IVORY IN THE HOME

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 83, 2 January 1929, Page 15

IVORY IN THE HOME

ITS CHOICE, CARE, AND DISPLAY

PRACTICAL HINTS

Ilf you wish to introduce a quiet dignified note to a diningroom or study, a chaste note to a dainty boudoir, or a solid note to your hall, do it in ivory. No other medium combines restraint with sheen and purity like ivory. No other comes, as it were, from the grave, for, as you know, ivory is found in elephant cemeteries, to grace a home. If you want to bring the real ivory note into your home, why not start with the hall? A pair of ivory tusks makes a handsome frame for a dinner gong, espjciI ally if the gong you choose be of the Chinese variety you sometimes see mounted on ebony or teakwood. Or, if you have no wish for a gong, but prefer the tusks as ornaments, have them mounted us you would mount stags’ antlers. but on an ebony plaque. Tusks fixed in this way are all you want to ornament a plainly furnished hall. But they must never be placed in a small hall, or in a hall furnished in any ultra-modern fashion. They need space and a severe or an Oriental scheme of decoration for their setting. Billiard balls, bangles, toy elephants, and other animals, paper-weights, piano ke.ys i .knife handles, paper knives, and chessmen are some of the everyday ivories seen in “Ideal Homes.” Suppose you want to introduce ivory to a library or study, a paper-weight and paper knife could both find a 'place in the writing desk. To keep them company, you might also add an ivory clock, or a small bust. If there is a photograph you wish to stand on the desk or escritoire, frame it also in ivory, in the modern way. But, don’t place ivory fittings on a desk littered with all kinds of writing equipment. It looks lost in a medley. I’ou want a tidy soul to own the writing table adorned with ivory, and you want a darkpanelled room, furnished, for preference, in Tudor style, or an Oriental room enriched with lacquered furniture, inlaid ivory and mother-of-pearl, or plainly furnished with ebony pieces, to do justice as a background to ivory. There is no difficulty about choosing a piece of ivory for the sittingroom or the boudoir. In the boudoir, the ivory clockwill look at home so long as it is not jammed closely up against something else. If you place it. on a mantelpiece in the centre of two black Wedgwood candlesticks, fitted with willow pattern candles, or candles of a jade or dragon’s blood hue. it will look at peace. But don’t place it there part of the day, especially when you have fires on, and then move it, perhaps, into your bedroom at night. For ivory suffers from change of temperature. Another ivory that looks well in most boudoirs is a miniature case, and a letter weight in the form of a toy elephant or stork, llut again remember it is most at home on lacquered surfaces or on ebony. Its chastity is lost on nondescript or indefinite surfaces. Like marble and alabaster, it is temperamental and needs atmosphere. It is very easy to introduce the ivory note into a bedroom or into a man’s dressing-room. For ivory mirrors, some square, some oblong, others octagonal, and others oblong but domed on top, are i now the latest edict of. fashion. In Mayfair they are displacing the Florentine and gilded mirrors so long

in vogue. .Some of them are made to hang on a wall, while others are so fitted that they stand by themselves on the dressing-table. So mow it is quite common to see a toilef-table equipped with not only a Ismail hand mirror, but also a large mirror, with hair brushes and clothes brushes, combs, shoe horn, button hook, glove hook, and powder bowl all in ivory, with an ivory-fitted manicure set on a side table to complete the effect. It is even possible to purchase ivory trays to hold the hair brush, comb, shoe horn and button hook. But if you decide on an ivory toilet set you can choose between an ivory tray and what I think is a much more striking background for ivory—plate . glass over black, dark brown, or dark blue velvet. One of the most charming dressingr tables I have ever seen. was arranged in this way. A piece of plate glass cut exactly to fit the top of the table had been laid over a length of black vel-/ vet of the same size, and on the glass were arranged all the ivory toilet fittings. . You can arrange a man s dressingtable in the same way. Only remember when ivory is your choice, no matter whose the fittings, the monogram must on no account be ornate. The severer the better. And you can have it in either black, dark blue or dark brown. There is another point you mhst also take into account. Ivory fittings are rich, chaste and dignified, but you must show some relief near. It may be in the form of an old silver bowl of roses, a black Wedgwood.

jug iilled with the old-fashioned marigolds, oi - a bowl of the same ware wHi Ol , Moorcroft, stuffed jwth richly blotched pansies. It matters not what the contrast so long as it is bold and effective and not just a hotchpotch of dowers that come first to your hand. . There is no way ■in which you can introduce ivory to the dining-room except in the conventional way of handling certain knives and forks and napkin rings. Why, for a time, ivory eggspoons went out of fashion I know 'not, for they are a thousand times more in keeping with eggs than silver or silver-plated spoons. Now they are in again, I hope to stay. There is, of course, a right and a wrong way to clean ivory. When only dusty all it needs is a wash in warm water, and a wipe dry. But if knife .handles, for example, have become darkened, you should rub them with half a lemon dipped in salt, then wash them in warm water and wipe them dry. If you find this method does not work, try brushing them over with a thick paste of whiting and alcohol. Let this remain until the alcohol evaporates, then brush the whiting off with a clean soft brush. Ivory does not like the dark. Try always to place your ivories where they

catch the sunlight. This is the best way of preventing them growing dark. That is the-reason some housewives never close their pianos. They want to keep their keys from yellowing. But when brushing or dusting a room close the piano, after covering the keys with a strip of felt, retained handy for the purpose of keeping out the dust. 1 I learn from experts that delicate earved ivory ornaments are best cleaned with a shaving brush dipped in sal volatile. But don’t spare the sal volatile. If ornaments are very dirty, brush well, then brush with a clean dry brush and squeeze out any grimy liquid from the brush used for applying the sal volatile before dipping brush in it again. Repeat treatments till brush comes away clean. If you haven’t an old shaving brush that will do for the purpose you may have an infant’s hair brush, which will do just as well. On no account put ivory handles in hot water, as that yellows them quickly. Wash them in 'lukewarm water in which you have dissolved a little soapsuds and wipe quickly. If slightly yellow you may be able to whiten them by merely wetting them with soapy water and leaving them for several hours in strong sunlight—keep wetting them again as they dry and turning them occasionally so that both sides of the handles whiten evenly. Ivory is lovely, but it needs care to keep it at home in. your home.—Eliza- | beth Craig in the “Ideal Home.” *