Turkish Baths

ITS DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION. 113
Empire.
The Romans were fully alive to the possibilities
of the plunge bath as a subject for artistic design, and
often produced baths of great beauty.
The flooring and sides of these baths should be of a
light tint, and there should always
be more or less
pure white. Nothing really is better than plain white
glazed bricks, with neat joints. With this bottom the
water always looks clean when it is clean, and shows
contamination when it exists. Marble-mosaic floorings
should be chiefly of white tesserae,
any simple patterns
being executed in light tints. Delicate tints, such as
strawberry, pea green, and peacock blue, look well
through the water. The floor of the plunge bath may
thus be made very pretty. The sides are best of glazed
brickwork, neatly executed, and coping and treads of
steps of so-called
white marble.
FURNISHING.
The work of the upholsterer in fitting up a Turkish
bath comprises the complete furnishing of the cooling
room with couches, lounges, ottomans, carpets, mats,
and any chairs and tables that may be required, besides
the usual furniture common to all rooms. In the
sudatory chambers may be required easy chairs of
peculiar construction, with stretched canvas seats ;
in some cases movable wooden benches in lieu of fixed
marble-topped ones ; and any carpeting, matting, felt
for benches, curtains (if any), and Indian matting for
dadoes. These are the principal requirements that need
consideration, the remaining furnishing of subordinate
I