138 
H Otis e Garden 
What Denotes 
Good Plumbing? 
I F you have had the foresight to install 
“Tepeco” All-Clay Plumbing Fixtures 
in your house you are not our prospect. 
If you did not, you will want to know about 
the goodness and eventual economy of 
“Tepeco” ware because some day you will 
be looking for new plumbing. 
A white surface typifies cleanliness—as 
long as it stays white. It insures ready re¬ 
moval of dirt stains—as long as the surface 
lasts. 
*‘Tepeco** All-Clay Plumbing Fixtures have a sur¬ 
face that is permanently white because the ware 
beneath the glaze is of basic clay material. Clay and 
glaze, being of common origin, can be fired or baked 
into one [homogeneous mass—solid, substantial and 
permanent. It may be cleaned and scoured without 
wearing away this surface. It resists dirt and is imper¬ 
vious to acids. 
Because of our limited production and our inability 
to meet the demand for TEPECO All-Clay Plumbing 
Fixtures, you may not be able to secure the exact style 
of toilet or lavatory that may be specified. The virtue 
of TEPECO ware is such that it will pay you to 
change to a type available rather than forego the 
advantages of TEPECO products. Let the star and 
circle trade-mark be your guide. 
7/ you intend to build or renovate your 
bathroom, write for our instructive book, 
“Bathrooms of Character/* 
THE TRENTON POTTERIES CO. 
Trenton, New Jersey, U. S. A. 
Boston New York San Francisco 
THE TIMBERED ROOM 
{Continued fr 
architecture that was created to fit past 
conditions, but if we legitimately follow 
a style that is reminiscent of the past, 
retaining the fundamental principles that 
made that style good, yet making it 
unmistakably of the present, it is almost 
certain to be beautiful and well adapted 
to present-day needs. 
FARM HOUSE FEVER 
The awakening to the charm of these 
early Colonial houses brought about a 
tremendous vogue for buying old farm¬ 
houses or the more pretentious houses of 
the wealthier Colonists and restoring or 
remodeling them. If time has somewhat 
maltreated them, at least structurally, 
they are sound and durable and correct. 
It costs comparatively little to make 
them habitable again. 
But, unfortunately, their numbers are 
limited and those who are not fortunate 
enough to secure an old house, or who 
perhaps prefer building a new one of their 
own, frequently resort to all kinds of 
expedients to secure satisfying results. 
As I said before, the most important 
feature of a timbered room, aside from 
its integrity of structure, is the quality, 
texture and color of its wood. . 4 ge, of 
course, gives it a patine that no artifice 
can contrive. For this reason wood that 
h is been well seasoned by time is eagerly 
S)ught for. Old barns that are in good 
preservation sometimes yield unexpected 
treasure. The sturdy beams and wide 
boards from which they were built can 
rarely be duplicated today. So this 
material is preciously preserved and then 
metamorphosed into a room that pre¬ 
sents all the charm of the old, combined 
with all the comforts required by modern 
living. The floor of a charming timbered 
room that I know of was built of wide 
mahogany staves that had been shipped 
from Manila as casings for certain kinds 
of merchandise. They had to be cut 
into a uniform size and milled, but, af¬ 
ter they were laid and properly finished, 
they made a truly sumptuous floor. The 
walls were half-timbered, and the wood 
utilized for the walls and beamed ceiling 
was old and well-seasoned. 
.Vnother splendid adaptation of the 
old Colonial type which I think worthy 
of mention is a country house that was 
built in the spirit of the early Colonists. 
The carpenters and wood carvers of the 
very early days were in reality ship 
builders, who devoted their leisure time 
to the building of houses and later in 
embellishing them with carving. This 
ornamentation was reminiscent of Eng- 
oni page 136 ) 
lish desi^, of course, and yet it revealed 
an individuality of its own, for, though 
cruder than its English prototypes, it 
conformed to its own particular climate 
and environment, and to the different 
treatment required by native woods. 
