I DO not know of a more perfect American example of fine workmanship in chamber furniture than the set shown in the frontispiece. At every stage of its construction, money and labor were spent without stint to execute every detail in the most superior manner known to the best makers. The result is cabinetwork that will defy time, and a hundred years from now be evidence of the high accomplishment of the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century, in at least one of the art industries.

Chamber set of the highest quality, in curly maple. Chapter X.

The materials are worthy of the workmanship. All the wood is curly maple, except the drawers that are in oak. The maple comes from selected logs, none of which has been seasoned for less than eight years. There was no kiln drying to force out the sap quickly, and warp and twist the fibers and cells in a mad rush to transform the tree into merchandise. The curly maple in this furniture is alive and will be alive for generations.

This curly maple has a far deeper and more interesting texture than the satinwood commonly used in suites of the Adam type. Also, while the satinwood is usually applied as a thin veneer, the surface layer of the curly maple in this suite is from 1/4 to 7/8 of an inch thick, with two ther layers of maple crossgrained behind it.

The set is finished in camegon, and the decorations are painted in tones of rose, white, green, and yellow. Each wooden knob bears a rose. Daisies also appear in the painted decoration that was done by a master.

The joints are mortised, so that changes of temperature and moisture do not pull them apart. They are also flush, without the projecting edges of ordinary and less expensive cabinetwork. The backs of all the pieces in the set are as perfectly finished as the fronts. The bed or the bureau or the chiffonier can be backed away from the wall without exposing rough, unfinished surfaces and open seams and joints. The drawers move silently and easily, but are dust-proof and completely finished.

The price of the bureau in this set is $385, and it is not a dollar too much. The value is there - just as much and more so than in many of the inexpensive chamber pieces that I shall later introduce to your attention. The prices of the companion pieces are as follows: of the 4 1/2-foot bed with caned panels, $400; of the large lowboy, $450; of the small table, $ 125; of the somno table, $ 145; of the side chair, $ 100; of the rocker, $ 110.

Evidently these are not goods for popular consumption. They are goods for those who can afford the best, and I am dwelling on their merits in order to drive home the lesson that quality costs money. There is so much twaddle written and talked nowadays about getting something for nothing, that many persons waste their substance trying to do so. They believe the advertisements of unscrupulous shops, and pay what would be a low price for what they think they are getting, but a high price for what they are getting. Or they are misled into trying to make their own furniture, and pay more for materials than the finished piece should cost, and when they get the materials they are unable to put them together. Undoubtedly, there is nothing Americans should study so closely as quality and durability. If they begin with the good models in honest shops it will be harder for the faker to fool them.

Recently I walked up and down the floors of one of the large New York shops, and noted the prices of some of the luxurious pieces and sets, that nowadays seem to move quickly side by side with goods at the extreme other end. A bedroom set in the style of Sheraton with fan inlay and twin beds was $745. A Louis XVI set in white enamel was $900. A terribly overcarved Colonial set in mahogany, with fourposter that will impress somebody as richly magnificent, was $ 1,950. A Dutch marqueterie set was $ 1,800. A Heppelwhite set in satinwood with delicate inlay was $ 1,700. A so-called Chinese Chippendale set in antique finish was $ 1,000, getting its name evidently from the excised fretwork.

Presently I came to the inexpensive chamber furniture - chiffoniers and bureaus without mirrors from $6 up, and with mirrors from $9 up, and other pieces in proportion. Pinched in size not only to suit the tiny rooms they will help to furnish, but also to economize on the lumber that in this grade of goods is an important item. Casters and drawer-knobs of the cheapest possible construction, sure to give way under the first strain. Sloppy finish that will bruise and darken at the first opportunity.

But (and let me emphasize this but) they were incomparably better than the cheap furniture of a generation ago, despite the great advance in the price of lumber. Then the lines of all the bureaus harked back to Rococo, and Rococo of such a type! Gone from it all the French grace and beauty of proportion. Nothing left but awkward and ugly curves and swells, and the more pronounced they were the better the goods sold. Then, too, those dreadful machine carvings made by the mile and sold by the foot that they used to paste on in the name of ornament. And the thin and atrociously ugly brass drawer pulls, that have not yet entirely disappeared, and that are always bending and breaking and tarnishing.

