San Francisco Call, Volume 95, Number 20, 20 December 1903 — CHRISTMAS NOUVEAU ART FURNITURE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHRISTMAS NOUVEAU ART FURNITURE

Beautiful substantial articles that «*y" be made by any woman of artistic tastes and strength, enough to drive a hammer — "Grandmother's clock" is among the lovely pieces of new art furniture that can be made by an amateur.

«*w RB you making the Nouveau f | Art Christmas furniture? r™1 There is a great deal of homeJL made furniture in the land

these days. But, as It does not look like home-made furniture nor like amateur work, it can be forgiven. More than that It is welcome, for a great deal of It is as pretty as it can be; and a great deal better than could possibly be bought for the same money. Among the surprises of Christmas day will be the Quantity of hand-made furniture which is brought forth; and those who are fortunate enough to receive specimens will secure something which is well worthy an honorable place In a modern home. Woman turned carpenter a long time ago. But she was timid. She worked with nothing 'at alL A soap box. a few barrel Etaves and some rough boards and broom sticks were her materials; and with these she evolved so-called furniture which did not amount to much from point of beauty or usefulness.

But the lady carpenter of to-day works quite differently. It is a story of the lady and the hammer and with the deft Instrument she turns out many a handsome bit. She calls It new art furniture. But, called by any name, it is pretty and extremely usefuL The lady carpenter, when she gets ready to work, makes out her schedule. She must have bo many shelves of such «ize and thickness. They must be of a certain wood finished In a certain way. Then she needs the -mechanical parts, the sliding shelves, the drawers, the racks and the moldings. When ehe has made out her list she

adds the trimmings, the little brass knobs, the fleur delis in brass, the great ornamental locks and the immense hinges which are now the fancy; and she adds a plentiful supply ot great ornamental nails, for it Is now the style to have all the materials show when the piece of furniture is complete. Grandmother's Clock. A beautiful piece of Christmas furniture is the grandmother's clock.

Fifty years from now it will be, not grandfather's dock, but the clock of grandmother.

Grandmother's dock, now being built, is built to last; and In the days to com* It will be an ornament for the front hall, the back hall, or the parlor. The "grandmother" who Is now making the clock is a young girL She is not a grandmother yet. But she wants a dock, a dock that will last, a dock for keeps. "I am so tired of frail things," says she, "let me build me something that will endure." It Is to be a piece of holiday work and the making will take time. It must not be an ordinary clock, but one that will last forever, a dark wood, heavy dock with a pendulum that wags and a face that can be seen all over the house. "It must have a pretty face," says she, "for a dock with a homely face is a constant reproach. And It must strike. The striking of the dock is so comforting. No matter whether the strokes are welcome or not. no matter whether they are a Joy or a bittersweet. That clock of mine must strike the hour." Most women can put together a clock frame from a diagram. J8ut those who cannot can call help. The carpenter, that friend of woman, is called into the business and, after many consultations, many trips backward and forward, many measurements, many efforts to understand, and many misunderstandings, be finally gets the idea. And when a carpenter once gets the idea the battle is half won.

The clock Is made and a beauty it Is. Its back is flat. Its sides are out off

diagonally to make dear little threecornered shelves tor bric-a-brac. And down below Is a wide shelf for books. At the top shines the face, a great round thing, a face so dear that you want to hug It, and over the face there is room for bric-a-brac "I shall decorate that face," says the girl, "the bands shall be cold and I shall paint upon it the year in ' which It was made."

When the carpenter's workyis done the work of the girl begins. The carpenter left the clock in Its natural state; all light colored, plain hardwood, ready for the talented hand of the decorator. And the grandmother of fifty years hence does bold a talented hand. With plenty of energy and lots of stain she goes to work. She stains and she stains and her hands bear witness that she has done it In no tlml4 manner. She puts the stain on thinly! and frowns because It sinks in darkly- Then sbj» applies another coat and it sticks better; ft third Is better still. There is a distinct knack in staining and varnishing and the woman who wants to stain and finish her clock well will begin upon the bac.«c Before she has completed it she wJU have learned a lesson or two which will come In handy when she tackles the front. There are certain works of art which tell their age and their maker by the very looks. There are pieces of furniture which distinctly say to those who understand furniture, "That piece was made In 1830," and others will show, at a glance, the seventeenth century handiwork.

