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page 333
that brings them, but the capacity of a mistress at once establishes discipline.
The model house should not be large, nor too fine and pretentious for daily use.
The mistress of many a fine mansion is the veriest household drudge. A great
house, with its necessary retinue of servants, is not in keeping with the
simplicity of a republic where trained servants are not known, and is seldom
pleasant for the family or attractive to friends. Furniture should be selected
for comfort rather than show. Most modern chairs put their occupants to torture,
and throw them into attitudes any thing but graceful. Comfortable chairs should
have broad seats, and a part at least, low seats for women and children. Nothing
is more out of taste and "shoddy" than to crowd rooms with furniture, no matter
how rich or elegant it may be. Nor is it by any means necessary to have things
in suites; variety is preferable, and each room, especially, should have an
individuality of its own. Just now the "Eastlake" style is in high favor, and
perhaps there is danger of too strong a reaction from the "modern styles," most
of which, however, are a hap-hazard collection of styles, without any unity of
idea in them. The "Eastlake" is, in the main, a protest against the falsehoods
and shams of modern fine furniture, and so far it is a real reform. In a table,
for example, we usually have a foundation of pine, put together mostly with
glue; this is covered with a veneer of mahogany, walnut, or other wood, and
ornamented with carvings, which may mean something or nothing, and which are
glued to the work. In a few years the pine framework warps and shrinks out of
shape, the veneer peels, the carving gets chipped, and the whole becomes "shabby
genteel." Eastlake and his associates would have the table honest, and be
throughout what it appears to be on the surface, hence the table is made solid;
and if a costly wood can be afforded--well; if not, take a cheaper wood, but let
the table be just what it pretends to be; if braces or bars are needed for
strength, let them show, and indicate why they are used; and if ornament is
desirable, let it be worked in the material, and not glued on. A table of this
kind will last, and may serve for several generations. Finding that our
ancestors of a few centuries ago understood the matter of furniture better than
the cabinet-makers of the present, Eastlake and the others reproduced many of
the styles of bygone times, and with some dealers "Eastlake" is used for
antique. But the matter does not depend so much upon antiquity of style, as
solidity, honesty, and appropriateness. Sets are made of plain woods, such as
ash and walnut, inlaid with procelain tiles, and ornamented with old-fashioned
brass rings and handles. They are valued at from thirty to two hundred and fifty
dollars. Bedroom sets of French and English walnut, with inlaid woods, gilt and
bronze ornaments, and variegated marbles, are sold from thirty-five to fifteen
hundred dollars. Parlor sets of rich, carved woods, and satin, damask, cashmere,
brocade, and tapestry coverings, etc., range in price from one hundred to twelve
hundred dollars. Ebony cabinets inlaid with ivory,
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