64 
House & Garden 
Farr’s Gold Medal Peonies 
Awarded the gold medal of the American 
Peony Society at the annual exhibition in Cleve¬ 
land, 1918, New York City, 1916, Chicago, 1914. 
Peonies, the aristocrats of the hardy garden, 
are so democratic in their habits that they thrive 
and bloom in the humblest garden as well as 
when under the care of the expert. Few, if any, 
flowers give so great a return for so little care. 
When the plants are well established they form 
a tangible asset which increases in value and 
beauty from year to year. 
In order that everyone may have a collection 
of extra choice Peonies, I have selected twelve 
^varieties which I offer at an extremely low price 
to those who will mention House & Garden 
when they send their order. 
Farr’s War-Time Collection 
Duchesse De Nemours $.50 
Felix Crousse 
$ .75 
Delachei 
.50 
Mme. Ferol 
1.00 
Marechal Valliant 
.50 
Mons Jules Elie 
1.00 
Edulis Superba 
.50 
Mad. Thouvenin 
1.00 
Mme. De Verneville 
.75 
Albatre 
1.50 
Marie Lemoine 
.75 
Baroness Schroeder 
1.50 
Twelve Selected 
Peonies (regular price $10.25) for 
$7 
Farr’s Hardy Plant Specialties will tell you all about 
Peonies and their cultivation, with descriptions of over 
500 varieties; it is a book of 112 pages, with 13 full pa'ge 
colored illustrations 
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The most beautiful 
of all curtains. Hand- 
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exclusive designs. 
$9.,00 pair up 
If you prefer to do this 
simple, interesting work 
yourself, we will supply 
NET BY THE YARD- 
THREADS BY THE SKEIN 
(Exclusive sale of 
threads used.) 
Send for circular with 
designs illustrated. 
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Studios: <S East 37th St., Nsw York City 
The Misunderstood Louis XV Style 
(Continued from page 62) 
rest of the room. Floors were com¬ 
monly of wood and not seldom bore par- 
quetted devices in contrasting colors. 
Now, nothing in the fixed decoration 
of the Louis Quinze mode entails any 
obligation upon the modern user to un¬ 
dertake sumptuous and excessively elab¬ 
orated schemes or to indulge in unduly 
costly processes. It is true, one may go 
as far as he likes and still be within 
the limits of Louis Quinze propriety. It 
is also equally true that one may plan 
and construct simply and inexpensively 
and also be wholly within the bounds 
of Louis Quinze consistency. To take 
but one instance, the fiat and molded 
woodwork of a room to be painted may 
be of inexpensive material. For the 
panels that are to be decorated, an ap¬ 
propriate printed linen, chintz or paper 
may be used and shellacked to tone 
down the color and to impart a desir¬ 
able surface. If a wall is thoroughly 
well plastered, outside of the window 
and door trims, no wood need be used 
except tlie moldings which can be ap¬ 
plied directly to the wall as panel 
boundaries. 
How to Use the Style 
One thing is absolutely necessary to 
the successful carrying out of any such 
scheme. An architect or a capable dec¬ 
orator must be engaged to design the 
moldings and trim, for their proper pro¬ 
file is vital to tlie total effect. The 
moldings are not hard to make but they 
are not to be found in ordinary mill 
stock and the average artisan is not to 
be trusted with their contrivance. 
As to the movables that enter into the 
composition of the Louis Quinze mode, 
a description of the representative furni¬ 
ture forms is scarcely necessary, for the 
reader is doubtless already sufficiently 
familiar with them. It is necessary, 
however, to emphasize the fact that 
these forms do not mean that the pieces 
must be either elaborate in decoration 
or costly in material. They may be, 
and often are, simple in detail and full 
of quiet dignity. It is most important 
that the proportions and contour be 
right. Beware of scrawny and at¬ 
tenuated so-called reproductions which 
are but travesties of the originals and 
which some manufacturers put forth, 
apparently unconscious of the fact that 
the paring down and so-called “improv¬ 
ing” of proportions has destroyed all 
the charm which was inherent in the 
original pieces. 
