In the introduction to that catalogue one gets the story of woven
linens, cottons, silks, paper, gold and silver threads, interspersed
with precious jewels and glass beads--all materials woven by hand or
machine.

The story of textiles includes: 1st, woven materials; 2nd, embroidered
materials; 3rd, a combination of the two, known as "tapestry." If one
reads their wonderful story, starting in Assyria, then progressing to
Egypt, the Orient, Greece, Rome and Western Europe, in any history of
textiles, one may obtain quickly and easily a clear idea of this
department of interior decoration from the very earliest times.

The first European silk is said to have been in the form of
transparent gauze, dyed lovely tones for women of the Greek islands, a
form of costume later condemned by Greek philosophers.

We know that embroidery was an art three thousand years ago, in fact
the figured garments seen on the Assyrian and Egyptian bas-reliefs are
supposed to represent materials with embroidered figures--not woven
patterns--whereas in the Bible, when we read of embroidery, according
to the translators, this sometimes means woven stripes.


PLATE IX

An ideal dining-room of its kind, modern painted furniture,
Empire in design. In this case yellow with decoration in white.
Curtains, thin yellow silk.

Note the Empire electric light fixtures in hand-carved gilded