68 
House & Garden 
THE VARIETY 
OF FANLIGHTS 
Decorative Details 
Worth Studying 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
T HE collecting mania is all-embracing 
in its choice of objects, from postage 
stamps to ancient bronzes. People 
aplenty have been known to collect old 
houses, figuratively speaking, and a widely- 
read publication recently contained an arti¬ 
cle on collecting cellars of ruined New Eng¬ 
land dwellings. The precise whereabouts 
of each beloved excavation the author-hob¬ 
byist kept jealously to himself and regaled 
the reader with only a description of his far- 
scattered treasures. 
The collection of fanlights—mentally 
and, by comparison, rather than bodily— 
is an hobby of easier indulgence and calcu¬ 
lated to lead to more useful and constructive 
results. Once formed, the habit of keeping 
the eye open to note the numerous, variant 
phases of this particular feature, keenness 
of sight and memory will be stimulated and 
the sense of architectural appreciation meas¬ 
urably broadened. The faculty of judg¬ 
ment thus unconsciously acquired, as one 
goes from place to place, will inevitably be 
valuable to the observer whether he is actu¬ 
ally seeking for inspiration to embody in a 
prospective dwelling or whether he is bent 
merely upon critical satisfaction. 
Wallace 
Charm is given this doorway by its 
position and the fanlight. The re¬ 
cessed vestibide is painted the white 
of the door frame. The fanlight has 
radiating divisions, embellished by 
swags. This doorway, dating from 
the early 19 th Century, is in the Bea¬ 
con Hill section of Boston 
This late 18 th Century doorway in 
Sidmouth, Devonshire, England, is 
remarkable for the intricate, web¬ 
like composition of its semi-circular 
fanlight. Radiating divisions are the 
major motif and lesser semi-circles, 
swags and cross divisions the minor 
motif of the design 
