TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20704, 30 April 1929, Page 16

TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD.

THE IDEAL HOME EXHIBITION. A GREAT TRIUMPH. ARTISTIC, USEFUL, ORIGINAL. (From Odr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 8. An annual event that has come to occupy a place in the diary of the methodical householder is the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, at Olympia! This is the coming-of-age .year, of this useful institution, which people from all parts of England try to attend. Excursion trains are fun to London from all the loading centres of population and from innumerable small towns as well. The organisers provide so much that is practical for the householder, so much that is attractive to the ' eye, all the latest “ gadgets ” for the kitchen and the parlour, all that is new in building, and so many details that are wanted by the gardener, that Olympia is indescribably bright and interesting during these four weeks of the pre-spring period that it is not surprising that one has to jostle, with multitudes' of people by day and by night. A single visit is never enough to cover the eight acres of attractions, particularly if one wishes to hear, all about the usefulness of the waterless cooker, or to grasp the intriccacies of the regulo dial which is attached to the gas inlet pipe and controls the flow of gas and even temperature so that a whole meal can be cooked at the same time, without human supervision, by merely setting the dial to a given figure; and if one wants, even to at the great array of artistic novelties that have been brought out for beautifying the home. * TO ELIMINATE SMOKE. The campaign for the elimination of domestic smoke has encouraged architects, builders, and manufacturers of smokeless appliances to study carefully lighting, heating, and cooking in their relation to the problem. The knowledge already gained from experiments and research has been a determining factor in many of the late improvements. The results, as seen at Olympia, radicate that provision is now made in the planning of new houses, whether singly or as part of a housing scheme, for the installation of modern smokeless appliances. The old-fashioned, coal burning kitchener seems to have disappeared altogether. Even the familiar all-black cooker has gone. Their places have been taken by bright, easily-cleaned, porcelain enamelled gas cookers. “ SUNSHINE ” GAS FIRES. One of the most remarkable contributions to scientific home heating is made by a company showing gas-fires equipped with the new thermo beam radiant. The discovery of this radiant, which emits health-giving light and heat rays similar in action and effect to those given off by the sun, has revolutionised all preconceived ideas of gas-fire heating and has drawn unstinted praise from Professor Leonard Hill and Dr Saleeby. These new heating radiants will replace the older thermo type in all radiation gas fires. Examples are shown in a wide variety of designs and finishes—stainless metal, oxidised and coloured finishes, and the new simulated wood surface which has become popular. Geysers, hotwater bottles, wash coppers and Nautilus coke boilers are all part of the antismoke equipment to be seen, and there is also a display of large-scale kitchen apparatus suitable for. use in hotels, including a new gas cooker with regulo attachment, capable of cooking a whole dinner at once for 60 or 70 people. Householders, too, are immensely taken with the new coloured porcelain baths and lavatory appointments. Everything must match in tone, and the shades from which selection can be made includes a golden-yellow, delicate mauve, soft green; mottled effects, too, are obtainable. WONDERFUL FOUNTAIN. The decorative centre-piece of the ball is a great electric fountain set in midair. -It is a feature of outstanding grandeur, especially at night, with the roof in semi-darkness, when it throws jets and streams of water of varying heights to the vast dome from the artistic flower-decked basin, whose reservoir holds no less than 50 tons of water. The play of the batteries of constantly changing coloured lights provide a spectacle of outstanding splendour, ■ s THE VILLAGE OF WELCOME IN. In the hall where this village has been set up there are no fewer than seven full-sized houses to be inspected, as ‘well as a week-end brick-built cottage, and small flats for bachelor girls. The houses represent the best types of modeni domestic architecture, alike with regard to design and construction.- The “Riviera Sunshine House” has a sunbath oh the roof. While this house has all the enduring beauty of the Tudor period, its decoration and .equipment are conceived and carried out on modern lines. The room which is .literally a sunbath is commodious and suited for a nursery, a billiard room or a recreation room. “The Welcome House” is of particular interest as having been erected from a prize-winning design of Mr D. F. Martin-Smith, A.R.1.8.A., for the Portland Cement Company, by the Universal Housing Company, BBEAUTIFUE FLOWERS AND GARDEN ORNAMENTS. The gardens in the village are beautifully planted with fine hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, and other spring flowers, and opportunity here is afforded for the display of all the latest in garden ornaments. Among the latter are bright little gnomes with grey boards and faces as scarlet’ as their hats, pushing barrows, of wielding their brooms. Another set in grey, represents the leading people from the immortal “Alice,” all faithful reproductions of Tenniel’S drawings. Another' garden ornament likely to ne in demand is “ Peter Pan,” after Frampton. ~ Another garden of vast dimensions, restful away from the throng of people, is called the Garden of Summer Hours, where an army of skilled gardeners have v-orW the hundreds of tons of imported mould and boulders and planted thousands of flowers and shrubs, taking for their pattern, in two instances, the works of famous artists. The Old Mill Garden, with its wild flowers and lichen and mill wheel slowly turning in the swirling water, is a true replica of Constable’s favourite countryside, while the “ Old Dutch ” Garden is strikingly reminiscent of the works of Frans Hals. BEDROOMS THROUGH THE AGES. One of the novelties this year is the series “ Bedrooms Through the Ages,” consisting of eight bedrooms rangiii" from the days of the Prehistoric Woman through Egyptian, Greek, Italian, French, Old Japanese, and prim Victorian periods, to the ultra-modem bedroom of to-day. The human note is introduced by the presence in each of these rooms of beautiful mannequins, all diVsscd to the period they represent. The Modern Room is graced bv Miss Bennie Dicks, the winner of the* recent Daily Mail beauty competition, and Miss Molliu Cole, a well-known mannequin with copper-coloured hair which harmonises with the copper ceilhi" of the apartment. The Greek Room is occupied by Miss Eileen Mayo, the model who sits for the famous artists, Dame Laura Knight, and Miss Dod Proctor A delightfully humorous touch appears in the decorative titles above each.room which are supported by two small cupids, those U, the case of the Modern Room holding respectively a lipstick and a cocKtail glass as emblems of the fashion of the times, while the ijheruba

