Studio: international art (12.1898)

An Epoch-Making House

is a masterpiece of its kind, this simple pattern
of olive-green conventionalised foliage, with red
A's and black "IV dotted here and there
upon a white surface. So quiet and unobtrusive is
the effect, that perhaps only a thoroughly trained
and practised eye would be attracted by it.
Delightful bric-a-brac, Morris wall-paper, ceilings
painted by the same artist himself, pictures by
Mr. G. F. Watts—one a family portrait group
which is among his earliest works—all these come
into the picture; and above all, the sense of
comfort, and even of snugness—a rare quality in
such a place—are equally impressive. For the
house, although commodious, is not vast, and by
the planning of its passages and anterooms it is so
eminently "liveable," that possibly its real size is
somewhat less apparent thereby. Everywhere
beautiful things in bronze, lacquer, or porcelain
heighten the effect, but nowhere do they crowd
so as to suggest a museum. For much of the
decorations and detail would not be noticed by
an ordinary person paying a social visit; it is only
apparent to one searching for it.

From the porch you pass up a staircase of Mr.
Philip Webb's design, where cleverly-planned steps,
on a larger scale beneath the handrail, afford
resting-place for bronzes. The ceiling, decorated
after designs by Morris, one of several in the
house, is yellow upon white, the carpet a pleasant
harmony in pale greyish-green and cinnamon,
every item of the pattern and decoration being
selected to support a delicate scheme of colour
wherein the pink and silver of the walls come as
an important factor.

The walls of the drawing-room are covered with
a gold lacquered paper rich in various colours, that
at first sight suggests Japan, but proves to be a
design of chrysanthemum (by Morris) embossed in
silver, overlaid with washes of brilliant transparent
lacquer. The cornice is also lacquered, and the
ceiling painted with gold and silver upon an ivory
ground. The chief colours in the hangings are
green and blue mixed to yield a delightfully soft
" bloom," which is echoed in the fabric clothing
the walls of the second drawing-room opening out
of the first. The mantelpiece in the first room
was especially designed by Mr. Walter Crane to
display some of Mr. Ionides's unique collection of
Tanagra statuettes. But this need not detain us,
as a consideration of these superb bibelots will be
the subject of another paper in The Studio. To
see how well the terra-cottas of Tanagra " go"
with the Gothic and Oriental details of Morris is
to realise once again that nearly all noble things

can be trusted to exist happily in each other's
society. For here Japanese metal-work, Chinese
blue and white, historic majolica, and these little
figures in their delicate colours set in a quasi-
Greek overmantel, make no discord, but come
together far more happily than do the average
objects in a room kept rigidly to the work of a
fixed period. The carpets by Morris reveal the
features which he made his own—robust generous
curves blossoming into flower-like patterns, and
with a sense of space unlike the "tight" effect
of most modern carpets. In the second room
a portiere of old embroidery over the dining-
room door is a superb piece of colour, that
harmonises strangely well with the modern work
around it.

In this room stands a grand piano (which will
be remembered by many visitors to the Arts and
Crafts) with a case of wood stained green, and
almost covered with elaborate detail in gold and
silver gesso, the design and work of Miss Faulk-
ner.

The pictures on the walls are full of interest,
although many of the famous works which once
hung here have been dispersed; yet these which
remain, by Rossetti, Watts, Legros, and others, are
fine enough to provoke much rhapsody, but they
are not quite pertinent to the present article, so
they also must be passed over.

From the inner drawing-room the dining-room is
entered, and here we have a very notable instance
of a very elaborately decorated apartment, that at
first sight does not reveal itself as materially unlike
any similar room in a well-appointed modern house.
Yet the walls, the ceiling, the doors, sideboard, in
fact the whole room (except the high dado of
Spanish leather and the marble mantelpiece with
its Persian tiles) has been lacquered upon silver.
Although pitched in the highest key (next to
stained glass) which craft allows, metal of all shades,
from crimson to pale green and silver, has been so
deftly softened by transparent lacquers, that the
result is the reverse of gaudy, and as harmonious
as a fine piece of ancient metal with the patina of
age upon it.

The designs of the surface decoration are all by
Mr. Walter Crane, who was assisted in the model-
ling of some of the subjects by the late Osmond
Weekes. In the large panels of the frieze the
subjects are taken from ^Esop's Fables. The
motive of the ornament elsewhere is the vine,
which culminates in a bas-relief representing the
famous quatrain of Omar Khayyam, which in the
first edition runs :

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