RERAMIC STUDIO 
95 
year in a cabinet making shop may hope to earn from $15 to 
$16 a week. 
The Httle^shops of the seh'-employing carvers are filled 
with men and boys at all sorts of wages. Some of the rougher 
work is done by boys who earn only $4 or $5 a week. A man 
who can follow copy and cnt a true line may get three or four 
times as much. 
The old French quarter used to have many such little 
shopSj and a new one springs up every now and then in the 
German quarter. The cabinetmakers find it profital)le to 
have some of their work done by the piece at such shop.s. 
To the cabinetmaker piece work thus done is often cheaper 
than he can have it done in his own shop bj^ his carvers regu- 
larly emploj^ed by the year or working at $4 or $5 a day. A 
single carved chair leg is sent along with a dozen legs in the 
rough to the little shop, and the whole dozen come back looking 
so like the model that only the cabinetmaker can tell model 
and copies apart. 
The woodcarver's trade is still haunted by mediaeval 
traditions, and the best men in the trade have a strong sense of 
its relation to the fine arts. There are a few carvers who are 
known to all the cabinetmakers of the town, and are sure of 
profitable employment the year round even in the dullest times. 
Some carvers are specialists in their art and known for their 
skill in doing the acanthus leaf or some other pattern or in 
handling rosewood or mahogan^^ 
Perhaps the invention that the skilled carver most resents 
is the substitution in cheap furniture of pressed work for 
carved work. In some of the cheapest furniture the design 
is impressed directly upon the wood. In other cases papier 
mache designs, often of the most elaborate kind, are applied 
to the wood, securely glued to it and stained and polished in 
such fashion that only the skilled eye can distinguish the thing 
from genuine wood carving. Strangely enough, this false carv- 
ing is really durable. It seldom separates from the wood un- 
less long exposed to dampness and never, like even the best 
of genuine carving, cracks or chips. — N. Y.Sun. 
SILVER SALT CELLAR 
Mrs. K. W. Wright 
THE very simple and beautiful salt cellar made by Mrs. 
K. W. Wright was of silver, 22 gauge. A piece three 
inches square was used and the same method of making as that 
for the tea strainer in July number, excepting that the centre of 
the bottom part was left fiat, not beaten at all, and the upper 
edge was slightly turned over. The small spoon was made 
from the same gauge silver. As the salt cellar, it was cut out 
from a verj^ exact design, and the bowl of the spoon made in a 
small hollow pattern in the same way as the tea strainer. See 
page 69 in July number. 
WOOD SCREEN 
Miss M. E. Dow 
THE centre panels of this screen are made of cypress, the 
frame and carved panels of quartered oak. All the wood is 
colored a grey green with black and antique oak oil stain, 
afterwards finished with wax. 
The metal trimmings are made of brass 22 gauge, they are 
cut out with a saw, and modeled slightly on heavy leather. 
These and the brass hinges are thoroughly cleaned, then 
dipped in a hot solution of sulphuric acid to color, and after- 
wards rubbed down, so that some of the metal shows through. 
This metal decoration could be entirely omitted, and the 
centre panels covered with leather. 
WOOD SCREEN 
Laura Rogers Way 
THE frame and carved panels of this screen are made of 
quartered oak and the centre panels are made of 
cypress. The screen stands five feet and four inches high and 
each fold is twentj' inches wide. It is stained a warm reddish 
brown. 
