ARTISTIC TABLE LINEN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 155, 25 March 1908, Page 3

ARTISTIC TABLE LINEN.

How many" pooplo wiio'-sit, at a> woll-ap-pointcd dinner-table .ever notice the pattern :of the nicely-laundered .damask: cloth, yet tho designing is a form of 1 applied art : that is well worth-attention.- In centres of the-. linori_ traclfe, such > as .'Belfast (Ireland), the. technical* schools .make a 'spccial feature of classes for' "damask 'dosignirig,'". It is said in an articlo in tho "Wide Worldi'Magazino" that the last commodity'in house-fur-nishing to conio under, tho influence'of tho art movement begun by William Morris is tablo linen, for whilo the actual furnituro, ■wall decoration,' carpets arid upholstery aro usually required to have some relation to tho styles . they . furnish, tho - damask , for the tablo has, oscepfc in raro cases, lionb at all. For many years it was impossible, to. .buy, a tablecloth with'anything like an 1 artistic'design. House linen was chosen for its lasting: qualities rather, than for ' its pattern. Any sort of.a jumble, or a "nice ivy design" entirely ' satisfied tho buyer's taste. And though it would not be quite just to.tho mbdorn artists'employed in this department t-6 say- all this has been altered, yet if a purchaser cares to ask for an up-to-date pattern sho can usually be sorved. It .'seems that thero aro many .old-fashioned manufacturers who refuse to respond to this new'demand, and continue making damask'in the old styles of their - fathers and grandfathers.-,, :Of course a groat many of. the so-calkd new designs aro adaptations 'of tho old ones, but. tho Irish manufacturers are always willing to pay any designer handsomely for fresh ideas.