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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
161
I
wish
people
generally
would
study
the
oak
and
walnut
furniture
of
old
England,
and
use
more
reproductions
of
these
honest,
solid
pieces
of
furniture
in
their
houses.
Its
beauty
is
that
it
is
"at
home"
in
simple
American
houses,
and
yet
by
virtue
of
its
very
usefulness
and
sturdiness
it
is
not
out
of
place
in
a
room
where
beautiful
objects
of
other
periods
are
used.
The
long
oak
table
that
is
so
comfortably
ample
for
books
and
magazines
and
flowers
in
your
living-room
may
be
copied
from
an
old
refectory
table--but
what
of
it?
It
fulfils
its
new
mission
just
as
frankly
as
the
original
table
served
the
monks
who
used
it.
The
soft
brown
of
oak
is
a
pleasure
after
the
over-polished
mahogany
of
a
thousand
rooms.
I
do
not
wish
to
condemn
Colonial
mahogany
furniture,
you
understand.
I
simply
wish
to
remind
you
that
there
are
other
woods
and
models
available.
French
furniture
of
the
best
type
represents
the
supreme
art
of
the
cabinet-maker,
and
is
incomparable
for
formal
rooms,
but
I
am
afraid
the
time
will
never
come
when
French
furniture
will
be
interchangeable
with
the
oak
and
mahogany
of
England
and
America.
In
short,
the
whole
thing
should
be
a
matter
of
taste
and
suitability.
If
you
have
a
few
fine
old
things
that
have
come
to
you
from
your
ancestors--a
grandfather's
clock,
an
old
portrait
or
two--you
are
quite
justified
in
bringing
good
reproductions
of
similar
things
into
your
home.
The
effect
is
the
thing
you
are
after,
isn't
it?
Then,
too,
you
will
escape
the
awful
fever
that
makes
any
antique
seem
desirable,
and
in
buying
reproductions
you
can
select
really
comfortable
furniture.
You
will
be
independent
of
the
dreadful
vases
and
candelabra
and
steel
engravings
"of
the
period,"
and
will
feel
free
to
use
modern
prints
and
Chinese
porcelains
and
willow
chairs
and
anything
that
fits
into
your
home.
I
can
think
of
no
slavery
more
deadly
to
one's
sense
of
humor
than
collecting
antiques
indiscriminately!
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