SUPERB APPOINTMENTS OF THE NEW CUNARDERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 664, 29 April 1914, Page 3

SUPERB APPOINTMENTS OF THE NEW CUNARDERS.

The appointments and decoration of the Cunard Company's mammoth liner Aquitania are said to be unique in the history of naval architecture, says the Westminster Gazette. There is scarcely a piece of furniture or tapestry, a panel, a painting, a print, a carpet, or a chimney-piece in the ship that does not bear the hallmark of genius. Eight extensive suites of roomß or flats are named after eight famjpU3 artists—Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Holbein, Vandyke.. Raeburn, Rembrandt, and Velaszuez—and each ia adorned with magnificent prints, exact reproductions of the best works of the master form whom,the flat derives its name. The first-class smoking room, adanted from a Charles 11. room at Greenwich Hospital,has its walls hung with engravings of men who made Anglo-American history—Washington, Franklin, Penn, Fox, Pitt, Earl of Sandwich and the Marquess of Lafayette On all sides are carved trophies and coats-of-arms reproduced from fine examples by Grindling GibbonSi Two of the large decorative painted panels are after Claude, from original in the National Gallery. Most of the carvings and details there have been copied from old ships, and the electric light fit ings are copied from an old Dutch ship lantern. The massive silver and irons are reproductions of the original examples existing at Knole. The first-class drawing room i 3 a reproduction of work of the beat period of the Brothers Adam—l7Bo. The big oval dome of this apartment has lunettes —treated with lend mouldings and ornmenta holding in the glass. The degina of the mahogany console tables, with their tall gilt three-light frames, was taken from one at Sion House, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland. Th wrought-iron balustrade of the main staircase has been copied from the famous French chateau, as have been the L'orinihian columns. The long gallery between the first-class smoking room and lounge is panelled in mahogany, and the walls are hung with old prints of famous men, of historic scenes of the Georgian period and of famous places *n old London. Amongst them are the Battle of the Nile. Lord Nelson, Kean as Richard 111., and Kemble as Richard 111. The gallery contains, too, a number of vecrines, or Bhow cases, in which old prints, jewellery, lace work, and ether objects of art are exhibited. Replicas of masterpieces of painting, tapestry, carving, and furniture from famous and historic houses and museums in the United Kingdom, France, and other countries of Europe will be found throughout the ship. The garden is situated outside the public rooms on."A" deck, and the endeavour has been to obtain the eflect of an old garden by means of trellis in natural teak on walls treat ed to represent stone.