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6INTERIOR DECORATING
does not know so much as he thinks he does, that not having devoted himself for years to specialization in interior work he cannot be considered the supreme expert in this particular field that he would like to be regarded, and that, furthermore, the architect frequently acts in an unprofessional and intolerable manner by competing with the decorator in supplying the actual fabrics and furniture used in his interiors, that by doing so he interferes with the decorator's business and infringes upon the rules of the American Institute of Architects, which prescribe, if I am not mistaken, that no architect shall definitely buy or sell anything except under certain limited and carefully specified rules of procedure.
I think the unbiased must admit that there is a certain amount of justice on both sides of this controversy. It is undeniably true that without a certain amount of architectural study it is impossible for decorators to be familiar enough with structural requirements to be able to do as well with interiors as might be expected. Furthermore, without a considerable knowledge of historic styles and the details of the periods and a great sense of form and color, the decorator cannot adequately complete the room which the architect has started, and on the walls and ceiling and window arrangements of which he may have devoted a good deal of time and ability. It is also true that in some cases decorators have been forced by their enormous overhead expenses the large rentals they frequently pay and the large stock of merchandise that they sometimes keep on hand to charge more than a fair profit on the goods that
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THE ARCHITECT AND DECORATOR 7
they offer. Especially has this been true in past years in the field of antiques, where four hundred or five hundred per cent profit was frequently asked for things which may sometimes have been unique, but which were frequently not even authentic.
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