MODERN FURNITURE AND STUFFS IN PARIS I T is perhaps in
the treatment of fittings for electric light and in the designing of carpets that modern Paris designers of home deoorations chiefly.,surpass us. In a recent visit to two or three shops in Paris which make a speciality of modern decorations we saw nothing to equal the fabrics that we have in this country—I mean, for example, the printed cretonnes which are to be had at Messrs. Heal's, among other places, or the hand-woven materials, to the subject of whose design and manufacture I hope to return some day. Nor did we see any china, glass or pottery that was particularly inspired. But Parisian designers certainly have very clever and delight- ful ways of treating electric light of which we in this country have not apparently yet heard. For example, nothing could be more simple than the device which is to be seen in endless variations at Maurice Dufrene et Cie (Rue Bayard). Here the usual " bowl fitting," instead of being hung by a rim and three chains, is suspended in a net, sometimes of plain gold cord knotted and orna- mented with long gold tassels, sometimes of vermilion silk with dull blue beads instead of knots, or perhaps of green silk with fantastically carved black beads; or, again, bowl cords and tassels may be all white. At the " Com- pagnie des Arts Francais " (Faubourg St. Honore) we saw a plain porcelain bowl hung from a rim by .broad gilt- bronze ribbons " with a graceful, satisfying effect. Here also were some very charming alabaster fittings. For some reason or other transparent alabaster with a light inside it, though it sounds so delightful on paper, is actually often rather unpleasant, but here a very warm tone of alabaster has been chosen. The lights were a pair of wall fittings which had acquired the nickname Unifiers," and were, in fact, rather reminiscent of the scrolled cockle-shell treatment of the holy water stoop. They were intended to be hung fairly high, and from them on each side hung down a broad gilt " ribbon " of carved wood. At Martine's (Faubourg St. Honore) there was a charming fitting for a stair. It was a big grid of little gilt battens hung from silk cords, and where the grids crossed were very small, quite round, yellow electric light bulbs. This, though so simple a device, was extraordinarily pretty. But the masterpieces were to be found at the Compagnie des Arts Francais. They were two big standards, which one imagined having their place in a big stone hall of a formal house, and they were called, I think, " Les Grandes Eaux," and, in fact, looked exactly like petrified fountains rising from a bronze substructure. The actual technique of it was, as usual, perfectly simple; very small lustres, such as are used in ordinary chandeliers, were here hung in frames which gave them the outline of feathery, rather flat sprays of water. The effect when the light was on was gorgeous. The strangest lighting was that of an entirely gold mosaic bathroom at Martine's. ' The room—floor, ceiling, bath, wash-hand basin, and walls— is entirely made of gold glass mosaic, with here and there a line of black on it. On the walls, outlined in the black mosaic, sprout curious, life-sized trees which bear strange glass fruits on half-relief. A touch of a switch and these fruits are revealed as the method of lighting the room. We were told that the mosaic is very practical, much more practical than tiles for a bathroom. The bits of glass, being so much smaller than a tile, do not tend to get loose from their cement. The initial cost is, I suppose, con- siderable, but the effect is beautiful and not oppressively gorgeous, though I am not sure that the whole thing would have not been still more delightful in a translucent sea-green and silver. Apparently. there is a considerable demand for such bathrooms in South America—no one in France can afford this sort of thing at all. As to the actual treatment of rooms, there was a room at Martine's with plain cream-coloured walls and, as it were, a rough-cast gold ceiling, the surface just stopping short of stalactites. At night the lighting in this room of course emphasizes the gold. At the Compagnie des Arts Francais a room with grey velvet walls with a gilt picture rail and gilt door fittings was surprisingly pleasant and effective, especially in combination with the modern furniture which was shown in it. This would of course be an impossible treatment for London. A bedroom at _ the same shop we ;did not like at It -was _entirely in rich browns, greys, and golds, with a bright gilt ceiling, from which hidden lights were reflected down. The bed was very low and had a cloth of gold. quilt. It might have been a tolerable room in which to go to bed, but it would have been unbearable to wake up in it. At Martine's there were a good many rooms frescoed in conventional patterns in tempera, but the patterns seemed to me, as a rule, rather ineffective, and the net result not quite worth the trouble taken.
