International studio (58.1916)

The National Society of Craftsmen

art of table decoration, an art particularly with-
in the province of the keramic worker. In my
summer school at Southampton, Long Island,
the past season, also in my classes of the past
winter, a special feature has been made of the
subject of Table Decoration. I am continually
assembling examples of arrangements to use
educationally, in my teaching.
Of these, the little breakfast or cottage lun-
cheon service (illus. No. i) was a happy, amusing
little scheme, profuse in colour, the brilliant blue
glass flower bowls and rose-violet linen causing
iridescent reflections in the silver and glass. The
china was soft blue Wedgwood, the tall old-
fashioned glass comport in centre was filled with
black grapes and apricots. The quaintly formed
glass water goblets were made still more charming
by being set in little silver coasters.
To give detail and chic, a broad band of bold
blue and white check linen was appliqued around
the cloth, and while some people were startled
by the effect, it was this which gave a distinctly
modern and piquant touch.
One for a dinner (illus. No. 2) was also modern
in spirit, but more serious in treatment, the prin-
cipal characteristic of which might be said to be
distinction of colour. The soft sulphur yellow of
the china and linen, salmon gray of the huge
Capri bowl in centre with note of white in the
little marble figurine, the silvery sheen of the
pewter candlesticks, comports, etc., and the glass-
ware, brought about a subtle blending of cool
and warm tones. The notes of contrast were
supplied by the black, coral and emerald green
fruits, the deep yellow of the beeswax candles,
and the exquisite purples and blues of the tall-
stemmed Spanish iris. The pewter and glass
reflected the surrounding colours, and, aided by
the light filtering through the lattice screens, the
effect was one of iridescence and enchantment.
The third arrangement (illus. No. 3) was stately
and more conservative, being planned for formal
use. Things Italian in spirit were used in a way
to suggest a miniature Italian garden. The linen
and all accessories were in varying tones of gray
whites and ivory whites, the real colour being
supplied by the flowers and fruits.
These schemes of table decoration were planned
out, assembled and shown as a plea for more art
and more colour in this field. As Miss Carey, of
the Times, said, “Colour is emphasized, and a
table no longer is seen as a white elephant in a

richly coloured interior, but as a component part
of the room, playing its role in the total effect.”
Table decoration is a large field, and it is
a subject of universal appeal. I see no reason
why there should not develope a demand for
specialists in this branch of interior decoration
who may be commissioned to take charge of the
decorations for special occasions as well as to
study out practical ideas for ordinary use.
jgOOK REVIEW
The Dune Country. By Earl H, Reed.
(John Lane Co.) $2.50.
Whatever troubles authors are heir to they have
one great privilege of which they are not slow to
avail themselves: they can annex any area of
country and make it their own by virtue of the
pen. This is what Earl Reed, the gifted etcher
and author, has done with the Dune country about
Lake Michigan. He has created himself by
needle and nib Lord of the Michigan Dunes and
it would take a strong party to oust him.
His first wanderings in that desolate region
revealed to him the picturesqueness of the un-
picturesque. The ordinary tourist would look in
vain for material for dealer or publisher, and
would hasten to fresh fields and pastures new.
Not so Earl Reed; he discovered beauty in un-
expected places, rare moods of Nature who does
not impart her secrets to the unelect and who
must be reverently solicited. His cult of the
dunes extends over years and yields him a plen-
itude of material. At first his interest lay
chiefly in etching sandy hills, trees and wind-
swept shrubs, storms crossing the lake and simi-
lar phenomena. This student of nature by de-
grees gained the confidence of the crows and
other birds and beasts, willing to provide him
with ideas and pose as models. This the second
phase. The third phase of his explorations finds
him hobnobbing with the most extraordinary
types of the gens humana, mostly derelicts, but
all very human, very pathetic at times and in-
variably entertaining. It is scarcely strange then
that the impulse to record his adventures and
co-ordinate his characters has ended in type.
The author has good literary style, plenty of
dry humour, a deep knowledge of and sympathy
with his subject, a love of nature and the pas-
sions of a poet. Furthermore, the book contains
fifty illustrations after the author’s etchings.