And bo It should be with this clock. The style in heavy tall clocks this year calls for a clock whicj^ls so substantial that It takes the combined ptrength of all the men of the family to move It, with the woman of the? family hard by, bossing the Job. f ~ - The face of the dock* like the face of a woman, should be Jhe main thing. It should be very pleaiing In Its shape and its features shoul/1 be marked by distinctness and a certain elegance or regularity "Nothing irregular in its markings, Just plain and ; pretty, elegant and always fit to be seen. There are some big clocks whose faces always need cleaning. They must be polished often and " rubbed with ' this kind of powder and that kind of paste.

But these are not the clock faces that' wear well. You want a face with a hard wood finish and with brass letters, or letters of silver and hands that correspond. This sort of a clock is not very expensive and can be rigged up by any clockmaker in a few days! You pay the price and he makes the clock go. A tall eleg-ant clock is just the thing for a Christmas present. How much does it cost? Well, there's the Question. You see It depends upon the woman, the carpenter and the bargaining propensities of both. There are carpenters who will let you buy the material and will work for you, by the day, upon It, getting it done as soon as poselble. And there are others, conscienceless fellows,'; who ' will . demand that you let? them buy the stuff, and p^V* it, and charge you anything at alL •¦--.•¦ -¦*» It Is ' all ; according to the kind ot a man you get— Just like any ether lot* teryl :

You can put together leas ambitious clocks, or you can make a ¦winging clock by /attaching chains to a circular framework and setting, a dock inside. Beautiful . hanging, clocks are made to be suspended between the parlor and the dining-room; and there are hanging clocks ; that ; are just the thing • for the staircase hall, or over the big fireplace. They/ take, clocks and stain , them In dark colors and hand paint them. But, if you do this, get the spirit of Michael Angrelo to help you, or gtt a Raphael' to hold your hand; for a hand-painting that is not good is .very, bad Indeed. especially when it be perpetuated In

such a substantial way as in the grandmother's clock of 1950. A pretty gift is the silk petticoat box for the friend who Is the owner of half a dozen silk petlcoats. - But the Question of keeping them is the one that bothers a woman. How is Bhe going to preserve her petticoats? A bureau drawer will not hold them. Then, after that, they are crushed down, mussed and made to look worn before they are ever put on. Then, too, a bureau drawer is so Inconvenient for the purpose— not long enough and too wide. The way out of it is the scented box. And It can be an ordinary paper box, if you have no other, padded Inside and filled with nice scents. The outside can be covered with cretonne and you have a box which comes In very well for holding your skirts. But the best box is the Japanese box. This is made out of thin wood, not heavy, yet stout enough to answer as a seat if you so desire, or It can do duty in the corner of the room, or can stand In a clothes press unobtrusively.

This box should be made of wood with a Blight odor to it. Odorous woods drive away Insects and prevent moths from entering. If the box has no scent then put some scent, in to it. Scenting wood Is not difficult. You take a little Chinese Incense, of the sort which comes in long "pipe-like pieces, and you light a bunch and place it in the box. The smoke will permeate every crack and your box will be permanently scented. Don't be afraid of getting it too strong, for natural woods are highly scented if you get the sweet kind. .

Do not think, when scenting your box, that you must use v camphor if yon would drive away moths. Moths do not like odors of any kind and will fly away from Chinese Incense as quickly as they will from camphor gum; and they will not enter If there Is as much as a' whiff of rose anywhere about. The Scented Box.

