7 2 
Where Lafayette 
Talked to Philadelphia 
F ROM the balcony of this old Post House in Phil¬ 
adelphia, where the stages to New York stopped 
for passengers, General Lafayette addressed the 
citizens during his triumphal visit to the United States 
after the Revolution. Just beyond the extreme right 
of the picture stands a flag-pole marking the spot 
where the Delaware Indians held their last Council 
before leaving the city at the request of William Penn. 
The Philadelphia branch of Berry Brothers, Incor¬ 
porated, occupies the building just opposite. 
For every varnish need there’s 
a Berry Brothers product. The 
label is your guaranty of quality. 
‘Just as every locality has 
its landmarks, so has every 
form of business. American 
varnish-making took the 
great step toward its pres¬ 
ent world-wide supremacy 
back in 1858, when Berry 
Brothers made the first Hard 
Oil finish—now known as 
Luxeberry Wood Finish. 
Today whatever the varnish 
needs of my customers, I 
simply say ‘Berry Brothers’. 
Saves argument, and makes 
friends.” 
The durability of LIQUID 
Granite, the world-fa¬ 
mous floor varnish, is as¬ 
tonishing. People are to¬ 
day going through modern 
dances on the same Li- 
quid-Granited floors over 
which their grandparents 
trod the minuet. LIQUID 
Granite is water-proof, 
of course. The Berry 
Brothers’ label on any 
varnish product guar¬ 
antees the maximum 
of appearance and 
service. 
BERRY BROTHER® 
A B World'# Largest Makers ^ 
^^varnishes and Paint Specialties^^ 
D.lrolt Wrik.,rill.. Ontario 
Write for your copy of 
handsomely illustrated 
color booklet—"Beautiful 
Homes”—free on request. 
House & G ardei 
Some American Wood Block Engravings 
(Continued from page 70) 
block tends to decorative effects. This, 
j of course, does not preclude the idea of 
! illustration, for the first transcendent 
creative wood block engraver, Albrecht 
[ Durer, though a master of decorative 
j line, was at the same time the greatest 
| illustrator the world has ever known, 
and his fame is undimmed by the four 
centuries that have passed since he en¬ 
graved such immortal works as “Melan¬ 
cholia” and “Knight, Death and the 
Devil”. It is the wood block’s peculiar 
adaptability to decoration that is making 
it a favorite with an ever growing group 
of American artists whose work is just 
beginning to attract due attention. 
This modern use of the wood block 
really owes its inspiration to Aubrey 
Beardsley, although that revolutionist 
never used it himself. From him is de¬ 
rived the idea that books should be dec¬ 
orated rather than illustrated. In his 
pen and ink drawings he balanced black 
masses and white spaces, and as for 
figures and costumes he did not hesitate 
to sacrifice literalness for decorative ef¬ 
fect, the result being a fantastic quality 
that called down on his head the 
anathemas of the conservative. The idea 
J prospered and spread, as every lover of 
fine books knows. It was a natural 
transition from the book decoration to 
the decorative print designed for the 
adornment of a wall. Some artists do 
both, an instance being John J. A. 
| Murphy, who has a preeminent place 
as a decorator of printed words and 
| also of walls. 
The New American School 
The new group of American wood 
block gravers known as the Province- 
town School is composed mainly of 
women and devotes itself principally to 
decorations in broad, bold masses, and 
its work is entitled to the particular 
consideration of the home builder who 
seeks beautiful and positive effects at a 
modest cost. 
The wood blocks of the Province- 
town group are thoroughly modern in 
aspect and conception, and consequently 
there is an up-to-dateness in their use 
that will appeal to some people and, 
by the same token, may prejudice others 
against them for a time. At first glance 
they may seem extreme, particularly to 
the person who is in the habit of ex¬ 
pecting photographic exactitude in a 
work of art. But in reality they are 
not extremist works, any more than are 
Japanese prints or those matchless 
formal decorations that were used in the 
Middle Ages by illuminators to decorate 
the pages of manuscript books. Lib¬ 
erties are taken with form, but merely 
in the interest of decoration, as similar 
liberties were taken with the leaves of 
the oak and the laurel by the ancient 
Greeks. These wood blocks should be 
considered solely as esthetic notes for 
the wall, either in consideration of their 
design, when they are in black and 
white, or in consideration of their color 
and design when they are in colors. 
