136 
House & Garden 
Gflie Heauty 
IHE ROPER OVEN CONTROL 
insures uniform baking success 
that distinguishes Roper 
Gas Ranges is a fitting introduc¬ 
tion to the convenient, depend¬ 
able, economical service which 
has achieved Roper leadership. 
Those who appreciate the finer 
things in life recognize that it is 
the beauty of the Roper Gas 
Range as well as its exclusive 
features that makes it a more 
efficient instrument of house¬ 
hold utility and increases the 
charm of the kitchen. Roper 
Gas Ranges from $35 to $300 
are examples of true economy. 
The Roper Recifile of tested 
recipes should be in the hands 
of all who are interested in better 
living. Send 35 cents in coin or 
stamps. 
GEO. D. ROPER CORPORATION. Viockford, Ill. 
Pacific Coast branch: 
768 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 
GAS RANGES 
(formerly ECLIPSE ) 
l SURE THE ROPER PURPLE LINE i ■ 11 AND THE ROPER OVEN CONTROL ARE ON THE GAS RANGE YOU BUY 
Copyright 1923, by Geo. D. Roper Corporation 
.4 Lady’s Sitting Room, in the Georgian Classic manner, 
by Henry Holland, about 1795. From “English Dec¬ 
oration and Furniture of the Later XVIIth Century” 
On House & Garden’s Book Shelf 
(Continued fr 
With consummate skill this architect 
subordinated his faculty as a designer 
to a theme that dominated everything, 
and that theme was the rich simplicity 
attained in interior design by the French 
on the eve of the Revolution.’ 
This, too, is interesting in summing- 
up: “When the works of this period 
are subjected to critical analysis, either 
collectively or individually, the family 
likeness and stamp of good taste upon 
all is the most distinctive mark. The 
wealthy could afford scale, which im¬ 
plied studied decoration.Simple 
design, truthful and consistent with 
the impelling forces that gave it life, 
if it lost in some measure the masculine 
power of the earlier work, it gained as 
a recompense in refinement, and the 
year 1790 can be regarded as the cul¬ 
minating point of the years of good 
tcistc 
By the year 1800, Professor Richard¬ 
son finds the purity of Georgian Classi¬ 
cism disturbed and virtually destroyed 
by the Empire influence from France, 
partly assimilated and unskillfully ex¬ 
pressed in England by Sir John Sloane. 
“When the long reign of George III 
closed, 18th Century expression entered 
upon its final stage. The standard of 
taste, which had reached the tidal mark 
of refinement between the years 1790- 
1800, fluctuated between a coarse imita¬ 
tion of French Empire and an Angli¬ 
cized version of Athenian Greek. 
Architects.were becoming ambi¬ 
dextrous; it was considered an accomp¬ 
lishment to design in a Gothic manner 
one day and in Greek the next. In 
consequence, the Romantic movement, 
which in the first place had mildly 
asserted its appearance through the 
agency of the amateur antiquaries, took 
on a significance that was destined to 
hasten the decline, to bring about the 
period when art would be considered as 
something so precious and apart from 
life as to deserve protection under 
glass.” 
Sir William Chambers, architect of 
the old school, and a great designer, 
viewed with alarm the gaining popu¬ 
larity of the style which was being in¬ 
troduced by the Adams, a style lighter 
and far finer in scale than the “Palla- 
dian” type in which Chambers sincerely 
believed. Of the Palladian style, 
Chambers wrote: “That style, though 
somewhat heavy, was great, calculated 
to strike at the instant, and although 
the ornaments were not so varied or so 
numerous as now, they had a more 
om page 134) 
powerful effect... they were easily per¬ 
ceptible without a microscope and 
could not be mistaken for filigrane toy- 
work.” The last was a thrust at the 
increasing favor in which the fine scale 
ornamentation of Adam was being re¬ 
ceived. 
The analysis of the individual styles 
of Adam and his predecessors, con¬ 
temporaries and followers is carefully 
developed and correlated in Mr. Jour- 
dain’s Introduction. Its conclusion, 
which leads up to the Empire style and 
its influence in England, is peculiarly 
interesting: 
“It (the Empire style) had no future, 
it linked itself with no results, and ‘in 
that style the architects of Napoleon 
built the monument and wrote the epi¬ 
taph of Renaissance art.’ It is, in 
France as in England, a style of struc¬ 
tural simplicity and ideal severty in 
ornament. In the dose study of classic 
detail, the last resources of classic archi¬ 
tecture seemed at length to be exhaust¬ 
ed ; and the Empire style did, in point 
of fact, mark the dissolution of Renais¬ 
sance architecture.” 
From this point on, the book is 
profusely illustrated with splendid large- 
scale pictures of details, and with 
complete interiors of the period, and the 
text is divided to cover Interiors, Sculp¬ 
tors, Modellers and Designers of Orna¬ 
ment; Materials and Processes; Decora¬ 
tive Painting; The Chimney-Piece; The 
Hall and Staircase; The Door-case and 
Door; Plaster; Metal Work; Lighting; 
and four chapters on Furniture. 
T HE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN. 
by Esther Singleton. The Cen¬ 
tury Co. 
There are parts of Miss Single¬ 
ton’s volume as mellow and heady as 
a draft of dandelion wine. She opens 
the cask of Elizabethan garden litera¬ 
ture and draws from the rarest vintage 
ever made. Language and flowers have 
never since been combined with such 
exquisite effect. Even the botanists of 
the period were touched by the beauty 
of the things they wrote about. For 
instance, there was John Parkinson. 
His Career was not that of a man of 
letters, but that of a horticulturist, a 
scientist, whose mind must have moved 
in a cyclopedic groove. Yet this is 
how he made his horticultural descrip¬ 
tions (writing of Myrtus latifolia): 
“We nourish Myrtles with great care 
for their beautiful aspect, sweet scent 
(Continued on page 138) 
