May, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
349 
lie separates them, keeping the sheets in their sequence, spreads 
them out and trims and glues them on the core, carefully matching 
the patterns in the grain, for the panel is often larger than the 
sheets of finishing wood. The system is quite evident when one 
examines any wide, hardwood panel. What appears a single piece 
is made up of two, or four, or six, or eight pieces of veneer, 
as the case may be, and counting the inner layers, of perhaps 
twenty separate pieces. This is, of course, expensive. For our 
Jacobean room last January we quoted a price for good, solid- 
panel wainscoting, of about $1 a square foot, set in the wall and 
finished; the veneered work would cost $1.50. 
In the room we have illustrated the dominant is the chimney- 
piece. The first that were used in modern rooms were taken 
bodily from the old palaces, but ours might well be a cast concrete 
reproduction. A large fireplace is characteristic of the style. We 
mean "large fireplace” literally, not a large chimney-piece fastened 
against a small fireplace. It is never successful to set up one 
of these great hoods with its supporting pilasters and projecting 
corbels and then fill underneath it with brick or stone until the 
usual 30" x 30" opening is left. Better have the large fireplace 
or give up the type altogether! 
A large fireplace means a deep fireplace as well, and a big flue. 
The flue should be 1/10 or 1/12 the area of the fireplace opening. 
30"x30" 
The 30" x 30" fireplace requires - flue area, or an 
12 
8 x 12 flue lining, which, actually installed, means a 7 x 11 flue, 
since the standard flue lining is somewhat smaller inside than its 
list dimension would indicate. Our fireplace is 58" high by 62" 
wide, so it requires a 24" diameter flue; we give the diameter, 
for the larger linings are round in cross-section. Eighteen or 20" 
in depth is sufficient for the small fireplace, but ours must be 30" 
at the very least, measured from the back of the hearth to the 
floor immediately under the front of the lintel. The lintel should 
not be flat underneath for more than 4"; beyond, should slope 
upward and back, so the ascending smoke cannot strike a flat 
surface and roll out into the room. Back of the lintel is a tent¬ 
shaped space, called the smoke chamber, narrowing at the ridge 
to a slot the full width of the fireplace and equal in area to the 
flue; above and back of the slot a ledge forms the base of the 
“throat,” a pyramidal space gathering at the top to the hue, and 
so up, without unnecessary bends and without change in cross- 
sectional area, to the top of the chimney, slightly higher than any 
nearby roofs. Such a fireplace is certain to draw well. 
Another way, but not quite so sure, is to combine smoker 
chamber and throat in one pyramidal space gathering directly into 
the flue, without slot or ledge. A standard iron damper might be 
set above the smoke chamber, which, closed in winter when the 
fire is not lighted, prevents loss of heated air and a chilling of the 
room ; but a damper is not necessary. The important things seem, 
first, to have the flue large enough for the opening and, second, to 
have the fireplace deep enough. The flue, we said, must be at 
least 1/12 the area of the opening; the depth must be at least J4 
the height of the opening; better rather more. 
A mantel, such as we have shown, cast in concrete stone from 
an old Italian model, if it be one of the types kept in stock by the 
larger mantel manufacturers, would cost between $80 and $160, 
depending on the elaboration of its ornament. A brick hearth 
and brick back and jambs would be satisfactory; an ornamental 
cast iron fireback set in the brick is interesting but not necessary. 
In an earlier article we referred to the remarkably good replicas 
of old mantels in the stocks of certain dealers; in buying such a 
mantel one has the very best work of a good period perfectly 
reproduced, at a cost far below what one would hav$ to pay for a 
mantel specially designed; for, of course, if an article can be 
found in stock it is inexpensive for value received; if the manu¬ 
facturers can make many from the same model they can afford to 
sell for less. Doors are an instance. We have said that veneered 
work in large panels was more expensive than solid work in small; 
yet there are excellent single-panel hardwood veneered doors made 
in the Middle West that are as cheap as th most commonplace 
(Continued on page 384) 
In the Italian room the dominant note is the chimney-piece. At first those used were taken bodily from old palaces, but to-day cast concrete reproductions are to be had 
at a reasonable price. The fireplace itself must also be large, not merely a large chimney-piece fastened against a small fireplace 
