64 
House & Garden 
lllllllllllll 
Indian Encampment by Blakelock 
Size 16 x 2b 
INTIMATE PICTURES 
by 
Leading American Artists 
will be on Exhibition and Sale 
from February 4th to 19th 
This collection is ■presented 
1— To slow tliat a picture need not 
be large to be important. 
2— To afford people witb limited wall 
space opportunity to secure fine 
paintings by our best artists. 
WILLIAM MACBETH 
450 Fiftk Avenue at Fortieth Street NewYork City 
THE MACBETH GALLERY 
LGGD me . IRT6RIOR DCCOR/monS 
An embroidered 
■map of England. 
Courtesy of 
Richard Lehne 
The Map as a Wall Decoration 
(Continued from page 41) 
executed in the customary and scien¬ 
tifically prosaic manner, there is no rea¬ 
son why the surrounding portions cannot 
be treated with a freer hand. In this 
we may fitly take our cue from the old 
cartographers who punctiliously gave 
what the makers actually knew or re¬ 
quired, and for the rest gave rein to 
their fancy. And this can be done with¬ 
out running to the excess of depicting 
the land of Prester John and peopling 
it with griffins, one-eyed giants and 
other horrid chimEeras. The setting of 
the map may be replete with historic 
allusion or with allegorical or symbolic 
representations, and in this way stimu¬ 
late the sense of imagination, a com¬ 
modity of which most of us sadly need 
a larger share in our lives. A most sane 
example of just the sort of thing ad¬ 
vocated is the map of the Town of 
Plainfield recently executed for the new 
Plainfield Town Hall. In the spandrels 
are historic, topographical or symbolic 
representations having some connection 
with the town or its history, while the 
cartouche at the bottom with the arms 
of New Jersey and decorative lettering, 
all done in mellow but rich coloring, go 
to make up an engaging ensemble. 
A map may have quite as much sug¬ 
gestive value as a picture. After all, a 
map is a picture. It is the picture of 
a horizontal section of a landscape. 
Thence it is only one step to some of 
the old landscape wall-papers, with their 
curiously distorted perspective, which 
are in fact little more than pictorial 
maps. It is likewisg but one transi¬ 
tional step to some of the quaint old* 
views of towns or cities which, while 
showing groups of buildings with all 
their proper architectural verisimilitude, 
have their perspective “stood on end” so 
what the whole topography is visible— 
pictorial maps, again. In either case, 
no one will dispute the decorative value 
of such city views or of landscape paper. 
It is perfectly proper, indeed, to con¬ 
sider such city views as maps and reck¬ 
on them among the possibilities of map 
decoration. No better example of an 
enlivened and decorative city map of 
this sort could be found than the map 
of Venice, shown in one of the accom¬ 
panying illustrations, painted by An¬ 
tonio Canaletto early in the 18th Cen¬ 
tury. Other examples in the same vein 
can readily be found or produced. Their 
value in our present connection is at 
once obvious. 
Maps for wall decoration may be 
painted on canvas, illuminated on paper 
or vellum, carved in wood or stone or 
wrought in embroidery. They may be 
framed and hung; they may be perma¬ 
nently enclosed in panels, or they may 
be carved in position. If ready and in¬ 
dependent invention be lacking to con- 
(Continued on page 66) 
68i fifth Avenue ~ nera york 
As an overmantel decoration the map has distinct 
value. Here the estate map is used, over the living 
hall fireplace. Winter Rose, architect 
