TABLE DECORATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23215, 8 December 1938, Page 6

TABLE DECORATIONS

HOMECRAFT EXHIBITION

LONDON HOSTESSES' IDEAS ■ MRS. CHAMBERLAIN'S SET Every woman likes her table decorations to be individual, whether she be a duchess or an Australian living far away from what has been termed "the centre of things,'' wroto a London correspondent on November 7. This week in London famous hostesses are showing exactly what tlioir ideas are upon this important matter. Mrs. Neville Chamberlain, the Duchess of Norfolk, tha Dowager Countess"' of Airlie, Lady Asquith, and many more have supervised the Setting of tables and chosen the china they love best for a homecraft exhibition which opened recently. Mrs. Neville Chamberlain is finding herself one of the busiest women in London. She opens bazaars, she speaks at luncheons, she travels up and down the countryside doing her job as wife of one of the most popular and most publicised Prime Ministers of all time. So at this exhibition it is round her "table" that the crowd gathers most consistently. A charming, homely woman with the friendliest smile and a dignity all her own, Mrs. Chamberlain chose to sponsor a table set for the five o'clock tea that Englishwomen love so well. . Cosy Gathering She has planned a cosy sort of gathering; she has only four guests sitting round a. smallish table that can be placed near a fire. A creamy-tinted damask cloth sets otf the pale green enps and saucers and little plates. She has a silver teapot, hot-water jug and sugar basin made in a severely plain, modernistic style. , It is'obvious she expects most of her friends to prefer lemon to milk. A charming low bowl of Golden Emblem roses with primrose heads showing just above the water level is placed on the centre of the table. But young Lady Alexandra Hnig, with the classical features, prefers her guests to see her bowl of primroses at one corner of the tabic, rather tlyin in the, centre. It seems right that Lady Londonderry's table should be covered ' with an exquisite pale green linen cloth, with table napkins to match, because upon her' husband's estates in Ireland she has young collcons weaving this linen by hand. Irish Linen \

Then when guests go to stay at that huge country house, they often fire so captivated with the work, the drawnthread stitcherv that runs round nnd about the border of the cloths, that they promptly givo theso Irish Beamstresses many orders. For this exhibition. Lady Londonderry has lent one of tho best examples of their work, alid with it she has wino nnd champagne glasses tinted a lovely golden colour. She has silver cruets on little trays at cither end of tho table, nnd. ns a centre-picco, she has a great golden ball—the sixe of a gypsy's fortune-telling crystal—risking out of a shallow bowl. In this, ground the ball's base, float half a dozen Golden Emblem roses. But, at this exhibition, the most striking, the most novel table of nil is one planned for a large, formal dinner party by tho young Duchess of Norfolk. . Before she married, she used to ride in amateur races all over tho country; her "colours" —a Mickey Mouse at the back and front of a white satin jacket —well known on every course. Hunting Graze

Now she and her husband jointly own a racing stable, and they start their hunting tho moment tho English season opens. So it is not surprising to see that, the 22-year-old duchess has brought her craze for that aport into tho dining room. A long table has a green "runner." tho colour of English fields, down its centre; instead of flowers, she has a model of the old stono gateway entrance to Arundel Castle, the seat of tho Dukes of Norfolk. v Coming toward it from either side are exquisitely-made brown leather horses with pink-coated riders on lop. They stand about a .foot high; round about tho foremost huntsman run a pack of white nnd yellow hounds. Watching the meet are the "spectator sports," women dressed in smart tweeds leaning upon their shooting sticks. Tho china, even the wine glasses, repeats tho samo, hunting motifs. The wholo effect is striking, and would enchant hostesses w ho like to be different.