747 
 
 0.4m 
 
 Modern Decorator 
 
 His Inspiration and His Ideals 
 
 rT' ; 
 
 An address delivered before the 
 Annual Conventio?i of Master 
 House Painters a?id Decorators 
 of Pennsylvania, at York , Pa., 
 on fanuary 19th, 1905. Revised 
 fro?n the Official Stenographic 
 Notes. 
 
 ".h 
 
 BY 
 
 H. s. QUILLIN 
 
 Advertising Manager for the Fab-Ri-Ko-Na Mills 
 
 1905. 
 
 H. B. WIGGIN’S SONS CO. 
 
 MANUFACTURERS OF 
 
 FAB-RI-KO-NA WOVEN WALL COVERINGS 
 BLOOMFIELD, N. J. 
 
The Modern Decorator 
 
 His Inspiration and His Ideals 
 
 An address delivered before the 
 Annual Convention of Master 
 House Painters and Decorators 
 of Pennsylvania, at York , Pa ., 
 on fanuary 19th, 1905. Revised 
 from the Official Stenographic 
 Notes. 
 
 BY 
 
 H. S. QUILLIN 
 
 Advertising Manager for the Fab-Ri-Ko-Na Mills 
 
 1905 : 
 
 H. B. WIGGIN’S SONS CO. 
 
 MANUFACTURERS OF 
 
 FAB-RI-KO-NA WOVEN WALL COVERINGS 
 BLOOMFIELD, N. J. 
 
Copyright 1905 
 by 
 
 H. B. WIGGIN'S SOJSS CO. 
 Bloomfield , N. J. 
 
3 > 
 
 
 f L 
 
 747 
 
 <$4m 
 
 The Modern Decorator 
 
 HIS INSPIRATION 
 AND HIS IDEALS 
 
 Ni 
 
 After a joking reference to the fact that he had been 
 called upon to furnish a speech upon the spur of the mo¬ 
 ment, the speaker said : 
 
 The thing I have in mind to say to you, gentlemen, is 
 simply this : in all your conventions, while you consider 
 very fully the practical subjects,—those subjects which re¬ 
 late to the practical details of your business—you generally 
 v miss, so it seems to me, one element which ought to have 
 a place in every such convention. I mean, gentlemen, the 
 ' element of inspiration. After all, the best of life is not 
 made up of practical details. There are some other things 
 that are necessary if we are to make practical details effec- 
 } tive. The man who spends day after day in the grind of 
 ; 'C practical details becomes sooner or later a mere machine 
 for the turning out of so much labor, and that labor will be¬ 
 come to that man a deadening drudgery unless there is in 
 it and above it, and all through it, the inspiration needed 
 to keep him up to a higher plane. 
 
 Each of you gentlemen is, to a greater or less extent, an 
 artist. Every decorator, every house painter, every man 
 who contributes in any way to the ornamentation of a build¬ 
 ing, is, or ought to be, something of an artist. And art 
 is inspiration. No man can be an artist who deals solely 
 or principally with practical details. There must be, some¬ 
 where and somehow, that which lifts him above the prac¬ 
 tical details ; which makes those details simply a means to 
 a higher end. Understand me, gentlemen. I appreciate 
 
 867967 
 
4 
 
 the vital importance of the practical phases of our craft. 
 The man who is neglectful of practical details is apt to be 
 like a spirit without a body, and his business is sooner or 
 later “up in the air.” But, even a spirit without a body 
 has one advantage over a body without a spirit. The one 
 is alive, at any rate, while the other is dead. 
 
 The man who ‘ ‘sees visions and dreams dreams ’ ’ may 
 seem to the practical man like a fanatic or a fool ; but let 
 us remember, gentlemen, that it is these same fanatics, 
 these poets and artists, to whom Beauty makes her most 
 sacred revelations, and it is they who translate these re¬ 
 velations into terms intelligible to the more practical souls. 
 
 There is today a great Art movement which had its birth 
 in the hearts of certain men who were not the most prac¬ 
 tical of men—that is, as we limit the word “practical.” 
 At first it seemed visionary and fantastical, but for more 
 that a decade now it has been increasing in influence and 
 appreciation. It is full of new ideas and ideals. It is 
 making many of the older ideas and ideals pass£ and ob¬ 
 solete. It is bringing new and splendid inspiration into 
 the thinking and feeling of men. It is a part of the great 
 intellectual and spiritual uplift which has marked the ex¬ 
 perience of civilized humanity in these recent days. 
 
