Tabletop Linen Etiquette and History

Nowadays the tablecloth is only one of several features in the decoration of the table and must share its responsibility with fine china, shining silver and sparkling glass and serve as a background and foil for all of them as well. — Green table linens (as shown above), more than just about any colored linens, seem to go with just about every manner of tabletop accessories, from china and ceramics, to flatware and crystal.

The oldest decorative appointment of the table is the cloth. When plates were still slabs of bread or wooden trenchers, when fingers preceded forks and every guest brought his own knife, nevertheless, strips of cloth were laid over the bare boards with meticulous care and detailed ceremony. By the sixteenth century the cloth had become a specially designed adornment for the table, woven (by hand, of course) in a diaper, basket weave, or damask, and always of linen. Frequently it was ornamented with fringed edges, inset strips of lace, or richly embroidered, those of Italy reveling in color. Save perhaps for a standing salt of silver it was, until the food appeared, the only decoration of the table.

Nowadays it is only one of several features in the decoration of the table and must share its responsibility with fine china, shining silver and sparkling glass and serve as a background and foil for all of them as well. For what is on the tabletop — cloth, place mats or only the fine finish of the table itself — must have the quality of building up all the other appointments or toning them down, of pulling them all together into a unified scheme. With all this responsibility this cover has to be completely right in itself, intrinsically, decoratively, functionally.  

From “Setting Your Table... Its Art, Etiquette and Service,” by Helen Sprackling, 1960

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