INSIDE THE 
HOUSE 
Timely Suggestions and 
Answers to Correspondents 
This is for the Kitchen 
HERE have been a thousand and 
one accessories for the preparation 
of the various kinds of fruit—cherry- 
stoning machines, raisin seeders, apple 
corers, pineapple shredders, strawberry 
hullers, etc. — but the difficult problem of 
serving apples au naturel is satisfactorily 
solved for all time by a Knife which, with 
one motion, cuts the apple into quarters 
and at the same time removes the core. 
The skin has to be peeled off, and the fruit 
is ready to be eaten in its most delicious 
form. A circular cutting board of hard¬ 
wood accompanies the cutter, which is of 
good quality of steel and very durable. 
Small Decorative Objects 
N obscure cottages of the Old World 
are to be found articles of furniture 
that the peasants themselves may have 
decorated. The best of these are simple 
and have great charm because they are a 
part of the life that created them. In the 
quiet of their daily life the peasants’ 
artistic feeling frequently expressed itself 
in household decoration. Many of such 
designs or parts of them are the inspiration 
leading to a charming modern scheme of 
decoration. 
The studio of one woman decorator of 
New York is full of ordinary household 
objects made of wood or tin which are 
abloom with common garden flowers, such 
as flourish nowhere so well as in the fer¬ 
tile soil of the artist’s imagining. From 
tea trays to flower boxes and lamps her 
art changes the merely useful thing into 
an object of beauty as well as utility. 
Most of the old-time flowers blooming in 
this modern art shop are of the peasant 
character, though on some places are the 
Tills new apple knife cuts the fruit into sections, at the 
same time removing the core 
daintier garlands and some fair ladies who 
show traces of French high life. 
The tea screen, which is of the latter 
type, guards the teapot from the too 
caressing summer wind when the refresh¬ 
ing cup is served on the porch or under 
the trees on the lawn. The graceful, 
courtly dames, with which the screen is 
decorated, reflect that world which chil¬ 
dren suppose to be peopled by beings who 
live on cake and do nothing more laborious 
than play with wreaths of flowers. Bird- 
egg blue is the soft background for the 
painting, which cleverly conceals the fact 
that the screen itself is merely tin, for the 
decoration and background deftly suggest 
that it might be enameled. 
Similar wreaths on a black lacquered 
surface decorate the oblong tray. Yes, 
similar in a general way but not alike, for 
individuality characterizes these studio 
pieces quite as much as originality. Here¬ 
in lies a valuable asset. No two pieces 
are exactly alike unless one wishes them 
so. Often it is desired to have a certain 
motive of the chintz or cretonne hangings 
reappear in the tea tray, the screen, or 
perhaps the cookie box, which will be 
within call, if not actually lurking some¬ 
where about the tea table. Black lacquer 
is such an ideal background for either the 
peasant or the modernist style of decora¬ 
tion that it is employed a great deal, 
thoTigh there is no rule except to make 
the useful thing beautiful. Needless to 
add that it is sure to have a personality 
of its own. 
The trays come in many kinds, shapes 
and sizes. They are small and large; with 
black lacquer, blue or green ; with tiny, stiff 
posies or with bold, realistic flowers of 
the present sort. One tray with the latter 
decoration is of Japanese grass painted 
yellow, from which the green leaves, 
flowers and gay birds stand out with im¬ 
pressive definition. It is round and is 
The decorated tinware is made up in a variety of shapes — candy boxes, cake 
and cookie boxes and boxes for trinkets, each with a dainty design painted over 
black lacquer 
Made of decorated black lacquered wood are twin boxes, as well as a holder for 
crochet cotton, a flower pot box and a little bonbon box shaped like an 
Easter egg 
358 
