DECORATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7046, 7 February 1910, Page 4

DECORATION

HOW AVE USE IT. Decorative art expresses the feeling of (ho times /perhaps mote than any other. WhEe the painter may linger amongst his ideals, the artist who has adapted his spirit to the demands of the day and has turned his attention to the practical side of life finds that applied art cannot stand still, and that ideals alone will not suffice for his clients. The complete alteration in ideas of ornament in itself uffords a proof to the obsarvant of tho manner in which taste has changed. Decorators who attained to any distinction have always been skilled artists with minds open to receive now iinpressions, and to accept the teachings of new -worlds. ■ Tho period of the Georges sa.w an inpouring of tile treasures brought by the 'merchants from India to England, hence the Georgian rooms, rich in dignity and enhanced by pieces of rare lacquer, wonderful bronzes, and other Oriental treasures. The past year or two, however, has seen something entirely new in decorative ideas. TIIE NEW SIMPLICITY. A now school has arisen. Manufacturers of textiles' are -under its spell; trimmings, j ewellery—indeed, everything of everyday, necessity proclaims tho now.-leaning to an old simplicity. Where fifty yeairs ago a woman would have crammed her drawing-room with bric-a-brac and loaded her dresses with frills of silk and ruffles of laco she is advised to avoid any exuberant indulgence in ornamentation and accepts tho advice. "It gives eo much floor space," is one of tho newest watchwords of the artist in furniture, as he points to his scheme of fitments for a bedroom, and indicates that since the -walls are used for. cupboard accommodation thero is a wide open square in the cen,tr.o of the apartment. Where tho individual touch does not exist in the purchaser the designer provides it. Mantelpieces are mostly fitted, and dainty little tables fall at a touch out iof tho wall, to act as stands for the early morning cup of tea, or tho book -which is read until tho last.