Identifier: examplesofhouseh00smit (find matches)
Title: Examples of household taste
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Walter, 1836-1886 Smith, Walter, 1836-1886. Industrial art of the International Exhibition
Subjects: Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.) Decorative arts
Publisher: New York, R. Worthington
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

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rmonize with this view. On either sideof the hearth-walls are paneled wainscotings about four feet in height. Thecurved braces of the chimney-mantle rest on the wainscot-rail and support apair of low, broad cupboards placed on either side of the central shelf. Overthese cupboards are open spaces where china can be displayed, and then followsanother shelf or roof supported by pillars. Above the central shelf the roofrises to double the height of the shelves on either side, with curved panels,rounding forward from the back. The general outline of this Chimney-piece would be severely plain if itwas not for the few curved lines introduced at the several points of supportand at the back of the central roof; and when we look at the detail of the INDUSTRIAL ART 353 work we find that it has been enriched with carving and painting. The admirablemanner in which these ornamental and decorative accessories have been intro-duced is worthy of particular notice. With such an ample and varied surface
Text Appearing After Image:
Brazen Salver: Egyptian Court. to treat, a decorator might readily have fallen into the fault of over-ornamen-tation, but this artist was too well taught for that. The judicious choice ofparts to be enriched, and the careful consideration of the kind of enrichmentsuitable, makes the ornamentation all the more effective. It has been well said 354 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. that the modern ornamentist might learn something of restraint, and be warnedagainst over-ornamentation, by seeing how nature restricts her true ornaments,the flowers, to the most salient and culminating points of plants, and sprinklesthem sparingly, contrasted with the foliage. Over-ornamentation, and thatwithout a proper appreciation of the application of ornament to the variousmaterials in which the design is intended to be wrought or executed, is perhapsthe greatest fault of all ornamental work of the present time. Another of the important works of high art manufactured by the Messrs.Elkington & Co.,

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