Evening star., 1940-06-11
In Perfectly
Appointed
Houses
The Service Plate
Must Not Be Out
OF Harmony
By EMILY POST.

In perfectly appointed houses
there is rarely if ever such thing
as a service plate set apart from
every other plate. Where, or when,
or why the idea ever occurred to
manufacturers or buyers or adver-
tising copy writer's, have no idea.
1t is of course entirely proper to
use certain set Of plates for service
plates, and for nothing else If you
so choose. But this much is certain:
A plate that is out Of scale and
out of harmony with the room, or
the table appointments with which
it is to be used, is contrary to the
first principle of beauty, which is
suitability.
Again today, a reader is puzzled
What is meant by service plates?"
she asks. II had always rather
thought service plates and dinner
plates were the same, but appar-
emily they are not"
So to her, let me explain more
clearly than I seem to have done
before. The service plate (or place
plate, which means precisely the
same thing) is simply the plate
with which you set each place at
the table. Moreover, as already
noted, the rule Of good taste is this:
If the service plate is larger, more
ornate and more conspicuous than
all the other plates that are to ap-
pear in turn upon your table, it is
out of scale, or not in harmony, and
therefore plainly in bad taste. Pro-
perly, therefore, when setting your
table your object is to produce an
affect which is pleasing.
Naturally, then, you choose things
that look well together. If you have
a set of plates that harmonic with
the flowers to be used in your cen
terpiece, you would naturally set
the places with these plates for
this particular meal. At another
time you would set your table with
plates that add most beauty to an
other decoration. In short, the prin-
cipal thing to remember Is that
service Cor place. plates must be
considered as part Of the decoration
Of your table as whole. On the
other hand, plates used for other
courses are noticed singly and in
greater detail. Therefore, you ma
turally set the places at table with
whichever plates best help the gen.
eral effect, and then choose plates
for your other courses which are
most suitable for the particular
foods to be served. Plates which
are light in color as well as especi-
ally worth looking at, are usually
selected for salad or dessert, be-
cause salad and dessert are rather
prettier-and therefore, more be-
coming to fragile porcelain than
either fish or meat. Large dark
plates suggest meat, but light ones
are also suitable, unless too fragile
In type.
Dear Mrs Post: My mother-in-
law will visit US soon, and would
like to give q tea to have some OF
my older and younger friends meet
her. had begun to write the in
vitations today but will put this of
until I have your suggestion for
the proper wording. She has been
married again and does not have
our same name.
Answer-To those whom you
know very fell you might write
ITO meet Johns mother" and then
beneath in parentheses (Mrs. Henry
jones'. But to those whom you
know less well I think it would be
best to write short notes in the
form Of yesterday: Dear Mrs. X
will you come in for = cup of tea
on Wednesday, the 10th Of July
at 8 o'clock? Mrs. Henry Jones
my husbands mother, will be stay
ing with US then, and We would
like 80 much to have you meet hsr
Sincerely"