Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-12-15
orr sRIsrs IN anBAr DEMAND.



They Arc Used FOR decorating Lamp
shades, shopping Bags, &c.
New York Sun.
Old prints show out in new and
popular guise this season, and have |
developed a value apart from their soft
tones and apt illustration. Old-time
Paris and London journals with frontis-
pieces and fashion plates worth having
are bought up eagerly by the Importers
agents, especially those issues that
were current as long ago as 1903 and
thereabouts. The prints are cut out
and let in on sill and satin surfaces to
be used for decorative fancy work, or
else are framed in, burnt wood or stucco
work frames, and hung singly or in n
medallion group Of three and five, for
walls and cabinet adornment. Screens
are made OF them, each panel composed
of Illustrations Of certain era, and
one or two old prints are certain to be
a main feature Of the latest typo of
lamp shade. Amateur workers who
hare deft fingers and the wit and ex-
actness 10 carry out their own designs
made use of the prints in such novel
ways as please them best, but the major
ity gettoget her the requisite number OF
prints. and carry them to some shade
or screenmaker, who can introduce
them in the right position, and set
them off with appropriate surroundings.
New York shopkeepers who are sus-
pected of having an accumulation of
old-tim books and journals on hand
are besieged these days by an onset of
old-print seekers, and chests and stowa-
way trunks are ransacked for especial
sporting pictures or gay-tinted frontis-
piece that some member of Sle family
may remember to have seen during a
| former search of effects. The early
numbers of the first American fashion
sheets and illustrated qrarterlies and
monthlies are also being unearthed from
! long packed boxes, and their most avail
able treasures made use of, but stray
fragments of Ls Belle Assembled, the
Dublin Monthly Museum and Aclzer-
mans Depository, if possessed of a
print or two, go like hot cakes, while
| the purchasers eagerly pick out the
pages they want and throw the rest
away. Old brocades and rare pieces Of
| tapestry figured conspicuously in fete
| day gifts last season, and this year the
| prints have favor. For work boxes, the
| stiff silk panels of framed opera bags
and shopping bags, prints that are I'M
| colored or of an all-oyer neutral tint
are used. Framed in with minute
spangled or corded guimpe, or u fine
outlining of embroidery that finishes
the edge of the cloth or silk where it
is cut away, but does not attract too
much notice from the print itself.
These prints are the likenesses of noted
bellies and beauties, generally in court
dress, with deliberately coiffed hair,
and bejeweled arms and fingers; a
mantle, tippet or fan gives grace and
distinctiveness; or maybe, if ii lisa full
length likeness. the grand DANES deli
cately sandaled foot peeps out from
skirts limp or skinny or befiounced,
according to the vogue OF tho time.
A lamp shade Of nasturtium yellow
silk, which is six-sided, hass two such
old prints let in on opposite panels,
and framed about with darker tint
ing. Fringe finger deep OF twisted
gold thread finishes the edge. Another
lamp shade Of the same shape was Ole
prints of 1903, representing trio Q
London women ia street dress. tn,
groundwork OF the lamp shade is deli
] cate ivory, and there is an eyeletting o
dark blue spangles framing the print
To modRrn day eyes these fashicnabl
{ danes Of century ago lock much a
though they had walked out in dressing
+ sacques, pot on oyer pajamas, but thei
(; hair is SO elaborate, and their hats an,
Z parasols SO hedizened as to Danish th
thought. Another old print of ancien
: date, meant for mounting on fir
screen, shows a group in evening dress
3 with scarfs round about their bar
Y shoulders, medallions hanging fror
k girdlos that define the very short waist
9 and headdresses that suggest beruifle
: nightcaps, with q nosegay on the crown
d and another tucked in under the fac
s frIll. All of these prints have bee
Q colored by hand, in pretty blues, laver
Q ders and greens, and the bright, yer
l. low -quartered and extremely pointe
9 slippers show out under gowns tha
l. trail in front and behind, and have I
IS be held up TO admit of the wearer
: movements.
10 Spirited old prints representa-
= fishermen, oarsmen, chariot driver
:; hunters and wine bihbers, are used fl
d decorating mems accessories. By Fl
,, the oldest prints are those depictir
rs fat old friars and homely peasants Ell
n gagged in some religious observance, ar
I'd those showing the women of CONVEX
s, tional life watering the primmest
Iy prim green geraniums, or maybe sittir
at idle in stiff -stilted attitude, with
lie poll parrot near by or o very wooden
Il looking, night capped baby in Q Grad
TO beside their chair. The fashion jou
10 nails Of those times seem to have ne
re lected no phase of life, and tho old-pri
he from. When making their fancy gif
ir | @la1 il l., GOV
,h thing to suit the domestic, the athleti
eel the aesthetic and the sentimentally /
y. clined.
O. Certain of these old book front
e. pieces, now destined for practical use
have brought prices quite out of pr
lie portion to their size and original valr
as as is usual with anything that com
III to be fad. Those who have the
wo very old periodicals in their possessi
IS, can readily realize on them, for I
m, proprietors of the gift shops ard mic
us mack and embroidery stores sta
ess ready to take them off their han'
of The old-time portrait silhouette
Ito being put to service in the Same W;
Ire Some OF these brought from old hoi
ng collections sell for rs much as SIS d
he Sc. They are used in silver gray S
cir faces, and outlined with hiHck and g
ler guimpe, interspersed with .spangl
asst By the way, parti colored srangles
of exaggerated form, as large as q dime
to one-cent piece, and Of expcns
the quality are set into the pattern
tie, tapestry covered and embroidered col
o cushions. They glitter and look ha
rts some, but do away entirely with
ng- idea Of soothing and comfort tina
ng, the primary reason for a pillows OK