House and Garden 
This “New Art” 
movement is centred 
principally in Vienna, 
Munich, Paris and 
in what is somewhat 
loosely described asthe 
“ Glasgow School ” 
in Great Britain. Its 
ideals are still some¬ 
what crude and em¬ 
bryonic, but when 
not merely eccentric 
its tendency towards 
purely decorative lines 
is capable of high de¬ 
velopment. This style 
has hitherto found 
little favor in America. 
To all this varied 
achievement and ex¬ 
periment of centuries 
we are the natural 
heirs; but there is 
little likelihood that 
we shall remain mere 
adaptors of foreign 
accomplishments. Our native designers, 
perhaps to a greater extent than those 
of any other country, have a field for 
infinite progress and development open to 
them. There is a growing demand tor ex¬ 
pensive, high-class work in elevator enclo¬ 
sures, stair railings, large grilles in banking and 
other office buildings, and in the gateways, 
balconies, window guards, lamps and fences 
of domestic and public edifices. How ad¬ 
mirably this demand was formerly met may be 
seen from the accompanying illustrations 
of foreign design and workmanship, and it is 
certain that the inventive, progressive in¬ 
stinct of our race will successfully avail 
itself of its opportu¬ 
nities for still higher 
development. At one 
time, during the Colo¬ 
nial period, a distinct¬ 
ive style was evolved 
of which particularly 
good examples are, 
or were to be seen in 
the old Independence 
Hall at Philadelphia 
and the Old State 
House at Boston. It 
was simple and grace¬ 
ful in motive and is 
now being widely re¬ 
vived. Rococo only in¬ 
fluences our designers 
in minor interior 
work, not being suited 
to our exterior archi¬ 
tecture and, in its 
highest form, its great 
delicacy rendering it 
liable to corrosion in 
our climate. 
1 he purely Gothic never has enjoyed 
large popularity here, and the French Renais¬ 
sance is falling into some disfavor with the 
more original of our iron-workers. But 
whatever style or national school grows out 
of the present transitionary period, it cannot 
but tend to a higher artistic culture, bringing 
the aesthetic into the most humble and com¬ 
monplace uses of daily life. It is as hard for 
wrought iron even in primitive forms to be 
coarse and ignoble, as it is difficult for cast 
iron to be otherwise, though even in the 
latter there is a healthy tendency towards 
improvement and an adapting of decoration 
to the enlarging architectural ideas of the age. 
XVI. CENTURY SCREEN IN THE PALAZZO 
BAGATTI-VALSECCHI, MILAN 
3 l 7 
