e, but follow, in brass, copper, or rich, dark woods, the
sturdy simplicity of their ancestor, the grandfather's clock, and so
become worthy of the place of honor upon the mantel, where
candlesticks, antique or modern, in brass or bronze, also find a
congenial resting place.

[Illustration: The drawing-room.]

CONSIDERATIONS IN BUYING

There are so many vases, jugs, bronzes, medallions, jars, and bowls
that one must needs walk steadfastly to avoid buying just for the
pleasure of it, whereas each piece must be chosen with reference to the
place it is to occupy and to its associates. Any piece of genuine
Japanese art ware, of which Cloisonne is perhaps the best known; old or
ancestral china; objects of historical interest; different examples of
American pottery, among others the Grueby, Van Briggle, and Teco, with
their soft, dull glazes, and the Rookwood with its brilliantly glazed
rich, mellow browns, its delicately tinted dull Iris glaze, and other
styles which are being brought out; Wedgwood with its cameo-like
reliefs; the rainbow-tinted Favrile glass; the Copenhagen in dull blues
and grays--all these embody, each in its individual way, the
requirements of art bric-a-brac.

But the brown Rookwood will overshadow the Copenhagen, and the
multicolored Cloisonne will kill the Iris, and so each piece must have
a congenial companion if any. And above all, don't crowd! Bric-a-brac
needs breathing room, and individual beauty is lost in the jumbling
together of many pieces in a heterogeneous maze of color, which
confuses and wearies the eye. All the fine-art product asks is to be
let alone--a small boon to grant to so great worth.

"Tip-overable" flower holders defeat their own ends--utility--but there
are many which are well balanced and beautiful, too: tall, wide-mouthed
cut, Bohemian, or more simple glass for long-stemmed roses, carnations,
or daisies; brown Van Briggle, Grueby, or Rookwood bowls for
nasturtiums, golden rod, and black-eyed Susans; green for hollyhocks,
dull red for dahlias, gladioli, etc., flowers and receptacles thus
forming a true color symphony.

Parian and Carrara marble, immortally beautiful, we can but gaze at
from afar, but masterpieces of the sculptor's chisel are ours at small
cost in ivory-tinted plaster reproductions of the Venus de Milo, the
Winged Victory, busts and medallions of famous personages, etc., which
may with truth be called "art for art's sake."

Dining-room bric-a-