112 
House & Garden 
CRAFTEX 
A PERMANENT WALL FINISH 
The charm of this interior, which is the dining room 
of Sidney T. Strickland, Architect, of Brookline, Mass., 
is due to the use of a few beautiful objects, displayed 
against excellent backgrounds. The wall is a rather 
uneven texture of Craftex, neutral buff in color; the 
fireplace shelf and moulding are travertina built into 
the plaster and the tile floor has the color of dull red 
Verona marble. The shallow cupboards which were 
inspired by an old Queen Anne mirror are nearly flush 
with the wall, brown in color and with the red interior 
coated with gold leaf. All these surfaces are warm in 
tone but all are unobtrusive, and they enhance greatly 
the beauty of an excellent collection of Lowestoff, 
painted sconces, and early turned furniture. 
The Judgment of Architects 
You have the judgment of experts as to the technical excel¬ 
lence of Craftex. But the beauty of Craftex you must judge 
for yourself. We particularly ask you to let us send you 
samples of the finish as used in the dining room illustrated 
above. 
These little squares covered with specimen applications of 
Craftex will surprise you with a new beauty in wall cover¬ 
ings. You will see what Craftex is, how it looks and why 
architects and decorators are making enthusiastic use of it 
in new work. 
Samples of CRAFTEX and a fascinating little booklet 
“INDIVIDUALISM IN WALL DECORATION AND 
HOW TO OBTAIN IT” are yours noth our compliments. 
Simmons, Gardner Co. 
146 Summer St,, Boston, Mass. 
N. Y. OFFICE, 101 PARK AYE. 
On House & Garden’s Book Shelf 
(Continued from page 110) 
would scarcely choose that kind of 
furniture even for the smallest sort of 
country house. In one instance the 
author advises the use of all willow 
furniture in a bedroom; we would 
consider this pretty bad taste. She 
also speaks of using curtains and bed 
covers of crepe paper; somehow that 
sounds distinctly bad. It is also to be 
regretted that the photograph of Kate 
Douglas Wiggin’s remodeled barn, to 
which there are allusions in the text, 
is not to be found among the illus¬ 
trations. 
T ALL Bearded Iris, By Walter 
Stager, Privately Printed. There 
is no extent to which a flower 
lover will not go. He will labor pro¬ 
digiously, he will wait patiently; he will 
even become a poet and burst into song. 
Mr. Stager is such a flower lover and 
the object of his arduous labors and 
song is the tall bearded iris. He has 
compiled and written a book that is the 
most complete on its subject. His re¬ 
searches on iris have extended over long 
years; consequently this book is the 
consummation of his efforts. 
The first part of the book is devoted 
to “Iris in Song”, a compilation of all 
the verse on the Fleur-de-Lis. In the 
second part is found practical data— 
planting iris, propagating, iris enemies 
and how to combat them, breeding and 
a symposium of iris varieties. This 
latter part is as invaluable to the ama¬ 
teur gardener as the first is to the 
gardener whose work makes a singing 
in his heart. 
The book is beautifully illustrated 
and bound. 
G ARDEN Colour, E. P. Dutton & 
Co. These beautifully illustrated 
English books on gardening re¬ 
mind the reviewer of the story of the 
two amateur golfers who had just 
watched a professional make a hole in 
one. “Come on,” said the amateur, “I’m 
tired of miracles.” Well, the English are 
miracle workers in the garden. They 
have centuries of gardening behind them 
—and heritage counts for a lot. They 
have a damp climate, which most of 
these United States do not boast. Yet 
the American gardener into whose hands 
this remarkable volume—a new re¬ 
print of an old work—chances to fall 
vill find many of the miracles explained. 
For, in addition to the remarkable 
color sketches and notes by Margaret 
Waterfield, each of the four stages in 
die seasonal progress of the garden 
has been described by an authority. 
Mrs. G. W. Earle writes on Spring; 
E. V. B. on Summer; Rose Kingsley 
on Autumn and the Hon. Vicary Gibbs 
on Winter. 
Since the initial appearance of this 
book there has been garden advance 
that the professional reader will miss; 
thus the chapter on climbing roses ap¬ 
parently was composed when Dorothy 
Perkins was first entering into favor. 
A great many more beautiful varieties 
are now grown both in England and 
America. 
The chapter on winter effects might 
well be read closely by Americans be¬ 
cause that is a phase of gardening in 
which we made scarcely any popular 
advance. Most of the varieties of 
plant material suggested are available 
in this country. 
“Garden Colour” is a handsome book, 
worthy a place among one’s very best 
gardening volumes—alongside of Mrs. 
Francis King and Gertrude Jekyll and 
Clutton-Brock. 
V ILLAS of Florence and Tus¬ 
cany, By Harold Donaldson Eber- 
lein, J. B. Lippincott Co. From an 
angle primarily architectural, here is 
a book which throws such light on the 
Italian Renaissance as to be distinctly 
interesting to un-architectural readers, 
and a book well worth its handsome 
presentation in gold and blue and very 
fine paper and printing. 
Its author, Harold Donaldson Eber- 
lein, is by no means unfamiliar to our 
readers, and his long acquaintance with 
architecture, interior decoration and 
gardening, makes his text well-rounded, 
co-ordinated and informative. In his 
chapters introducing the group of villas 
which he later describes and illustrates 
specifically, he successfully makes his 
point that a degree of familiarity with 
Tuscan rural life in the 16th and 17th 
Centuries will aid in an appreciation of 
many larger aspects of Renaissance life 
in Italy, and of the design and building 
of many of the larger villas in other 
parts of Italy. He proves, too, by 
pictures quite as much as by text, that 
much more of great interest and in¬ 
timate knowledge of the period may 
be had from a study of the smaller 
villas and gardens than from the bet¬ 
ter known and oftener seen “show 
places.” The text calls them “shew 
places”, which makes them seem less 
familiar to the unwary reader than they 
really are. 
(Continued on page 114) 
Box parterre 
at the Villa 
Palmieri, near 
Florence. From 
“Villas of Flor¬ 
ence and Tus¬ 
cany” i 
