WOODEN TABLEWARE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 3

WOODEN TABLEWARE

FASHIONABLE REVIVAL LINK WITH MEDIEVAL DAYS The modern fashion for wooden tablewnre is ail interesting link between the customs of medieval days and our own times. In bygone years, all table utensils were made of wood, scoured to snowy whiteness. Light-coloured woods wore used, such as ehn, 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 articles in varying shades of brown, yellow, red, grey and black. Oak and walnut, for instance, are brown; olive, yew, satinwood and acacia are yellow; cedar, tulip and mahogany are red; bog oak and bog sycamore are grev, and ebony is a dee)) 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, beautifully grained and polished, and finished oil with a rim of horn or silver. Several have a wooden spoon and napkin ring to correspond, nionogrammed in silver. Bowls of the same kind, but slightly shallower 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 b<> cracked with a mallet of matching wood, an interesting variation of the usual kind of nut cracker. Large wooden bowls and dishes of all kinds, some with dessert plates to match, are sold for fruit and are extremely handsome, with rich carving. Salt' cellars of ebony and walnut, with dainty little spoons to match, are vorv fascinating, and practical 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, popper, and mustard pots, are equally attractive. The wood is carved so that the natural markings provide all the decoration necessary. Wooden butter dishes, with knives and toast racks of matching wood, arc another popular novelty, and so are the now wooden dishes for liors d'oouvres fitted with glass partitions. Shallow wooden trays for holding dinner rolls are found 011 many up-to-date tables, and scones and teacakes are sometimes served on wooden trays. Wooden egg-cups are painted in gay colours, and set on a round wooden tray, painted to match. In the centre is a glass receptacle for salt. Napkin rings, usually octagonal in | shape, are made in an assortment of woods. Rosewood, of a colour as rich as its name suggests, is a great favourite, and so is ebony, box, laurel, or walnut. Then, for the breakfast table, there are charming little glass-lined jars for marmalade or honey. One honey pot is shaped like a golden beehive, with i a couple of bees just flying out of the ! doorway, and the marmalade jar represents an orange, lemon, or pineapple. Even bowls for washing up, and basins for cooking, are being made nowadays of wood. I hoy are easily kept | clean if scrubbed out after use, and thoroughly dried. This demand for wooden articles is likely to be permanent. From the point of view of the busy housewife they possess the great ! advantage that they are unbreakable, they are easier to keep clean than silver appointments that require endless polishing, and they look most attractive on any table.