Studio: international art (24.1902)

First International "Studio" Exhibition

the housemaid and child ? Dearly did we pav for
the festivity of a Sunday dessert by that black
moment of a Monday morning when we were sum-
moned to the cold dismantled room, to be shown
the scratches we had made on the French-polished
table-legs, or the china shepherdess we had broken
and hastily re-joined in the vain hope of a healing
miracle, or those dark stains on the fender and
fire-irons into which the surreptitious orange had
betrayed us! We need not banish rare and
beautiful curios, pottery, and other fragile treasures
from the home in our natural reaction from the
reign of things too easily spoilt or broken ; but we
shall remember that anything in the appointments
of the living-room—implicitly for use—which needs
to be fenced round from ordinary wear and tear,
stands self-condemned in the category of furniture.

CANDLE SCONCE IN BY ASHBY SHEARK

REPOUSSE COPPER

SCONCE BY KELLOCK BROWN

One of the strongest motives of modern decoration
is that it shall be subservient to real ease and
comfort in domestic life, and shall not unkindly
embarrass the child in the house or the stranger
that is within the gate. Bright iron—to return to
the same example — requires but a very slight
oiling, imperceptible to the touch, to keep it in
good condition ; and the beauty and variety of its
surface is beyond all comparison with the hard
mechanical polish of the steel fire-irons of
yesterday.

Of fire-screens, there were several which fulfilled
the need of a restful surface in harmony with its
setting, shielding from glare but reflecting and
diffusing heat. Such an object should be decora-
tive, but not so fanciful as to tease or perplex the
eye, which rests continually upon it in leisure, not
only in winter but often in summer also, when
applied to the purpose once served by the penny

177