The household (of the Detroit free press)

shine, and the ornament incised. Solid gilt frames are less suited to engravings than those gilded on wood. Frames for large paintings may appropriately be heavy and rich. But they should be flat, a border, and not a box ; or, if they slope, it should be backward and not forward, as is the common way, to avoid an unmeaning shadow. And the enrich- ment should be worked out of the frame, and not stuck on. Frames for engravings, on the other hand, should be light and simple in charac- ter, the black and white making mass enough of itself. It is common now to see two or three etchings or sketches by the same hand, or of similar character, framed together in one long frame, divided by a light band. If you hang a picture over a door, do not let it be a small water- color sketch or anything of that kind, so that its beauty is entirely lost on anybody under eight feet high ; the pictures that look best over doors are still-life pieces of flowers or fruit, etc. SCREENS AND EASELS. Screens and easels are decorative accessories to a parlor or sitting room. A screen may be large enough to form a line of division in a room, concealing an exit or an entrance. The frames are made in ebony, or ebonized cherry wood, rather, and mahogany. They are decorated in various ways ; sometimes with Japanese paper, hand painted designs on silk, Japanese embroidery on silk, plush, painted velvet, or by shingles of ash gilded and painted in some pretty picturesque design. This last mentioned is the latest novelty in screen decoration, and is all the rage. The grain of the wood shows through the gilding, and it is always acceptable because refreshing to get a glimpse of nature. •Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Turkish embroidery or painting, crewel- work on silk or satin, stamped leather, embossed velvet, and gorgeous Oriental brocades all take their place in giving variety. The six-foot high screen with three, four, or six leaves has usually reversible hinges, so that it may be opened in any direction. The frame-work is wood, painted black, red or green, to suit the colors in the panels. In embroi- dering or painting a screen, the flowers, etc., selected should be of uni- form size — that is, not one panel of small and another of large flowers. Brier, rose, myrtle and jasmine go together, or gladiolus, iris and tiger- lily. Storks, cranes, kingfishers, with water, bulrushes, and so on, make very effective screens. An unique one is painted thus in white, gray, and black on yellow Japanese matting, with black wood frame, and is very odd and pretty. Silk Painted Fire-Screens are very ornamental. A strip of silk of a color which will harmonize in tone with the room it is intended to deco- rate, is first painted with a desirable pattern, Japanese designs being particularly effective. This strip is then lined with silk of the same or a contrasting color and mounted upon a willow, black-walnut or ebony standard. Or one can be made, inexpensively, by taking black satin 182 HOUSE FURNISHING.