82 
House & Garden 
Perhaps You 
Don't Know — 
that Enamolin is the 
whitest enamel in the 
world — 
that one Gallon of 
Enamolin will finish 
over 600 square feet of 
surface— 
that woodwork, furni¬ 
ture and walls finished 
with Enaanolin can be 
washed with soap and 
water or Sapolio, with 
never a chance of 
hurting the finish— 
that a room finished with Enamolin will be a delight 
to the eye years after an ordinary enamel or paint 
would require refinishing. 
The leading painters and decorators know these facts 
— that’s why so many of them are using Enamolin 
on great hotels, hospitals and private homes. 
As for your floors, use Namlac Floor Finish —a finish 
that is just as economical—just as beautiful in its way 
2LS Enamolin. Water-proof, mar-proof, scratch-proof. 
Enamolin and Namlac are on sale at the better paint and hardware 
stores. If you cannot secure them, write to us. 
Ask for free copy of “The White Spot” 
booklet. A sample can oieither Enamolin 
or Namlac Floor Finish sent for 10c. 
Address Home Department 
ESTABLISHED IN 1850 
lOOWilliani Sl NcwAbrk 
BUILDING PLANS at lower prices 
We will now make plans and specifications according to your ideas for l%% 
of building cost (instead of regular 254% for same service as by all architects). 
Includes preliminary sketches, 2 sets blueprints, 2 sets specifications. 
Plans including preliminary sketches and 2 sets of blueprints for 1% of 
OF COUNTRV HOUSES UNIVERSAL STUDIO, ARCHITECTS 
OUR SPECIALTY 47 Broadway, New York 
Most Beautiful 
Flowering Shrubs 
Catalog describes colors ac¬ 
cording to the color chart of 
the French Chrysanthemum 
Society. You can make har¬ 
monious color combinations. 
Thousands to select from. 
You can plant now and have 
a beautiful show June first. 
Beautiful foliage. 
Send for list of trees and shrubs for late planting. 
Satisfactory growth guaranteed or replaced free. 
HICKS NURSERIES, Weslbury, L. I., Box Q, Phone 68 
Grown in Pots. Now 
Ready to Transplant 
We have a large stock of hardy 
perennials which will give your 
old-fashioned garden a riot 
of color and fragrance this 
year. Phlox, Sweet William, 
Hollyhocks, Blue Bell, Lark¬ 
spur and all the old 
favorites. Prices, ISc up. 
"Pauvre Annette," hy and after Dehucourt, is 
unique. It tells the story of a poignant little 
romance 
The Gay and Radiant Ladies of French Prints 
{Continued from page 21) 
the arms, the dedication and all of 
the letters. 
These different “states” vary in 
rarity and consequently in price, the 
more plentiful editions having little 
appeal to the collector, who keeps his 
precious engravings in portfolios, and 
being low enough in price to bring 
them within the reach of the home 
builder who wants them merely as 
decorations for his walls. 
Again, the collector wants nothing 
to do with a print if its margins are 
cut away, or if it has suffered dam¬ 
age in any part. However, for deco¬ 
rative purposes, when they are 
mounted and framed, these prints 
produce just as good an effect as 
any other. Cheapest of all are the 
almost perfect modern reproductions 
of the best of the old prints, some 
of which are so fine as almost to 
deceive an expert, and which, aside 
from the sentimental value of having 
an “original,” produce much the same 
effect of daintiness and elegance in 
a room that the genuine example 
is sure to give. 
Many 18th Century copper plates 
still exist in France, and modern im¬ 
pressions are being made from them, 
but they are of little value, the lines 
being blurred and feeble and the 
effect lacking the brilliancy of the 
old work. The plates have been 
“worked over” time and again and 
much of the detail is changed. 
Their Questionable Naughtiness 
Although not having the “strength” 
of the old English mezzotints, French 
line engravings and color prints of 
the three decades preceding the Revo¬ 
lution certainly lack the insipidity of 
the English productions. They have 
the vivacity and the sparkle of French 
life when France was the center of 
the world’s gayety. English engrav¬ 
ings had a much longer life, and 
have always been considered quite 
“proper,” while French engravings 
until recent years were held to be 
more or less “improper,” whether 
they were or not. Custom house 
officials both in England and America 
used to destroy them as being unfit 
for admission. Even De Launay’s 
splendid “Les Hasards heureaux de 
I’escarpolette,” engraved after the 
celebrated painting by Fragonard, 
“The Swing,” was once destroyed at 
Dover as being likely to corrupt the 
English taste! This work is now 
regarded as one of the most beauti¬ 
ful products of the engraver’s art, 
and the perilous flight of the lady 
through the air, propelled in the 
swing by the arms of Fragonard him¬ 
self, while the lover looks on from 
the ground, is not regarded as in the 
least improper. 
These prints reproduce the very 
spirit of the times of Louis XV and 
Louis XVI, light hearted and gay, 
and make an artistic unity with the 
furniture and wall decorations of the 
times. They emphasize the character 
of the contents of a French room, 
being at once a part and a comple¬ 
ment thereof. Scenes are depicted 
of pleasant domesticity, of various 
forms of pleasure, and of love. 
The M.nster Artists 
Daintiness and delicacy of tone are 
the characteristics of the French col¬ 
or prints, the prevailing color being 
blue,—blue in varying shades, fading 
softly away and never aggressive 
or glaring. The artists whose works 
are most prized are Janinet, Debu- 
court, Descourtis and Desrais. The 
prints of Debucourt are inimitable, 
and his work, as well as that of 
Janinet, has a pure and limpid opales¬ 
cent tonality that has proved the 
despair of modern imitators. 
These men were the engravers, and 
they worked mainly after paintings 
by Baudouin, Lavreince, Fragonard, 
St. Aubin and Moreau. Strange to 
say, prints after the works of greater 
artists, such as Boucher, Lancret, 
Watteau and Chardin, were never on 
the whole successful, lacking as they 
did the elements necessary to success¬ 
ful reproduction. They were stylists, 
whose peculiar charm it was almost 
impossible to convey by means of 
the engraved line. 
Among the more famous French 
prints may be mentioned “Le Prome¬ 
nade publique,” by Debucourt; “Less 
Hasards heureaux de I’escarpolette” 
and “Le Billet doux,” by De Launay; 
“Le Coucher de la mariee,” by 
Moreau and Simonet; “Le Concert,” 
{Continued on page 84) 
