Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/245

 1868.] Wall Hangings of Wood. 201 WALL HANGINGS OF WOOD. THE term Wood Hangings, as yet, sounds rather strangely; but, in a little while, will become as familiar as the now accustomed one, Paper Hang- ings. The tendency of men, engaged in in- troducing a new thing, is to underrate all preceding necessities, conveniences, or luxuries, whilst magnifying their own. In this manner, cloth hangings were to supersede tapestry ; wainscot- ing was to supplant cloth-hangings ; and paper-hangings • were to do away with both. What was really effected was, what is effected always : the production of articles constantly enabling more people to have a handsomer interior dec- oration, than ever before. Cloth-arras has, indeed, disappeared ; but the far more costly arras, that of tapestry, is yet made, and better than ever, as a re- gal luxury, or for royal presents. In like manner, wainscoting is still put up by the joiner, as an elegant adornment. Frescoing, in its various styles, and simple oil painting, for walls and ceil- ings, have always had their practitioners and their customers. But the great body of the world, until the introduction of wood veneers, has constantly adhered to paper-hangings ; and those who wish to obtain certain characteristic effects will always employ the choicest styles of these. At present, however, we design in- dulging ourselves, and, we hope, grati- fying our readers, with a somewhat detailed account of Patent Wood Hang- ings, the materials for which, upon our own inquiry, have been obligingly furnished us, by the very gentlemanly Assistant Secretary of the Patent Wood Hangings Company of Phila- delphia,* Mr. F. J. Rothpletz. President, D. W. Stuart. Secretary and Treasurer, F. M. Reazor. The Company themselves claim for their product a certain identity of nature with the old European wainscot. So far as the material, wood itself, is con- cerned, this is correct. ; but there is a wide and unbridgeable difference be- tween the solid rails, panels and mould- ings of true wainscot and what, for illustration's sake, we may call, the wood wall-varnish of these hangings. However, although the wood-hangings are not' wainscot, they are excellent ap- pliances for the same purpose ; form a very elegant and durable ornament ; and readily admit the most elaborate and beautiful forms of flat paneling, which, with a little thought, art and skill, can be converted into a very cred- itable wooden fresco. Any inquirer, who has ever seen a Florentine mosaic, can readily understand how this may be done. The Roman mosaic, or the mosaic proper, is supposed, theoretically, to make a perfect picture, of lasting tints, because formed of a great number of homogeneously colored minute pieces of glass, or of polished minerals not liable to change of tone, through light, dark- ness, impure, wet or dry air, or chemical action. And, although a mere mechan- ical copy of a painted picture, yet, from its multiplicity of lights, tints, shades, shadows and hues, as it exactly repro- duces the original, it is considered the result of a perfect art. On the other hand, the Florentine mosaic — composed of a very few pieces of natural products, such as marble, jasper, malachite, and so forth, upon a basis and ground of black slate, each of these pieces selected for its own varia- tion of color, the whole very artfully, if not artistically, conveying a picture — is not held, as any finer an art, than that producing pseudo pictorial effects with lights of mother-of-pearl, transpar-
 * No. 1111 Chestnut Street. Capital Stock $150,000.