 It was my privilege to spend some weeks at St. Louis, 
 writing up the decorative features of the great Exposition, 
 and I was greatly interested to see how the new thinking 
 and feeling of the New Art were everywhere embodied in 
 the work shown there by the foremost decorative artists in 
 the world. Walter Crane, of England ; Albert Besnard, of 
 Paris ; Edward Cuypers, of Holland ; Baes, of Brussels ; 
 Pavezi, of Italy ; Paul Horti, of Hungary ; Hokkai Taka- 
 shima, of Japan ; the long list of German and Austrian 
 artists whose work was so splendidly set forth, and our 
 own American representatives,—all these men, each one 
 standing in the very front rank of modern designers and 
 
5 
 
 decorators, gave testimony to their faith in the New Art 
 principles, and proved their faith by their works. 
 
 It is this movement, gentlemen, this new, world-wide 
 and revolutionary movement, with which we must keep in 
 touch. It will quicken our art perceptions, revive our flag¬ 
 ging enthusiasm, give us a higher, broader, clearer vision, 
 and make us better craftsmen by making us better artists. 
 
 Wherever one went at the World’s Fair he found that 
 the old ideals had been transformed by the new life which 
 has come into the decorative arts. 
 
 The keynote of it all is simplicity. This does not mean 
 merely a lack of complexity. 
 
 By simplicity is meant, first of all, individuality. In¬ 
 stead of following blindly the period decorations of the 
 past, buildings and rooms are now being designed accord¬ 
 ing to the purpose for which those rooms or those build¬ 
 ings are created. In the construction of a building they 
 take into consideration.—even the architects, you know, 
 are doing that now,—they take into consideration the pur¬ 
 poses of the building, and try to so construct it architec¬ 
 turally that the sight of the building from the outside will 
 suggest, or at least be fully consistent with, the purpose for 
 which the building is designed. And when you come to 
 the rooms in the house, intelligent decorators try to give 
 each room an individual touch. In a dwelling house, for 
 instance, they design a parlor or drawing room as the 
 social centre of the home, and whatever there is of decora¬ 
 tion is made consistent with the purpose for which that 
 room is created. In the library there are the individual 
 touches which show that the room is designed to be a 
 library ; in the dining room there are the characteristic 
 touches showing that the room is intended for a dining 
 room; in the sleeping room, there are the dainty delicacy 
 and restfulness of a sleeping room ; and in the nursery, 
 
6 
 
 of course they fully recognize the fact that it is to be the 
 refuge of children, and that there must be those things in 
 the decorative work of the nursery which are appropriate 
 to the child life. That is one thing they mean by simplic¬ 
 ity. 
 
 Another thing they mean by simplicity is the lack of 
 complex ornament. The decorative work of today is very 
 simple. Those of us who were at the Fair and saw the 
 frieze by Walter Crane,—who is really the man upon 
 whom the mantle of Morris fell,—will remember how per¬ 
 fectly simple it was. Instead of an elaborate design and 
 an elaborate color scheme, Crane simply used the long 
 sweeping conventionalized branch, and in the centers be¬ 
 tween suspended branches, he put the various emblems of 
 British nationality. It was all perfectly simple, and yet 
 when you stood and looked at it you recognized that in the 
 simplicity there was a dignity and beauty which could not 
 have been attained by any more elaborate scheme. That 
 is another thing they mean by simplicity. 
 
 This simplicity in the design and the execution of orna¬ 
 ment is very desirable. The time has gone by when, 
 especially in America, we need the fantastic ornamenta¬ 
 tion of past periods. You take the rooms of the Louis 
 periods,—they were designed in order to fit a pleasure-lov¬ 
 ing time, a time when the people were given over,—that 
 is, in connection with the Court at Paris,—to frivolity. 
 They were the embodied fancies of some of the Court 
 favorites there, such as Du Barry. They had their inspira¬ 
 tion in the frivolous life of those devotees at the shrine of 
 sensuality. But they are not consistent with the practical 
 life we are living today. 
 
