Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1100

 107^ COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE Fig. 197S is a curtain with a richly carved and gilt cornice. 1978 Fig. 1979 is a drawingroom curtaui with a fringed valance attached to gilt brass rings, which move along a wooden pole sheathed in gilt brass. A silk drop is attached to each ring, and from each ring the fringe forms a swag (curve). The curtains draw behind the valance on a rod, as before described, § 6C9. As fiir as we have observed, the taste of upholsterers is much more correct in window curtains, and in hangings and draperies of every description, than in articles of furniture where form is chiefly con- cerned. We can only account for this from their being, in this department, under the control of a more enlightened public opinion, viz. that of women ; who, from the milliner upwards, have generally a more correct sense of harmony in colouring than men. In the fashions of window curtains, as in almost every other article on which fashion operates, the change is alternately from simple to complex, and from what is old to what is new. The prevailing taste is for simple draperies, and the four Designs here given we consider to be nearly unexceptionable. It is a great advantage, in every description of hangings, to have them so put up, as to be easily taken down and cleaned ; another desideratum is, that they can be easily drawn and withdrawn ; and a third, as iSIr. Robison judiciously remarks, is to have the folds perpendicular, in order that they may not harbour much dust. A variety of useful details respecting the hang-