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CHAPTER XII
TREATMENT OF BATHROOMS
Sumptuous bathrooms are not modern inventions, on the contrary the
bath was a religion with the ancient Greeks, and a luxury to the early
Italians. What we have to say here is in regard to the bath as a
necessity for all classes.
The treatment of bathrooms has become an interesting branch of
interior decoration, whereas once it was left entirely to the
architect and plumber.
First, one has to decide whether the bathroom is to be finished in
conventional white enamel, which cannot be surpassed for dainty
appearance and sanitary cleanliness. Equally dainty to look at and
offering the same degree of sanitary cleanliness, is a bathroom
enamelled in some delicate tone to accord in colour with the bedroom
with which it connects.
PLATE XV
This illustration speaks for itself—fruit dishes and fruit,
candlesticks, covered jars for dried rose leaves, finger bowls,
powder boxes, flower vase, and scent bottles—all of Venetian
Glass in exquisite shades.
Venetian Glass, Antique and Modern
Some go so far as to make the bathroom the same colour as the
bedroom, even when this is dark. We have in mind a bath opening out of
a man's bedroom. The bedroom is decorated in dull blues, taupe and
mulberry. The bathroom has the walls painted in broad stripes of dull
blue and taupe, the stripes being quite six inches wide. The floor is
tiled in large squares of the same blue and taupe; the tub and other
furnishings are in dull blue enamel, and the wall-cabinets (one for
shaving brushes, tooth brushes, etc., another for shaving cups,
medicine glasses, drinking glasses, etc., and the third for medicines,
soaps, etc.) are painted a dull mulberry. Built into the front of each
cabinet door is an old coloured print covered with glass and framed
with dull blue moulding and on the inside of each cabinet door is a
mirror. One small closet in the bathroom is large enough to hang bath
robe, pajamas, etc., while another is arranged for drying towels and
holds a soiled clothes basket. On the inside of both doors are
full-length mirrors.
The criticism that mirrors in men's bathrooms are necessarily an
effeminate touch, can be refuted by the statement that so sturdy a
soldier as the Great Napoleon had his dressing room at Fontainebleau
lined with them! This fact reminds us that we have recently seen a
most fascinating bathroom, planned for a woman, in which the walls and
ceiling are of glass, cut in squares and fitted together in the old
French way. Over the glass was a dull-gold trellis and twined in and
out of this, ivy, absolutely natural in appearance, but made of
painted tin. The floor tiles, and fixtures were white enamel, and a
soft moss-green velvet carpet was laid down when the bath was not
used.
Bathroom fixtures are to-day so elaborate in number and quality, that
the conveniences one gets are limited only by one's purse. The leading
manufacturers have anticipated the dreams of the most luxurious.
Window-curtains for bathrooms should be made of some material which
will neither fade nor pull out of shape when washed. We would suggest
scrim, Swiss, or China silk of a good quality.
When buying bath-mats, bath-robes, bath-slippers, bath-towels,
wash-cloths and hand-towels, it is easy to keep in mind the
colour-scheme of your rooms, and by following it out, the general
appearance of your suite is immensely improved.
For a woman's bathroom, Venetian glass bottles, covered jars and bowls
of every size, come in opalescent pale greens and other delicate
tints. See Plate XI. Then there are the white glass bottles, jars,
bowls, and trays with bunches of dashing pink roses, to be obtained at
any good department store. Glass toilet articles come in considerable
variety and at all prices, and to match any colour scheme; so use them
as notes of colour on the glass shelves in your bathrooms. Here, too,
is an opportunity to use your old Bristol or Bohemian glass, once
regarded as inherited eyesores, but now unearthed, and which, when
used to contribute to a colour scheme, have a distinct value and real
beauty.
PLATE XVI
Part of a room in a small suite where the furniture is all old and
the majority of it Empire in style. However, the small piano at
once declares itself American Empire. The beautifully decorative
nameplate on its front reads, "Geib & Walker, 23 Maiden Lane,
N.Y." The date of piano is about 1830.
