PROTECTION FOR TABLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 12

PROTECTION FOR TABLE

ATTRACTIVE PEWTER MAT The mat seems an essentially Victorian production and one which served as an opiate in thousands of intolerably dull lives. But, although every one is brighter and better in every way, the mat continues to exist and to permit of a great many things being other than really suitable for their purpose. What, for instance, would become of the polished table without the cork or felt mat? It would merely be a table upon which plates and dishes could be set without sacrilege. The mat, it is true, has changed from fluffy crochet or beads to plain glass or cork, but its function remains the same and people are at pains to devise something in the shape of a mat which does not need another mat to disguise that it is one. Thus, instead of a cork foundation crowned with Italian needlework there are painted cork mats, cork mats with metal edges, mats made of straw, rush, anything that is non-conducting of heat, A new kind is, perhaps, more attractive than any of these, and it consists of the ordinary cork mat covered with a thin layer of pewter. The pewter is cut to the shape of the cork, a shade larger Inside. The overlapping piece is secured on the other side by means of tiny nails, put in, of course, with great regularity. Some people treat the pewter with acid in order to make it take irridescent shades.