SUMMER NOTE IN CHINA

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12355, 27 January 1926, Page 5

SUMMER NOTE IN CHINA

FASHIONS CHANGE. If you do not change your china' at the,same time as you alter your cre-tonnes-and your chintzes from the winter note to the summer one, then your room cartnot be said-to be impeccable; for the china shops now- cater for every season of the year, and summer has its services *and’its vases,- its toilet sets and its teasets, just as surely' as it appropriate curtains’ and covers (says an exchange). Speaking of “Flora and the country green” is a dinner service of the new “semi-chinay” an economical compromise between’ pottery and poroelajn, made in Staffordshire and tinted to the coolest' French grey. Its decoration i consists of panels of fresh-toned flowers in baskets, drawn,, after the eighteenth century manner. Even more summery in inspiration is a honey-huff service that spteaks i of Devonshire dairies ahd-of Cornish cream. Amaryllis herself, could not dine off a more suitable set; ' Flowers-lurk within the cups of some of the most alluring of the tea', ser. vices. As s one sips the; fragrant Bohea, buttercups, and daisies, treated formally after the modernist mode, cqme to the surface, unexpectedly very often, for the outer’;decorations may consist ol nothing moije than, a band of colour on a self-toned base. And in the matter of ablutions, what more . refreshing than a washstand equipped with the coloured china that is ginen a creamy lining to .enhance its charms—a washstand set, for instance, of soft green, lined with ivory, or perhaps one of the terra-cotta serves, glazed on the inner side in pale primrose f Any .set: of ordinary-patterned china, will, look sultry in comparison.

For'the flowers, the cool pottery that is made -in- Dorsetshire in its'characteristic grey tone with' the tiniest of wildflower posies sprinkled over it. Its unsopbistication is refreshing on a hot day, and the very flowers that you entrust to'it seem to respond to its charm: : One can afford to put away until; the winter china of more definite and stronger, hue. for this ware is emphatically right for the summer’ table and its- needs.