37 
kpril, 19 21 
bf the curtain itself and its large expense. 
But the charm and gaiety of this new ac¬ 
cessory to household decoration were so 
,r r eat that industry overcame the limita¬ 
tion of the originals by producing what we 
-all “yard goods.” So the chintzes and 
;retonnes which you purchase today have 
i truly noble ancestry. 
Glazed chintzes have been a staple ar¬ 
ticle of trade of England and the Conti¬ 
nent for above a hundred years. One of 
•he managers of a large glazing establish¬ 
ment in Manchester stated that in his be¬ 
lief the glazing or calendering of textiles 
originated in Holland during the days of 
the Dutch East India Company. Holland 
cloth is still the name for a filled cloth 
used for roller shades. 
Glazed chintzes can properly and ef¬ 
fectively be used for almost all purposes 
to which the unglazed material is put. 
When the glazed surface wears away, as 
it will in time, the fabric can be cleaned. 
You then have a chintz that is practically 
new, since the glazed finish has actually 
prevented dust and dirt from getting into 
the fabric itself and rotting the cloth. 
The process of glazing is of itself a 
[simple one. The fabric, plain or figured, 
is first immersed in a starch solution and 
then run between heat and friction cylin¬ 
ders. If you asked the Chinese laundry- 
man to put a polished finish on a dress 
shirt or collar he would go through prac¬ 
tically the identical process. 
Glazed chintzes do have a mellowness 
of color that adds immeasurably to their 
charm of design and ground. And then 
there is a quaint primness in the way a 
glazed fabric hangs that coincides won¬ 
derfully with the informal and livable 
rooms which most of us wish for. 
Oberkampf w r as the genius of France 
who raised the cloth-printing industry of 
his country to international fame. Those 
delicate and dainty Toiles, depicting pas¬ 
toral and classic scenes, were the product 
of his print works near Versailles. So 
great was the reputation gained through 
his craft that the Emperor Napoleon when 
inspecting his plant took a medal from off 
his own coat, and, pinning it on the breast 
(Continued on page 86) 
This hand-painted calico curtain from 
India was originally designed to orna¬ 
ment the walls of the banquet hall of 
a native rajah. Such panels were the 
ancestors of our chintz 
Chintz is so useful that today our rooms coidd scarcely get along with¬ 
out it. Here it supplies curtains and bed valances for the four- posters. 
A design can be taken, from it and painted on the furniture. Its 
colors suggest hues for wall finish and the details of binding, cushions 
and lamp shades. The pattern used here is from printing blocks 
which are over a hundred years old. Erskine-Danfortlt, decorators 
