12 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 1913 
Clustered windows give pleasanter interior 
lighting effects than do isolated ones 
the interior arrangement no less perfectly on that account. 
And now let us consider the different sorts of windows. Sup¬ 
pose, for a moment, 
that it is a Colonial ^ 
house we want. Then 
most of the window.- 
should b e simple, 
small - paned affairs, i|—T 
with white or green 
shutter- and marble 1 
or brick beads. Some- 
times one finds twen- [ R 
tv-four panes to the ll&| I \ 1 t 
window; sometimes 
eighteen; never less 
than twelve. As the 
central feature of the 
second story the Co¬ 
lonial builders often 
used a Palladian win¬ 
dow, such as is shown 
in the left-hand pic¬ 
ture at the bottom of 
this page; named for 
Palladio, a n early 
Italian architect, who 
first designed 
it. Wonderful delicacy and refinement of detail always marked 
the real Palladian window ; its modern imitation is often crudely 
clumsy. 
But, above all, one must keep the Colo¬ 
nial house regular,, symmetrical and free 
from picturesque “stunts.” In the lower 
left corner of page 13 is the actual 
Eighteenth Century House; the upper 
photograph at the opposite corner of the 
same page is the Twentieth Century imita¬ 
tion. Now, the modern affair would be as 
gracefully pleasing as the older one, if 
only that fungus-like Elizabethan bav- 
window were scraped off. In itself, no 
doubt, the bay is well enough; it might 
even pass, after a fashion, if it were set 
centrally above the porch; but in its pres¬ 
ent happy-go-lucky anchorage it merely 
succeeds in ruining the whole design. 
But if one 
would have some 
rambling, pictur¬ 
esque type of 
house, one doesn’t 
need to keep so 
rigidly symmet¬ 
rical. The half- 
timbered houses 
of England have 
such delightful 
little clusters of 
tiny-paned case¬ 
ments and such 
splendidly roman¬ 
tic ranges of tall- 
transomed, mul- 
lioned bays! And 
these clusters of 
windows give Colonial builders often used a Palladian 
such sunny, de- window as the feature of the second story 
lightful interiors, too—many times more pleasing than any ar¬ 
rangement of detached, single windows. 
Small panes in the bedroom windows admit 
of large, light-giving frames 
But these many-parted, 
small-scale casements 
seem to need the com¬ 
panionship of half- 
timber work, with its 
broken-up, checkered 
surfaces; they rarely 
seem entirely satis¬ 
factory when we set 
them in another sort 
of house. 
The old English 
window panes were 
always leaded in dia¬ 
mond pattern; with 
perhaps some crest or 
escutcheon, of col¬ 
ored glass, worked in 
the upper transoms. 
Of course, these old- 
time glaziers were 
forced to use small 
panes, for nothing 
Triple-hung windows, sliding up into re¬ 
cesses, allow shutters and draperies 
larger could be made ; 
but nowadays we can 
have what size panes 
we will. But while the single large pane has some undoubted 
practical advantages, it has serious esthetic disadvantages — senti¬ 
mental disadvantages, too, let us say. For 
the single large pane coldly suggests the 
mart, the palace, the hotel; but does it 
ever suggest the home? Perhaps it is 
because we like to see some bit of screen 
between the home and the world, some 
subtle suggestion of privacy. 
And thus it is that the modern architects 
still stu ly schemes for small-paned win¬ 
dows, departing from the letter of the old 
diamond-lighted glass, but keeping its 
spirit, nevertheless. One finds squares, 
geometrical patterns and conventional de¬ 
signs in lead; sometimes one sees wood 
muntins; and, lately, casement sash of 
steel or bronze are being used. 
“T'll just tell the carpenter to put a 
couple of dormers 
A typical Colonial window of 1770, with 
small panes and a “Jack-arch” head 
in the roof; he'll 
know what pro¬ 
portion to make 
them,” said a cer¬ 
tain cocksure 
property owner to 
me the other day. 
And the result ? 
Well, the carpen¬ 
ter did not know 
how r to proportion 
the windows ; 
they are bare and 
s ta r i n g; but a 
larger fault lies in 
the huge, over¬ 
powering dor¬ 
mers. These ele¬ 
phantine affairs 
are bad failures. 
