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CHAPTER V.

THE DRAWING ROOM,

DECORATIVE ARTS.

Uncle Oliver. Now, then, we are come to the great room of the house, the divan-khoneh, as they call it. Shall we go in?

All. Yes, Sir.

U. O. Off with your shoes, then! — That's right. There: in we are! But what are you about, Frank?- Keep on your cap, we are in Persia, now. Now, lady and gentlemen, I must be the showman. Is not this fine?

All. Very fine, Sir.

U. O. Yes, look around. You see this room has an appearance as different as possible from any thing you have been used to in England. The people who have such rooms, and the artists who make them, must have some taste, some refinement, some skill,-must they not? Jane. Yes, Uncle: it is such a beautiful room!

U. O. Yet you see, also, that the people who have such rooms, show their taste and refine

ment in a very different way from ourselves. Henry, what is the chief difference that strikes you?

Henry. I hardly know, Sir, what to fix on as the principal difference. I will say that our walls are smooth, but these have such a number of-of-cupboards.

U. O. Recesses, niches. That makes a great difference, indeed. You see there is not any where a large unbroken space, except from the floor three or four feet to the beginning of the niches. In some of the royal palaces, all this large space below the niches is covered with great plates of mirror, and has rather a splendid effect, reflecting and multiplying the richly-dressed princes and lords who assemble there.

Frank. There is nothing of this here..

U. O. No: but what is here deserves your attention. You always see niches of some kind or other. Sometimes you may see them low, square, and deep; not shallow, arched, and high, like these, with rich mouldings above and around them.

H. But what use are they for?

U. O. They are for ornament, to break the

wall into parts, for it would seem very bare without them. Yet, however, you observe that they serve as stands for vases of flowers; and in more private rooms, for they are in all rooms, various articles may be deposited on them, such as cabinet boxes, pots of perfume, and weapons. But what strikes you, Frank?

-

F. There is no furniture, Sir.

U. O. Only carpets and cushions. Look at them. They are very rich. But though the room has no furniture, does it look bare?

All. Not at all, Sir.

U. O. No! And how is that?

not think that a room of this large size would look intolerably naked, if with no other furniture than it now has, its walls were quite plain, and the ceiling also?

H. I dare say it would, Sir.

U. O. Then we have the very reason why the Persians make their grand rooms after this fashion. They do not know the use of any other furniture than you see; yet, feeling that something was wanting to fill and satisfy the eye, they have wisely furnished their walls. Probably, if the same object were sought in England, it would have been by somewhat dif

ferent means; different, I mean, in mode, rather than in principle: for the object of thus filling the eye, could not be better obtained than in some such way as this. Observe what furniture the walls have received. All around are the numerous recesses with paintings within them, and with other paintings, and with mouldings, carvings, arabesques, and cornices, between and above them.

F. Where are the arabesques?

U. O. Those curious lines, straight and curved, running along, repeated and continued, in various patterns, above and between the niches. Among them, and above or below them, you observe running lines which here and there throw up a straight line, and down a curved one. These are passages from the Koran, or moral sentences, or lines of verse. The Persian and Arabic way of writing is well suited to be thus used for ornament. It is much used for this purpose. Common domestic vessels, of metal, have often a border of this kind of writing. Now see how, above all, rise the arches, or rather domes, which cover this large hall, in numerous coves, forming, as it were, so many

other

recesses, in agreement with those below. Now,

all this is very good: perhaps we could not improve it. That which is bad, - that which we could improve, that which in our eyes debases all to what may be called the gingerbread-style, is the mere outside covering, the gilding, the paint, the looking-glass.

Jane. I thought all that was the best, Uncle ?

U. O. I doubt not you thought so. You love gingerbread now; but you won't care about it twenty years hence. But I see you want to

say something, Frank.

F. I was thinking that this room is high enough for two rooms: and you might throw a floor across there, from the ledge above the cupboards, niches, I mean, on this side to the

ledge on the other side: then, that above would make a nice room.

The

U. O. Things are nicer as they are. notion is, however, good. The break or division is clear enough, and is intended, being part of that plan of furnishing the walls which I have described. You see that on those ledges, over the spaces between the lower niches, the arched coves seem to rest, and how beautifully they rise up and unite in the domes!