Chapter 70

VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN

If you have been in Venice then you know the Murano Museum and its beguiling collection of Venetian glass, that old glass so vastly more beautiful in line and decoration than the modern type of, say, fifteen years ago, when colours had become bad mixtures, and decorations meaningless excrescences.

A bit of inside information given out to some one really interested, led to a revival of pure line and lovely, simple colouring, with appropriate decorations or none at all. You may already know that romantic bit of history. It seems that when the museum was first started, about four hundred years ago, the glass blowers agreed to donate specimens of their work, provided their descendants should be allowed access to the museum for models. This contract made it a simple matter for a connoisseur to get reproduced exactly what was wanted, and what was not in the market. Elegance, distinguished simplicity in shapes, done in glass of a single colour, or in one colour with a simple edge in a contrasting shade, or in one colour with a whole nosegay of colours to set it off, appearing literally as flowers or fruit to surmount the stopper of a bottle, the top of a jar, or as decorations on candlesticks.

It was in the Museo Civico of Venice that we saw and fell victims to an enchanting antique table decoration--a formal Italian garden, in blown glass, once the property of a great Venetian family and redolent of those golden days when Venice was the playground of princes, and feasting their especial joy; days when visiting royalty and the world's greatest folk could have no higher honour bestowed upon them than a gift of Venetian glass, often real marvels mounted in silver and gold.

We never tired of looking at that fairy garden with its delicate copings, balustrades and vases of glass, all abloom with exquisite posies in every conceivable shade, wrought of glass--a veritable dream thing! Finally, nothing would do but we must know if it had ever been copied. The curator said that he believed it had, and an address was given us. How it all comes back! We arose at dawn, as time was precious, took our coffee in haste and then came that gliding trip in the gondola, through countless canals, to a quarter quite unknown to us, where at work in a small room, we came upon our glass blower and the coveted copy of that lovely table-garden. This man had made four, and one was still in his possession. We brought it back to America, a gleaming jewelled cobweb, and what happened was that the very ethereal quality of its beauty made the average taste ignore it! However, a few years have made a vast difference in table, as well as all other decorations, and to-day the same Venetian gardens have their faithful devotees, as is proved by the continuous procession of the dainty wonders, ever moving toward our sturdy shores.

IN CONCLUSION

In bringing our book to an end we would reiterate four fundamental principles of Interior Decoration (and all decoration):

Good lines.

Correct proportions.

Harmonious colour scheme (which includes the question of background) and

Appropriateness.

Observe these four laws and any house, all interior decoration, and any lawn or garden, will be beautiful and satisfying, regardless of type and choice of colours.

Whether or not you remain content with your achievement depends upon your mental makeup. Really know what you want as a home, _want it_, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.

To learn what is meant by _good line_, one must educate oneself by making a point of seeing beautiful furniture and furnishings. Visit museums, all collections which boast the stamp of approval of experts; buy at the best modern and antique shops, and compare what you get with the finest examples in the museums. This is the way that _connaisseurs_ are made.

INDEX

Acanthus leaf Accessories Adam, James and Robert Alhambra Amateur Andirons Angelo, Michael (See Michelangelo) Antique "Antiqued" Apelles Applique Appropriate Arabesques Architectural picture Architrave Arras Assyria Athenian Attic rooms Awnings

Background Bakst Balance Barrocco Bathroom Beauvais Behnes Belgium Benares "Bodies" Bohemian glass Boucher François Boudoir Boule, André Charles Bric-à-brac Bristol glass Brocotello Byzantine

Cabriole Cæsar, Augustus Carlovingian Carpets (_See_ Floor) Ceiling Cellini, Benvenuto Charlemagne Charles I Charles II Charles V Chares VIII Charts _Chef d'oeuvre_ Chimney-pieces Chinese "Chinese Craze" Chintz Chippendale Cipriani, Giovanni Battista Classic Clocks Closets Cold Colours Collecting Colonial Colour Commode Composition Connoisseur Console Correggio, Antonio Allegri Cretonne (_See_ Chintz) Cross-stitch

Dado Dark Ages Day-bed Decoration Decorative Dining-tables Directoire Distinction Dressing-room Dressing-table Du Barry, Madame Du Barry rose Dürer, Albrecht Dutch

Egypt Elimination Elizabethan Empire England _Ensemble_

Fads Feudal Fire-dogs (_See_ Andirons) Fireplace Fixtures Flaxman, John Floors (_See_ Carpets) Flower-pictures Flowers Fontainebleau France Francis I Franklin Stoves French Frieze

Georgian Germany Gibbons, Grinling Gimp Glass Glazed Linen Gobelin Gothic Greek Gubbio

Hallmark Hangings Henry II Henry III Henry IV Henry VIII Heppelwhite Holland Homes Hungarian

Inappropriateness Iron Work Italian Italian Louis XVI Ivy

Jacobean James I James II James VI Japan Japanese

Kauffman, Angelica Key Key Note Knife-boxes

Lacquer Lamp Shades Landscape Paper Library, a Man's Light-absorbing colours Light-producing Lines Living-room Louis XIII Louis XIV Louis XV Louis XVI Lustre copper

Mahogany Period Majolica Man's Room (_See_ Men's Rooms) Mantel Marie Antoinette Marquetry Mediæval Art Medici Medici, Catherine de Medicine jars Men's Rooms Metal Work Michelangelo Middle Ages Mirrors Mission Furniture Moors Morris, William Mouldings Mounts

Napoleon I Narrow halls New England

Oak Period _Objets d'art_ Oriental Ormolu Outline Over-doors

Painted Furniture Painted Tapestry Palladio, Andrea Panelling Panier fleuri Parchment Paper Shades for Lights Passepartout Peasant China Peasant Lace Pergolese, Michael Angelo Pericles Period Rooms Pesaro Pharmacy Jars (_See_ Medicine Jars) Phidias Photographs Picture Frames Pictures _Pietra-dura_ Pilasters Poitiers, Diane de Poland Pomegranate Pattern Porcelain Porch-room Portuguese "Powder-Blue" Vases Praxiteles Pre-Raphaelites Proportion Pseudo-Classic Puritan

Queen Anne Queen Elizabeth

Rail-boxes Raphael Refectory Tables Renaissance Reproductions Rocaille (_See_ Shell Design) Rococo Rolls, Empire Rome

Sarto, Andrea del Sash-curtains Servants'-rooms Sèvres porcelain Shades for Lights Shell Design (_See_ Rocaille) Sheraton Silks Slipper-chairs Sofa cushions Spain Sports Balconies Stained Glass Straw Awnings Stuart Sun-producing Sun-proof Sun-rooms

Table decoration Table-garden Tables Tableware Taffeta Tapestry Tea-tables Textiles Titian Tone-on-tone Tudor Twin beds

Urbino

Valance Values Van Eyck Vanity-room _"Vargueos"_ "Vase pattern" Vases Venetian Glass Venice Vernis Martin Victorian Period Vinci, Leonardo da Virginia Homes Vitrine

Wainscoting Wall-papers Walls Warm colours Wedgewood Wicker Furniture William and Mary Period Window-boxes Wren, Sir Christopher

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Art of Interior Decoration, by Grace Wood