20 
House & Garden 
too limited. For example, her 
statement of what has been accom¬ 
plished by the forerunners of 
“Twentieth Century Decoration” 
refers to a long list of workers in 
decorated porcelains, handloom 
fabrics, embroidery, rug making, 
batik, block printing, ceramics, 
wrought metal, stained glass, and 
enamels, but not to any makers of 
furniture, wall decorations, archi¬ 
tecture or interior design. In the 
remainder of the volume, many 
decorators’ names are mentioned, 
but the illustrations of their work 
are only partially effective, and not 
always worthy. One imagines in 
the reading of this 
book that the 
moderns of America 
have modeled them¬ 
selves too exclusive¬ 
ly on the German 
school of Innen- 
Decoration to be the 
rightfu’ forerunners 
of a new native art. 
The Inevitable 
But in some way, 
by some means, per¬ 
haps undreamt as 
yet, the new style 
must come. We 
cannot continue to 
copy the antique 
forever, and cer¬ 
tainly not the decay¬ 
ing examples of 
antiquity which are 
what we reproduce 
today. Some time, 
some leader of the 
fashions will declare 
“I shall have nothing 
in my house that has 
ever existed on land 
or sea, or in the 
heavens above or the 
waters under the 
earth,” and then the 
Anton Heilman, Decorator 
A simple corner group shows modern wall-paper with a 
Chinese plaque, and conventional folding table, black car¬ 
pet and white curtains with black appliques 
Chamberlin Dodds, Decorator 
A Venetian breakfast room. At the back are tioo decorated commodes with triple candle¬ 
sticks and vases, a standing lamp holding a stuffed bird and orange velvet curtains. 
Table cover of filet. Violet carpet. Walls, woodwork and ceiling, turquoise blue 
apes will climb up after her into a 
new demand for originality, and 
art, with a flourish of trumpets, will 
give birth to a new gesture. 
The Recalcitrants 
Meanwhile we are surrounded by 
a number of worthy performances 
by decorators who employ the 
periods with a new sense—of color, 
of design, and of humor. 
Baron de Meyer, with a devil- 
may-care audacity worthy of his 
title, has selected the most despised 
of all periods today and has ex¬ 
ploited it with great success. The 
verve of his Victorian interiors is 
remarkable; he must 
have a lot of fun 
with them and his 
clients, at the same 
time that he adds to 
the gayety of at least 
one nation. Here 
we have all the old 
ugly things used in a 
new, effective way, 
and we perceive that 
no one of them is 
ugly in itself, but 
only in relation to 
everything else with 
which it was used in 
1870, and ’80, and 
’90, and that a place 
exists or could be 
made to e.xist in 
which everything, 
even the Venus with 
a clock in her belly, 
might be fine. 
That itself is an 
important point in 
the new teaching 
which is bound to 
follow the practice 
of a new style. 
There is nothing 
wrong with bright 
{Continued on page 
92) 
Herts, Decorators 
A den in black and orange. Furniture 
painted with orange lines and flower 
decorations. Upholstery is orange and 
vari-color linen. Taffeta pillows and 
black taffeta bolster 
Herts, Decorators 
This is the other end of the boudoir 
shown on page 19. The carpets are rose 
and the walls pale rose with blue mould¬ 
ing. The under curtains are of blue 
gauze and the center light is blue 
