the of year when the redecorating of rooms in the rather worrying fdtemovt place it the thoughts st the houschol "The iuraihinge of last" year, soved vealed ce, and that something ought to be changed, cet somehow to have lost some of is left mith the dreadful feeling ithout quite knowing what to do.
The wonder whether the modern furniture, as expressed in magazines on the subject, would help, makes itself felt, but many women who have taken even but a cursory interest in the matter, must have noticed that although the magazines devote many pages of material and ilurtration to modern furnishings, yet these are rarely, if ever, seen practice, at any rate out bery.
Modern furniture, for one thing, is dificult to get out in China in its best and most up-to-date form, for the chief note of the latest French ideas, (most important developments in this line emanate nearly: always from Paris), is constant use of contrasting woods; dark with light in sudden rather unexpected design, light coloured woods with bevelling or stripes of dark, and toned woods, all play a very' prominent part. ' These con-trests it is dificult, to achieve here, where the range of woods in differ: ent colours, that is, in their unstained state, as fashion demands they must be, is fairly limited, 'Veneer work' is salse being used extensively in the new furnishings to obtain these contrasts, and is an even greater deterrent to the new fashion reaching the Far East with any success, by reason chiefly, of the disastrous effect of the Shanghai climate on delicate wood work of this nature.
But. apart from these two obstacles, the former of which tion of the required woods, there is also a feeling among those who foasion that the new styles, though les of the modern French the more formal.atmosphere of the exclusive dress "shop, and small tea rooms, (examples of which are to be found. locally, chiefly in the French Concession) yet, in. the living room of a home, it shuts out too effective. ly" the atmosphere of home and comfort that is so desirable on a winter's evening when the outside world is excluded.
The modern lines, as said, are simple and strong, with few curves, but there is also a certain stolidity and sturdiness found in most examples, created by the use of more mi treatment for the base of the articles, that is chiefly responsible for the' frigid and unapproachable air. Most. emphatic cally the new lines and schemes, in many cases, are attractive, but, as said, they appeal only for a short time, and for comfort and cosiness on a winter evening nothing can beat the old styles still so popular with "many firms interested furniture and interior decoration.
Early" English furniture, "old Spanish and Italian work," these are the three styles that hold first rank as combining all things necessary, beauty of form, line, balance and colour, an air of comfort and 2 sense of friendliness.
For furniture undoubtedly possesses the last named quality, and it is chiefly the unfriendly air of the modern designs that lose them favour amchg householders who know little of the more technical side of form, line and balance. The modern furniture does not invite one, it is rather distinetly unfriendly, inclined to ward one, off, to make one feel out of place by' interfering with the perfect symmetry of placing and line, to make one understand that it has no one, be ame us, Sey Lee ces interest in human feelings. But of the older work, and moder tran-stations of it also, there can be no doubt of its friendliness, and such almost too severe and startling, For this "simplicity" seems in most of the new designs to carry with it an air of coldness and severity, which, though for a short time furniture has a Insting beauty, not only of the perfect line and balance achieved by those skilled workmen of past centuries, but in the in-yiting and friendly atmostphore, ever welcome, that it can impart
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.