58 House & Garde',i 
STAINS AND ENAMELS 
Which Make Possible the Home Builder s Desire for Color , 
Charm and Health Inside the House 
HENRY COMPTON 
A N appreciation of the natural surface 
of wood is again gaining way in this 
country. In the centuries of domestic 
architecture that swung through England, 
France, Italy, Spain, and even occasionally 
the Orient, there was a recurring fashion 
for the natural surface of wood in furniture 
and house decoration. There seem to have 
been real lovers of wood in almost every 
period of home ornamentation from the 
very earliest days. And then there has 
nearly always been the more florid spirit 
of decoration, the mind that feels that 
every process of construction must be con¬ 
cealed, that only painting and carving and 
inlay are fine and elaborate enough for 
what has been so much admired in so 
many worlds by aristocrat society. 
Sometimes one phase of this decoration en¬ 
tirely overlays and obliterates the other, and 
sometimes they move side by side, as in 
some of the famous English periods, in 
France in Louis Seize and Empire, in Spain 
in those splendid days of the Moorish in¬ 
vasion. 
The hiding of wood under paint, varnish, 
lacquer, enamel and inlay came about for 
two reasons, one the unquenchable love of 
color that has prevailed from the very be¬ 
ginning of time in the hearts of men when¬ 
ever homes were planned or decorated. And 
the other, the curious idea that a shining, 
perfect surface is more interesting and 
elegant than the natural wood grain with 
all its intricacy, half revealed beauty and 
appeal to the imagination. Also, the use 
of paints, lacquers, etc. enabled the cabinet¬ 
makers to use less expensive woods, and 
apparently this sort of economy was just 
as necessary for Sheraton and Chippendale, 
for the craftsmen in the courts of Louis XV, 
as it is today in our great factories in 
America. 
A S a rule, whenever the really signifi¬ 
cant woods were employed, the sur¬ 
face was treated by hand with wax 
after oil had been applied for days at a 
time, to bring out the utmost beauty and 
color of which the wood was capable. This 
was the case with oak and walnut in 1650, 
with cedar in 1660, cherry in the Carolean 
epoch, but not so of beech and birch, ex¬ 
cept in the Colonial times, when beech and 
birch as well as pine were treated by hand, 
and the most beautiful results gained, which 
has put a value on these particular pieces of 
furniture that is almost limitless. 
When pine was used, carved and waxed 
after being first stained with oil, in the 17th 
Century in England, it was called deal and 
a beautiful example of it was shown in 
New York last season, the woodwork of 
the Hogarth house, fascinating in its color 
and carved, and even painted white. It 
learned quickly to be perfectly unnatural. 
When wood was most elaborately painted in 
England and France by Hepplewhite, 
Sheraton and the Louis Seize designers, 
pine, pear, holly, baywood and lime wood 
were used, both for gilding and white 
painting. 
I N India, the finest woods, teak, mahog¬ 
any and ebony, were never painted, 
but treated for durability and to 
achieve a very dull finish. For the 
finest inlay of the greatest furniture crafts¬ 
men, mahogany was the favorite—San 
Domingo, Honduras and Cuban and the 
clouded grained mahogany from Spain. 
Chippendale preferred especially the Span¬ 
ish mahogany to any other wood. The 
first mahogany was brought to England 
by Sir Walter Raleigh and was widely 
used after 1720. At first it was treated 
with oil, waxed by hand, but eventually 
it was varnished and inlaid and lacquered 
Although craftsmen of all times really 
have loved the natural surface of wood, 
often the world at large has craved color to 
the extinction of wood surface. This was 
true back in the days of the Persians; the 
finest of the Greek architecture and sculp¬ 
ture was painted; as was, to an extent, the 
most brilliant of Roman achievement in 
decoration. From the 11th Century through 
the Renaissance an almost violent craving 
for color brought painted decoration into 
architecture and house decoration at every 
turn, from the altar in the cathedrals to the 
beams and timbers of the houses, color 
blazed forth. In many English cathedrals 
and smaller churches the removal of plaster 
discloses a wealth of color on the inner 
stone. 
F URNITURE, as is always the case, 
took its tone from contemporary archi¬ 
tecture. In the early European days 
both furniture and decorations were archi¬ 
tectural in form and often brilliantly 
colored. Especially among the Dutch and 
Bavarian and Italian peasantry was color 
used, sometimes merely to bring out the 
tracery of finely carved woods, sometimes 
to entirely hide the woodwork in rich tones 
and gay ornamentation. We find it 
especially noticeable in England in the 
Middle Ages, a very passion for gorgeous 
colors, with ornately carved armoires. over¬ 
laid with gilding and rich diaper work, and 
scarlet and blue, chocolate and green, 
heraldic devices blazened in rich tones. 
I N the 18th Century Adam, Hepple¬ 
white and Sheraton, at times resorted 
to paints and lacquers and inlay to 
please their royal customers. Even in the 
Tudor days, old cupboards were vividly 
painted with vermillion and green; and the 
polychrome treatment appeared upon the 
chests and coffers. All through the 
Jacobean times carved ornament was en¬ 
hanced with color, and in the later days of 
this period marqueterie also appeared. 
Of course, when Cromwell came to the 
throne, with his meagre, stern spirit, color 
again vanished from the land. Form in 
furniture was much simplified and made to 
suit the spirit of this man who feared all 
beauty. But after his day, during the 
Carolean spirit, through, the reign of Queen 
Anne, through the bright days of William 
and Mary, paints and gilt and lacquer 
dominated again, and then on at intervals 
through many periods down to the late 
Queen Victoria. 
Early in the 18th Century, just \vhen 
there was less painted furniture in Eng¬ 
land, it was rapidly increasing in France 
through the influence of Vernis Martin, who 
early in life was a decorator of coach doors, 
but who became, in time, the vogue 
throughout France. About this time An¬ 
gelica Kauffmann and Cipriani were doing 
work exquisite in color and finish, and 
Biedemeyer was painting interesting deco¬ 
rations in fascinating form. 
I T was the French really who first 
brought our painted furniture to a 
high degree of brilliance, with their 
lacquers and shellacs and varnishes, and 
the fancy for this glittering surface rapidly 
spread over the world, so varied were its 
advantages. For with all the beauty 
attached to the natural surface of wood, 
either stained or waxed, there is a certain 
fascination in the highly finished surface, 
not to mention the ease of caring for it, and 
its sanitary quality, which have brought it 
a popularity. 
T ODAY there are probably no more 
varying finishes for woodwork in our 
houses than stains and enamels, and 
yet this is scarcely a complete characteri¬ 
zation, because there are also stains that 
carry their own varnish, so that it is possible 
at one and the same time to get a stain and 
yet have a highly polished surface. Ap¬ 
parently the makers of the stains today are 
studying every phase of the question of 
decoration, and homemakers stains appro¬ 
priate for the lovers of natural wood sur- 
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