Dainty dinner tables : and how to decorate them

Front matter

Painty Pinner Tables

AND

How to Decorate Them.

Introduction

Of late years table adornments and floral decorations of all kinds and varieties may be said to have reached the level of a fine art ; indeed, nowadays it is by no means uncommon to hear of hostesses who have paid as much as ^5, £10, £ 20, ^30, and upwards for the floral decorations of a single dinner-party. But to be able to spend ^5 upon flowers alone means the possession of a good deal more coin of the realm than the average housewife has at her disposal. It is possible, however, to have very dainty tables without the expenditure of a large amount of cash, for in this connection, as in other matters, natural good taste will go a great deal farther and fare better than a large amount of money injudiciously expended.

Food served amid dainty surroundings invariably “tastes nicer” than that which one eats where the only attempt at table decoration is a cruet of anti-

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INTRODUCTION.

quated and by no means beautiful pattern, and perhaps a very dusty and dejected looking plant, yclept a palm, in a pot draped with crinkled paper which has emphatically seen its best days.

I may perhaps be considered ultra-sensitive by the practical mind, but personally I always lose my appetite under (to me) such adverse circumstances. And nowadays too, when rapid transit and cheap railway rates bring a wealth of moderately priced blossoms to our very doors, there is really no excuse for having anything but a dainty table at any and every season of the year.

It is in the hope of being useful to the great army of gentlefolk who love beautiful things, but cannot afford to pay for the services of a first-class florist every evening, and also for those who, away in the heart of the country, are precluded by distance from employing outside aid, that the following carefully thought-out schemes for floral decoration have been compiled. They are one and all, with perhaps a notable exception or two, well within the means of the moderately pursed.

As regards the actual cost of the blooms themselves, these of course vary according to the season of the year, and for this reason the schemes will be found to be divided into “summer tables,”

INTRODUCTION.

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“Christmas tables,” etc. Of course dwellers in the country possess an enormous advantage over dwellers in towns so far as the schemes for wild flowers are concerned, as these can be gathered almost at their very door. They have also an advantage with regard to cultivated flowers, as country-people generally have gardens, but townspeople have to purchase their flowers either in the markets or from shops ; besides, at certain seasons of the year, notably in the depth of winter or the early spring, blossoms are sometimes apt to be unreasonably dear. There is always an exception to this rule, however, in the shape of the really invaluable penny and twopenny bunches of violets, and I hope to show later what may be achieved in the way of table decoration with the aid of these only.

We cannot, I admit, all afford rare orchids or exotics at half-a-guinea a single spray, but a shilling’s-worth of blooms is within the reach of those whose incomes average ,£500 a year, and it is for them that I am more especially writing.

In conclusion, I frankly admit that it is not an easy matter to make a table look really dainty at a small cost; it requires no small amount of thought and careful planning. It means seeing to and

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arranging the flowers oneself, not relegating the task to a perhaps only partially trained parlour-maid ; it requires contrivance to ensure a different, or at any rate a slightly varied, combination every night that one may happen to dine at home. Nevertheless,'in the following pages I shall prove that it can be done, and more —that it can be done successfully,

A. PRAGA.

October igoj.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction v

CHAP.

Chapter I. The Arrangement Of Flowers

The very first thing towards which the amateur florist must direct her attention is the arrangement of the flowers chosen, whatever kind they may chance to be; and equally with this she should consider — if her means are limited, as I am now supposing them to be— the receptacles for these flowers. One rule with regard to the latter ■ — i.e., the vases or specimen glasses, as the case may be — she must observe, and that is never to choose such as possess very wide mouths. The reason for this, of course, is obvious, since twice the amount of blossoms will be required if the receptacles have large necks, and this, as will be seen at a glance, very materially increases the expenditure.

As for bowls — unless she either lives in the

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country or has a garden or a greenhouse at hand which she may rifle at her own sweet will — she should avoid them. The “quaint old china bowl” so beloved of the lady novelist sounds, I know, beautiful when one reads of it ; and in theory it is beautiful; but in practice it is a nasty thing. It swallows up half-a-crown’s worth of blooms without the least compunction; and, vulgarly speaking, doesn’t make a bit of show with them either, unless they are arranged by a professional florist and duly wired, etc.

