BEAUTIFUL WOODS FOR MODERN TABLEWARE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 27, 16 February 1937, Page 13

BEAUTIFUL WOODS FOR MODERN TABLEWARE

The modern fashion for wooden tableware is an interesting link between the customs of medieval days and our own times, statea an exchange. Hn bygone days, all table utensils were made of wood, scoured to snowy whiteness. Light-coloured woods were used, such as elm, beech, plane, and sycamore, woods that were hard and not easily warped, as they were continually in hot water. These light woods are still in great demand, but it is also possible to buy most attractive wooden artieles in varying shades of brown, yellow, red, grey, and black. Oak and walnut, for instance, are brown; olive, yew, satinwood, and aeacia are yellow; cedar tulip, and mahogany are red; bog oak and bog sycamore are grey; and ebony is a deep rich black. Wooden platters for bread have always been in use, but the latest specimens are most exquisitely carved in elm, oak, sycamore, or walnut. Several of the platters are rectangular in shape, with a piece hollowed out at one side, so that the knife, which has a carved handle to match, can be placed there when not in use. The newest porridge bowls are made of fine woods, beau'tifully grained and polished, and finished oif with a rim of horn or silver. Several have a wooden spoon and napkin ring to correspond, monogrammed in silver, Bowls of the same kind, but slightly ehallower in shape are also made for sugar. These are severely plain in design, with no awkward crevices where fragments can lodge, and are accompanied by wooden spoons to match. Salad bowls are made of plain, unvarnished wood. accompanied by a carved wooden spoon and fork, and are most attractive. A very quaint novelty is a wooden bowl for nuts. This is carved with a raised centre portion to form a kind of anvil, on which the nuts are placed to be cracked with a mallet of matching wood, an interesting variation of the usual kind of nut cracker. Large wooden bowls and diBhes of all kinds, some with dessert plates to match, are sold fotf fruit and are extremely handsome, with rich carving. Bait cellars of ebony and walnut, with dainty little spoons to match, are very fascinating, aiid practlcal as well for the salt cannot affect them, no matter how damp they may become. Small walnut trays, carrying a set in walnut of salt, pepfer, and niustard pots, are equally attractive. The wood is carved sb that the natural marlcings provide all the decoration necessary. Wooden butter dishes, with knives and toast racks of matching wood, are another popular novelty, and so are the new wooden dishes for hors d'oeuvree fitted with glass partitions. Shallow wooden trays for holding dinner rolls are found on many up-to-date tables, and scones and teacakes are sometirnes served on wooden traya. Wooden egg-cups ate painted in gay colours, and eet on a round wooden tray. painted to match. In the centre is a glass feceptacle for salt. Napkin rings, usualiy octagonal in •shape ate made in an assortment of WoodSi Rosewood, of a colour as xich 'as its Uaine sUuggests, i-s a great favour* ite, and so is ebony, box, laurel, or walnut. Then, for the breakfast table, there are charmiUg little glass-lined jars for mt^tmalade of honey. One honey poi is shaped llke a golden beehive, with a eouple of bees juet flyiug out of tha doorway, and the marmalade jar represents an orange, lemon, or pineapple. Even bowls for washing tlp, and basins for eooking are beitig made nowadays of Wood. They are easily kept clean if scTiibbed out aftef Use» and thoi'oughly dfied. This demand for wooden artieles is likely to be permanent. From the point of view of the busy housewife, they possess the great advantage that they are unbreakabte, they are easier to keep clean than silver appointments that require endless polishing, and they look most attractive on any table. mmm—mmm mmm mmm mmrnmammmndt, t gfctf