 Simplicity is desirable because of its restfulness. We 
 need restfulness. Our homes are not exhibition places. 
 They are not museums for the exhibition of art objects. 
 They are places where we go to rest. We get nerve strain 
 
7 
 
 enough in our business life. When we go home we want 
 a restful place. For a man to have a home which he must 
 live up to, a home in which he is bound to wear a pink 
 dressing gown in order to be consistent with the decora¬ 
 tions, is, I should imagine, a rather trying experience. I 
 have never attained that place myself, and I do not expect 
 to. 
 
 What we want in the home is restfulness; and the atmos¬ 
 phere of the home is affected very largely by the decorative 
 treatment to be found there. When your eye rests upon 
 your wall you want nothing to startle the already strained 
 nerves, you want that which suggests the quiet and repose 
 you hope to find in your refuge from the cares of the mar¬ 
 ket place. 
 
 To this end there is a growing regard for the solid color 
 walls. I was in the studio of one of the leading wall paper 
 designers two or three weeks ago,—Mr. Kinkaid of New 
 York, probably as well known as any wall paper designer 
 in the United States,—and he was showing me the new 
 things he was preparing for the manufacturers. It was 
 notable that almost all the new designs are being created in 
 either single-tone or two-tone effect. The ornamental de¬ 
 signs in the wall paper are being made principally in two- 
 tone effect. Instead of the startling combinations of color 
 of a few years ago, there are now the quiet tones, subdued 
 and restful. 
 
 People are recognizing more and more that the walls of 
 a house are not objects of display in themselves; that the 
 walls of a house are simply the backgrounds for the display 
 of those things which the room contains, and for the 
 setting out to the best advantage of the persons, as well as 
 the objects in the room. The wall is the background. It 
 was so recognized at the World’s Fair. In all the Fine 
 Arts buildings there was not a single wall that was not in 
 a single-tone. If you go to Washington and visit the Cor- 
 
8 
 
 coran Art Gallery,—I do not care to say whose goods are 
 on the wall,—you will find the wall coverings are all of a 
 single-tone,—simply a solid mass of color against which 
 the paintings and statuary stand out as though they were 
 pushed forward into notice. That is one accompaniment 
 of the simplicity of today. The walls are in a single tone, 
 in order that those things which are in the room,—the 
 furniture, draperies, paintings and other art objects,—will 
 stand out against that wall. 
 
 You take the wall with profuse design all over it, and 
 you put a painting up against it. In the first place, the 
 painting cuts the design all to pieces. Not only that, but 
 the combination of color in the design conflicts with the 
 combinations of color that are in the painting. Even the 
 gold moulding that may be around the painting, or the 
 simple frame work that may be around a black and white 
 drawing, cannot counteract the effect of that heavy design 
 upon the walls. 
 
 In the Fine Arts Building; in the Educational Building, 
 where they had innumerable objects of ornament and art ; 
 in the Liberal Arts Building, where among other things 
 they had exhibits of statuary; in the Manufactures 
 Building, where men sought to show to the best advantage 
 the products of their mills; and in the Transportation 
 Building, where everything from the locomotive to the 
 automobile, was set forth to the best advantage,—you 
 found everywhere the walls covered with the single tone. 
 And almost everywhere Burlap was used. Besides the 
 strong thread effect and depth of color, it has the advan¬ 
 tage of the single-tone and pushes out to the best advan¬ 
 tage the thing that is set over against it. And that is in 
 harmony with the New Art. 
 
 When we talk about New Art some of you gentlemen 
 may feel like smiling,—perhaps a little contemptuously. I 
 do not blame you. Like every other good idea it has had 
 
