and decorating it with flowers cut from cretonne and pasted artistically
on its surface ; or the shiny side of black cambric may be used and then
varnished. Pretty ones can be made of the scroll and column wall
papers now in use. And when one is boarding and has not much room,
these large folding screens can be made useful as well as ornamental.
Any carpenter can make a cheap wood frame, and then it can be painted
or stained. One can be made of walnut, or lighter wood, forty inches
high and twenty-seven inches broad ; the five-inch feet are included in
the height. The frame is of the walnut or light wood, the center is a
slab of pine. The frame, if of walnut, is simply polished ; if of other
wood it should be painted or ebonized. Both sides of the pine center
are covered, on one side with tapestry or crimson silk, tacked on with
brass nails, and on the other with crimson cambric ; over this Japanese
pictures painted on silk. This size will require nine. On the side
covered with silk or tapestry there can be driven at intervals little brass
nails, on which to hang cabinet (imperial size) photographs, framed in
brass or crimson velvet. They may be arranged in a square, an oval or
a lozenge, and should be portraits of literary, theatrical or musical cele-
brities, or any beautiful face may aid in making this a bright group.
The arrangement of choice tapestry or silk may be superseded by beau-
tiful paper or a painting, or chintz in applique, and both sides may be
Japanese or the reverse. If the Japanese pictures are used on both
sides the frame had better be ebonized, the black being near the color
of the favorite Japanese teak wood. This screen is not incongruous,
even though its sides are different, and it is useful to hold the photo-
graphs as well as to screen from the fire.
Smaller fire-screens are sometimes made of hand-painted tiles,
squares of quarry glass like the window-screens of which we spoke in a
late article. Venetian leather, silk-embroidered velvet, and peacocks'
feathers. They may be of the same style as the larger screens, two
and a half or three feet high, and two or three leaves only, or may be
but a three-foot square resting on two supports like a towel-horse.
A movable screen is a great convenience in a bed-room, and a hand-
some three-fold one may be worked in crewels on dull-blue English
serge. Upon one panel may be used a design of oranges, their leaves,
fruit and blossoms ; upon the next, a branch of foliage holding a bird's
nest, with a few butterflies floating around it ; the third may have honey-
suckles, either the coral variety or the creamy fragrant kind, so popular,
as adapted to the art works of the period. Mount this in a frame of
ebonized wood. ■ The side and top piece can be made round like the
bamboo frames, or with square corners, and the bottom support or
standard to match. If the frame is of pine it wants to be stained to
imitate walnut, and then oiled or varnished, or else painted black. Or
if you want to put some dainty, light colored design on it, have the
DECORA TI VE FANCIES. 183
Page 162
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
and decorating it with flowers cut from cretonne and pasted artistically on its surface ; or the shiny side of black cambric may be used and then varnished. Pretty ones can be made of the scroll and column wall papers now in use. And when one is boarding and has not much room, these large folding screens can be made useful as well as ornamental. Any carpenter can make a cheap wood frame, and then it can be painted or stained. One can be made of walnut, or lighter wood, forty inches high and twenty-seven inches broad ; the five-inch feet are included in the height. The frame is of the walnut or light wood, the center is a slab of pine. The frame, if of walnut, is simply polished ; if of other wood it should be painted or ebonized. Both sides of the pine center are covered, on one side with tapestry or crimson silk, tacked on with brass nails, and on the other with crimson cambric ; over this Japanese pictures painted on silk. This size will require nine. On the side covered with silk or tapestry there can be driven at intervals little brass nails, on which to hang cabinet (imperial size) photographs, framed in brass or crimson velvet. They may be arranged in a square, an oval or a lozenge, and should be portraits of literary, theatrical or musical celebrities, or any beautiful face may aid in making this a bright group. The arrangement of choice tapestry or silk may be superseded by beautiful paper or a painting, or chintz in applique, and both sides may be Japanese or the reverse. If the Japanese pictures are used on both sides the frame had better be ebonized, the black being near the color of the favorite Japanese teak wood. This screen is not incongruous, even though its sides are different, and it is useful to hold the photographs as well as to screen from the fire.
Smaller fire-screens are sometimes made of hand-painted tiles, squares of quarry glass like the window-screens of which we spoke in a late article. Venetian leather, silk-embroidered velvet, and peacocks' feathers. They may be of the same style as the larger screens, two and a half or three feet high, and two or three leaves only, or may be but a three-foot square resting on two supports like a towel-horse.
A movable screen is a great convenience in a bed-room, and a handsome three-fold one may be worked in crewels on dull-blue English serge. Upon one panel may be used a design of oranges, their leaves, fruit and blossoms ; upon the next, a branch of foliage holding a bird's nest, with a few butterflies floating around it ; the third may have honeysuckles, either the coral variety or the creamy fragrant kind, so popular, as adapted to the art works of the period. Mount this in a frame of ebonized wood. ■ The side and top piece can be made round like the bamboo frames, or with square corners, and the bottom support or standard to match. If the frame is of pine it wants to be stained to imitate walnut, and then oiled or varnished, or else painted black. Or if you want to put some dainty, light colored design on it, have the
DECORA TI VE FANCIES. 183