The Charm of Brass

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 9, 11 January 1936, Page 10

The Charm of Brass

There is one criticism of modern ideas in home decoration which is to some-extent justified. It is that so many rooms are beautiful to look at, but unfriendly to live in, states a writer in an overseas magazine.

We have all had this feeling at one time or another, I am sure. It springs from the lack of those little homely touches which used once to change a house into a homo. You know the kind of things—tho old grandfather clock from which wo first learned to tell the time, the absurd china shepherdesses, the warming pan hanging in the hall. Nowadays our rooms have greater variety, but there is still often something too perfect and precise in their arrangement. They are rooms that 1 :k that personal touch which our parents and grandparents knew how to achieve. Nothing succeeds so well in imparting a homely atmosphere to a room as does the cheerful radiance of pieces of copper and brass —those warm old metals from which so much of early Victorian and Georgian ornament was fashioned.

A great deal of tho charm of old brass is due to the fact tnat time's mellowing and repeated polishing give it its present perfection. After tone, you should look for sand-pittiugs in the base, and also for tho rubbed, smooth edge that comes from years of contact with good English oak, on sideboard or shelf. By these signs you will 'know a candlestick, for instance, is antiquo ana not a reproduction. Hanging lamps are definitely of a period Georgian or earlier, when not obviqusly machine products. Very occasionally you will come across winecups in brass, or more likely in guumotal. Theso will very probably be cast and turned on early lathes—seventeenth century work. Sconces—wall brackets in highly ornamental style which carry a projecting candlestick—were most numerous in the eighteenth century. Any of these you find should really bo in pairs. Your collection of old brass and copper can be practical as well as decorative. Few vessels set off the natural glory of flowers so well as shapely brass bowls and vases, because their golden tint is neutral. Nor need your finds be designed to hold flowers, since many lovely and useful bowls in brass and copper were made for quite other purposes —as cream pans, milk pails, and even foot warmers!

Brass collecting can be great fun and you need never take more of your time than you wish to give it. In this littlo hobby you will be in very distinguished company, for many specialists in decoration are now turning eagerly to the gracious metals of our forebears in order to bring back restfulncss and friendliness, qualities wnlch once made England famous for its homes.