¦ .Women' who like highly scented garments are In the habit of buying half an ounce of oil of rose geranium. This they use for polishing the. Inside of the shirt waist box, which also makes an excellent Christmas gift. A little of the oil is dropped upon flannel , and . the inside is thoroughly polished from one •nd to the other. _JThe remainder of the oil Is poured into the cracks. Now, 1 comes the laying of a padded piece In the bottom. It should be naif

an Inch thick and should be absolutely filled with scents of. all kinds, with a preference for the neutral herbs, which are never nauseating and which endure longer than the artificial scents. Powdered cloves make a nice fixative for other scents. The object in having the pad very thick la to afford a soft bed for the silk waists and for the lace waists, the waists of panne and crepe, of chiffon and of mull. It Is coming winter and In the -winter time all waists are nice and waists of all kinds are worn for evening. The other paraphernalia of the box are soft pads of white tissue paper about the size and shape of your arm. Also some bust pads of tissue. These are for slipping Into the waists to keep them from crushing and to keep the Bilk from cracking. There are ever so many ways of finishing the outside of the box. A nice way calls for thin Japanese matting, which la tacked on the outside and neatly finished with strips of spilt bamboo. Or the matting can be finished with bands of tape. Ribbon also makes a good binding, or a row of gold tacks. If you desire you can take and work the matting before putting It on the outside of the box and you can do a nice pattern upon it In colored crewels. Done In this manner It makes a very nice Christmas gift. There are those who can paint In Japanese fashion, which Is in large, flowery designs, and. If you can do this, the decoration of the box Is simple. Lovely designs can be put on without difficulty and with the expenditure of very little time. The shirt-waist box can be utilised for dress skirts, but in this case the box must be a little longer and must be kept strictly for dress skirts. It should be long and narrow and supplied with .separate pads to lay between the separate skirts.

Shirt-waist suits can be kept In these boxes and. Indeed, almost everything a woman wears from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same— and a little later.

The New Art GirL

And here Is another pretty gift. Is there an old screen In th© house, an Impossible thing, with a dark background,, a rickety frame, a creaky hinge and a weak back? Give It to the Nouveau Art girl and she will do wonders with It. She will strengthen the back with heavy brown wrapping paper, the sort that grocers used to use, with little specks In It that looked good enough to eat.

She will take this paper and paper the back and then, with facile brush, she will place streaks of gold and red paint an over It. She will put them on In queer ways so that the back of the screen looks as If It were out In a golden snowstorm. And In the middle she will paint a girl's figure. The Nouveau Art girl runs to women and animals and roses, the three lovely things of earth.

On the face of the screen ana wCl work still stranger miracles. Tho hlnga she will remove and will replace It with one that looks as though It might have held a barn door. It will be very largo, very brassy and will look the better the older It is.

As to the framework, that is easily fixed, with a few I — -* crnaments put on as though they belonged on. not aa though they were put there to keep tha screen from actually falling apart. And. then, the Nouveau Art girl wlH do the proudest work of all. She will get out a long embroidery needle with a long golden thread With this lone needle and the golden thread she will work an animal, a great sprawling thing with wings and legs, for aa tha world like the. winged and legged animals which you see every day. A girl took an old family screen tha other day, a screen that had done- duty In the house for ever so long, and niada It Into a family Christmas present. Bhe took It off with her, up to the attic and kept it there two weeks. Many were the excursions she made up there, sometimes carrying a pot ex paint, sometimes a little varnish, sometimes a brass hinge and a hammer and sometimes a stick of wood for Its lower legs, though short, were very dislocated. Sometime* when she went no tha attic stairs she looked like a rainbow, for her shoulders were covered with threads of all kinds, blue and red and yellow, with gold threads hanging from all. like the gold at the end ot the rainbow.

But at last all was -finished. And then came the removal to the. parlor and tha afternoon tea to Introduce tha Bcreaa to family society. "What may it be?" asked some en« looking at the animal upon the front.

"It la a bird." said she, "a New Art bird, one of those that look all goldy In the sun." Well, the screen was ft success and the father of the girl has asked that she give It to him for Christmas as a surprise. He likes to be surprised with things that are in the house rather than with things that are yet to ba bought! "It Is so easily settled," say a he, "with no uncertainty."

The New Art girl. If left alona. wm do some nice things la the Una of family decoration. True, she may make a few mistakes, but what artist does not make mistakes? You remember that Madonna with the puffy eyes, do you not? And everybody knows that tha artist broke off those marble arms of the Venus de Mllo because he could not make arms good enough for the world to see. "Don't tell on me," he whispered Into the marble ears and Venus, with the warm heart, has never told a' word.

So In making Christmas presents of home-made furniture remember that the defects do not show to friendly eyes and that the small mistakes will be visible to no one but you. AUGUSTA PRE3COTT.