Much of the charm of these old houses, 
too, lay in the individual craftsmanship 
displayed by various artisans. 
With some such idea in mind, the 
architect of the house I speak of em¬ 
ployed the services of a number of ship 
builders who happened to be out of work. 
Being very adept workmen in the han¬ 
dling of wood, they achieved a remark¬ 
able success, especially in the construction 
and finish of the hall and living room. 
Some timber from an old ship that had 
lost its usefulness was procured, and this 
was utilized for the walls and ceil.ngs of 
these rooms, and what a soft silvery tone 
the wood had taken on through long 
exposure to wind and weather, a patine 
that age and usage alone can give. 
THE AUTHENTIC FRAME 
Structurally, too, the frame was what 
it should be—a substantial, solid and 
unified thing unlike the ordinary modern 
dwelling where the architect, in attempt¬ 
ing to imitate the old style, but neglecting 
to study the source from which its real 
beauty springs, first builds a frame, then 
conceals it and later applies a finish 
which tries in various ways to take on 
the semblance of the structure itself. 
If the frame is genuinely good, then the 
finish will naturally be good too, if it 
solves the problem of modern living, 
against a traditional background. 
To achieve a pleasing color and tex¬ 
ture for this interior finish, there are, of 
course, certain methods for antiquing 
new wood which are so skillfully done, 
that it is difficult for the layman to dis¬ 
tinguish the new from the old. This 
process is perfectly legitimate if it frankly 
proclaims itself a reproduction and does 
not attempt' to pass itself off as an an¬ 
tique. It is, however, rather an expensive 
process, for to be done properly it must 
be handled by an expert. 
The things we quarrel with, decora- 
tively speaking, are not the good repro¬ 
ductions or adaptations, but the cheap, 
sham imitations of genuine materials 
that at once stamp a room with the mark 
of ignorance or poor taste. If we would 
have a timbered room, let it be an expres¬ 
sion of frankness and sincerity, executed 
with masculine virility and fashioned 
from materials that are both solid and 
genuine. Hanna Tachau 
ON HOUSE & GARDEN’S BOOK SHELF 
W HAT TO Cook .\nd How to Cook 
IT. By Nannie Talbot Johnson. 
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons.) 
What appeals to us most in this cook 
book is the fact that the author sup¬ 
plies a very encyclopaedic table of con¬ 
tents as well as a very complete index. 
Now there is nothing more disconcert¬ 
ing in the world than trying to find out 
how to make “Eggs a la Reine” if you 
haven’t a good index or table of con¬ 
tents. You cannot very well look for 
Reine, it isn’t done; nor can you look 
for d la because it is neither a Mohamme¬ 
dan prayer book or a French dictionary 
in which you would look for the method 
of cooking an egg! Now this may seem 
far fetched in a book review of this 
kind, blit it isn’t. The minutes speed 
while one searches at length for a rec¬ 
ipe in an ill planned cook book. After 
all, all cook books teach cookery more 
or less, but this book is very conven¬ 
iently made up, succinct in each bit of 
direction that it gives, and furthermore 
it covers the field of cookery terminologj' 
as well as any one cookery book could. 
We do wish, however, for we have a 
passion for the NEW, that Mrs. John¬ 
son had hinted at the syrup gauges, etc., 
for exact candy cookery, for many a 
woman could use this book who is mak¬ 
ing candy for a living, even though she 
(the author) onh^ designed it for home 
use, as much candy is made in the home 
for sales purposes. 
Some of the things she has not for¬ 
gotten (and many cook book writers 
have) are these: Ways of Preparing 
Food for Cookery: Egging, Larding, 
Daubing, Boning, Trussing. In another 
section: Measurements. In another: 
Garnishes and Suggestions for Serving 
Meats that are to be Serv'ed Hot. In 
this we have food for cookerj' and 
thought, that should never be omitted 
from such a book but which often is. 
The garnishing of food is as fine an art 
as the cookery. Oftentimes the failure 
{Continued on page 140 ) 
