Glowing Hues of Amber And Amethyst

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 6

Glowing Hues of Amber And Amethyst

The Charm Of Coloured Glass On The Table THE coloured glass which adorns many modern homes is so essentially up-to-date that one is apt to forget its earliest ancestors were the little glass beads made by the Phoenicians and the Egyptians thousands of years ago. The fascination of glass has lived through the ages. It is only very recently, however, that the use of coloured glass has become as popular as it is today. “The Cape Times” publishes an interesting article on the subject.

"Teu years ago coloured glass was looked upon as an atrocity,” says the writer. "It was reminiscent of some of the worst products of the Victorian age. It was classed with antimacassars, photo-frames and wax flowers. Then the intense feeling for colour harmonies which marks the art of home decoration today brought with it an increased interest, not merely in colour for walls and curtains and upholstery, but in colour for vases and jars and bowls and table ware. This demand was satisfied at first by modern pottery, with its lovely blendings of vivid shades. A whole room would be decorated to set off a single bowl or pottery jar. Pottery appeared upon the table, pottery was everywhere, pottery was the vogue. “Then somebody discovered the possibilities of coloured glass, and every week, now sees something new for household adornment in this hitherto too-neglected medium, it is certainly most attractive and, although nothing can rival the pale beauty cf pure and perfect glass, colourless as water, coloured glass is, in its general effect, far more in keeping with modern household decoration.

"One of the chief glories of the material consists in the readiness with which it takes on hues of a beauty surpassed in no other artificial substance. Glass stained with the commonest of colours —the blue, green and purple yielded by cobalt, copper and manganese—may be compared with sapphire, emerald and amethyst, and it is the translucency which it shares with these natural stones that gives it such radihnee of hue as no opaque substance can show. It is this same delicate translucency which makes coloured glass so suitable for a room, for while the colour is there, it does not obtrude, and the glass takes up and reflects the surrounding shades, with an illusion of something immaterial and delicate. “Yet with all this ethereal beauty, which makes it look almost too fragile to touch, the use of coloured glass us table ware is becoming more and more general. There is no doubt that a dark polished luncheon table, set with a fruit service in aquamarine-coloured glass, may give a general effect which is lacking in the ‘icily regular, splendidly null,’ perfection of cut-crystal and white damask.

"For combining In a particular colour scheme coloured glass is ideal, and a set of amber or aquamarine or amethyst or purple glass In a dining room, whose colours harmonise with one or another of these shades, can look really beautiful ;• on the other hand, for those whose objection to coloured glass is that it ties the owner to one particular shade. It is possible- to obtain sets In which there is a touch of every colour A little iced coffee set has one cup and saucer of pastel blue, one of green, one of pale yellow, and so on, and each one has a little glass spoon to match. Less decisive In colouring, but following the same idea, is an ice-cream set with shallow cups of clear glass, each with a fine whorl of glass in a pretty shade ornamenting the outside, one green, one blue, one mauve, and so on. The saucers are of plain glass, and the ctip is kept from slipping by the milled edge of the ridge resting on the saucer.

“Coloured glass is particularly suitable for dessert sets. It shows off the natural beauty of the fruit without intruding, and its cool translucent beauty adds to the effect of the pile-up fruit. A particularly attractive set consists of a flat, saucershaped dish, with smaller plates to match. The glass is cloudy, with the faintest shade of blue glimmering through the blurred, creamy semi-transparency. This amber lustre holds its own with most of the other colours, and has the advantage of looking especially lovely at night, when some of the lighter shades fail. Another good night shade is the ruby, which glows with a warm rich red. Lilac and deep blue are most attractive shades in coloured glass, but the lighting has to be very carefully arranget} If they are to show up at night. “Coloured glass, lovely as it is in a room, looks even more attractive out of doors. The cool freshness of its colouring finds its ideal setting In the green of grass and trees. Lemonade sets for tennis parties are made in every shade. One in amber glass has a great barrel-shaped jug and lemonade glasses in the same new roundedbarrel shape, with glass spoons to match. Some sets have matching trays of glass, while others may be obtained with trays of opaque glass which are in startling contrast to the delicate hues of the jugs and glasses which they carry. "Wine sets are made in coloured glass, and they follow the prevailing fashion of having glasses made with

handles and with no stems. One little Continental wine set in clear glass ha 3 a decanter made In the shape of the antique Roman wine bottles. It matches the barrel-shaped glasses with its rim of bright orange and the clusters of gay little flowers, blue convolvuluses and yellow and white daisies scattered here and there on the surface. There is a fruit service to match and a lemonade set. The lemonadeglasses are without handles, hut both wine glasses and liqueur glasses have them. This hand decoration on plain white glass is becoming as popular as the plain coloured glass, and it has the advantage of not tying the owner down too much to one colour.”

PAINTED ALCOVES ORIGIN IN HISTORY Houses are being built just now in which the alcove is a prominent feature. Often it takes the form of the alcove found in the 18th century houses which was designed for a statue or a large vase. The difference between it and the earlier kind is that it is very often a space in the wall which is left between various cupboards in the wall of the room adjoining. Sometimes shelves are put up in it in the ordinary way. and these are used for books or china. A newer method is to decorate the alcove. This may be done in conjunction with shelves or ornaments, or in the alcove may really be a picture. Sometimes a seat is put in it, and ..hove this the wail is painted or frescoed. Generally some intimate design is chosen. If there is a garden to the house, a part of the garden may be painted in the alcove. Sometimes a family incident is chosen, and then treated amusingly after a Chinese or other exotic convention. In town houses, birds or flowers look well in the alcove. One effective form of decoration was to paint the alcove like a window with a plant in front of it. The convention was such as to preclude any suggestion of imitation, which would bring the subject to the level of sham books. The painting of the alcove is, of course, strictly in accordance with the decoration of the rest of the room. While it might easily be too like scenery, a clever painter with a sense of form or even a sense of humour can make an entirely new nature of it.