Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1096

 1072 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. stand, in which the tray is placed in the bottom of a drawer which slides in under a plate-glass top, which may be used as a writing or work table ; and, when the fragrance of the flowers is desired as well as their sight, it is only necessary to pull the drawer out a little. The prince expatiates on the luxury of a lady sitting at work by the table, looking through the glass at the flowers, and now and then pulling out the drawer to enjoy their fragrance. We hardly know whether this half-radical prince is in jest or earnest when talking in this manner ; but we must say, for our own part, that we think the idea much more suitable for the diseased feeling of pampered luxury than for healthy active intelligent women. The woman who cultivates her own flower-garden, and watches the progress of vegetation in it from day to day, has every chance of receiving far more enjoyment from flowers than she who has them reared and gathered for her, and sees them for the first time through a plate glass. Fig. 1971 is another Design for a flower-stand, the top part being of a circular shape. 2127. Candelabra are isolated supports for lights. They are formed of wood or bronze, with three feet, and an upright pole, carved and ornamented, and terminating in a capital, on the flat top of which a lamp is placed. Sometimes, instead of terminating in a capital with a flap top, the candelabrum ends in branches for candles. Some of the handsomest lamp candelabra in present use are the scagliola columns manufactured by Mr. Browne of University Street, London. The cost of these candelabra is seven guineas each. 2128. Fire- Screens. Figs. 1972, 1973, and 1974 are Designs for drawingroom fire-screens. The poles may be of brass; as wood, and especially rosewood, is apt to warp or break. Fig. 1973 is a fire-screen with one slide, and a stuflTed flat rail at bottom for the feet. There is a flap for holding a candle supported by a bracket. The fluting is of silk, of the same colour as that of the other furniture in the room. A fire-screen is an article of fur- niture almost exclusively British, because Britain is the principal country in Europe where open fireplaces formed, till lately, almost the only mode of heating the rooms of the wealthy classes. At present fire-screens are less in repute than formerly, because they are ren- dered less necessary by the im- proved modes of heating used in connection with open fires, which, by raising an equal temperature in every part of the room, lessen the inducement for the company in the room to collect round the fire, in the screen part of this piece of furniture with fluted silk, a pic- ture is frequently introduced ; sometimes a map, and at other times some curious performance of the needle. Large fire-screens for parlours are frequently covered with odd prints, and especially portraits of men, animals, plan ts,&c., and even with select passages from newspapers ; or with conundrums, riddles, enigmas, and charades. For a large library fire-screen, nothing could be more appropriate than good maps ; and, indeed, we have seen a globe raised on a pole, and sliding up and down it at pleasure, used as a small fire-screen. It is a great advantage for young persons to have frequently put in their way, such instruments of education, as globes, maps, chronological tables, tables of the heights of mountains, the lengths of rivers, &c. ; for in this manner the contents of these instruments, insensibly, and without effort, im- press themselves on the mind. A material is sometimes used for filling in fire-screens in some of the great houses in England, which would not at first sight occur as eligible : this is glass, through which the fire is seen, but through which it is found that the heat of the fire will not penetrate. This opticians account for, from the Instead of filling 1974