May, 19 2 0 
65 
THE HOSPITALITY OF LUNCHEON 
In Luncheon the Hostess Finds An Opportunity for Entertainment and 
the Display of Fine Linens and China 
LILIAN TIGER 
W OMEN are 
more interested 
in luncheon than men. 
]\Ien devote their 
luncheons (at least, 
they say they do!) to 
business, but women 
find luncheon an un¬ 
equaled opportunity 
for informal enter¬ 
tainment. 
A mid-day meal, it 
is also a midway meal 
— midway between 
breakfast, which re¬ 
quires no formality, 
and dinner, which is 
hedged about by those 
formal restrictions we 
generally associate 
with the evening. 
The hour for din¬ 
ner has been gradu¬ 
ally moved up in the 
past few hundred 
years from ten in the 
forenoon to compara¬ 
tively late at night. 
Nine in the morning 
was the dinner hour 
of the 13 th Century 
France. Henry VII 
had dinner at eleven. 
One o’clock was the 
fashionable hour in 
Cromwell’s time and two o’clock in Addison’s. 
Pope objected to Lady Suffolk’s dinner sched¬ 
uled for four o’clock. Since then dinner has 
gradually encroached on the evening. Six 
o’clock was quite late enough for our grand¬ 
mother and even for our mother. Today eight 
o’clock is the dinner hour. This means that 
a mid-day meal of some proportions is required 
Set for the salad course, 
this luncheon table has 
ecru linen, hexagonal 
Venetian glass, a tur¬ 
quoise Italian pottery 
bowl, cream Wedgwood 
and hand-wrought sil¬ 
ver. Courtesy of the 
Little Gallery 
— w h i c h luncheon 
supplies. 
Luncheon is also, 
an intimate meal in a 
sense none other can 
be. Where men are 
present, as at dinner, 
those matters of linen, 
china and glass, so 
vital to a woman, are 
crowded into the 
background. The per¬ 
sons present at dinner 
and the clothes they 
wear are usually more 
important than any¬ 
thing else. But at 
luncheon, when no 
men are present to 
distract or be attract¬ 
ed, the hostess can dis¬ 
play her bes't linen, 
china, glass and sil¬ 
ver with a reasonable 
hope of their being 
appreciated. 
With this in view 
we have set these 
three luncheon tables. 
The first shows the 
table set for the salad 
course. A simple run¬ 
ner is made of ecru 
linen with a hand-run 
thread in color and 
tiny flower baskets embroidered in delicate 
tones. Tumblers and wine glasses are hexa¬ 
gonal Venetian. The centerpiece is a bowl of 
turquoise blue Italian pottery filled with arti¬ 
ficial fruits. An especially designed set of 
creamy Wedgwood with blue tracery is used. 
The silver is hand wrought. 
{Continued on page 82) 
A more formal setting, 
at the sherbet course, 
shows silver service 
plates of Louis XVI 
design and Louis XVI 
goblets and glass. Sil¬ 
ver from Gorham; 
glass, Higgins & Seiter; 
linen, Kargere 
Set for the first course, this table has a linen r:mner with medallion insertions, a center bowl 
of mauve Venetian glass on a wrought iron base, candles in wrought iron candlesticks, Wedg¬ 
wood plates, Venetian glass and hand-wrought silver. Courtey of the Little Gallery 
