estimates, there are thirty 
thousand Americans whose wealth gives 
them that classification. With the old 
foundation of culture for them to build . 
upon, and with the splendid country 
seats of Mrs. Harriman, Mr. Rocke¬ 
feller, Mr. Deering, Mr. Schwab, Mrs. 
H. P. Whitney, Mr. Pratt and others to 
emulate, it can easily be seen that S 
American sculpture will henceforth de- o 
velop so as to give our native artists I 
full exercise of their talents. I 
American garden statuary is charac- j 
terized by a freedom and a spirit that j 
is of the nation itself. It is not like » 
any other sculpture in the world. It is V 
America and it fits in with American 
desires. No other sculpture is appro¬ 
priate for these American gardens but 
American sculpture. This fact was .v 
demonstrated in the first efforts at gar¬ 
den adornment in this country a few 
years ago. On this aspect of the situa¬ 
tion the ideas of Mr. W. Frank Purdy, 
head of the Gorham Sculpture Gallery, ^ 
who has done more to place the work J 
of American sculptors with American | 
art patrons than any other man, are ! 
particularly interesting. 1 
American Work for America ^ 
“When Americans first began to build '■ 
suburban homes,” says Mr. Purdy, X 
“they tried the experiment of bringing ’ 
antique statuary from Europe. The 
result had to be incongruous, and it i 
was. Old world interiors, old world '■ 
paintings and statuary for the interior : 
of the home can be used with success. 
Within the walls of a house an illusion •' 
can be obtained that is perfect and ' 
charming. But in a garden this is im- ; 
possible. America Hs all around one, 
and its aspect, its atmosphere cannot be , 
changed. Old world statuary is out of ‘ 
place, just as much so as a battlemented j 
castle would be. Experiments with it 
have been disappointing. Owners of 
homes in some instances have spent mil¬ 
lions on it, only to find their mistake 
and replace the antique statuary with 
modern American works.” 
Mr. Purdy’s view may be illustrated 
by drawing a parallel with another 
branch of art. A garden is a landscape. 
Now, an artist in painting a landscape ! 
is sure to rearrange it, so as to obtain q 
a more pleasing effect, or an effect that 
better represents the mood in which he 
views the landscape. To use a technical ; 
term, he will probably employ “high 
lights”; that is, insert objects or figures / 
that interrupt or guide the eye as it 
passes over his canvas. For instance, j 
the little peasant figures with red ker- - 
chiefs or blue aprons that Corot 
dropped into his landscapes; or the 
groups of farmhouses or distant vil¬ 
lages that Inness used to place in his 
Montclair subjects. Well, the landscape 
architect does the same thing. He re- I 
arranges his scene, and here and there i, 
he puts “high lights” in the shape of i 
statuary, fountains, or sun dials. If he ^ 
puts in something inappropriate to the ^ 
atmosphere it would be as if Corot v 
placed an Arabian horseman in one of I 
his quiet glimpses of the Seine valley,® 
or Inness inserted a Moorish castle in* 
the marshes of the Hackensack river. 
There there is the speculative instinct 
which always can be pardoned in a col¬ 
lector, for it is only human to take 
pride in one’s judgment when a chosen 
work of art is seen to appreciate in 
value year after year. This happens in 
sculpture just as it does in painting. A 
meritorious work by a sculptor whose 
reputation is growing is very certain to ; 
double and treble and quadruple in 
value. An instance of this was the 
purchase in 1913 of a certain piece by 
(Continued on page 72) 