The brown mahogany commode on the right has the lion's claw-feet,
and pilasters are topped by women's heads in bronze. This piece
was bought in France. It has the original marble top, dark pink
veined with white. The knobs on drawers are bronze lions' heads,
holding rings in their mouths. Chairs are Italian and between
Directoire and Empire.
The table, a good specimen, was also found in France. On the table
is a French vanity mirror, Louis XVI in time, very Greek in
design. The mirror is on both sides and turns on a gold arrow
which pierces it. The bronze frame of mirror has a design so
intricate in detail that it resembles lace work.
The vase on the piano is Empire and antique, decoration of green
and gold. The flowers on table are artificial, a quaint Victorian
contrast.
Through the doorway one sees the end of an Empire bed which came
from an old château in Brittany. Note the same pilasters as on
bureau, only that in this case the woman's head is gilded wood and
two little feet of gilded wood appear at base of mahogany
pilaster.
A gilded urn rests on a mahogany post of bed against the wall, the
only position possible for beds of this style. The head and foot
board are of equal height and alike.
Few Empire beds are now on the market. This one is used with a
roll at each end and is covered with genuine Empire satin in
six-inch stripes of canary yellow and sage green divided by two
narrow black stripes and a narrow white stripe between them.
Corner of a Room in a Small Empire Suite
To-day a bathroom is considered the necessary supplement to every
bedroom in an apartment or house, where the space allows, and no house
is regarded as a good investment if built with less than one bath to
communicate with every two rooms. Yet among the advertisements in the
New York City Directory of 1828 we read the following naïve statement
concerning warm baths, which is meant in all seriousness. It refers to
the "Arcade Bath" at 32 Chambers Street, New York City.
"The warm bath is more conducive to health than any luxury which
can be employed in a populous city; its beneficial effects are
partially described as follows:
"The celebrated Count Rumford has paid particular attention to
the subject of Warm Bathing; he has examined it by the test of
experiments, long and frequently repeated, and bears testimony to
its excellent effects. 'It is not merely on account of the
advantages,' says the count, 'which I happen to see from Warm
Bathing, which renders me so much an advocate of the practice;
exclusive of the wholesomeness of the warm bath, the luxury of
bathing is so great, and the tranquil state of the mind and body
which follows, is so exquisitely delightful, that I think it
quite impossible to recommend it too highly, if we consider it
merely as a rational and elegant refinement. The manner in which
the warm bath operates, in producing the salutary
consequences, seems very evident. The genial warmth which is
so applied to the skin in the place of the cold air of the
atmosphere, by which we are commonly surrounded, expands all
those very small vessels, where the extremities of the arteries
and veins unite, and by gently stimulating the whole frame,
produces a full and free circulation, which if continued for a
certain time, removes all obstructions in the vascular system,
and puts all the organs into that state of regular, free, and
full motion which is essential to health, and also to that
delightful repose, accompanied by a consciousness of the power of
exertion, which constitutes the highest animal enjoyment of which
we are capable.'
"N.B.: As the Bath is generally occupied on Saturday evenings and
Sunday mornings, it is recommended to those who would wish to
enjoy the Bath and avoid the crowded moment, to call at other
times. The support of the public will be gratefully received and
every exertion made to deserve it. For the Proprietor, G. Wright.
"Strangers will recognise the Bathing House from the front being
extended over two lots of ground, and the centre basement being
of free-stone."
The bathtub then was the simple tin sort, on the order of the round
English tub. To-day the variety of bathtubs as to size, shape,
material and appointments is bewildering; tubs there are on feet and
tubs without feet, tubs sunken in the floor so that one goes down
steps into them, tubs of large dimensions and tubs of small, and all
with or without "showers," as the purchaser may prefer. Truly the warm
baths so highly recommended in Count Rumford's rhapsody are to be had
for the turning of one's own faucet at any moment of the day or night!
The Count Rumford in question is that romantic figure, born of simple
English parents, in New England (Woburn, Mass., 1753), who went abroad
when very young and by the great force of his personality and genius,
became the power behind the throne in Bavaria, where he was made
Minister of War and Field Marshal by the Elector, and later knighted
in recognition of his scientific attainments and innumerable civic
reforms. There is a large monument erected to the memory of Count
Rumford in Munich. He died at Auteuil, France, in 1814.
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