TABLE SMARTNESS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 89, 9 January 1935, Page 5

TABLE SMARTNESS

New Ideas For Hostesses New table mats of glass, wood, rubber, or cork are useful for informal meals as au occasional change from your linen luncheon sets. Square cork mats are gaily painted ir a three-coloured cubist design. Other plain cork mats have a coloured picture of one’s favourite dog, be it spaniel, retriever, or Alsatian. Round or square rubber mats, too, are handpainted in a variety of designs. Wooden mats which are heatproof and stainless are now being made to match every type of table in light oak, sycamore, limed oak, or mahogany. Folding wooden mats are specially designed to fit the dinner wagon or sideboard, so that there is no fear of polished surfaces being spoiled. There are, of course, small mats of the same type.

A smart London hostess has luncheon mats made from old engravings sandwiched between a sheet of glass and a piece of stiffened baize. Any woman who is clever with her fingers eould imitate this idea, backing a favourite print with a cork mat and fitting over it a glass mat of the same size. The edges can be bound together with a piece of black or coloured passepartout. ■Wooden cocktail mats, each inscribed with a suitable phrase—“ Have Another?” or “Here’s to You” —are very gay, and are certainly worth their price' for protecting polished trays and tables. Mats of real lace are fashionable again, and are most suitable for the formal dining-table that is laid with sparkling cut glass and silver. Small-sized table napkins of the finest linen, edged with matching lace, .should accompany’ these. Organdi table mats in pastel colours are at their smartest when veined with fine drawn-thread work, and even whole tablecloths—for festive occa-sions-—are made of this diaphanous but .strong-wearing material. Pink is the colour most in vogue for these.