I know that bowl. In the innocence of my heart I have tried and tried again to arrange a “ handful of flowers ” — vide the aforesaid lady novelist — in it, and it has circumvented me every time; so that now, unless a plenitude of blooms are mine, I will have none of it. It is deceitful, too, as well as a whole host of other things it ought not to be. Just try filling it with water and arranging flowers in it. Why, it simply laughs at you. Nobody can ever manage it except the heroine of the lady novelist aforesaid. It behaves properly to her. She just takes “a handful of careless blooms, great creamy white and blushing red roses, and groups them within it with a strangely rare grace,” and they do not topple all to one side, or else double up and drop half-way into the water, as they do when you or I try to group them without the aid of wet sand or moss and here and there a wire. Oh no! nothing of the sort. The heroine’s roses stay where she puts them, and the hero comes in and finds them. She has gone upstairs to put on one of those marvellous washed-out old muslins of hers for the squire’s garden party. Wonderful things those muslin gowns are, too, in their way. Not one of them is a day less than half-a-dozen years old; but when the heroine dons one and goes to the garden party, she always takes the shine out of everybody else, though all the other women’s clothes have come from Worth or Felix or Pingat. But the heroine has tucked one of those roses of hers into her belt, and is “the best-dressed woman there.” I wish she’d give me the recipe and the address of her laundress. What a marvel that laundress must be, and what terms she would get if she would only come and set up in my neighbourhood !

When the heroine lives in a town she is equally lucky; she never expends more than a “few pence.” Poor as she is (and she is all but starving) she cannot — no, she cannot do without flowers. They remind her of her lost inheritance, and she buys a “great glowing bunch of roses” to “brighten up her dingy room.” Now, when you or I go to buy roses of that description, we always have to pay from id. to 2d. or 3d. each for them. I do wish I could find out one of the flower-girls who supply the heroines of novels. She should have all my custom and that of my friends as well.

But enough of nonsense ; it is time we went on

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to more serious matter, so let us return to the practical arrangement of flowers, as against the poetic and fictional.

The first thing then, as I have said — if the sum you can afford to spend upon blossom is only a limited one — is to see that the specimen glasses and vases provided for their reception have narrow, but not too narrow necks. You must remember that flowers, if well arranged, will present quite twice as gallant an appearance in vases of this sort as they would in the quaint china bowl before referred to, or in large specimen glasses.

As regards the kind of vases and glasses to be employed, I would advise you to, if possible, invest in, say, two or three sets, and ring the changes on these. For example, one set might be of white Coalport china. Imitation Coalport can be bought very cheaply, and if modern, even the real is by no means unduly expensive.

If you do not care for Coalport — and I have met people who do not — there are the really exquisite modern imitations of old Leeds to be had at very modest prices; and in this case the dinner service should. I think, match also. So much for china. In glass there are the delightful modern reproductions of old Nuremberg in the quaintest goblet and a dozen other forms besides; and the prices for these, I would remark, commence as low as 6d. or 8^d. each. Truly a modest sum when one considers their dainty grace.

If you wish for something quaint and out of the common, try a set of Benares brass ware. These can be bought very cheaply at almost any “art” shop which makes a speciality of Oriental goods. Five of odd sizes should go to the set — viz., one by way of a centre-piece, and one for each of the four corners of the table centre. A word, too, must be said in praise of the delightfully pretty and artistic green Bohemian glass. A centre-piece consisting of four or five vase-shaped glasses, supported by a stand of black iron scroll work, can be bought for as low a price as 8s. nd., whilst four corner vases to match will only cost you 2s. nd. each. Then again, the Indian ware in shades of scarlet and green adapts itself admirably to table decoration, especially if the centre slip chosen to accompany it is of the beetle-wing embroidery, which can now be had so cheaply at any of the before-mentioned art shops. *

Where a scheme of yellow is intended, and yellow flowers of different sorts are to be employed, nothing, to my mind, can equal the cheap (or expensive) blue and white Japanese and Chinese ware, vases of which are to be had at prices ranging from as low as 6fd. each in some instances. And really, although it sounds like the highest of treason to put such a thing down in black and white, not only is it impossible almost for the average non-artistic person to tell the difference between the real and the spurious, but the effect i6

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of your scheme will not suffer in even the slightest degree by your substituting the cheapest kind of ware for the more expensive.

I have always heartily agreed with the well-known lady writer who is reported to have said or written, that “ colour was the salvation of the impecunious,” and really as regards table decoration at any rate, her dictum is true. It costs not one whit more (and often less) to buy a table centre of a beautiful shade than it does to invest in a crude magenta or green which would set the teeth of an artist on edge; and oh! how infinitely better it is in every way, and how much more pleasant to look at.

