House and Garden 
and under the supervision of the adapter 
of the design. 
Further, there was no chance then to use 
the pernicious steam drill, which, in spite of 
the cheapness of labor in Italy, has invaded 
that country’s marble yards, fastening its 
measured and impersonal touch upon work 
that should never have suffered it. Many 
of the modern reproductions that find their 
way through our tariff wall bear the tell-tale 
marks. You may see long channels gouged 
out without the variation of a hair’s breadth 
in width, as if run under a metal planer, and 
there are small drill holes so deep and sheer 
that no hand tool could well have entered 
them—the machinery is a sort of enlarged 
dentists’ outfit, with borers and gouges. 
If modern American gardens had yet de¬ 
veloped a distinct style out of the eclecticism 
characteristic of to-day, there might be more 
incentive for the production of new designs 
in garden marbles. As it is, an old Italian 
or French piece, wisely chosen, harmonizes 
perfectly with surroundings that are them¬ 
selves too often copies of foreign schemes. 
But does this wholesale transplanting of the 
antique tend toward developing a national 
manner here? Have these old 
well-heads, made originally bv 
the Italians by hollowing out 
the capitals of discarded col¬ 
umns, any expressive relation 
to American life and circum¬ 
stances? Beautiful and in¬ 
spiring as they often are, they 
must be looked upon rather 
as educational factors and as 
means to an end than as fi¬ 
nalities in the garden decora¬ 
tion of this country. Sar¬ 
cophagi happen to be well 
fitted to hold plants, though 
drain holes for the latter are 
often drilled in an unsightly 
manner, but they are wholly 
exotic here. From this point 
of view, the New York col¬ 
lector that seriously contem¬ 
plated taking an unusually 
large and fine sarcophagus, 
smoothing and glazing the 
inside and using it for a bath tub in his 
house, was no more inconsistent than the 
garden maker that fills a carved stone coffin 
with flowers or shrubs and places it on a 
terrace. 
But the real beauty of the best of these 
importations is a sufficient password; at some 
later period in the evolution of American 
gardens there may arise a style of ornament 
more nearly embodying native ideas, and yet 
based on a knowledge of and familiarity with 
the old European marbles. Probably this 
development will be in the medium of terra 
cotta, rather than in stone, the former being 
much nearer, in its possibility of rapid pro¬ 
duction and its property of taking a vast 
variety of shapes, to the American tempera¬ 
ment. It is hard to see a commercial future 
for the stone worker of to-day in this country 
if he attempt to evolve new designs from old 
models, and at the same time employ only 
the best craftsmanship. Who can pay him, 
that might care to do so, for his time ? 
Much more reasonable would it be to expect 
this latter move to come from the Italians 
themselves. If modern Italy had a spark of 
artistic originality or could draw upon its an¬ 
cient treasures for inspiration 
and with those as a starting 
point, bring forth designs— 
thus reflecting the influence of 
the twentieth century upon 
seventeenth century patterns 
—if there were a perceptible 
forward movement in that land 
of glorious tradition, she might 
still be the prolific source of 
patterns both new and true. 
But in these days, when sup¬ 
ply and demand are so closely 
in touch, and the commercial 
spirit necessarily dominates all 
things, there is sure profit in 
copying antiques, and so the 
craftsmen of the peninsula 
are no longer designers but 
imitators. Incidentally, their 
market is almost wholly for¬ 
eign. There are virtually no 
new gardens of any account 
being made in all Italy. 
From the H. D. Gardiner Gallery 
AN OLD STONE ESCUTCHEON 
FOR THE HOUSE WALL 
77 