above the Victorian Room are made to suggest the somewhat strict conventions of those days. The Victorian Room produces shouts of laughter. Every detail is true to the period, and people wonder how they ever lived with serge “ mantle-drapes ” and precious prints of royalty protected with glass covers: everything so prim, and the horsehair chair looks so slippery ! “ I collected the various Victorian Items of furniture and brie a brae mainly from out-of-the-way second-hand shops in Camden Town,” said Mr Yerbury, the architect responsible for the rooms. “ This rose-sprigged china lamp with its round glass globe, which is placed on a fluted mahogany pedestal, was picked up for half a crown in the hinterlands behind the Edgware road. lam told that * antiques ’ of this period are becoming less easy to find because there is such a big demand for them from Canada, where they no doubt revive memories of ‘ the old home, 5 55 “MY IDEAL ROOM.” this is a series of rooms designed according to the ideas and desires of the various prominent people responsible for their conception. There is a Queen Anw Room by Lady Londonderry; an Ideal Statesman’s Room by. Lady Oxford and Asquith (believed to be an exact copy of her husband’s library) ; a studio according to the ideas of Sir William Orpen; a -Health Room representing the principles advocated by Sir W. Arbuth-not-Lane; a vividly coloured room characteristic of Mr Edmund Dulac; and a drawing room representative of the spirit of William Morris, all the furniture and valuable manuscripts which have been lent by Mrs Thorne, daughter of the late Mr Henry Arthur Jones. DOMINIONS’ SHOW. ' The Empire Marketing Board has a large space, and each part of the overseas Empire has a very attractive section—the Home Country, India, Canada, Austraha, New Zealand, South Africa, British West .Indies, East Africa, Mauritius, Northern Ireland, and so on. The New Zealand part is well equipped and tastefully arranged, and all the countries here are selling samples of their products and giving information. • In ront of them all is a large panorama, lo see this the visitor looks over a bridge, and below is a representation of water with a map of the important countries of the Empire. The foreground shows a big Home industry— ship building, electric machinery, works, and manufactures of various kinds. Alongside what is. shown as the Armstrong-Whit-worth building are the printed words; .turbo generators constructed in this country equip the power stations of New Zealand. What enables New Zealand to give orders for our electrical goods? The sale of New Zealand products. Look round and see New Zealand’s exhibit.” Similarly appropriate designations apply to the other parts of the Empire. The feature has the charm of novelty, and it publk instructive to the general