However, we will return to the subject of table centres, etc., later on. For the present let us direct our attention to the vases which are to hold our flowers when we have bought them.

In addition to the various sets I have above recommended, there are the delightful vases of the old Devonshire pottery and the green Belgian ware. A table scheme wherein lilies-of-the-valley, interspersed with their own beautiful sheath-like leaves and asparagus ferns, figure in vases of green Belgium pottery, is veritably something to remember, I can assure you.

Then in addition to all these there are the ever new and delightful vases, jugs, fern pots, and in fact table ornaments of almost every description in that loveliest of all ware — yclept err is de Flandres. Who that has ever seen a

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table bedecked with yellow and purple orchid iris in pots of gris de Flandres, the vivid yellows and purples and pale mauves of the flowers contrasted against the pearly greys and wonderful bright yet dark blue of the pottery, can ever forget the sight? Why, it is enough to make the most colour-blind amongst us regain his vision, and sigh for palette and brush and the art to reproduce it.

Then again, blue larkspur in these self-same vases ! Blue larkspur against a table slip of faded mauve velvet— oh ! how unutterably delicious it is to tired eyes, and how it rests one mentally, as not all the scarlets and pinks and prominent colours in the world, let them shriek as they will, could ever hope to do.

There are also vases of real or imitation Majolica. Have you ever tried a great bunch of ruddy-brownred wallflowers in an old Majolica vase, with tiny attendant vases at either corner of your centre-piece filled with wallflowers and forget-me-nots intermingled? and did it not bring back something of those old, lost illusions which rarely outlast one’s teens, when we thought the world such a delightful place, when all friends were true, and all lovers something different from mere men and women? Oh! I’ll warrant me it did. And apropos of the above-mentioned gris de Flandres vases, have you ever tried the effect of a great loosely-tied sheaf of gladioli intermixed with i8

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feathery asparagus fern in a tall and slender jug of this ware, and set it upon a slip of dove-grey Roman satin, with quaint little bonbon dishes here, there, and everywhere, filled with bright scarlet sweets? Why, just to look at them — those real flowers, flaunting it gaily as though in defiance of anything else in Nature to be so superbly beautiful — is enough to raise your spirits, be you ever so deep in the slough of despond. Do not they seem to say, “ Cheer up, cheer up ! friends are true sometimes. Fortune will smile after all. Cheer up, you dull human things, and take a lesson from the flowers.” And the smiles begin to creep back to lips that deemed themselves almost too tired to smile — simply at sight of a sheaf of scarlet gladioli in a great grey jug from far-off Flanders.

Flave you ever experimented with a bunch of double daffodils in one of these same vases? Why the gold and the grey and the blue, oh ! they are the very spirit of the spring and the gladness thereof itself. Try it and prove me right. It hurts a little to descend to the question of dross — the gold of the world as against the gold of the fairies — with one’s mind full of the sweet scent of the sweetest flowers that ever grew in woodland, but we must for your benefit. The fact must be chronicled that these vases of the modern kind cost but a single florin each, and sometimes may be had for even less than that by several pence. So to your lasting shame be it an’ you do without them. But even now we have by no manner 01 means exhausted quite all the sorts of specimen glasses and vases it is possible to buy if none of the foregoing suit your mood. There are to be had — quite inexpensively too, be it noted — exquisite reproductions of Queen Anne glass, notably those tall custard or syllabub glasses which adapt themselves most admirably to flowers and lend a grace to any table whereon they figure. To revert for a moment to Belgian pottery, there are also the quaint jugs, vases, and bowls of the bright green Belgian ware, which are simply ideal when seen against the white of table napery and the glint of table silver. Their daintiness may be had for so small a cost too! Why a single crown will provide you with a set of five ; — a quaint low bowl for a centre-piece and four vases each boasting of three handles, which you may dispose of as seems to you best: one at either of the four corners of the table slip or dotted here and there in irregular fashion, if regularity does not suit your taste.

Again, supposing that you boast a garden wherein “ sweet flowers blow ” and that in profusion, there are copper bowls. Yes, I know I have up to now had nothing except evil to speak of the bowl as a receptacle for flowers; but that, mark you, was only meant for the eyes and ears of London readers. The happy folk living in the country who may run riot among flowers if they so wish, should prize their bowls, whether the

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latter be of china or metal with a ruddy glint upon them, which may be had for a fraction under three shillings apiece, and when flowers are scarce may be utilized for ferns or palms, etc. These bowls are also sometimes fashioned of brass, and though in the latter case they are a trifle more costly, and the source moreover of much vexation of spirit to the housemaid to whose lot it falls to clean them, they are yet so beautiful, especially when filled with scarlet poinsettias, that one has need of all one’s strength of mind if one would resist the temptation of buying one.

