, 1885-10-16

Incompatible Woodwork-Th Plano.
london Truth
The suite consists OF two very large
touches, a piano, music cabinet, tables.
chairs, foot stools and curtains. They
are designed and made for n New York
millionaire. who has given no limit so
far as price is concerned, so that the
very finest materials and the most
skilled work have beer secured. The
designs are by Alma Tadema, whose
picture, "a Reading from Homer, " nov
in the academy. is TO be hung in the
drawing room for which the furniture
is intended. hear rumors Of freizes
and panels by Sir Frederick Leighton,
OF oman sculptors at work upon the
marble for the same fortunate room and
OF other details, which lead me TO the
conclusion that If money is the root Of
all evil it is also the root of all art.
The couches, chairs and stools are
upholstered in silk OF n beautiful shad
of pure gray, trayersed by bands of eN-
quisite embroidery in colors which are
rich. but carefully subdued, as n sees
them in Mr.. Tademas pictures. The
ground of this embroidery is also silk,
the color being precisely that of the
bloom of n ripe plum. Upon this the
tints OF gold and orange, blue, red and
brown, with slender curved lines Of
pure white giving n peculiar delicacy to
the whole, form a beautiful scroll pat
tern \ rich trellis fringe of mingled
gray and gold runs along the edges OF
the couches, and beneath it is a deep
silk fringe Of the plum-bloom color,
which does not show. except in the eff
feet OF depth and richness it lmparts
to the upper fringe.
The woodwork Of all this is simply in
comparable, being a mingling of cedar
wood, ebony and lockwood, inlaid with
the finest mother Of pearl TO be had.
Wherever there is a corner a swans
head is carved out of the ebony. large
carbuncles forming the eyes. The labor
OF bending the ivory has been immense,
for 1t is essentially a brittle substance,
and affords an inverted illustration of
the proverb. Bend, not break. - ON
the arms OF the couches there are long,
curved lines of tapering ivory, which
approach each other closely at the base.
but gradually increase the interval of
width as they rise. This, it appears,
was a very difficult matter to manage.
The piano il not yet completed. The
NDItl Htll VI Ant MhNlh Nhbliltb ~
copy Of an Asiatic temple. The pillars
are of fluted cedar wood, the delicious
red brown of that beautiful wood com
ing out with great effect by reason OF
the carving. The capitals are carved
ivory, in a mellow tint of warm cream
color. The rest is ebony, inlaid with
the various woods | have already emu
merated and with the exquisite mother
of pearl, which glitters like jewels. The
curtains that vail the reeesses intended
for holding tho music are Of gray silk,
embroidered in soft, rich colors, a Tyre
occupying the center.
A large curtain, is also of gray silk,
with n curious embroidered dado, the
ground of which is plum-bloom silk,
with n quaint design in sections, in each
of which is a straight piece that re-
minds me of old studies in comic sec.
tons in blue and red.
The round tables arc too lovely. The
woodwork matches that of the other
furniture, but is not a repetition. In
fact, no two designs are precisely alike.
There is some thing to study in each
back of n chair, each side of n stool,
each arm of a couch. The tops of the
tables are of Ale erian onyx, and they
are like bits of golden sunsets, caught
and fixed. to be n Joy forever. 80 deli
cately, pretty. lransparently, effui-
gently pink is the ground of one oil
these that it looks as soft as n rose loaf,
though marble cold. Dashes of yellow
and orange are splashed upon the
ground and have a cloudy, dreamy look
LAT makes II think of summer sky
scapes.