9 
 
 its time of fantasy and fanaticism. The great apostle of 
 the New Art, was William Morris. But Morris, like most 
 reformers, went to the extreme. Those of you who are 
 familiar with the history of Morris will remember the cir¬ 
 cumstances under which he made the great departure that 
 has had such an influence upon the decorative work since 
 his time. You remember how in company with his young 
 friend, Edward Burne-Jones,—afterward Sir Edward Burne- 
 Jones,—he went to London and they took that house on 
 Red Lion Square, which had formerly been occupied by 
 Rossetti. When Morris went out to get furniture, dra¬ 
 peries and various decorative materials, with which to fit 
 up his home, he found nothing which he considered con¬ 
 sistent with the spirit of the age, especially the spirit that 
 was moving in himself. So, in order that he might get 
 things that were consistent and individual, he took up the 
 work of designing what he wanted. The furniture he pro¬ 
 duced was a revival of the old monastic furniture, heavy, 
 unwieldy and all too rigidly solid. It was more consistent 
 with a monastery than a private house. Morris had, how¬ 
 ever, the advantage of having Rossetti come in, and 
 Rossetti and Burne-Jones together painted beautiful pic¬ 
 tures all over that furniture and made it, in that respect, 
 very artistic. 
 
 Morris started a style, and that style, of course, caught 
 certain people up. It was just like a whirlwind. You 
 know what a whirlwind does. It catches up the light and 
 useless odds and ends and all the dead leaves that lie inert 
 upon the ground. It tosses them up in the air, whirling 
 them round and round, and they make so great a showing 
 for a little while, that one might almost be led to think 
 that the air consisted altogether of dead leaves and refuse. 
 In the world of thought it is just like that. Here are a lot 
 of people of no consequence themselves, that lie dead and 
 inert in the thinking world, but when a whirlwind of 
 
10 
 
 thought comes, they are the first ones to be caught up and 
 made prominent. So the New Art came into contempt be¬ 
 cause a lot of these no-account fanatics got active and 
 made a great show and noise. You know what a lot of 
 noise can be made by a very small aggregation. 
 
 I heard somebody tell a story some time ago of a man 
 in a Southern city, who went to a hotel-keeper and said, 
 “Say, Boss, I would like to sell you a ton of frogs. Don’t 
 you have to have frog’s legs on your bill-of-fare ?.” The 
 hotel man said, “Why, yes, but what on earth would I do 
 with a ton of frogs? They would last me forever.” 
 “Well,” the other man replied, “I don’t know what you 
 would do with them, but I would like to sell you a ton of 
 frogs.” The hotel-keeper being skeptical about the thing, 
 said, “All right; go ahead, get your frogs; bring them 
 along and I’ll take them.” So the fellow went out. A 
 day or two afterwards he came back and had just six frogs, 
 and he said to the hotel-keeper, “Here’s your frogs.” 
 “Why,” said the hotel man, “That’s not a ton of frogs.” 
 “Well, this is all I could get, Boss, just six of them.” 
 “But,” protested the hotel man, “You were talking about 
 a ton the other day.” “Well, Boss,” said the man with 
 the frogs, “I live right near this here meadow, and at 
 night when them frogs was singin’, it sounded to me like 
 thar might be a millyun, and when I tried to ketch em,’ 
 thar was only six.” 
 
 You know it is the same way with people sometimes,— 
 and with movements,—there is such a noise made by a little 
 coterie you would think the whole world was being agitated, 
 when it may be only six active little frogs. So in the New 
 Art, there was a little coterie that made a tremendous noise 
 and confusion. You gentlemen heard the noise, and you 
 could not see that there was anything but sound and fury 
 there. Much of their work was not consistent with art in 
 any sense, new or old art, and so you just turned the thing 
 
11 
 
 down and said, “Well, if that is New Art, I don’t want 
 any of it.” But remember, gentlemen, that whirlwind was 
 started by the inrush of a certain spirit, and to-day that 
 spirit, more fully understood and more sanely represented, is 
 growing dominant in all art work, whether the fine arts or 
 the decorative arts. It is this spirit with which we need to 
 come into touch. We must get some of the inspiration of 
 that spirit, and exemplify it in our work. It will give our 
 work individuality, distinction, up-to-date-ness. It will 
 increase our personal interest and pride in our work. It 
 will also increase our profits. 
 
 You are a decorator, and a person with sufficient means 
 comes to you and he says, ‘ ‘i want you to fit up my home. ’ ’ 
 Well, you have been doing it year after year in the same 
 old way. You know just the certain materials that it has 
 been customary to use, the certain combinations of color 
 that have been regarded as standard. You just go plodding 
 along, using these old things in the old way. 
 
