COLOUR SCHEMES ON THE TABLE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 98, 20 January 1926, Page 15

COLOUR SCHEMES ON THE TABLE

The old dinner set, ranged in its dozens upon tlie dresser, has many rivals to-dav in the multiplicity _of dishes, both* native and 'foreign, which are used to suit particular kinds of food. The fruit salad set has only come in of recent years, but the set of anything is not particularly popular, and it is more appetising to see special food in the dish that suits it. Earthenware plays a considerable role, and stews aiid ragouts taste better in a n«t of brown earthenware than on a flat Crown Derby dish. For milk puddings there is a tendency to employ the pale yellow earthenware dish, which makes a pleasant colour scheme, with the browned surface of the milk. Yellow, indeed, is much in favour just now, both for tea and for breakfast, and its honey tints go well with butter, toast, marmalade, and itself. I'iom an aesthetic point of view, coffee should always be poured.out of a brown earthenware pot. Probably flic taste is no different from that which is in a silver not, but it looks sufficiently different to affect the imagination. French and Italian peasant ware have a great following, and it is .easy to overdo the would-be artistic effect. At the same time the little Italian earthenware bowls and plates, to say nothing of the three-lipned jugs, are very attractive for milk and sugar, and, in the case of the yellow ware, for butter. Breton bowls of a small size are suitable for eggs-in-the-cup, but Breton ware is inclined to be overdone and it has deteriorated of recent years. Its yellows rnd blues mixed are its most attractive feature, and its plates are useful for little odd purposes. Blue china, unless it is in the dark, purplish blues is less attractive for food than other'colours. For fruit it is charming, and grape fruit and oranges, as well as all the red fruits, look well on a blue setting. A certain amount of Jerusalem pottery has recently come upon the market. It is like rather coarse Persian ware, and, with its vivid green-blues, can be used lor water—not milk—and also for fruit. Colour schemes on tlie table have become really important, and thev are helped to a marked degree by giving to food the colour which it' scema to need.—“ Manchester Guardian.”