August, 1921 
29 
THE 
REVIVAL OF 
MARBLING 
An Old Art in Which Modern Taste Has Found a New 
Charm and Countless Possibilities 
ALDOUS HUXLEY 
T HE different processes of mar¬ 
bling, that is, of artificially imi¬ 
tating the color and figure of the 
many varieties of marble, have been 
known and practised for a considerable 
period. Marble-painted tombs dated 
from early Jacobean times still exist, 
while marbled paper seems to have been 
used from the end of the 17th Century 
onwards. During the 18th and 19th 
Centuries marbling was freely practised, 
and it is only of comparatively recent 
years that this art began to lose its popu¬ 
larity. At the present time, however, we 
are witnessing a revival of marbling. 
Talented artists are devoting their at¬ 
tention to the various processes by which 
effects of marbling are produced, and 
are making free use of it in all sorts of 
interior decoration. 
Marbling is a form of decoration 
which can be applied almost without lim¬ 
itations. There is practically nothing in 
a house which cannot be marbled, and 
marbled with good effect, if taste and re¬ 
straint are combined with skill in the 
artist. Marbling may be made the pre¬ 
dominating feature of the whole deco¬ 
rative scheme—the wall surfaces of a 
complete room marbled. It may, on the 
other hand, be used to bring out such 
comparatively minor details in a room 
as the woodwork of baseboard and win- 
V 
The question of the 
color for the trim 
of mahogany doors 
is always a difficult 
one. A treatment of 
marbling in gray and 
yellow solved the 
problem in this room 
{Left) An unusual 
room was created 
by painting the floor 
black, veined with 
white, the walls 
lapis lazuli veined 
with gold, with mo¬ 
tifs of marble used 
for the frieze 
{Right) The classic 
manner of 1800 
marbling is repro¬ 
duced in this door¬ 
way, the trim being 
marbled in browns, 
gray and black and 
the doors grained to 
imitate wood 
dows or the fireplace. Pleasing effects 
may be obtained by picking out individ¬ 
ual moldings on a door or in other wood¬ 
work with dappled marble colors, or else 
wall spaces may be broken up by mar¬ 
bled panels. It is possible even to mar¬ 
ble furniture. 
Marbled table tops are quite common 
today. Small boxes or trays can also be 
marbled with excellent effect. Indeed, 
the only cases in which marbling is not 
legitimate are those in which a deliberate 
attempt is made to deceive the spectator 
into believing that genuine marble is be¬ 
ing used. To use marbling for this pur¬ 
pose is the worst form of snobbery—the 
snobbery of wealth. It is simply to pre¬ 
tend that the decoration is more ex¬ 
pensive than it really is. Marbling 
should be used only for its esthetic 
value, because the cloudy coloring, the 
curious irregular markings found in real 
marble are beautiful enough to be used 
as a decorative motif. The process should 
never be used for merely fraudulent pur¬ 
poses, and, indeed, nobody of ordinary 
tastes would desire to imitate the practice 
of cheaply pretentious hotels and over¬ 
decorated theatres. 
It is as well, therefore, to use mar¬ 
bling in such a way that it is always 
apparent that one is using it only because 
(Continued on page 66) 