At the Compagnie des Arts Francais there were some attractive wallpapers to be seen. One in particular we liked, called " The Allies," which was to be had in blue and grey, or in two soft tones of yellow. From a little distance the effect was almost exactly like that of a Chinese paper, but, looked at closely, one realized that the landscapes were formalized French and Flemish villages. About this landscape marched Italians in cloaks, French soldiers, and a bony Highlander. There were roads and poplar trees and church spires, the whole pattern being very much concentrated and formalized. Another pleasant wallpaper is the " La. Fontaine " paper, which consists chiefly of a trellis work of ribbon. Looked at closely, however, the little trophies of fruit, birds, and beasts that hang in the middle of each diamond proves really the illustration of a La Fontaine fable—Maitre Corbeau, Deux Pigeons, and so forth. On the whole, the designs of these wallpapers, though newer and more amusing than anything we are producing in England at the moment, seem to me often a trifle languid, and_ there appears to linger 3. certain misplaced affection for snuff-colour. An exception is a very pretty paper with white ground and broken-up stripes of grey and bright blue on it, the stripes interrupted by squares in which are conventional bunches of grey and blue flowers with bright green leaves.
Another direction- in which the French designers are trying experiments is that of making carpets. We are probably all agreed that there has been in the past some- thing very unsatisfactory about our meek acceptance of the Eastern patterns which often accord extremely ill with the rest of our decorations. I do not think in England that in original design we have got much beyond plain trellis pattern, a modification of the Chinese patterns, or an irregular Jazz, which is very effective for some rooms, but which should not be our only resource. There are, of course, very definite limitations in the sort of patterns that are suitable for pile carpets. Many patterns depend for their effectiveness upon the outlines being perfectly crisp and definite. A carpet is necessarily woolly and the outlines cannot be sharp. Again, the patterns must not be too coherent, as pieces of furniture will almost certainly have to stand in positions on the carpet, which are indicated by the conveniences of the users and not by the exigencies of the carpet's pattern. These French designers are making experiments upon the lines of covering the carpet with very large flowers. A rug sixf eet by ten feet, for instance, might not contain more than five large cart-wheel flowers, the pattern, generally a very compact one, being further made up by glimpses of green leaves, buds, or trellis work. Very good examples of these carpets are to be seen at Maurice Dufrene et Cie. One that pleased me was in mauves and yellows over a silver-grey trellis pattern. There were also other carpets which were rather like those old-fashioned glass paper-weights which were to be bought in Venice, and in which you saw frosted sugar candy flowers through the domed glass. Here and there in the new furniture we were struck by a certain unpleasant reminder of the fact that there had been such a thing as the Viennese Art Nouveau movement. This was particularly the case at Maurice Dufrime's, but even here there was a good. deal of furniture which was pure of this taint, and much of it was both agreeable and newly designed. At Martine's there was a pretty knee-hole dressing-table made of some silver-grey wood which, instead of handles, had scarlet tassels to the drawers (these were easily renewable). At the Compagnie des Arts Francais were some really beautiful pieces of furniture, many well-designed mirrors, one of which I liked especially. It was divided into twelve squares held by gilt nails and had a frame consisting of two rather flat gilt cornucopias, which poured out their gilt fruit about two-thirds of the way up the glass. There were several small looking-glasses with this sort of motif, but none, I thought, more admirably proportioned. There were also here some very attractive writing-tables and a set of grey and gold chairs, in which a formal silhouette basket of flowers formed the central panel of the back.
In conclusion, I think the English tourist in Paris would probably agree that our modern decorators have not at present very muoh to learn from the French in the matter of colour, or in the way of designing fabrics, and that perhaps, on the whole, we can devise a general scheme for a room as well as they. Where they surpass us immensely is, as I have said, in ingenious devices for electric light, (which they have realized as an opportunity, where we seem to regard it as a necessity), in carpets, and in the designing of wallpaper. Why does nobody in England design wallpapers, or, if they do, why do they keep the matter so profound a secret ? A. W. E.
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