Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/365

 FUllNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 341 be fixed to tlie under side, or soffit, of the window, by hooks of the form shown at q. This is the very simplest form of curtain made to draw apart, and it may be made by any country carpenter. The cheapest material for these curtains is calico, dyed crimson, blue, or any other ingrain colour that will wasli. They may also be formed of dimity, with a strip of glazed calico about an inch and a half wide, of any colour suitable to the other furniture of the room, sewed on about two inches from the margin. This coloured calico is, of course, taken off when the dimity is washed, and, with care, will last clean and look well for years. Coloured calico cut in Vandykes, or in any other pattern, and sewed on close to the edge, may be substituted for the plain strip, if preferred. 670. Ilmdow Curtains in the Grecian style. Fig. 708, p. 339, may be considered as suitable for a cottage finished in the Grecian style, including under that term the Italian manner. This curtain requires a different bracket from the other. A lath, four inches wide, fig. 709, r, is fixed on the architrave of the window, by an iron angle bracket, i. The bracket which supports the pole, t, is of brass, and it is fastened by screws on the top of the lath. The curtains are arranged as in the preceding Design, and the drapery or valance over them, at top, 709 is hooked into the rings (shown in fig. 70S), in a similar manner to the curtains, so that both drapery and curtains may be taken off to be washed. The pole to which the drapery is attached would look remarkably well if stained of a mahogany colour ; or, in a Gothic cottage, to re- semble oak. Fig. 710, p. 340, is another curtain in the Grecian style, in the construc- tion of which the plaited drapery, or valance, is tacked to the cornice in a manner which we shall include in our description of the next figure. 671. A Gothic Curtain and Cornice are represented in the Design, fig. 711, p. 340. The cornice may be made of deal, and painted and grained to imitate oak. The drapery is nailed on to the lath with tacks, the heads of which are covered by the cornice, as shown in the sections, p. 340, u. The cornice takes off and puts on by means of what are called cornice slides, v, which go into a broad staple, iv. The curtain runs behind the drapery, on a pulley rod, as shown in the section x, in fig. 708, p. 339. The pins to support the curtains may be made of oak, in order to harmonise with the cornice. 672. Curtains for the humblest description of Cottages. Where an apparatus of lines and pulle)'s would be too expensive, a simple curtain, opening in the centre, may be formed by nailing two pieces of dimity, coloured calico, or printed cotton, to a square cornice, either painted, or covered with a piece of paper bordering ; these curtains may be looped back by a piece of sash line, or coloured cord, twisted round hooks fixed to the architrave, and viill thus form a kind of Gothic drapery across the window. Another simple description of curtain is formed by nailing a piece of dimity, or other material, of the requisite length and width, to a flat piece of wood, in one end of which are inserted two pulleys ; while two others are let into it, one in the middle, and the other at the opposite extremity. Three pieces of tape are sewed down the curtain, one on each side, and one in the middle, to which are affixed small rings, at regular distances : through these rings are passed three pieces of cord, which afterwards go over the pulleys, and, being fastened together on one side, are kept tight by means of a pulley rack. By this apparatus the curtain may be raised or lowered at pleasure. The board with the pulleys is concealed by a cornice, to which a valance, or any other description of drapery, may be attached. 673. Inside Window Blinds are of various kinds; but the chief are roller blinds, 'enetian blinds, and wire blinds. The roller blind, being much the cheapest, may be considered the most suitable for common cottages. It is simply a piece of linen, of the height and breadth of the window, nailed to a roller, which has a pulley at one end, by means of a string over which the blind is pulled up ; and it is drawn down by a cord and tassel fixed to the middle of its lower edge. The blind is kept extended to the width of the window by a lath, passed through a broad hem, at the opposite end to that which is fixed to the roller. The roller works in pivots at each end; and motion is usually com- municated to it, for the purpose of drawing up the blind, by an endless cord, which passes over the wooden pulley on the end of the roller, and under the small brass pidley in the rack. (A rack is shown in fig. 707, at i.) As the pulley and rack often re- quire adjusting, a more simple plan is to have the pulley affixed to the roller of the blind, with a cylinder or axis smaller in diameter than that of the roller on which the blind is wound up. To this is attached a line, the length of which should bear the same relation to that of the blind, as the diameter of the cylinder of the pulley does to that of the cylinder of the roller. The line must be affixed when the blind is wound up on the roller, so that the action of drawing down the blind may wind up the cord.