Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-17
NEW JACOBEAN FURNITURE.

Stately Models Shown I'm n New York
City Mansion.
Red, running through the gamut OF It's
rich dyes, from Morris scarlet to the deep
est mulberry, Is by universal choice the
~favorite scheme In house decoration this sea-
son. The steadily increasing popularity Of
mahogany in simple colonial forms has
brought this ~sanguine color into fashion and
after long dalliance with French styles and
a momentary fancy for delft blues, a lavish
use Of gliding and white paint, the whole
inclination Of extremely modern interior
ornamentation is toward the older, darker
and severer English modes. Nothing is
more acutely fashionable, for instance. than
a library, a hall or even an entire first floor
wholly decorated and furnished after the
best Jacobean models left in England, Ire
land and Scotland, and one Of the charms Of
a King James room Is that 1t can be done
at as lavish or moderate cost as you please,
and 1t is like nothing we have had before in
cur American homes.
In Mrs. Elliott F. Shepherds New York
house, only recently completed, there is a
small Jacobean library that would be a
~faultless model for any one desiring a SINH
lar room to copy. The walls are hung in
m~urrey-colored leather and the woodwork Is
carved cedar, the floor is stained black, then
waxed, highly polished, and on 1t arc laid
red rugs. ALI the furniture and this motif
In decoration come from an ancient manor
house on the border between England and
Scotland. Carved fumed oak, so called from
being blackened by age and the smoke from.
slow peat fires, forms the presses that hold
the books, and the wooden portion Of the
quaint. uncomfortable long-legged. low
backed conversation chairs, the window
stools and s~ettees. Murrey-colored leather
upholsters these and in corners against the
walls there are carved locked chests for
holding valued manuscripts and family
papers and one long tapestry curtain hangs
at each deeply recessed window.
The effect OF the Jacobean room Is, in
spite of its absence Of mirrors, gift and
loose bric-a-brac, wonderfully rich, stately
and cosy, and in those houses where no
such liberal expenditure as in Mrs. Shep-
herds could be INDUCED the decorators
have pursued the King James style with
wonderful %cheapness and success. They
copy the quaint furniture forms in carved
black American walnut, or use an oak that
by artifce is given the worn, dusky tone
Of great age. Burrap Is laid on walls and
painted murrey red, and walnut is used for
woodwork, door facings, etc., painted black.
Where in any room this early sixteenth
century idea Of decoration is followed the
bric-a-brac is carefully boarded up in OPEN
fronted cupboards, or shallow presses with
half glass doors, and the very newest idea
In dining rooms is a great plate side
board. ...........
The Plate boy.
Whenever a dinner party Is given nova
days 1t Is in the code Of fashion Cor the
hostess to order on view all her beautiful
plate, gold and silver, not SO much for
actual table Use as for display and the orna-
mentation Of her dining room. Now, the
ordinary long, low Georgian, or what We
call colonial, sideboard OF mahogany is not
we1 suited for this, 30 that some women
who do not own splendid silver services,
but whose husbands have won with their
yachts and received from corporations
beautiful gifts OF plate. require special
sideboards on which to exhibit their gilt
tering boards.
For this purpose In black carved oak
Jacobean plate boys, with shelves rising
nearly to the ceiling. are being especially
built and So placed in handsome dining
rooms hat the light from many branched
candeIabrum can fair effectively on the
tiers OF almost Nibelungen richness. Mrs.
Bradley Martin was one Of the first women
in America to use a plate boy. and she In
PRODUCED one at her dinner parties last
winter. Hers was Of richly carved fumed
oak, a genuine King James or Charles