There are queerly shaped vases of Chinese ware, costing but a few pence each, but of infinite value if one would arrange an Oriental table. They are of all sorts, shapes, and sizes too, so that you have a variety of choice before you when purchasing.

To hark back to English ware, there remains still the dainty Devonshire pottery in delightful reds and yellows and blues and tans, and, oh! such a green, with the very incarnation of spring in its fresh, bright tones. These latter also are obtainable at almost any of the big stores or shops with an “Art Department,” and cost at the very outside only a single shilling or couple of shillings each.

Besides the above-mentioned, there are still the great army of so-called “ fancy ” glasses to be considered; whilst perhaps loveliest of any is the farfamed Salviati glass, although the latter is, I believe, slightly more costly than any of the forenamed examples. A set of Salviati glass table ornaments, in which category I include of course specimen vases for flowers as well as all drinking glasses, ice plates, etc., is a possession to be justly proud of when obtained; for the colours are so exquisitely blended that they accord with any and every scheme of floral table decoration you may fix on. Where, however, an entire set of the glass is a commodity beyond your means, let me say a word in favour of the specimen vases before mentioned, and the sweet dishes to match. They would grace any table, and as they are by no means of the wide-mouthed order before referred to, they may be admirably adapted to schemes where from scarcity or motives of economy the stock of flowers is a rather limited one.

Where the purchase of new vases is really quite beyond the reader’s means, let me advise the following plan; it was one carried out by a friend of my own, who really obtained marvellously good effects by means of its aid. She purchased one of those gigantic glazed brown earthenware jugs full of cream. This cost her half-a-crown ; and four or six — I forget the exact number— tiny glazed brown jugs to match; these full of cream cost 5^d. each. When the cream had gone the way of all cream, she turned the set to account as specimen vases. The large one served as a centre-piece, the smaller ones for one of each of

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the corners of the centre-cloth. Filled with daffodils and their lovely grey green leaves, or with yellow poppies and asparagus fern, the effect obtained was surprisingly good, more especially when the table centre was of dull sage green, or russet brown velvet, or of tawny orange silk, with a bordering of asparagus fern.

I so often hear the excuse given among those of my friends who are not over-blessed with worldly wealth, “Oh! I can’t afford really pretty tables (i.e., dinner tables) ; I just make a few ferns and a palm do.” As a matter of fact, this, to my mind, is really no excuse at all. Ferns and palms are not given away, remember. They have to be bought by some one, and with even the very best of amateur care they do not last so very long. So if you spread the money thus spent over a longer period it will supply you well with flowers ; in limited quantities of course, but still with flowers.

And here let me say just one word against surely the most hideous of all travesties for any purpose when the decoration of our rooms or dinner-tables, etc., are concerned : I refer to the paper flowers now sold on every hand, and which one or two of the “ladies’ papers” have lately made rather a practice of recommending as an aid to decoration, but more especially to table decoration.

To my mind — although I admit I may perhaps be a little squeamish, not to say prejudiced on this point — paper flowers in relation to table decoration bear the same aspect, and are just as heinous an artistic crime, as, say, painting a little child’s face would be. They deceive nobody, and it is safe to say they afford pleasure to nobody. Then why use them at all? They are not beautiful, and scent them overpoweringly as you will, it is impossible to pass them off as real; added to which, if you try the better qualities, they are by no means so cheap as to warrant so mean and pitiful an economy.

Better a handful of God’s green grass than the best imitation of roses ever turned out by the hands of man yet; at least so I think, and I fervently hope that I may induce the reader to think with me.

Hey! how one’s pen flies! I set out to tell you of the arrangement of flowers at the commencement of this chapter, and here have I been prating all this while of the vases wherein they may best disport themselves. Even now, too, I find that I have omitted to mention the exquisite vases, etc., of modern Della Robbia pottery. These also may be bought quite cheaply; and when not in use as flower vases, are quite beautiful enough to take rank as ornaments; as a matter of fact, it is in this capacity that they are, I believe, mostly used. Furthermore, there is that other pottery, “ deeply, darkly, beautifully green,” yclept Vilia ware. Purchase two or three of those quaint long and slender jugs, and from four to six of the little squat vases to match. Fill the jugs with feathery

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mimosa, and the squat vases made with the flowering part of the mimosa and asparagus fern, and delight awaits you, of that you may be very sure.

