not give a pleasing effect.  The oak furniture of Jacobean days does not harmonize with the delicate mahogany furniture of the eighteenth century in England.  The delicate beauty of Adam furniture would be lost in the greatness of a Renaissance salon.  A lady whose dining-room was furnished in Sheraton furniture one day saw two elaborate rococo Louis XV console tables which she instantly bought to add to it.  The shopman luckily had more sense of the fitness of things than a mere desire to sell his wares, and was so appalled when he saw the room that he absolutely refused to have them placed in it.  She saw the point, and learned a valuable lesson.  One could go on indefinitely, giving examples to warn people against startling and inappropriate mixtures which put the whole scheme out of key.

I am taking it for granted that reproductions are to be chosen, as originals are not only very rare, but also almost prohibitive in price.  Good reproductions are carefully made and finished to harmonize with the color scheme.  The styles most used at present are, Louis XIV, XV, XVI, Jacobean, William and Mary, and Georgian.  Gothic, Italian and French Renaissance, Louis XIII, and Tudor styles are not so commonly used.  We naturally associate dignity and grandeur with the Renaissance, and it is rather difficult to make it seem appropriate for the average American house, so it is usually used only for important houses and buildings.  Some of the Tudor manor houses can be copied with delightful effect.  The styles of Henri II and Louis XIII can both be used in libraries and dining-rooms with most effective and dignified results.

The best period of the style of Louis XV is very beautiful and is delightfully suited to ball-rooms, small reception-rooms, boudoirs, and some bedrooms.  In regard to these last, one must use discretion, for one would not expect one’s aged grandmother to take real comfort in one.  Nor does this style appeal to one for use in a library, as its gayety and curves would not harmonize with the necessarily straight lines of the bookcases and rows of books.  Any one of the other styles may be chosen for a library.

The English developed the dining-room in our modern sense of the word, while the French used small ante-chambers, or rooms that were used for other purposes between meals, and I suppose this is partly the reason we so often turn to an English ideal for one.  There are many beautiful dining-rooms done in the styles of Louis XV and XVI, but they seem more like gala rooms and are usually distinctly formal in treatment.  Georgian furniture, or as we so often say, Colonial, is especially well suited to our American life, as one can have a very simple room, or one carried out in the most delightful detail.  In either case the true feeling must be kept and no startling anachronisms should be allowed; radiators, for instance, should be hidden in window-seats.  This same style may be used for any room in the house, and there are beautiful reproductions of Chippendale, Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton furniture that are appropriate for any need.