Studio: international art (13.1898)

A House on the Devonshire Coast

sketches showing in each instance the fireplace end.
That for the drawing-room proposes a lower portion
consisting entirely of delicate grey green Cipolino
marble with the upper portion carried out in oak,
unstained and slightly waxed. The open-work frieze
carved in the same wood is treated with a conven-
tional design, and would have some of its features
emphasised by light points of colour ; the tips of the
leaves, for instance, would be touched with green,
smudged or wiped off, so as to leave the greater
part of the leaf the natural colour of the wood. The
floor of this room would be of pine, stained a light
green, and beeswaxed. The wall-paper would be
one I have just designed, the feature of which is
that while comprising a dado, a ' filling' and a
frieze, it gets rid of the arbitrary lines either of
moulding, or of delimitation of pattern usually
thought necessary when these are made use of.
The paper, moreover, admits of being adjusted to
different heights so as to adapt itself to the various
parts of the room. The section, for instance, shows
its employment above the fixed settee at the end of
the room opposite the fireplace, where the open-
carved frieze again occurs.

" With regard to the dining-room, its treatment
throughout would be in plain deal panelling
painted white, and the mantelpiece proper would
be in dull copper, showing a free use of the
hammer on its surface. The baluster standing
on the lower shelf (which is of brown-red marble)
would be of copper, highly polished. The floor
here is of oak very slightly beeswaxed. For the
frieze paper in this room the general interior
view, and the detail to a larger scale show a plain
flock surface with gold lines and with panel
designs occurring at intervals. The chimney-piece
in the hall would be entirely of red bricks with
wide mortar joints, and the fire would burn on the
hearth, an object attainable by using the ' Well
grate.' The floor here and in the corridor would
be paved with the local dark green paving-stone in
large squares.

"Before leaving the ground floor, I would point
out that the serving-room occupies the space under
the servants' or back stairs, and the sideboard is
placed in a recess which would be ceiled at a
lower level than the rest of the room, in conse-
quence of the upper flight of the servants' stairs
passing over it. The kitchen would be lined
inside with glazed bricks of very pale green.

" I hope we shall be able, with the exceptions I
have mentioned, to avoid the use of wall-paper
anywhere throughout the house, and in its stead to

fall back upon the plain unmoulded panel that has
been mentioned for the dining-room. The panel-
ling painted white need not necessarily occupy the
whole height of the wall, and where it does not,
the plaster above might be distempered a quiet
tone of clear yellow.

"As regards the exterior of the house the material
I propose is the stone which the site itself furnishes.

TORSO OF A GIRL BY P. W. . BARTLETT

(See " Some American Artists in Paris")

245