 How much better it is to do as a decorator told me the 
 other day he did. A customer who had a fine home came 
 to him and wanted him to redecorate it, and he said, “Yes, 
 I will be glad to undertake the contract.” The customer 
 asked, “How much will it cost?” The decorator replied, 
 “I don’t know. I will promise you this: I will give it my 
 best individual thought and care, and I will try to secure 
 for you the results that I think you want, and that I am 
 sure you will be satisfied with, and then the question of 
 cost we can settle afterwards.” The customer had confi¬ 
 dence in him and gave him the contract. 
 
 He took that house room by room, and he made it differ¬ 
 ent from any other house in the city. He used things that 
 were new to the community; he used designs that had not 
 been used there before,—new designs and things that were 
 consistent with the spirit of the day. By giving it his in¬ 
 dividual thought and selecting these things that were in- 
 
12 
 
 dividual, he produced what perfectly satisfied his patron. 
 When the bill was presented, while the gentleman thought 
 it was a little higher than he had anticipated, he said, “it 
 is all right; we are perfectly satisfied. We have got some¬ 
 thing that is not repeated all the way up and down the 
 street.” And when Mrs. Jones goes in to see Mrs. Brown, 
 Mrs. Jones will see that Mrs. Brown has something in the 
 decorative way that Mrs. Jones has not, and of which she 
 cannot find a duplicate in the town. 
 
 We have a customer down in a little town in Kentucky, 
 I think—and you know Kentucky is not noted for her en¬ 
 terprise, as a rule; she is a good old State, and some things 
 she makes down there are, perhaps, unapproachable; prob¬ 
 ably you gentlemen know more about it than I do. Ken¬ 
 tucky is a conservative State. When you get into the small 
 communities of any State, even grand old Pennsylvania, 
 you find conservatism. But that fellow down in Kentucky 
 has used at least three thousand yards of some of our highest 
 priced materials right in and around that community, sim¬ 
 ply because he is determined not to be limited to mere 
 paperhanging and commonplace everyday decorative work. 
 He wants to rise above that, and to help his community to 
 rise above it. So he gets the new things. If he needs wall 
 paper, he will not take the old back stock that people try 
 to work off on him; he wants the new goods, the newest 
 ideas. If he needs sketches of decorative designs; if he 
 needs wall coverings, or draperies, he gets new things and 
 keeps in touch with the modern movements. The name 
 and fame and profits of that man will grow. 
 
 If I had known I was to be called upon, I might have 
 systematized my remarks a little. As it is they are but 
 desultory. Still I am very glad to have this chance of sug¬ 
 gesting to you as decorators—and artists more or less—that 
 for your own personal benefit, for your business profit, for 
 your future good, both personal and business, you should 
 
13 
 
 get into touch with the modern spirit, that which lifts us 
 out of ruts, out of slavery to mechanical details, inspiring 
 us with beautiful and lofty conceptions of what is possible 
 to us in our chosen sphere. 
 
 Let me suggest something that will serve to show the 
 necessity now upon us for taking the broadest possible view 
 of our opportunity. 
 
 In the educational exhibits at the great Fair, the fact 
 that .struck me most forcibly was that in the public schools 
 of our country—and in your own home schools, I presume— 
 they are now training the children in art. Beginning at 
 the kindergarten and carrying the work systematically up 
 through the various grades, they are teaching first, the 
 principles, and, later, the application of those principles. 
 The most complete system that I examined was, by the 
 way, that of Utah. I suppose it is because they have large 
 families there,—the family arrangements are peculiar, you 
 know. But in all the States they are developing the art 
 faculties of the children, and are educating the growing 
 generation to be more intelligently critical of all artistic 
 efforts or products. 
 
 It is not, however, merely the growing generation which 
 is affected by this training. The children carry the new 
 ideas into their homes. The parents, our patrons, are more 
 or less influenced and educated. 
 
 The exhibits of the various schools of design were strik¬ 
 ingly suggestive of the advanced character and high quality 
 of the training furnished the young men and women who 
 are fortunate enough to be able to attend them. 
 
 Gentlemen, this movement cannot be checked. No true 
 lover of his art would check it if he could. It is far better 
 that we should welcome it, cooperate with it, contribute our 
 share to it, get our share of the value in it. 
 
