File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17967192429).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
34 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS January, 1909 In the French palaces the "salle des fetes" and dining- room were one and the same room, the tact of their being used for serving food being only one of their many usages. 1 he meal was preceded by receptions and followed by music, by dancing and other performances. This was the custom both at Versailles and 1^ ontainebleau. Likewise the banquet- ing halls, with their high ceilings and galleries, of the earlier days of the great English manor houses, were employed in an entirely different manner from the modern rooms where the family proper generally assembles for its meals several times a day at regular hours. From the "dining-parlor" of the later Elizabethan period our dining-room has gradually evolved. It is interesting to note that the later Elizabethan dining-rooms, as well as the earlier French rooms, were all so treated in materials and design that they might easily be cleaned. In the English we lind, at least along the lower surfaces of the walls, large sur- faces of wooden paneling, and first six or seven feet above these the rough plaster and solemn rows of family portraits. In the French the paneling is delicately painted in white, grays or light greens carried all the way up to the ceiling, the broad surfaces of the paneling ornamented either with paint- ings of appropriate subjects like flower pieces, fruit, game, lish, etc., or the paneling itself decorated with similar appli- cations. Mirrors are generally omitted and wisely, as even the vainest find it trying to see themselves every time they look up during the meal. The French dining-rooms of the eighteenth century, like those of the Chateau de Rambouillet and of Marie Antoinette in the Petit Trianon, are thoroughly admirable and adapted to their purpose, and even if their style and magnificence place them entirely out of considera- tion for the ordinary housebuilder, still they are full of ex- cellent suggestions for the person who is desirous of weigh- ing the problem in even the most modest manner. The artificial lighting of the dining-room should be considered from the first. In this room, in opposition to others, diffused light is not desired, but concen- trated. Side brackets may truly be used in the panels or pilasters or surfaces of the side walls, to light the room, but only in a secon- dary capacity. The focus is the table, and around or above or on it the light should fall. The huge metal or even crystal chan- delier suspended in several tiers from the ceiling and centering as nearly as pos- sible on the mahogany slab has luckily to a great extent passed. The hostess knows how unbecoming it is to her room, her dinner, and her guests. Placing your light directly on the table, that is, using candles, is unquestion- ably the most successful method of lighting — suc- cessful to the service, the table ornaments, the flowers and the women. The can- dles, if properly shaded, throw the light down upon the silver and porcelain, and do not obstruct the general view or reflect light directly in the faces of those surrounding. In the lighting, as in the other problems presented by the room, the table becomes the general governing factor. Even its outline will be found to modify to a certain extent the general pleasing or inharmonious eftect. A round or oval board will always, if widely extended, look best in an oval room, and the correspondence should be similar in a rect- angular one. The table is the keynote of the design, as well as of the hospitality, the sociability and the intimacy of the builder. It must be apparent, therefore, that many other things than architectural exigencies influence and determine the de- sign of the dining-room. No room in the house is so power- fully aftected by unarchitectural conditions and matters, and in no room do so many diflerent things have determining weight. The fact is the dining-room must be begun at the beginning of the house building. Its requirements are not only somewhat exact, but they are absolutely rigid, and in no other room is a departure from the essentials attended with such disaster. It is, therefore, quite impossible to apportion such and such space to the dining-room without a most intimate and careful study of all the conditions. One can not even definitely determine the dimensions best suited to one's own dining-room if the house is intended for prolonged occu- pancy. The use that may be continuous for a few years, and which may seem to be always available, may quite suddenly prove to be inadequate, and the utmost discomfort may arise from a restricted area that, in the beginning, may have seemed quite adequate. One can not foresee such contingencies, and it may seem unreasonable to suggest them, but at least they point the value of giving as large an area as practicable to the dining-room.
Text Appearing After Image:
A richly furnished and decorated dining-room

Note About Images