Food For Thought

Whatever happened to porcelain-handled flatware, earthenware tureens, table centerpieces of flowering plants in wicker baskets, cabbageware plates, faience, floral print cloths and napkins, and all of the other traditional, charming table accessories that one used to see so often?  Not that any of this tableware is obsolete.  In fact, I am sure that many of you set your tables with one (or most) of the aforementioned items.  It's just that the current vogue for spare, minimal tableware seems to relegate the old and the jolly to the annals of yesteryear's tablesetting books or, even worse, to the backs of kitchen cabinets.

Look at the 1980s-era table setting above.  At Hélène Bouilloux-Lafont's house in France, a table was set for a casual breakfast.  Blue and white china, a strawberry teapot, and cabbageware dishes filled with fruit were considered fashionable for dining in the country.  But today, tables in the country are set much as they are in town.  The china is monochromatic as is the table linen.  Glassware is bereft of any ornamentation.  (Sometimes it is even bereft of stems!)  Flatware is little more than tines, blades, and bowls attached to plain metal sticks.  It's all so serious.  Where is the fun?  Where is the imagination?  Where is the strawberry teapot?

As much as I understand the practicality of plain tableware, I am also pretty certain that a beige colored plate won't enliven your table, or your mood, the same way a cabbageware tureen does.

Before we get to the table, let's discuss this room.  I think it is perfection, although the blackamoor vase is a little incongruous considering the room's decor.  This was the Essex home of Peter Coats, who I am assuming is the same Peter Coats, a noted landscape designer, who was involved in a relationship with Henry "Chips" Channon.  Anyway, looking at the table, you'll see there is not much more than a cabbage tureen, plates, simple stemware, and a bottle of Rosé.  So simple, and yet, so chic.

See?  Flowers in wicker baskets.  Very charming.  But what makes this table so very pretty is that floral cloth and napkins.  The blue and white check fabric in the room doesn't hurt, either. (At Château de Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Deauville, France.)

Jacqueline Hagnauer set this table in her home in Provence. The cloth was an Indian print, upon which small slipware plates and "Pont-aux-Choux" place plates were placed. Pink, green, and clear glasses were positioned at each setting. Note those Lilliputian-sized cabbageware salt cellars or mustard jars, as well as the trompe l'oeil basket of cherries.

A Tiffany tablesetting created by Mrs. Angier Biddle Duke.  The "Blue Canton" china looks smashing against the orange chintz cloth.  And that basket, filled with chrysanthemums and cornflowers, helps to tone down any formality at a "Country Supper on the Back Porch".