 The leading manufacturers of painters’ and decorators’ 
 supplies are doing what they can to foster and forward in- 
 
14 
 
 telligent interest along these lines. Mr. Webster (of York) 
 has spoken of the technical training which may be given to 
 the apprentices in your shops if the master is willing to 
 devote a part of his time and strength to that end. Let me 
 add that very often the booklets and other reading matter 
 sent out by the manufacturers are full of technical inform¬ 
 ation, instruction or suggestion. These frequently go into 
 the waste-basket without receiving the courtesy of a look. 
 I know how busy each successful man is, and how little 
 time he has at best for reading; but I would suggest that a 
 little more pains be taken to see that things of real value 
 are not cast away, things which you might well read your¬ 
 selves, and put into the hands of those you are trying to 
 train. I have over there at my booth some booklets [refer¬ 
 ring to the booklets on “Light, Color and Color Harmony, ’ ’ 
 and “The Acoustic Properties of Rooms”, by Dr. R. W. 
 Cornelison, Chief Chemist and Superintendent for the 
 Fab-Ri-Ko-Na Mills, and “The Modern House; Its Fur¬ 
 nishings and Decoration” by Mr. John Taylor, of Glasgow, 
 Consulting Art Director for the same Mills] which any 
 decorator, however high up in his art may profitably read. 
 
 Finally, gentlemen, there is great moral and spiritual 
 gain, as well as intellectual stimulus and financial profit, in 
 accepting the inspiration imparted by these new ideals. 
 
 It is something, friends, to have a background against 
 which the sordid and practical affairs of our life may be set. 
 You know that the old Hebrews taught us many good les¬ 
 sons. They were a poetic people, a people who caught 
 wonderful visions of higher things, and reported them for 
 the benefit of posterity. A verse by their great Psalmist 
 utters the very spirit of Hebrew poetry, and accounts for 
 the best in the Hebrew life, when he says: “As the moun¬ 
 tains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about 
 His people, from henceforth, even forever.” The idea is, 
 of course, that as the mountains were the safeguard of the 
 
city, so Jehovah was the protector of His people. But there 
 is more than that in it. Being surrounded by the moun¬ 
 tains, the dweller in the sacred city was always able to 
 lift his eyes from the commonplaces of his daily task, and 
 be quickened with a vision of that which was beautiful, 
 lofty, enduring. 
 
 So it is, friends, with you and me. If we are to live 
 lives that are full, lives that are strong to meet our duties, 
 lives rich towards our fellowmen, we must have a back¬ 
 ground, something to look up to, something beautiful, 
 lofty, enduring. 
 
 Feel that you are artists. Feel that you are in touch with 
 the living art of to-day. Be willing to hear its message. 
 Be willing to follow its leadings. Every day will be the 
 brighter for it. All your work will be the better for it. 
 And, when you finish your work, when you lay down the 
 implements by which you have tried to make earth more 
 beautiful, and go out to that “house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens” prepared for us by the Great Ar¬ 
 chitect, and decorated by celestial workmen, you will feel 
 that you have not lived and labored in vain. 
 
 You will feel that you have not been merely a part of the 
 great industrial machine, but a part of the living spirit behind 
 the machine; and you will leave your ideals, strengthened 
 by experience, and your inspiration, justified by its fruits, 
 as a precious heritage to those who in the future shall walk 
 the paths that you and I now tread. 
 
The booklets referred to by the speaker (see 
 page 14) are a part of the educational propaganda 
 now being carried on by the Fab-Ri-Ko-Na Mills, 
 in connection with, but distinct from, their ad¬ 
 vertising. 
 
 We are profoundly impressed with the rapid de¬ 
 velopment of both the decorating trade and the 
 people at large in art perception, knowledge and 
 taste, and we are confident that what someone has 
 called “the American genius for ugliness” is no 
 longer dominant. 
 
 It is our purpose to make our products keep 
 pace with the art development of the time, and to 
 do all we can to promote that development. In 
 booklets, pamphlets, circulars, etc., we are making 
 widely known the best ideas and suggestions of the 
 highest authorities on decorative work. We are 
 always glad to give advice concerning schemes of 
 decoration, and to render assistance in the solution 
 of special problems. 
 
 H. B. WIGGINS SONS CO .