Before I go fairly on to the subject of arranging our flowers there is just one question I should like to ask an intelligent British public, or that portion of it which manufactures china and earthenware. Why have we no scarlet pottery? Real scarlet, I mean — the scarlet of the pillar-box, only just a tone or two darker. Just think of oddly-shaped, tall vases in a glazed pottery of this sort filled with annunciation lilies, and squat bowls (the latter should be three-handled) filled with lilies-ofthe-valley and their adorable sheath-like leaves, on a table centre which should be of white satin, with white table glass and white candles in Jacobean silver candlesticks with shades of just the same hue as the vases, and tell me if it wouldn’t cheer one, no matter how deep down in the dumps one might be? Will not some china manufacturer who wishes also to be a benefactor to his kind adopt the idea? I’m certain the vases would sell; especially in the dull, grey November and December weather, when a gleam of bright colour, whether it be in a hat or gown, in furniture or ornaments, is always so acceptable.

I don’t think we prize warm colours as highly as we should in England. The taint of the oldtime Puritanism is over us all yet, and a scarlet handkerchief round a child’s head, or a great glowing rose in the hair if worn in the daytime, is voted vulgar and bad form. Really I believe the English are the one solitary nation under the sun who scout God’s precious gift of colour and laugh it to scorn; and yet nowhere on earth is there such crying need of it as in this dull, grey England of ours, with its long, drab streets, and its dreary, dark houses, and its sky with fifty tears of rain to one smile of sunshine. Why, we ought by rights to just run riot in colour if we did our duty as citizens of the world. But no, we will, as a general thing, have none of it; for, as I have said before, that Puritan taint is still strong in our blood. Though why in Puritan times a lack of colour was supposed to be pleasing to the God who created it passes my comprehension.

My pen has run away again, and we are no nearer to a rational discussion as to the best way of arranging our blooms when we have got them. Perhaps, though, the subject demands a fresh chapter to itself, for in this we have wandered away to many things, and all the while our roses are rebelling at being so neglected !

CHAPTER II. TIIE ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS ( Continued )

HOW TO PRESERVE FLOWERS.

We will suppose now that the question of vases or specimen glasses has been satisfactorily settled. This being so, the next thing to be done is to plan out the scheme of decoration.

Before going on to this, however, just the promised word re the arranging of the flowers to the best advantage.

Old-fashioned people, and those wishful of making the flowers last as long as possible, generally use water; and there is no better plan for preserving their freshness, if you have either a plenitude of flowers, or, failing these, employ, as I have already said, narrow-necked vases. Otherwise wet sand will be found to give the best results. The vases or glasses, as the case may be, should be filled rather more than three-parts full. Then the flowers must not be put too closely together, but as gracefully as possible.

Wet moss, when it is to be had, admirably serves the same purpose, only that in this case the flowers require wiring. This “ sounds difficult ” I know to the amateur would-be florist, but it is not so in reality. The following is the approved method : —

Take two reels of wire ; one thick, one thin. The wire can be bought at any good ironmonger’s. The thicker kind, which is called stubb wire, is used, so to speak, to strengthen the flower and to form an artificial stalk, when the flowers in question have only short stalks, or, as in the case of heavy-headed flowers, to support the head. Take then a suitable length of stubb wire and pierce the top of the stalk close to the bud. Be careful to do this as nearly as possible in the centre, then turn down the upper end very lightly yet firmly — i.e., the end which has gone through the flower. Next take a piece of the very fine wire and twist it firmly, yet not tightly, round the stalk of the flower and the piece of stubb wire. This will give a solid and yet pliable stem, which can easily be bent in any direction you please. Have the vases filled with the wet moss, and then insert the wired flowers and foliage, etc. Ferns may be wired in precisely the same way, but the piece of stubb wire should pierce the stem close, yet not too close, to where the leafage begins. For maidenhair fern, however, which has a very delicate stalk, only the finest kind of wire should be used, as the stubb wire is too coarse. By-the-way, it is worth while to note that the latter

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wire may be bought, if liked, already cut into useful lengths ; in fact I think it always should be so bought, unless you happen to possess a pair of “ wire scissors,” as ordinary scissors are practically useless for this purpose.

When using moss to fill your vases, etc., it may be as damp as you please — indeed, the damper the better; but if sand is to be employed, you should take care that, though thoroughly moist, it is not too moist, as in the latter case you might as well fill the vases with water at once ; remember it should be damp, not wet.