Neither is it necessary to enlarge 
upon the types of sconces, chandeliers, 
and other accessories which, if not al¬ 
ready well known, can easily be mas¬ 
tered by the aid of numerous good illus¬ 
trations or the plentiful stock of ac¬ 
curate reproductions in the shops. As 
for floor coverings, there is no. impro¬ 
priety in substituting a plain one-toned 
rug or an unobtrusive Oriental rug for 
the Aubusson, which many people fancy 
a sine qua non under the circumstances. 
Reclaiming Impossible Pieces 
Touching the possible simplicity of 
Louis Quinze furniture, it will not be 
amiss to suggest that much may be done 
with even tlie gilt and brocaded horrors 
of chairs, sofas and other pieces of a 
generation ago. Remove the gilt and 
paint the body a putty, soft gray or 
fawn color, or some other appropriate 
tone as inclination may dictate, and 
then paint the bead moldings some suit¬ 
able contrasting color. Rip off the 
showy brocade covers and substitute 
quiet linen or chintz of agreeable pattern 
printed - in one or two tones—such, for 
example, as old rose, mulberry or blue 
on a gray or oyster shell ground—or 
some petit and gros point texture in 
suitable tones. It is astonishing to find 
how much may be done, and at a negli¬ 
gible cost, merely by adroit use of color 
in paint and fabrics. 
Again, we repeat, it is not at all the 
intention of the present article to urge 
any compliance with strict period con¬ 
ventions. It is our fortunate privilege to 
live in an age both eclectic and catholic 
in its appreciation. It is also our priv¬ 
ilege to pick out and assimilate the 
good and to reject the bad from past 
systems. The only obligation resting 
upon us is to do it with regard for fun¬ 
damental analogies and consistency, 
and with a full knowledge of the entire 
character of each system from which we 
are making adaptations. 
The main purpose of the preceding 
discussion will have been accomplished 
if tlie reader’s mind is disabused of two 
popular fallacies—first, that the Louis 
Quinze mode is, of necessity, incurably 
effeminate and unduly complex and or¬ 
nate, and, secondly, that its use involves' 
inordinate expense. Once these objec¬ 
tions are dismissed the reader will 
readily realize that the employment of 
the Louis Quinze mode, in whole or in 
part, is perfectly compatible with quiet 
dignity and simplicity. 
The Four Corners of the Room 
( Continued, f 
tion your mind is the more productive. 
Do not, in either case, cram the desk 
against the side wall. 
If books are to go in the comer the 
effect is much better when the cases run 
a short distance on either wall, instead 
of along one side. So often there are 
at the end of a room a pair of windows; 
bookcases placed in the adjoining cor¬ 
ners bring the line down from the win¬ 
dows and form a solid mass, which al¬ 
ways looks well near a window. 
Radiator Seats 
A corner radiator cover of wood and 
cane with narrow bookshelves on either 
side would be both practical and at¬ 
tractive. There should be an air space 
between the radiator box and the books, 
of course. 
There are beautiful comer cabinets of 
Italian and Spanish design for\a living 
room. They should always be used as 
a quarter-circle seems to demand a 
repetition to balance it. 
rom page 23) 
If you can possibly avoid it, do not 
place furniture diagonally. You will 
find that a nervous, untrained person 
instinctively places her rugs and her 
furniture diagonally. Rugs and furnit¬ 
ure should follow the lines of the wall. 
Of course, one draws up a chair to a 
table or a fireplace at any angle, but the 
more important pieces should go with 
the lines of the room. This is especially 
true of corner pieces. 
A dressing table goes very well placed 
in an angle between two windows—a 
pretty draped dressing table with a 
semi-circular top and a carved and 
painted semi-circular mirror above it to 
match make a charming comer group in 
many a room. 
But, in spite of these suggestions, I 
still maintain that it is by no means 
necessary to have the corners filled. By 
the time we have our side walls well 
taken care of and the comers reached, 
our ideas are generally exhausted. Per¬ 
haps this is just as well. 
