Modem interior decoration demonstrates admirably the twentieth-century attitude to life,
a directness, and a return to fundamental principles. In Modern French Decoration (Putnam, 15s.) Katharine M. Kahle gives a detailed account of the growth and present position of modem French interior decoration. She describes the fundamental principles on which modern interior decoration is based. France, Germany, and, in fact, most Continental countries, are far in advance of England in this art, but Mr. Maurice S. R. Adams in his book Modern Decorative Art (Batsford, I5s.) describes the work which he and his firm are doing in this country. His designs for furniture are for the most part based on eighteenth-century models, and charming though they are, they do not represent our machine age as adequately as many of the French designs illustrated in Miss Kahle's book. Fashions in furniture change according to the nature of the material with which it is constructed. Mr. Adams uses beautiful and elaborately patterned woods ; Miss Kahle's examples of modem furniture are generally of steel, unpolished oak, or chairs entirely covered with Rodier material. Both these books are provocative and stimulating to anyone interested in interior decoration.
Previous page
