The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-18
NOVEL DINNER DECORATIONS.
Fancy Running RiOt--Real Swans
i'm n Miniature Lake-.M enus al
500 Each.
New York Sum- |

500 Each.
New York SUM-
Last Friday evening christening din
ner was given in an uptown residence,
one feature of which was novel. In
front of each of the twelve guests at the
table was miniature model of the font
in Grace Church, with a Lilliputian
cradle at its base. The little font was
made of wood, covered with silk, and
delicately panied with all the symbols,
tracery, and even the delicate gold let
tering about the rim-"Except a man be
born of water and of the spirit he Can
not enter into the kingdom of heaven
that appears upon the original.
n Natural flowers filled the fonts. On
the front of each small silken cradle,
wrought in fanciful gold letters amid
foliage and blossoms, appeared the name
.of the baby, "Ethel," and the date of her
birth. Attached to each cradle was a
silken ribbon, upon which was painted
the name of one of the guests. After the
dinner these pretty things were ca ried
Loft by those before whom they were
placed as souvenirs of the occasion. The
cost of each was $25.
The taste for artistic novelties in din
ner adornment is growing year by year.
1t is no longer sufficient to dine and to
wine ones friends. 1t is necessary to
surprise them and delight their aesthetic
tastes So the dinner giver, as a rule, no
more pretends to be his own artist than
his own cook.
1t is not difficult to achieve mere nov
city. That was attained in the barbaric
magnifcence of the bills of fare at a GER
tain San Francisco dinner year or more
ago. they were solid slabs of silver,
which the guests were expected to carry
away with them, and which were good to
melt or pawn upon occasions. But they
would have been Just as novel if they
had been of sole-leather Or sandstone, aud
so far as value is concerned, painted
things not unfrequently ordered for such
occasions really cost more than did those
specimens of bonanza fruit. Artistic
beauty is here consideration paramount
to mere novelty.
A prominent member Of the Coaching
Club of this city not long ago contem-
plated giving a dinner to his associates,
and ordered for the occasion twenty-four
bills of fare. The dinner was at the
time postponed, but has not been aban-
doned, for the gentleman named has sent
back from Europe word that it may be
looked forward to as thing of the near
future. The bills of fare have been
already finished. They are of Bristol
board, each about ten by fifteen inches
in size, and are all handsome water-color
paintings. Each represents some men,
orable incident in the individual career
of some member, or an adventure of the
Club collectively, and their cost is esti-
mated at 500 each.
Last season party of twenty ladies
and as many gentlemen dined together
prior to a tending bal masque. From
the chandelier in the center of the dining
room depended twenty scarfs of gros grain
ribbon, each three and IA half yards long
and nine inches wide, heavily friuged
and richly adorned at both ends with
paintings of flowers and foliage. These
scarfs were SO arranged in canopy fash
ion that an end of each came down to
the place one of the ladies was to occupy
at table, and care was taken in their Sc
lection to have colors halmonizing tn
the compilations of the ladies for whom
they We're severally intended, as shown
by the names painted in gold among the
flowers. The gentlemen were supplied
with menus painted in water colors, upon
which the FORA decorations corresponded
with those upon the ladies' scarfs. After
the dinner the scarfs were worn to the
ball and retained by the ladies as souven.
irs. The entire cost was between six and
seven hundred dollars.
For a breakfast, to be given before
long, which will be participated ip al
most exclusively by artists, Egyptian
fashions are to prevail-in everything
except the yiands The table service
will be in Egyptian style as we'll as the
decorations, and each guest will be sup
piled with fan, DELIGHTFULLY."- artistic and
Egyptian, but of very weak wind-com
pelling power. A number of them have
been already mpleed-strange-lookine
things, with long, thin, polished maple
handles supporting semi-circular forms
quilted silk on one side and on the othel
studies in colors, intricate in design anc
of great variety. Half dozen silk tas
sells dangle from the straight side of each
semicircle. They are quaint and pretty
as twelve-dollar fans for single break
fast should be.
Speaking of fans, one is preparing to b.
sold at the forthcoming Seventh Regi
ment fair. which will be unique, 1t ha
twenty-three sticks, each of which bear
a painting in oil by some wel[kAowl
New York artist. Each artist choose
his own subject and treats it in his owl
way-in oil, of course-within the mar
row limits of his own allotted stick.
Some little time ago, for dinner a
Delmonico's, an artificial lake. was ,on
structed in the center of a huge dinin
table, and surrounded by aquatic plants
Several swans, brought down from tn
Central Park for the occasion, were Sc
aAoat in the little lake, and swan aroun
, there with placid dignity and decorur