76 
House & Garden 
Subdued , Velvety Walls Remain 
in the Background 
Rooms reflect more or less the personality 
of the people who occupy them. Well chosen 
furniture, rugs and hangings reveal new charm 
when allowed expression. Beautiful effects are 
secured at moderate cost by using Liquid 'Velvet 
for walls and ceilings. 
Choose the shade with care to harmonize with 
your furnishings. Among the numerous colors in 
which Liquid Velvet is made is exactly the one you 
need. Living with Liquid Velvet walls demonstrates 
the true economy of its selection as a wall covering. 
It dries perfectly flat, hard as enamel and has unusual 
covering properties. Made in white and a wide range 
of attractive colors and tints. 
Liquid Velvet walls and ceilings may be kept 
fresh and clean for years. The original soft color 
tones and delicate texture of Liquid Velvet walls are 
freshened by washing. Liquid Velvet is wonderfully 
durable. 
Our new Liquid Uelvet book, with its many helpful 
suggestions, is yours for the asking. Let us send you 
the name of the nearest dealer from whom you can 
buy Liquid Velvet. Remember, our Service Depart¬ 
ment will aid in solving your decorating problems. 
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Varnish Makers for Half a Century 
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Types of characteristic motifs found on 
aprons and panels of 16 th and llth 
Century furniture. From the Louvre 
French 
16th 
Wall Furniture of the 
and 17th Centuries 
(Continued from page 74) 
it often had a doted cupboard base 
while the upper portion had a falling 
front on which to write, very much 
like the same piece of furniture that 
came into use in England in the reign 
of William and Mary. The bureau or 
writing table will be more fully treated 
under Tables, but was frequently made 
to stand against the wall. As a piece 
of wall furniture it had very often a 
cabinet of small drawers at the back 
and had considerable depth of body for 
drawers at each side of the knee-hole 
for the sitter, the drawers extending 
in some cases almost as far as the 
floor. 
Baroque Influence 
During the first half of the 17th Cen¬ 
tury the Baroque influence was at its 
height in France and furniture contours 
fully displayed all the Baroque char¬ 
acteristics. While the chief structural 
lines remain straight, there were abun¬ 
dant curves where structure was not in¬ 
volved. There were arched and shaped 
crestings, shaped panel heads, a multi¬ 
plicity of pediments, cartouches with 
bold cabochon fields, rotund swelling 
moldings, shaped stretchers for cabinet 
stands—cabinets on stands came into 
high favor at this time—spiral-turned 
legs for the same, spool-turned legs, 
straight quadrangular tapered legs, col- 
onette legs with or without arcaded 
aprons, scroll legs, and all the other 
peculiarities incident to Baroque deco¬ 
ration. 
While the Louis Quatorze style was 
Baroque, it was Baroque very much 
tempered and restrained by a strong 
infusion of Classicism, and this temper¬ 
ing appeared in furniture contours as 
well as in architecture and fixed deco¬ 
rations. The minutiae of contour for 
both the Louis Treize and Louis Qua¬ 
torze periods appear in the illustrations 
and may best be compared and studied 
there. 
Later Inlays 
In addition to the materials common¬ 
ly used in the 16th Century, we now 
find an extended employment of inlay 
woods as well as tortoise shell, ivory, 
and metals for mounts and inlay pur¬ 
poses. Lacquer also came into fashion. 
To the decorative processes previously 
employed we must add marqueterie and 
Boule work, which latter was an inlay 
of tortoise shell, brass and tin, the metal 
surfaces being sometimes further en¬ 
hanced by engraving. The characteris¬ 
tic decorative motifs pertaining to these 
later developments are shown in the 
illustrations. The scallop shell, sun rays, 
mascarous and reticulated diapering 
were especially in evidence during the 
reign of Louis XIV. In the latter half 
of the century mounts assumed an im¬ 
portance hitherto unknown. In addition 
to pulls, lockplates and scutcheons, 
abundant metal ornaments of cast 
bronze and brass, chiselled and en¬ 
graved, were used to embellish the 
bodies of much of the more pretentious 
cabinetwork. 
The imaginative and inventive pre¬ 
eminence of the French led them to de¬ 
vise numerous variations upon all the 
forms herein set forth, so that furniture 
designing reached an unsurpassed stage 
of flexibility. Consequently, there was 
no shade of a mobiliary want that was 
not fully satisfied. One of the valuable 
lessons to be learned from the study of 
this period, quite apart from everything 
else, is facility of adaptation. 