The work of the wood block artists 
is of especial importance inasmuch as 
it is a part of the new movement in 
America to get away from the inspira¬ 
tionless machine-made art that confronts 
the citizen on every hand and beguiles 
him when he seeks to furnish his home. 
Printing-press art, set off in cheap 
frames, is purveyed to the people by 
tons and tons at the department stores 
and novelty shops. But they can no 
more satisfy the person who truly loves 
art than mercerized cotton can please 
the woman who loves fine silk, or col¬ 
ored glass suffice for him who loves 
the glow of a real gem. 
Department store prints are cheap, 
but there is not so much difference in 
price between them and the “real thing” 
that it ought to be an obstacle to the 
man or woman who desires the best. A 
few dollars will buy these imitations in 
their standardized frames, but a very 
few more dollars will buy a work by a 
recognized artist. The very best work 
of the new wood-block folks can be had 
from $18 to $50, and when it is con¬ 
sidered that one placed here and there 
on the walls will have a vastly better 
decorative effect than the many printing- 
press prints that are frequently used to 
overload the walls, the difference in cost 
of the good and the bad sometimes dis¬ 
appears altogether. 
The ordinary commercial print may 
be a fine example of the pressman’s skill, 
but it can never compare in crispness 
and beauty with the individual proof 
the artist prints himself, with colors he 
mixes with rice paste, from blocks that 
he has cut. There is something com¬ 
pletely mechanical about the first, while 
the latter is completely individual, a 
thing symbolized by the actual signature 
of the artist, always done with a pencil 
beneath the picture. The one is like 1 
the human voice imitated by the phono- i 
graph, while the latter is as the human 
voice itself, together with a hand-clasp. 
The wood block print is only one 
process removed from the brain of the 
artist. He cuts his design by means of 
a sharp instrument in the wood. Then 
the ink is applied carefully by hand— 
and most carefully indeed where two or 
more colors are applied to the same 
block. The paper is spread over the 
block, pressed tightly against the sur¬ 
face and rubbed, then removed, the 
print being complete. In some instances 
where more delicate color values are de¬ 
sired, the artist cuts two or more 
blocks, in which case the utmost exact¬ 
ness is necessary in placing the paper 
on the blocks so as to get the extra 
impressions in the right places in rela¬ 
tion with the first. But in the sketchy 
work of the Provincetown School only 
one block is cut, valleys being left in 
the wood between the surfaces where 
different colors are used. This adds to 
the boldness of the masses used, and 
aids the decorative effect. 
Where Wood Blocks Fit 
The wood block prints are appropriate 
in any room of the house except in the 
serious stateliness of a library, where 
black and white engravings are de¬ 
sirable, or in the formal atmosphere of 
reception or drawing rooms, where 
paintings are almost inevitable. They 
are of particular decorative value in the 
bedroom, where the more delicate and 
tender designs are preferred; in the 
dining room, where their luscious quality 
is at home; in the living room, where 
the owner can give full vent to his deco¬ 
rative sense and his own predilections, 
and in the nursery, where the fantastic 
quality of certain of them make a never 
ending delight for children. Even hall¬ 
ways that are inclined to be gloomy can 
be brightened up with wood block 
prints in gay colors. 
Care should be taken not to use too 
many, as owing to their positive quali¬ 
ties their decorative influence is far 
reaching, and often a single one on a 
wall is all that is needed. They should 
be hung w'ith special regard to the 
lurniture. Owing to their masses, they 
complement the outlines of furniture, 
and often their exact place on the wall 
is determined by what stands under 
them or what is in the corners of the 
room. It should be remembered that 
wood block prints are never placed in 
a room because of themselves alone, but 
alwajs because they throw in a note 
that helps the ensemble. 
The frame of a wood block print 
should not be seen—that is, it should 
be so unobtrusive as not to divert at- 
(Continued on page 74) 
