October , i 92 j 
A LITTLE CARVING HERE AND THERE 
Somber Architectural Dignity Takes On a Pleasing Grace IP hen 
Wood-Carving Is Intelligently Used 
HANNA TACHAU 
’^TZHEN one enters a 
’ ’ room that is beauti¬ 
fully proportioned, where 
the openings—the doors, 
windows, fireplace—^ all 
have been located with 
a nice sense of balance; 
where walls have been well 
spaced, and the height of 
the ceiling considered in its 
relation to the walls and 
floor area, one immediately 
feels its satisfying beauty 
even though it has no other 
decoration. But when we 
do undertake to further em¬ 
bellish such a room, we 
must approach it architec¬ 
turally, for decoration in its 
best sense has never been 
conceived as an end in it¬ 
self, but as an accessory, an 
enricher of the architecture 
from which it springs. 
In our way of living, we 
have much in common with 
the English, and many of 
their beautiful homes have 
Wood carving was used 
gmcrously in Elizabethan 
times, and this modern in¬ 
terior, designed in that 
same taste, shows carved 
wood used plentifully. 
Frank J. Forster, architect 
1 if 
li 
I 
been accepted as inspira¬ 
tions for our own domestic 
building. It is mostly from 
them that we have learned 
the decorative possibilities 
of wood. Early paneled 
walls were undoubtedly first 
devised as the best means 
of introducing warmth and 
color into the cold austerity 
of stone interiors, and crafts¬ 
men soon recognized the 
inherent beauty of wood. 
The intricate delicacy and 
marvelous elaborateness of 
Gothic wood-carving still 
remain to us as one of the 
wonders of decorative art. 
The greatest skill and finest 
workmanship were of course 
lavished upon churches and 
cathedrals, but mediaeval 
castles and dwellings also 
received the inspired atten¬ 
tion of the worker in wood. 
Today the same condi¬ 
tion holds good—craftsmen 
{Contimied on page 122 ) 
Otherwise discreetly pan¬ 
eled, this Georgian library 
becomes quite decorative 
with its balanced book¬ 
cases terminating in curved 
and carved tops. John 
Russell Pope, architect 
