With what pleased surprise the guests see a great
mass of colour — daffodils, or tulips, or peonies — rising
from some brazen vessel of Eastern workmanship,
instead of the conventional wine-cooler converted
into a cache-pot, with a prim plant, which might
almost as well be made of painted muslin. If on
some days pomp or primness preside over the de-
corations, let fancy step in now and then with some
hitherto despised groups or contrast of flowers.
A few illustrations of the arrangements of the
table, and a few descriptions of some arrangements
remarkable for taste, are here given.
EXAMPLES OE TABLE DECORATIONS. 39
Afi oval table for ten guests. — The dessert was
placed in dishes taken from an old-fashioned supper
tray service of Worcester china forming segments of
a circle. The central bowl was heaped with fruit ;
four silver sugar basins of oval form were placed at
the corners at each end of the table. The whole
space of the table left free was filled by roses, the stems
cut quite short, so that the dishes appeared to stand
on roses. The margin of this bed of roses was a layer
of rose petals. The table was lighted from above.
A round table for fourteen guests. — A group of
foliage plants in the centre, surrounded by lycopo-
dium and a wreath of panicles of white flowers. A
large piece of very fine table-cloth was allowed to
appear ; then came a circle of scarlet geranium and
yellow calceolaria in shallow troughs, bounded by
tiles or fenders of old \\2X\d^\ faience, and divided into
sections by dwarf china figures — the wreath con-
tinuing to the eye all round the table, and, as it were,
held in place by the china figures. The scarlet
geranium was the inner circle, and on the table-cloth
a line of green leaves was just apparent. No dessert
on the table.
A long table, twenty guests. — The centre-pieces,
candlesticks, and flower-pots were of Indian wrought
silver. In these, foliage plants, with broad leaves
and slender stems, were surrounded . by lycopodium,
whilst innumerable small glasses with a nearly
full-blown rose in each formed groups or rows
linked together by trails of foliage placed on the
table-cloth. .
40 EXAMPLES OF TABLE DECORATIOXS.
A small round table. — The centre occupied by a
very large plateau, which may be of china, or metal,
or even of wood ; a group of fruit arranged on it, as
seen in pictures — pine, melon, grapes, figs, resting on
vine leaves and tendrils. A margin of troughs with
cut flowers, and some old china interspersed.
An oval table for eight guests. — The supply of
flowers had failed, but a large quantity of the leaves
and tendrils of a Virginia creeper were at hand; straw-
berries and cherries in profusion gave colour ; and the
table-cloth was crossed and diapered with these leaves
and tendrils. The effect was charming from its
simplicity.
In Germany decorations for name days are made
by arranging the cipher in white flowers on a ground
of blue corn-flowers {Cyamis inhior^, on the principle
of carpet bedding, with corners of rosebuds or pan-
sies embedded in moss. A tray, with shallow sides
and many troughs fitting in, would be required for
this, and there should be china tiles, an inch and a
half to two inches high, as the frame : these can be
moveable.
Page 18
Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
With what pleased surprise the guests see a great mass of colour — daffodils, or tulips, or peonies — rising from some brazen vessel of Eastern workmanship, instead of the conventional wine-cooler converted into a cache-pot, with a prim plant, which might almost as well be made of painted muslin. If on some days pomp or primness preside over the decorations, let fancy step in now and then with some hitherto despised groups or contrast of flowers.
A few illustrations of the arrangements of the table, and a few descriptions of some arrangements remarkable for taste, are here given.
EXAMPLES OF TABLE DECORATIONS. 39
Afi oval table for ten guests. — The dessert was placed in dishes taken from an old-fashioned supper tray service of Worcester china forming segments of a circle. The central bowl was heaped with fruit ; four silver sugar basins of oval form were placed at the corners at each end of the table. The whole space of the table left free was filled by roses, the stems cut quite short, so that the dishes appeared to stand on roses. The margin of this bed of roses was a layer of rose petals. The table was lighted from above.
A round table for fourteen guests. — A group of foliage plants in the centre, surrounded by lycopodium and a wreath of panicles of white flowers. A large piece of very fine table-cloth was allowed to appear ; then came a circle of scarlet geranium and yellow calceolaria in shallow troughs, bounded by tiles or fenders of old faience, and divided into sections by dwarf china figures — the wreath continuing to the eye all round the table, and, as it were, held in place by the china figures. The scarlet geranium was the inner circle, and on the table-cloth a line of green leaves was just apparent. No dessert on the table.
A long table, twenty guests. — The centre-pieces, candlesticks, and flower-pots were of Indian wrought silver. In these, foliage plants, with broad leaves and slender stems, were surrounded . by lycopodium, whilst innumerable small glasses with a nearly full-blown rose in each formed groups or rows linked together by trails of foliage placed on the table-cloth. .
40 EXAMPLES OF TABLE DECORATIONS.
A small round table. — The centre occupied by a very large plateau, which may be of china, or metal, or even of wood ; a group of fruit arranged on it, as seen in pictures — pine, melon, grapes, figs, resting on vine leaves and tendrils. A margin of troughs with cut flowers, and some old china interspersed.
An oval table for eight guests. — The supply of flowers had failed, but a large quantity of the leaves and tendrils of a Virginia creeper were at hand; strawberries and cherries in profusion gave colour ; and the table-cloth was crossed and diapered with these leaves and tendrils. The effect was charming from its simplicity.
In Germany decorations for name days are made by arranging the cipher in white flowers on a ground of blue corn-flowers {Centaurea cyanus, on the principle of carpet bedding, with corners of rosebuds or pansies embedded in moss. A tray, with shallow sides and many troughs fitting in, would be required for this, and there should be china tiles, an inch and a half to two inches high, as the frame : these can be moveable.