Yes, the cheap bureaus and chiffoniers to-day are distinctly of better model than before Mission furniture came into the field, and it is largely to Mission furniture that I attribute the improvement. Some of the oak bureaus and chiffoniers at from $ 18 to $ 30, in natural finish, demand more than mild approval; they are positively good in model; the drawers work smoothly and fit close, and the lumber is of excellent texture. There is room for more of this natural oak in residence furniture. The office furniture makers are doing wonders with it.

Good, too, are many of the inexpensive pieces in white enamel and in French gray enamel. These give the most cheerful and daintiest effect that can be secured inexpensively. They also go particularly well with the enameled metal beds and with the combination brass-and-enamel beds. Certainly one of the example rooms furnished by one of the big shops to show how a bachelor's tiny chamber should be done would be much improved by substituting for the golden oak chiffonier at $30, a white enameled one at $ 18; and for the golden oak bed at $26, a metal bed with low posts and simple design at $8. The smaller a room is the lighter should be the colorings and the simpler the patterns and models, for light, unpatterned surfaces recede from the eye and increase the apparent size of a room.

The staple finish in cheap oak furniture is "G. O.," as the tags write golden oak. Of this finish there are infinite varieties, from the cheap and muddy types to those with mirror-like luster in which you can see your face - until the luster gets tarnished or bruised. But there are also golden oak finishes that are dull, and that bring out rather than conceal the grain and texture of the wood. These, for ordinary use in bedrooms, are to be preferred to the darker finishes, such as early English and weathered oak.

The bureaus and chiffoniers at from $ 25 to $35 are in most ways superior, but in design not always. Some of the pieces in this grade are far worse than any that can be found in the cheaper grades. In walnut and Circassian walnut and bird's eye maple, as well as in mahogany, and imitation mahogany, there are monstrosities that appeal only to those who are decora-tively deaf, and who have to be hit with a club before they can receive an ornament impression. Especially to be recommended are many of the simpler models in birch, both dark and light, and most of those in what is called satin walnut, but which really is gum wood. The texture of this gum wood is particularly soft and gray and agreeable, and a bureau I saw at $30 and a chiffonier at $28 were of such excellent proportions and spacing as to recall - distantly - the cabinetwork of China and Corea. Instead of the conventional drawers, all alike, of the ordinary chiffonier, it had one very deep one in the middle with three small ones below, and two half-width ones above.

If a man is furnishing his own room he cannot do better than to spend from $60 to $ 150 on a man's chiffonier or bachelor's wardrobe, with special compartments for hats, ties, gloves, shirts, suits, etc. It will not only save him time and worry, but will help keep his attire in fine condition. The corresponding extravagance for a bachelor maid would of course be a cheval glass.

For tiny bedrooms metal beds and couches are preferable. But these should have as little cheap enamel and cheap brass ornament showing as possible. Single beds can be bought as low as $6 and couches for even less, but by going a little higher you will get better value and better wear for your money. There are splendid models built for strength and durability, in a guaranteed satin finish, at $ 15 in the single size. Very vital indeed is the question of finish. The cheaper enamels and brass finishes are so transparent that they seldom even reach the home of the purchaser in good condition. It means much to have the durability of the finish guaranteed for five years by a responsible manufacturer or dealer.

As regards elaborate effects or attempts to express the period styles in brass, I regard them for the most part as failures. Perhaps the most successful are the Colonial and Dutch models with elaboration of the spindle effects that seem so natural to brass. But the "Adams" (sic) beds with cast ornament in low relief, and the Louis XVI beds with cane-work imitated in metal - No! They won't do. Among the most ambitious attempts in the metal line are the beds in brass that has been triple plated in dull silver.

Chacun a son gout. But I don't like it. Metal beds should be decoratively subordinate.

In the inexpensive wooden beds, some of which with their upright slender splats and spindles copy the style effect of metal beds, there are good models at low prices, the cheapest not always well constructed and usually poorly finished. There are single beds in curly maple at $ 8, in oak and imitation mahogany for a little more, in white enamel and well made at from $ 15 to $ 18, while mahogany four-posters of Colonial type start at about $40 and soar.