The Mirror And Glass
A WATER-COLOR of Alma Tadema's in the Centennial Exposition represented the former wife of one of the Merovingian kings sitting at her lattice, while the new wife, in the group without, receives the rite of baptism sitting at her lattice, and contemplating the beauty that has been discarded, in a hand-mirror. It is this hand-mirror, round and small, and with a handle, that was the only glass of the Middle Ages. And this was bequeathed to that period by the periods long past, many specimens of...
Xxx
ALTHOUGH in its best estate in the modern dwelling the hall has in reality shrivelled into a mere entry-way, it should never be forgotten, even when in miniature, from what it is that in the first place it derives and as far as possible, either to its space or to the circumstances of the house of which it is part, its ancestral traits should be maintained and always vindicated. The slightest glance within the door should perceive a character of cordiality and hospitality in the hall and that...
The Queen Anne
SO far as the Queen Anne style belongs to the past at all, it belongs to the reigns before and after Queen Anne as much as to her own brief reign. Anne was peculiarly English, says her historian and thus full many works of genius and renown, though they may have been commenced under William or continued under George, are taken by the world to be centred in her reign. It was certainly, let it belong to whose reign it may, a great departure from the fashions of the court of James II., an example...
Xxviii
MRS. POTIPHAR had curtains, we believe, woven of every color under the sun, and carpets that looked as if the curtains had dripped on them. It is not curtains of that description, though, that those of our readers who are arranging their houses picturesquely or cosily, and without recourse to the upholsterers, will be inclined to select. Nevertheless, we have seen exquisite broche stuffs at the upholsterers , which, while they were indeed filled with every color under the sun, had all those...