148 
House & 
Garden 
Your Sherwin-Williams dealer is an expert 
in varnish. He knows from long experience 
the futility of trying to make one kind of 
varnish do many kinds of work. Tell him 
the surface you wish to varnish or paint 
and he will give you the right finish for it. 
Sherwin® Williams 
PA I NTS AND 
COVER 
THE 
EARTH 
VARNISHES 
The right finish 
l for each surface 
Send 50c {65c in Canada) for The Home Painting Manual 
170 page book with 27 full page color plates 
Department B 435, The Sherwin-Williams Co., 651 Canal Rd., N. W., Cleveland, O. 
Chinese Furniture for American Rooms 
( Continued, jrom page 146) 
used, and in Peking a soft wood, lac¬ 
quered and elaborately decorated, 
graced the palaces of the Manchu 
Princes. But this article deals only 
with teakwood furniture as the field 
of Chinese lacquer work is too wide 
to be included. 
Teakwood, such as is used in Chinese 
furniture, is not of native origin but 
is imported from Siam and Burmah. 
It is a very different wood from that 
used in ship-fitting, being of great 
weight, tremendously hard, of a rich 
reddish brown color and beautifully 
figured grain. The only wood it might 
be compared to is rosewood. The logs 
are cut far in the interior, floated 
down the streams on bamboo rafts 
(being too heavy to float) and then 
shipped by steamer to Canton, which 
is the great market for this furniture. 
Contrary to our methods, the logs are 
sold at auction by weight. These logs 
are placed on a trestle with one end 
raised and sawed by hand by two men, 
one of whom stands on top and the 
other below. This primitive fashion, 
dating back to early Egyptian days, 
has never been supplanted even in this 
age of machinery. 
There are no factories in the eastern 
sense of the word. The work is en¬ 
tirely done in the small shops, or homes, 
and placed on sale in several streets 
entirely devoted to the sale of wood¬ 
work. No dowels or glue are used, the 
method of construction practically 
locking the various members together 
so that at any time the pieces may be 
knocked down for carriage. The carv¬ 
ing and finishing is done either on the 
floor or on low benches. One coat of 
stain and wax is used for the finish 
and with the constant cleaning, the 
beautiful patina is developed within a 
few years. 
Schemes of decoration in the Ameri¬ 
can home are constantly becoming more 
catholic in character because the strict 
period type does not express the note 
of individuality required by a highly 
diversified people. The introduction of 
pieces from various countries, selected 
with due regard to the rest of the 
scheme, gives a new character to an 
otherwise monotonous interior. 
The hall offers a background for a 
number of excellent arrangements of 
Chinese furniture. A tall altar table, 
flanked by a pair of chairs presents a 
very dignified arrangement. On the 
altar table may be placed a pair of 
jars or vases with a low bowl for 
flowers in the center. A mirror made 
of Chinese gilded carving, hung low 
enough for the flowers to reflect in the 
glass, gives the necessary warmth. 
A bench with one of the taller tea 
poys at either end with jars of flowers 
make an interesting group and back of 
the bench a handsome Chinese embroi¬ 
dery, brocade or tapestry, may be used 
with telling effect. Where space is need¬ 
ed for the storage of books, prints or 
collections of textiles, the wardrobes 
fill the requirement. 
Chinese chairs are peculiarly suitable 
for use as desk chairs. 
The tall tea poys with their dignified 
simple lines serve as pedestals for vases 
of flowers and the low tabourets, too, 
are most successful for jardinieres. The 
low oblong opium stools with large jars 
placed before a screen make a grouping 
of great distinction. 
An interesting New York dining 
room has a pair of square tables. The 
family is small and one table is gener¬ 
ally used. When there are guests, the 
two tables are placed together and with 
a half round table at either end, which 
at other times serve as consoles, a most 
attractive long table is achieved. The 
chairs used have round backs with 
felt pads, covered in black Chinese bro¬ 
caded satin piped in yellow, on the 
seats. A tall Chinese altar serves as the 
sideboard. A six-sided wood lantern 
with painted Chinese glass replaces the 
usual central lighting fixture, while 
parchment shields, decorated with the 
round Chu or good luck character are 
employed on very simple fixtures. 
Many comfortable living rooms have 
been done combining the simpler wood 
pieces and overstuffed furniture covered 
in Chinese fabrics with hangings to cor¬ 
respond. But a successful room of this 
character requires the services of an 
expert. Many beautiful rooms have 
been done with a Chinese motif but 
some wonderful atrocities have been 
perpetrated by persons with but little 
taste and no knowledge. 
Chippendale designed numerous 
pieces in the Chinese manner but they 
have not, of course, the true character 
of real Chinese furniture. An adapta¬ 
tion of this furniture, finished and 
decorated in lacquer, affords a most 
fruitful source of inspiration for our 
craftsmen and designers. 
Faucets and the Waste Line 
(Continued from page 98) 
ning the moment you clasp your hands 
together in suddy embrace, expecting 
the water eventually to release you, 
is a bitter and annoying experience. 
In the laundry it is advisable to have 
the faucets set over the tubs in the 
wall so that they cannot interfere with 
the washing process. The faucet, of 
course, should be the swinging spout 
kind, for it then can meet any located 
necessity. 
The compression type, throughout 
the house appeals to me as the most 
useful and practical. 
In the lavatories, quick compression 
or compression faucets are well chosen, 
both lever handles with quick compres¬ 
sion and the turned handle with the 
ordinary compression type. 
The handles are usually of metal, 
metal and china, china alone. They 
are indexed on metal or on china as 
to hot or cold water. 
It is becoming more and more popu¬ 
lar to have as little metal on fixtures as 
possible, to save the everlasting clean¬ 
ing. Some of the finest fixtures for 
faucets are china. 
Never have a faucet on your lava¬ 
tory that is so short that you cannot 
put a glass between it and the basin— 
to fill it when the spout is too short 
is just where a nerve-racking life may 
begin! 
The question of faucets for bath¬ 
tubs is always a little different from 
that of the lavatory and sink, because 
of the lines of the tub and the struc¬ 
ture of the building in which it is 
installed. 
The concealed faucet and waste or 
the unconcealed are the two main types 
of bathtub fixtures. If your house is so 
built that your plumbing in back of the 
tub can be concealed, you can have 
(Continued on page 150) 
