92 
House & Garden 
HCWARD 'young 
GALLERIES 
ILLUSTRATED BROCHURE 
ON KEQUEtoT. 
Imporiani Paln-tirK^ 
AMERiCANanc/ 
FOREIGN MASTERS 
^20 ^ififi^vonuQ 
AT FIFTIETH STREET 
Now featuring 
LOUIS 
KRONBERG 
THE BALLET 
WARDROBE 
MISTRESS 
By 
LOUIS 
KRONBERG 
A Row of House & Garden Books 
{Continued from page 90) 
perfection. Unless he is willing and anx¬ 
ious to do this, he is not a garden lover 
in the fullest sense. But while many are 
eager to undertake this work, few have 
the necessary knowledge to carry it 
through to success, and it is for these 
that this book has been written. 
It seems to me that every phase of 
the subject of making a flower garden 
has been taken up in this book in a 
manner not only interesting but thor¬ 
oughly clear. There are diagrams of 
garden plans, chapters that go into detail 
in the matters of various locations for 
planting, hotbeds, cold-frames, soil and 
fertilizers, that will be of tremendous 
help to the e.xperienced as well as the 
uninitiated. 
And every type of flower garden is 
here, from the rock garden with its at¬ 
tractive irregularity, through the water 
garden, which is one of the most fasci¬ 
nating forms of this work, to the final 
charm of the old-fashioned garden. 
These are only a few of the things 
mentioned in this most complete book. 
There is information on bulbs, vines, 
roses, shrubs and trees and the many 
enemies of plant life. Finally there are 
suggestions for color schemes in a flower 
garden—surely an alluring subject and 
one that will have its unfailing appeal to 
all classes of workers in this field. 
Batiks and How to Make Them. By 
Pieter Mijer. Dodd, Mead & Co. 
There is no one better fitted to write 
the history of batiks than Pieter Mijer. 
It was he who first brought the knowl¬ 
edge of this process to America, some 
twelve years ago. Combined with a 
genuine love of his subject, is sound, 
technical knowledge of its various 
phases. In this volume, just published, 
he takes us back to the beginnings of 
the industry in Java. With a direct¬ 
ness and simplicity of language, he en¬ 
ables us to understand the intricacies of 
batik making, and to realize the charm 
of this little known art. The book is 
profusely illustrated and the last half 
is devoted to a detailed account of how 
to make batiks. It will be of inestima¬ 
ble value to the hundreds of workers 
in this craft, who up to the present 
time have had no authoritative book to 
turn to for instruction. It is a clear 
analysis of batik making—an art un¬ 
usual and beautiful and now so much 
in vogue in America. 
Individuality in Country Homes 
{Continued from page 19) 
among the larger country houses Mr. 
Lindeberg has designed, but illustrate 
no less admirably certain qualities of his 
work which the writer wishes to bring 
out—those qualities which make it really 
exceptional in the field of American 
country house architecture today. 
A study of the plans of these houses 
would involve many points essentially 
practical, and reveal the architect’s 
abilities in this direction, but since 
discussion of plans in words is relatively 
profitless, it must suffice to say in this 
connection that Mr. Lindeberg has 
never yielded to the obvious tempta¬ 
tion of sacrificing the logical arrange¬ 
ment of the plan to no matter how at¬ 
tractive a rendering of the exterior. 
Which brings us at once to the sub¬ 
stance of our immediate discussion— 
the essentially artistic aspect of these 
country houses, using the word “artistic” 
advisedly, and not in its usually care¬ 
less and banal philistine application. 
The Art in Architecture 
Of what, exactly, does this art con¬ 
sist ? Broadly, it consists of two things: 
the complete “picture” made by the 
house and its environment, and the de¬ 
tails of design and material of which the 
complete picture is constructed. 
The whole effect of one of Mr. Linde- 
berg’s houses could be achieved only 
through vision and visualizing. He 
must see very clearly in his mind’s eye 
the house as he wishes it to be, though 
this alone would not assure its creation. 
Combined with an unusually artistic 
vision, he has no less a degree of archi¬ 
tectural ingenuity and resourcefulness 
in the matter of materials and details. 
It is very uncommon in this country 
to see building materials so ingeniously 
or so expressively used as in these coun¬ 
try houses. The materials, for the most 
part, have long been at hand, but 
strangely little utilization has been 
made of their wide range of colors and 
textures. For a great many years lack 
of imagination, with resultant conven¬ 
tionality, has been the rule in building 
materials in this country—the rule, in 
fact, until the coming of textured bricks 
of unusual colors and dimensions, fol¬ 
lowed by a variety of interesting roof 
tiles, and heavy, rugged, irregular roof 
slates. 
These materials Mr. Lindeberg uses 
with a spontaneous freedom and great 
flexibility—but he goes further, and im¬ 
parts highly interesting qualities to the 
woodwork and ironwork called for in 
his details. 
Honest Use of Materials 
A study of the houses illustrating this 
article will suggest at once that exterior 
woodwork need not be thought of, nec¬ 
essarily, in terms of mill-finished lum¬ 
ber, that a vigorous quality of crafts¬ 
manship, and the mark of the tools 
which wrought it will add immeasur¬ 
ably to its character. Perhaps we have 
progressed to a stage where we do not 
need to have everything smooth and 
planed and polished—and devoid of 
character. Perhaps Mr. Lindeberg’s 
houses, and a few others, are teaching 
us something of the everlasting beauty 
and satisfaction inherent in honest ma¬ 
terials honestly used, and the truth 
that textures and colors are funda¬ 
mentally and permanently satisfying if 
they are used with keen and sympa¬ 
thetic understanding of their wide 
range of possibilities. 
'Wood and brick and stone and iron 
have long been common property—but, 
so, too, have the colors to be found on 
an artist’s palette and the words com¬ 
piled in the dictionary. The artist, how¬ 
ever, has been distinguished not by the 
things he uses, but by the manner in 
which he uses them, which is one rea¬ 
son, at least, why wood and brick and 
stone and iron seem to be different ma¬ 
terials, when they are built into a house 
by H. T. Lindeberg. Nor is this any 
simple matter (natural as the finished 
result may look), this ability to select 
and treat building materials in a way 
to bring out their richest possibilities. 
The intimate significance of materials 
in Mr. Lindeberg’s work brings up an 
architectural point of virtually no real 
significance, but one which has of re¬ 
cent years had far too great a tendency 
to limit the general understanding and 
comprehension of architecture •— the 
point of “style.” 
It must be admitted that “style,” 
meaning a modern adaptation of the 
manner of any one of several historic 
periods or countries, has been a steady- 
{Continued on page 94) 
