Setting Your Table for a Private Dinner
This is part of a series I've been wanting to do for a long time so I am
excited I am able to have Eugene do this for my blog. It is about
etiquette as was appropriate in the Victorian Era (1837–1901). During
that time, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism
of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and the arts. The era is popularly associated with the values of social restraint. What? Social restraint? What's that?!? So we move on....thank you for reading.
Love, George
Setting Your Table for a Private Dinner
You have your guest list ready and all your seating arrangements all planned out. Now you can turn to the matter of your table and its decor. A critical yet unbreakable rule is that everything must be geometrically spaced: the centerpiece in the actual center of the table and all utensils balanced. Beyond this rule everything else is in the hands of the hostess or host. If the tablecloth is of white damask, which for a formal dinner is always best, a pad must be put under it. If you don't have a felt pad cut in the dimensions of your table then a white blanket serves very well. Saying that the cloth has to be smooth and white - or perfectly laundered - is as unnecessary as to say that faces and hands should be clean. Damask is old-fashioned but essentially is a conservative tablecloth, especially suitable in a high-ceiling room that is either English of French or of no special period in decoration. Lace tablecloths are better suited for an Italian room - especially if the table is a refectory style. Handkerchief linen tablecloths, embroidered or lace-inserted, are suited to all quaint, low-ceiling, old fashioned rooms. Lace or linen goes over the table without felt or other padding.
Love, George
Setting Your Table for a Private Dinner
You have your guest list ready and all your seating arrangements all planned out. Now you can turn to the matter of your table and its decor. A critical yet unbreakable rule is that everything must be geometrically spaced: the centerpiece in the actual center of the table and all utensils balanced. Beyond this rule everything else is in the hands of the hostess or host. If the tablecloth is of white damask, which for a formal dinner is always best, a pad must be put under it. If you don't have a felt pad cut in the dimensions of your table then a white blanket serves very well. Saying that the cloth has to be smooth and white - or perfectly laundered - is as unnecessary as to say that faces and hands should be clean. Damask is old-fashioned but essentially is a conservative tablecloth, especially suitable in a high-ceiling room that is either English of French or of no special period in decoration. Lace tablecloths are better suited for an Italian room - especially if the table is a refectory style. Handkerchief linen tablecloths, embroidered or lace-inserted, are suited to all quaint, low-ceiling, old fashioned rooms. Lace or linen goes over the table without felt or other padding.
Whenever a damask or linen cloth is used, the middle crease must be put on so that it's absolutely straight and unwavering line down the exact center from head to foot. If it's an embroidered cloth be sure the embroidery is "right side up."
The centerpiece is usually an arrangement of flowers in either a bowl or a vase, preferably a vase, and certainly not too high for guests to see over. It can also be any one of an almost unlimited variety of things: flowers or fruit in any arrangement that taste and ingenuity can devise; or an ornament in silver that needs no flowers, such as a covered bowl. Perhaps the centerpiece could be an arrangement of distinctive conversation-piece objects that can blend with the rest of the table setting. Mixing it up when planning a centerpiece can entertain and make a lasting impression on your guests.
Posted by Eugene Vodovoz at 15 October 2011, 10:20 AM 
Categories: Etiquette
Tags: private dinner tablecloth linen damask english
Categories: Etiquette
Tags: private dinner tablecloth linen damask english
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