November, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
289 
many such pictures by men who are not unknown 
at $15 and $20 and upwards. Etchings in color 
are to-day much in vogue, and there are several 
American, French and English artists who are 
turning out very beautiful plates at amazingly 
low prices. 
The art of mezzo tint engraving has reached its 
apotheosis in the work of S. Arlent Edwards. 
His beautiful plates originally published at as 
low as $7-5° to $56, often bring several hundreds 
of dollars apiece, and indeed are not always to 
be had at any price. Each plate is limited to an 
edition of 175 to 225 ; this number of impressions 
having been “pulled” the plate is then destroyed. 
The exquisite colorings and the very desirable 
subjects of these engravings lend themselves ad¬ 
mirably to the decorative scheme of any room. It 
is well to buy these 
plates as they are 
published before 
the prices soar 
into the hundreds 
of dollars. They 
are best framed, 
perhaps, in hand- 
carved antique 
gold frames, or 
simple, flat wood 
frames. 
. Men like sport¬ 
ing prints, and, 
indeed, many in¬ 
teresting subjects 
may be had either 
in old prints, at 
fairly high prices, 
or excellent new 
prints at very 
moderate prices. 
In a den, library, 
or billiard room, 
the cheerful tones 
of red, always in 
the coats of hunt¬ 
ers or jockeys, 
may form the 
color scheme, in 
less vivid tones, 
of the room. In¬ 
variably a man’s 
choice of the col¬ 
or scheme of his 
room is red. Red 
is a dangerous 
color to work 
with and because 
of its intensity 
limits one to the 
introduction 0 f 
many other col¬ 
ors. Good sport- 
ing prints of 
hunting scenes or 
coaching parties, 
therefore, lend 
themselves a d - 
mirably to the 
wall decoration of such a room. Framed in black 
or gold or dark oak, according to the furniture of 
the room, they are at their best. 
Old steel engravings, photogravures and prints 
of many kinds (Holbein prints are always good 
and are printed in a small size about 8 x 10 at 
75 cents, and some French prints lend themselves 
admirably to the decoration of certain rooms) are 
among the other pictures that are good and which 
may be purchased at a comparatively small price. 
The photographic copies of the old masters 
and modern works of art are now extensively sold 
and they make especially fit pictures for the mod¬ 
erate-priced house. The brown tones of many of 
them are in excellent harmony with the prevalent 
idea of having the woodwork finished naturally 
and simply if not in rough form. One caution is 
worth while, how¬ 
ever ; avoid some 
of those subjects 
that, notwith¬ 
standing the ex¬ 
cellence of their 
design, have be¬ 
come so common 
that their very 
repetition has 
made them tire¬ 
some. 
A detailed de¬ 
scription of each 
class of painting 
or print would re¬ 
quire an article 
exclusively on 
that subject, and 
it has been my 
purpose here to 
touch simply upon 
the good pictures 
that are to be had, 
thinking about 
them not only 
from an artistic 
standpoint, but 
from the stand¬ 
point of an invest¬ 
ment, for every 
work of art in¬ 
creases in value 
as time goes on. 
It therefore takes 
some discrimina¬ 
tion to know the 
r e a 1 ly good 
things, and if one 
is totally igno¬ 
rant of the value 
of prints and 
paintings, it 
would be well to 
entrust oneself to 
t h e tutelage of 
some reliable 
dealer, artist or 
( Continued, on 
page 314) 
1 he Edwards' mezzo tint en¬ 
gravings are in fine colors 
1 he three piece prints such as this Kunisada are of decidedly attractive coloring and are useful 
to fill out spaces over bookcases or mantels 
^ ^ ^ T; - - .g. V; <■■ '■ cs> 5*^ 
I 
The two prints at the left show excellent uses of harmonizing brocades in framing; the frame at 
the right is carved to reproduce the pine branch of the print 
